ABSTRACT
In this chapter on the divided memory of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, Ian McBride argues that since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought to an end three decades of political violence in the province, the politics of memory has assumed greater significance, as ‘war by other means’ between the Protestant unionist and Catholic nationalist communities. This conflict about the conflict has centred on how to describe it – terrorist campaign or anti-colonial struggle? – and on who should be considered its primary perpetrators and victims. McBride analyses the delicate linguistic and procedural compromises that have enabled Northern Ireland’s ‘consociational’ form of government to function since 1998, without resolving the core issues that divide the historical memories of its two communities. Various initiatives have tried to promote reconciliation, truth recovery, and ‘healing through remembering’, but, despite some notable achievements, these projects have also encountered significant obstacles and a high level of public scepticism.
