Night and Fog

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padraic Kenney
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
The Troubles

What do states do with the opponents they have imprisoned? This chapter explores the treatment of prisoners as a way to understand political incarceration. For political prisoners, arbitrary and uncertain rules replace rights in the twentieth century. Prisoners see rules as capricious, but the capriciousness undermines prisoners’ sense of themselves and of their fate. Prison denies ordinary sensations and strips prisoners of their identity, even of their humanity. It instills uncertainty through the use of informers, purposeless labor, and torture. Examples in the chapter include Nazi Germany, Poland in the 1930s and in the Stalinist era, British Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and apartheid South Africa.

The Northern Ireland Conflict: New Wine in Old Bottles?

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 307-322
Author(s):  
Sabine Wichert
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Northern Ireland Conflict ◽  
History Of

James Loughlin, The Ulster Question since 1945 (London: Macmillan, 1998), 151 pp., £10.99 (pb), ISBN 0–333–60616–7.David Harkness, Ireland in the Twentieth Century. Divided Island (London: Macmillan, 1996), 190 pp., £9.99 (pb), ISBN 0–333–56796–X.Thomas Hennessey, A History of Northern Ireland, 1920–1996 (London: Macmillan, 1997), 347 pp., £12.99 (pb), £40.00 (hb), ISBN 0–333–73162–X.Brian A. Follis, A State Under Siege. The Establishment of Northern Ireland, 1920–1925 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1995), 250 pp., £35.00 (hb), ISBN 0–198–20305–5.Dermot Keogh and Michael H. Haltzel, eds., Northern Ireland and the Politics of reconciliation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 256 pp., £35.00 (hb), ISBN 0–521–44430–6.William Crotty and David Schmitt, eds., Ireland and the Politics of Change (London/New York: Longman, 1999), 264 pp., £17.99 (pb), ISBN 0–582–32894–2.David Miller, ed., Rethinking Northern Ireland. Culture, Ideology and Colonialism. (London/New York: Longman, 1999), 344 pp., £17.99 (pb), ISBN 0–582–30287–0.Anthony D. Buckley and Mary Catherine Kenney, Negotiating Identity: Rhetoric, Metaphor, and Social Identity in Northern Ireland (Washington: Smithonian Institution Press, 1996), 270 pp., £34.75 (hb), ISBN 1–560–98520–8.John D. Brewer, with Gareth I. Higgins, Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland, 1600–1998: the mote and the beam (London: Macmillan, 1998), 248 pp., £16.99 (pb), ISBN 0–333–74635–X.During the last three decades, and accompanying the ‘troubles’, the literature on Northern Ireland has mushroomed. Within the last ten years two surveys have attempted to summarise and categorise the major interpretations. John Whyte's Interpreting Northern Ireland covered the 1970s and 1980s and came to the conclusion that traditional Unionist and nationalist interpretations, with their emphasis on external, that is British and Irish, forces as the cause for the problem, had begun to lose out to ‘internal conflict’ interpretations. He felt, however, that this approach, too, was coming to the end of its usefulness, and he expected the emergence of a new paradigm shortly.

scholarly journals Why did Pope John Paul II visit Ireland? The 1979 papal visit in context

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 462-485
Author(s):  
Daithí Ó Corráin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Pope John Paul Ii ◽  
Leadership Challenges ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Institutional Influence ◽  
Irish Catholics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Catholic Tradition

Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland in 1979 was an iconic moment in the history of twentieth-century Irish Catholicism. It has, however, received little detailed historical scrutiny. Based on state archival and hitherto unavailable diocesan material, this article contextualizes the visit by explaining the pastoral and leadership challenges that confronted the Irish hierarchy. Second, this article discusses how close the pope came to visiting Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. This was of concern not just to the hierarchy but to the Irish and British governments. Third, the organization of the visit, which was closely tied to the pastoral concerns of the Irish bishops, is surveyed. Lastly, the pastoral impact of the visit is considered. If the Catholic hierarchy hoped that the papal visit might arrest the declining institutional influence of the Catholic Church, reverse a quiet but growing faith crisis, or hasten a cessation of violence in Northern Ireland, then those expectations were misplaced. Ultimately, the pastoral impulse of the 1979 papal visit to Ireland was to preserve rather than renew the Irish Catholic tradition at a time when Irish Catholics were fixed on future material advancement rather than fidelity to their spiritual past.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padraic Kenney
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Imprisonment

In an ordinary prison, the goal is to rehabilitate its inmates; in the political prison, the state demonstrates its power to detain, confine, name, and torture or at the very least discomfort and inhibit a group of people who claim to oppose it. Often state leaders learn that they have to negotiate with prisoners and treat them as potential partners. Rendered illegible by the state’s prison, prisoners create their own illegibility and confuse the prison, refusing its terms. As they create communal structures, engage in protest, and invent prison universities, political prisoners create a new narrative and wrest back their own agency, forcing the regime to respond. Political imprisonment thus has an effect quite different from that intended by the regime. The conclusion looks briefly at the role of prisoners during and after transformations in Poland, Northern Ireland, and South Africa.

scholarly journals Menstruation as a Weapon of War: The Politics of the Bleeding Body for Women on Political Protest at Armagh Prison, Northern Ireland

2018 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azrini Wahidin
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Menstrual Blood ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Prison Officer ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Extraordinary Form

This article draws on the voices of women political prisoners who were detained at Armagh Prison during the period of the Troubles or the Conflict in Northern Ireland. It focuses on women who undertook an extraordinary form of protest against the prison authorities during the 1980s, known as the No Wash Protest. As the prisoners were prevented from leaving their cells by prison officer either to wash or to use the toilet, the women, living in the midst of their own dirt and body waste, added menstrual blood as a form of protest.

From Resistance to National Reconciliation: The Response and Role of the Ecumenical Church in South Africa

2004 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 369-384
Author(s):  
John W. de Gruchy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South African ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Reconciliation

Scattered through the history of the Christian Church are seminal moments that have shaped the future course of Christianity whether for good or ill. When later historians of Christianity will write about the twentieth century, I anticipate that they will refer to the role of the Churches in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa as paradigmatic both in terms of success and failure. They might also refer to the role of the Christian Church in the transition to democracy in both countries in similar terms. In what follows I will offer some reflections on the South African side of the story, briefly tracing the response and role of what I have termed the ‘Ecumenical Church’ in South Africa to African resistance, democratic transition and national reconciliation.

scholarly journals Political Violence and Re-victimization in The Ferryman

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mesut Günenç
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Irish Republican Army ◽  
Typical Representative ◽  
Major Point ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The Disappeared

<p>Jez Butterworth’s <i>The Ferryman</i> (2017) is a play about the Carney family living in 1980s Ireland during the period of the rebellion of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its efforts to get rid of British sovereignty in Northern Ireland, a period known as ‘the Troubles’. This paper focuses on Jez Butterworth, one of the most distinctive voices of the contemporary British theatre scene and a typical representative of the 1990s cultural trend, and his tragedy <i>The Ferryman</i>, which portrays the struggle and conflicts between Catholic nationalists and Protestant loyalists in Northern Ireland in the last decades of the twentieth century. The second major point of the study is that the power of the Irish Republican Party has a heavy impact on the play. The paper also discovers how Sean Carney and other members of his family both embody and apply the story of Eugene Simons and other members of ‘the Disappeared’. Like other young men, Seamus Carney became a victim during the Troubles and the campaign of political violence. The discovery of his body symbolizes how political violence created the Disappeared and shows that re-victimization and re-traumatisation continue in the aftermath of the Troubles.</p>

Strike

Jimmy Reid ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 193-222
Author(s):  
W.W.J. Knox ◽  
A. McKinlay
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Public Life ◽  
British History ◽  
The Political ◽  
British Politics ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Falklands War ◽  
Political Background ◽  
Looking Back

Chapter seven commences with Reid’s post-1979 defeat and his new career in journalism against the backdrop of a decade of Thatcherism, apartheid in South Africa, the troubles in Northern Ireland and the Falklands war. This is the political preface to the miners’ strike which undoubtedly dominated mid-1980s British politics and so naturally it dominated this chapter of Reid’s public life. During his time as a columnist for the Glasgow Herald, Reid became at odds with the Labour party over his criticism of Arthur Scargill’s leadership of the miners’ strike and of how the strike might impact Labour’s potential for victory in future elections. Objectively looking back at this pivotal time in British history, we analyse Reid’s interpretations of the strike, Scargill and Labour’s losses as well as evaluating how far Reid’s political background, experience and principles influenced his attitudes towards them.

scholarly journals Political Violence and Re-victimization in The Ferryman

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mesut Günenç
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Young Men ◽  
Irish Republican Army ◽  
Typical Representative ◽  
Major Point ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The Disappeared

<p>Jez Butterworth’s <i>The Ferryman</i> (2017) is a play about the Carney family living in 1980s Ireland during the period of the rebellion of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its efforts to get rid of British sovereignty in Northern Ireland, a period known as ‘the Troubles’. This paper focuses on Jez Butterworth, one of the most distinctive voices of the contemporary British theatre scene and a typical representative of the 1990s cultural trend, and his tragedy <i>The Ferryman</i>, which portrays the struggle and conflicts between Catholic nationalists and Protestant loyalists in Northern Ireland in the last decades of the twentieth century. The second major point of the study is that the power of the Irish Republican Party has a heavy impact on the play. The paper also discovers how Sean Carney and other members of his family both embody and apply the story of Eugene Simons and other members of ‘the Disappeared’. Like other young men, Seamus Carney became a victim during the Troubles and the campaign of political violence. The discovery of his body symbolizes how political violence created the Disappeared and shows that re-victimization and re-traumatisation continue in the aftermath of the Troubles.</p>

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