Memory, Politics and Identity: Haunted by History

220 Pages·2012·0.676 MB·English

by  Cillian McGrattan

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Memory, Politics and Identity
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Memory, Politics and
Identity
Haunted by History
Cillian McGrattan
Lecturer in Political and Cultural Studies, University of Swansea
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© Cillian McGrattan 2013
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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ISBN 978-0-230-29200-0
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Contents
Introduction: Remembering and Looking Forward 1
1 Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland 7
2 Belatedness 20
3 Haunted by History 39
4 Irrevocable Futures: Tracing the Dynamics of Conflict, 64
Bloody Sunday and Bloody Friday
5 Making History: The Articulation of the Northern State 81
6 Can We Fix It? The Peace Process and the Construction 101
of Modern Nationalism in Northern Ireland
7 Nationalist Politics and Truth Recovery 123
8 Generational Change 145
Conclusion: The Workings of the Past 167
Notes 176
Index 208
vii
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Introduction: Remembering and
Looking Forward
‘British-Irish relations reach an all-time high’ proclaimed the nationalist-
oriented, Northern Irish daily the Irish News following a meeting between
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Prime Minister David Cameron in March
2012.1 The paper sought to put the meeting in an historical perspec-
tive, contrasting the ‘25-year peace process’ with the period of ‘almost
outright hostility’ that had preceded it with the hunger strikes of
1980–1981. In so doing, the paper followed the lead of the two pre-
miers who stated that the series of commemorations beginning with
the centenary of the Ulster Covenant in September provided an oppor-
tunity to reflect on the ‘events that helped shape our political destinies
… We will do so in a spirit of historical accuracy, mutual respect, inclu-
siveness and reconciliation’. However, they continued, ‘we want to
ensure that this is a decade not only of remembering but also of
looking forward – a decade of renewed and strengthened cooperation
between our two countries’.
This book examines the implications behind the Janus-faced impera-
tive for looking to the past with one eye on the future. It looks in par-
ticular at how that imperative is being applied to Northern Ireland
which witnessed over 3,700 deaths in a period of three and a half
decades.2It examines how the pernicious self-justifications of terrorists
– who were massively repudiated by the general populace and who
achieved none of their objectives through violence – have become a
pervasive force in the post-conflict discourse. And it suggests that a key
reason behind the unquestioning acceptance of that force by sections
of the Northern Irish, Irish and British political class – and the pro-
mulgation of it by others – lies in a tendency to defer consideration
of those thousands of deaths and injuries. The book recognises that at
one level the displacement of the victims of terrorist and state killings
1