Reaching out from the archive: the role of community oral history archives in conflict transformation in Northern Ireland

Abstract

The Good Friday Agreement in 1998 marked a significant change in Northern Ireland and brought with it the vision of a shared future. However, divisions between communities remain steadfast as does the lack of agreement on how best to deal with the past. Recent Loyalist protests visibly attest to the rigid boundaries between communities and an absence of “positive peace”. The research addresses these issues by identifying methods and processes that can soften community divisions and contribute to dealing the past. It is located at a grass-roots community level and argues that community oral history archives can contribute to conflict transformation in Northern Ireland.

The research employed a feminist approach that supports the notion that those best to determine the usefulness of community oral history archives in conflict transformation are community members. Therefore, long-term participant observation on the construction of a cross-community oral history archive supported by a range of interviews from practitioners and academics both locally and internationally provided data for this work.

The research found that community oral history archives have a contribution to make to conflict transformation in Northern Ireland. The original contribution the research makes to knowledge is that construction of a cross-community oral history archive in Northern Ireland provides a platform for intra- and inter-community relationship building that facilitates explorations into the past, present and future and contributes to conflict transformation. Working together on building a cross- community oral history archive, with the contested past as the centre-point of the process, can nurture cross-community alliances, create new networks and deliver a community artefact that symbolises the experiences of a community in the throes of conflict. Most importantly, working together in a shared present shifts the notion of a shared future from a distant concept to one of mutually beneficial positive interdependence.

Date of Award	May 2014
Original language	English
Supervisor	Cherie Driver (Supervisor), Brandon Hamber (Supervisor) & GRAINNE LOUGHRAN (Supervisor)