scholarly journals Making safe: The dirty history of a bomb disposal robot

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 174-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Lisle
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Technological Innovation ◽  
Collateral Damage ◽  
Irish Republican Army ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Museum Displays ◽  
Central Display ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Operators ◽  
Bomb Disposal

In the Ulster Museum’s new gallery The Troubles and Beyond, the central display showcases a Wheelbarrow bomb disposal robot. This machine was invented by the British Army in Northern Ireland in 1972 and used by officers of the 321 Explosive Ordinance Disposal Squadron (321EOD) to defuse car bombs planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA). This article offers an alternative history of that machine – a dirtier history – that critically assesses its role during the Troubles. Centrally, the article contests the British Army’s preferred account of this machine as a ‘game-changing’ technological innovation in counterinsurgency, and their understanding of themselves as benign peacekeepers. Rather than figure the Wheelbarrow robot as an unreadable ‘black box’ used instrumentally by the superior human operators of 321EOD, this article seeks to foreground the unruly transfers of agency between the machine and its operators as they tested and experimented in the exceptional colonial laboratory of Northern Ireland. The article further explores the machine’s failures during bomb disposal episodes, the collateral damage that resulted, and the multiple and often unruly reactions of local populations who watched the Wheelbarrow robot at work. Providing a ‘dirty history’ of the Wheelbarrow robot is an effort to demonstrate that war can never be fully cleaned up, either through militarized mythologies of technological innovation or hopeful museum displays.

Power sharing and the Irish dimension: the conundrum for the SDLP in Northern Ireland

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Popular Narrative ◽  
Irish Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Real Challenge ◽  
Lost Opportunity

This chapter traces the ideas that shaped the concept of power-sharing within the SDLP, and subsequently Northern nationalism, highlighting the significance attached to the Irish dimension as a core feature of power-sharing, which caused divisive debates within the party post-Sunningdale. It will also trace how the concept evolved within British and Irish government circles, where much of the talk focussed on ‘government by consent’ as opposed to power-sharing during the rest of the 1970s. The fall of Sunningdale in 1974 has been attributed to many things, and the popular narrative emphasises that it was an agreement too soon, or a lost opportunity. This explanation does not account for the level of intra-party conflict that existed before the executive was even set up or during the negotiations. Further, it overlooks the very real challenge that power-sharing posed (and continues to pose) to democracy and legitimacy. Brian Faulkner, Chief Executive in the 1974 power-sharing Executive, retrospectively questioned the legitimacy of the SDLP sharing power in Northern Ireland: ‘Given the history of the SDLP over the previous years, and particularly their attitude that Northern Ireland had no right to exist, it was natural that unionists should feel strongly against SDLP participation in government’. The mandatory coalition between parties who were at ideologically opposite ends of the spectrum, including a party that had the demise of the state as one of its core aims, further highlighted the undemocratic nature of the agreement that inevitability would have caused problems, had the experiment not failed in 1974. The emphasis the SDLP attached to the Irish dimension as an integral part of power-sharing additionally eroded the democratic complexion of power-sharing. This has very real repercussions for the Northern Ireland Assembly today. While the 1998 Agreement ended the violence (or at least the level of violence) associated with the prior three decades of the ‘troubles’, there is no real commitment to democratic pluralist institutions at Stormont and instead there has been a reinforcing of the historical choices offered to the electorate of selecting candidates or voting on the basis of their shade of orange or green.

Gay Life and Liberation, a Photographic Record of 1970s Belfast

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 144-162
Author(s):  
Rachel Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Gay Identity ◽  
Gay Liberation ◽  
Going Public ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Founding Member ◽  
Personal Histories ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gay Liberation Movement

In March 2017, the first LGBTQ+ history exhibition to be displayed at a national museum in Northern Ireland debuted at the Ulster Museum. The exhibition, entitled “Gay Life and Liberation: A Photographic Exhibition of 1970s Belfast,” included private photographs captured by Doug Sobey, a founding member of gay liberation organizations in Belfast during the 1970s, and featured excerpts from oral histories with gay and lesbian activists. It portrayed the emergence of the gay liberation movement during the Troubles and how the unique social, political, and religious situation in Northern Ireland fundamentally shaped the establishment of a gay identity and community in the 1970s. By displaying private photographs and personal histories, it revealed the hidden history of the LGBTQ+ community to the museum-going public. The exhibition also enhanced and extended the histories of the Troubles, challenging traditional assumptions and perceptions of the conflict.

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.

scholarly journals Our Friends Across the Water: Northern Ireland Media Coverage of the Scottish Independence Referendum

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthea Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
Sinn Fein ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
The Press ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scottish Independence ◽  
Scottish Politics

The chapter opens by noting a degree of closeness of Scottish politics for Northern Irish media and their consumers, also summarizing some historical factors in relation to present circumstances in Northern Ireland: and outlining its dedicated media provision. The chapter defines its concepts for analysis, specifying themes such as volume of coverage and fact vs opinion, as well as focus and position. Both press and broadcast output is considered. Unionist-leaning and nationalist-leaning press were seen to interpret events differently, with more space offered by broadcasting, as distinct from the press, to the view of Sinn Fein. There was a significant if minor tendency to see the participatory and democratic nature of the Scottish referendum favourably in comparison to the history of the Troubles.

1. The origins of the Troubles

2020 ◽  
pp. 4-28
Author(s):  
Marc Mulholland
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Irish Sea ◽  
Home Rule ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Long Span ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Irish Sea

The conflict in Northern Ireland was the product of the collision of two groups and, over the long span of time, involved much more peaceful coexistence than active conflict. This was never, however, particularly happy cohabitation. ‘The origins of the Troubles’ outlines the history of Northern Ireland from the bloody conquest of Catholic Gaelic Ulster by Elizabethan England at the end of the 16th century through to partition and the start of sectarian violence. It describes the 17th-century Protestant migration from across the Irish Sea and subsequent Catholic rebellions. The Irish Home Rule movement is also discussed, along with the steps that led to partition and the establishment of the Northern Ireland state.

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>

scholarly journals A Culture of Conflict: An Examination of Thought Processes and Subsequent Behaviors of Citizens in Post-War Belfast

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Finnell Smith
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Post War ◽  
Politics And Law

This article is an exploration into the thoughts and behaviors of the citizens of Post-War Belfast. More than twenty years have passed since the declared end of the Troubles, a three decade-long civil war taking place in Northern Ireland. While many places in Northern Ireland felt the blows of this war, it seems that none felt them quite as badly as Belfast. In this article, I examine the behaviors and actions via the thoughts and perspectives of citizens of Belfast, a city which is still torn in half, divided by forces such as religion, politics, and law among others. These forces are intimately entangled with one another, so much so that the root of the conflict proves difficult to find. After examining the history of Belfast and its peoples, I create two provisional categories, “those too close to the conflict” and “those too far removed from the conflict.”  By doing so I am able to explore what is deemed the normative thought processes of varying people groups, which helps outsiders to glean some understanding of their behavior. In the end, my goal is to give voice to varying sides of the conflict, and while not giving any solution to the conflict, I aim to offer some knowledge and insight as to why it is taking place.

Conflict and Peace: History of the Northern Irish and Turkey’s Kurdish Peace Processes

2020 ◽  
pp. 72-109
Author(s):  
İ. Aytaç Kadıoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The Other ◽  
Historical Account ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Agents ◽  
The One

The chapter provides an overview of the conflicts and peace processes in Northern Ireland and Turkey that dominated almost four decades of politics and security concerns in both cases. This overview demonstrates the dilemmas faced by authorities in deciding whether to adopt traditional terrorism and counter-terrorism tactics versus ‘conflict resolution’ measures. This historical account explores the transition in the perception of the British and Turkish governments on the one hand, and the leadership of the IRA and PKK, on the other. It reveals that peace efforts and violent campaigns were used together since the beginning of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, and since the early 1980s in Turkey. The use of violent and non-violent resolution methods depended on the attitudes of political agents in both conflicts. The chapter also reveals the agents and actors who played a critical role in the transition towards a peaceful resolution. It provides an understanding of how the attitudes and actions of the conflicting parties influenced the outcome of both peace processes.

The psychological impact of involvement in the Irish Republican Army during the ‘Troubles’: Preliminary evidence of moral injury

2021 ◽  
pp. 95-106
Author(s):  
Eke Bont
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Psychological Impact ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Moral Injury ◽  
Hunger Strike ◽  
Irish Republican Army ◽  
The Troubles

To elucidate some of the psychological implications of involvement in terrorism, this study investigated whether former members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) experienced moral injury. Ten autobiographical sources from former IRA members who were active during the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland were qualitatively analysed through interpretative phenomenological analysis. The analysis yielded preliminary evidence of morally injurious experiences and symptoms. These symptoms were commonly coped with through reparative actions. Three types of morally injurious experiences were found in this population: experiences associated with the IRA’s strategy of violence; experiences of informing; and experiences during the hunger strike campaigns. Additionally, there was evidence of moral disillusionment with the IRA. The analysis also identified factors that decreased susceptibility to moral injury. How moral injury and moral disillusionment might have played a role in disengagement from the IRA is discussed.

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