Giving Voice to Silences: Harnessing the Performative in Two Memory Projects in Northern Ireland

Twenty years since the signing of the Belfast Agreement in 1998, the question of how to acknowledge the violence that dominated the region in the preceding decades is as pertinent as ever. The memory industry that has arisen since is sometimes a means to quietly explore and come to terms with the past. In other instances, the act of memorializing has a far more active role and is concerned with fulfilling a new ambition. This article considers how the performative is harnessed in two grassroots memory projects in Northern Ireland that both use previously unheard voices to invite the visitor to engage with the victim’s story. By exploring the projects, this article is an examination of the purposefulness of a past remade through contemporary reinterpretation.