How it began, what might have been? Political memoirs of Northern Ireland in the 1960s

ABSTRACT

Northern Ireland political memoirs as they deal with the 1960s and the outbreak of the Troubles have a vividness born of dashed hopes and nostalgic regret. Their themes interweave, highlighting the structural deficiencies of Unionist governance and the asymmetry of class and political structuration across the communal divide. Central issues include the failure of Terence O’Neill and the debatable caesura that the Civil Rights Movement represented in Northern Irish nationalist politics. The individual voices of the memoirs can usefully be compared and contrasted.

KEYWORDS:

• Terence O'Neill
• Brian Faulkner
• John Oliver
• Maurice Hayes
• Memoirs
• Civil Rights

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 ‘Affluence’: Goldthorpe et al. (1969); ‘Classic Slum’: Roberts (1973).