ABSTRACT
This Introduction provides an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores and dissects the constitutive characteristics of the rather slippery term that is apology. It contributes to the existing literature on political apologies by pointing to some of the departures and continuities between interpersonal and state apologies. The book focuses on Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel's parliamentary apology for participation in the assassination of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President, Patrice Lumumba. It demonstrates an intimate correlation between the saville inquiry and the Northern Ireland Peace Process. The book places the apology amidst a particular style of politics as cultivated by Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron. It scrutinises the apology alongside conventional British narratives of Northern Ireland. It finally locates the apology within slowly shifting public memories and perceptions of the Holocaust.
