The politics of Troubles memories in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, 1998 to 2018

Abstract

This article explores the reasons for persistent memory wars surrounding the Northern Ireland conflict in Irish and Northern Irish politics between the leading political groups including Sinn Féin, political unionism, the Irish and British governments. I expand on existing literature on commemoration and memory in Northern Ireland to explain how constitutional, political, communal, personal, moral and generational factors together encourage conflicting memories surrounding the past to continue in Northern Irish and Irish politics. Politically, what is remembered about the conflict is used to challenge contemporary political opponents. Selective conflict memories also seek to support ongoing constitutional objectives regarding Irish unification in the present. In addition, individual leaders’ and communal experiences of the conflict are recalled to assist the pursuit of justice and commemorate communal suffering. Each political group seeks to morally justify their past actions based on their conflict experience too. The emergence of a post-conflict generation of voters also means that political leaders draw comparisons between the past and present to encourage the youth to support their ongoing constitutional objectives, political strategies and leadership. The conclusion suggests that contested memories and commemorations in Irish and Northern Irish politics are particularly persistent because the constitutional question has not been resolved.

Keywords:

• The Northern Ireland conflict
• Irish Republican Army (IRA)
• The Northern Ireland Troubles
• Memory Wars
• The Republic of Ireland
• Northern Ireland
• memory
• Irish Republicanism
• Ulster unionism

Acknowledgements

I thank Niall Ó Dochartaigh, Huw Bennett and other colleagues at Cardiff University and my previous institution The National University of Ireland Galway for their advice on this article. I also thank Saša Božić, Siniša Malešević, Daphne Winland, Jennifer Todd and Joseph Ruane for their feedback and for arranging the 2017 Divided Societies XX: Memory Wars event where this article was originally presented as a paper. Thanks also to Sara Leahy for ongoing support.

Notes on contributor

Dr Thomas Leahy is a lecturer in contemporary British and Irish history and politics at Cardiff University in Wales. He completed his PhD thesis in history at King's College London in 2015 under Professor Ian McBride. He has also been an Irish Research Council Government of Ireland postdoctoral research fellow at the National University of Ireland Galway. Thomas' other publications include a published article (2015) and also a forthcoming book with Cambridge University Press on The Intelligence War Against the IRA, 1969 to 1998, and a co-authored article with Niall Ó Dochartaigh on Nationality, Migration and Rights in Northern Ireland Since 1920 in a collection of essays entitled Enfranchising Ireland?: Identity, Citizenship and State (Royal Irish Academy, 2018). He is also currently researching, dealing with Northern Ireland conflict legacy in the Republic of Ireland between 1969 and 2018.