ABSTRACT
Two opposing visual signifiers dominated Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s. In the south, tourist postcard images attempted to remove all signs of modernity and complex cultural contestations in favour of an oversimplified rural idyll. In the north, grainy black-and-white press photographs of grey rubble-strewn streets, inhabited by youth throwing petrol bombs at the armed forces, were a regular feature of international media reporting. Many Irish photographers and artists established their reputations by offering a critically reflective and oppositional account to reductive news media images by visually disrupting and reframing the Troubles. In this chapter, the author reflects on the ‘art of the Troubles’ and explores the legacy of the visuality inherent in the conflict. Photography in Ireland north and south evolved dramatically throughout the 1990s. The 1990s was characterised by the Northern Ireland peace process.
