Unionist Voices and the Politics of Remembering the Past in Northern Ireland

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Thematic Introduction and Background to the Northern Ireland Conflict

   • Kirk Simpson

   Pages 1-33

3. ‘They started it’: Unionists, Memory and Subjectivist Constructions of the Political ‘Other’

   • Kirk Simpson

   Pages 34-60

4. ‘It was worse in the beginning’ Recalling the Adjustment to Political Violence

   • Kirk Simpson

   Pages 61-79

5. Untold Stories: Unionist Remembrance of Political Violence and Suffering in Northern Ireland

   • Kirk Simpson

   Pages 80-96

6. ‘Cold Storage’: The Disappearance of Unionist Storytelling and the Conflict

   • Kirk Simpson

   Pages 97-114

7. ‘Ready to speak, but will anyone listen?’ Truth Recovery, Unionists and Social Memory

   • Kirk Simpson

   Pages 115-138

8. Conclusion — Mastering the Past in Northern Ireland

   • Kirk Simpson

   Pages 139-163

9. Back Matter

   Pages 164-176

   PDF

Simpson offers a reflective and theoretical explanation of the ways in which unionists conceive of the past in the present post-conflict environment. He considers the ways in which scholarly literature has often painted an outdated and inaccurate portrait of a highly complex people.

• conflict
• politics
• violence
• British Politics

'How Northern Ireland deals with its past is a major issue for Northern Ireland's future. So this book could not be more important. It is written with passion but without partisanship, with academic rigour but without pedantry. The result is a powerful yet sensitive evocation of Unionist anxieties and historical sensitivities, disturbing but always moving.' - Arthur Aughey, Professor of Politics, University of Ulster, UK

• Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, UK

  Kirk Simpson

KIRK SIMPSON is RCUK Post Doctoral Fellow at the Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, UK. He has written extensively in prestigious academic journals on truth recovery, victims of political violence and unionists in Northern Ireland. He is also the author of the book Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland: Critically Interpreting the Past.

Policies and ethics