Dealing with the Past: shared and contested narratives in post-conflict Northern Ireland by Leah Wing Leah Wing is a member of the faculty of the Legal Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (USA). Her research explores the intersections of social justice and critical race theory in their application to mediation and reconciliation. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Conflict Resolution (2002 2006) and since 2002 has served on the editorial board of Conflict Resolution Quarterly. She is a member of Healing Through Remembering in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is the founding director of the Social Justice Mediation Institute and co-director of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution (USA). Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the legal apparatus in the post-war Northern Ireland has continued to be deemed insufficient, by both State and non-state stakeholders, as an effective means of addressing the conflict s legacy. Despite the introduction of supplemental legal structures, such as the Historical Enquiries Team, and a Legacy Commission which is currently under consideration, State-sanctioned mechanisms have yet to provide meaningful ways to deal with truth recovery and to tell storys about the past, for all parties concerned. Yet, the affected population is not idly waiting for such outcomes. In the absence of legal mechanisms to deal with the past that meet cross-community consensus, thousands of commemorative and remembrance activities, dozens of museums and storytelling processes for reconciliation and archiving, and a variety of truthrecovery projects have come into being. While some of these are State-sponsored, most are run by neighbourhood committees, political or religious groups, and non-governmental organizations. Unsurprisingly, their design and management are often as heavily contested as the narratives they provide space for, at times re-enacting traditional divisions. In a context where a contested past remains a significant issue in the socio-political discourse, the development of sites of heritage and commemoration can be a significant step in recovering the truth about events that have taken place. Theoretical background: commemoration as conflict resolution This article examines the strategic use of a commemorative site for truth recovery in the absence of effective and trusted state-sponsored procedures to address the past. The commemorative trail in Belfast s greater Ballymurphy neighbourhood elucidates the historical and political significance of the creative use of the past and its role in post-war commemoration. It also demonstrates the lack of foundational support for the history being created by residents of Ballymurphy, which has yet to be claimed by the State. The Ballymurphy project s lack of stability is symptomatic of this historico-political terrain, but leads to a desire for coherence in the movement to define the future of this society. The Ballymurphy commemoration trail, we can say, is a step forward as it engages with an unstable and changing terrain that holds memories ISSN 1350-0775, No. 245 246 (Vol. 62, No. 1 2, 2010) ª UNESCO 2010 31 Published by UNESCO Publishing and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
HERITAGE FROM CONFLICT TO CONSENSUS ª John Teggart 7 7. A living site of remembrance: a mural by and for the bereaved families. of the past and the role of the State in them. Thus, the proposal to approach the past and to gain clarity on what took place in Ballymurphy is to allow the past to be rewritten by the present. It provides a space for the emergence and visibility of marginalized narratives, so that they can have a role in co-constructing the future. In this way, commemorative practices serve a functional role in the conflict transformation of society. Commemoration efforts the celebration and presentation of heritage and the remembrance of those lost are imbued with an urgency to perpetuate a history or narrative of a conflict, articulating each community or group s positive (victim) or negative (perpetrator) positioning in the stories being told. Critiques of such projects abound in the scholarship on memory and cultural history, and run counter to the conflict resolution mantra of the importance of developing a shared narrative to transforming the conflict (Bush and Folger, 1994; Longley, 2001; Rouhana and Korper, 1996). Commemorations and heritage sites which retell conflicting narratives are indicted as barriers to conflict transformation. Hence the calls to disentangle the interdependency of the positive negative character positions routinely portrayed in remembrance and commemoration activities. Longley is in favour of such untangling, arguing that it requires self-criticism and reflection and therefore develops a new remembering (2001: 229), ultimately constructing a new relationship with the past between former adversaries, and between the particular space and the nation. In this mainstream approach to commemoration as conflict resolution, altering narratives of the past is a requirement for heritage projects to ensure that they no longer perpetuate the conflict. Until this takes place, there is a perceived impossibility of remembering, say, RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary] dead and Republican dead in the same gesture (Longley, 2001: 229), 32 Published by UNESCO Publishing and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Dealing with the Past: shared and contested narratives in post-conflict Northern Ireland Leah Wing leaving commemorations to function as a contradictory site of conflict and conflict resolution (2001: 230). Longley s expectation that a memorial ought to provide space for remembering all the dead in the same gesture is a hallmark of consensus theory and requires scrutiny. This is the case, particularly, in the light of the absence of truth and justice, which have yet to be achieved for all sides. Since this constitutes the dominant framework upon which remembering as well as reconciliation projects function (Rouhana, 2004), it will be problematized in the following discussion. Uncovering the truth: the Ballymurphy commemoration trail Ballymurphy, a neighbourhood in the Republican Nationalist heartland of West Belfast, has historically experienced severe economic deprivation, political-ethno-religious discrimination, and for a prolonged period of time (1969 98), extreme levels of violence. Those who have lived in the area have also witnessed a greater number of military and security installations than people living in any other part of Western Europe since the Second World War. Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, has been quoted as saying: If anyone was ever to ask me what makes a revolution, how does it happen, and what are the ideal conditions, I would say, Go take a look at what happened in Ballymurphy (de Bariod, 1989: 30). If Ballymurphy can be a touchstone to help us understand how a revolution could happen, what can it tell us now about the transition to peace and, specifically, the political and symbolic role commemorations can play in that process? In 2007, the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee (BMC) began a campaign to demand the truth about what happened to their loved ones who were murdered in August 1971. The campaign includes demands for the declassification of military policies sanctioned at the highest political levels, supporting the British Army s disposal of unwanted members of the public, to quote General Kitson, who authored the psych-ops policies as commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade in Belfast (Kitson in Adams, 2003: 86). In re-introducing internment without trial, over 1,000 British troops entered the homes of Ballymurphy residents between 9 11 August 1971, and rounded up all males, from teenage boys to men in their seventies. Scores of people were shot, beaten and bayoneted, and forty-seven Ballymurphy children lost a parent (Relatives for Justice). The bereaved families have come together in recent years and identified patterns of State-sponsored violence and human rights abuses along with neglect of criminal investigations. Now they are demanding that the State be held accountable, that they acknowledge and apologize for their role in these murders. As part of the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee campaign the families have created a commemorative trail along each of the sites of the murders. The project forms part of the group s overall activities, which aim to uncover the truth while commemorating their loved ones. In this way, by autonomizing the writing of history and presenting a narrative outside of State accounts, they are creating an unavoidable site one with which the State must engage. The trail plays a critical role in the campaign by challenging the narrative of the State and demanding that its violence be recognized and redressed. In 2008, the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee led a March for Truth along the commemorative trail where temporary crosses had been installed at each murder site. The following year small plaques replaced the crosses and murals were added to the trail. The re-imagining and altering of the physical sites through the installation of temporary crosses, plaques and murals, as well as the plans for future additional written narratives and visuals, form part of the Ballymurphy Massacre Committee s ongoing political and historical intervention. Their intent embodies the belief that commemoration as collective and community-driven remembering and mourning is central to truth recovery and conflict ISSN 1350-0775, No. 245 246 (Vol. 62, No. 1 2, 2010) 33
HERITAGE FROM CONFLICT TO CONSENSUS transformation. As the families mark the place where death occurred, the moment becomes an opportunity to mark hope and to use this space to break the silence they have lived with for decades. These families have yet to be heard and the terror and loss that their stories speak of have yet to be addressed. Since this is the case, the commemorative site reflects the ongoing nature of the conflict in this post-war society, and unlike Longley s (2001) assessment, rather than perpetuate it, the trail serves as an intervention to remediate it. The development of a commemorative trail raises a number of questions for those seeking justice and a place in history that is more than a counternarrative to institutional framing. Who should the narrative address? Neighbours? Others, with similar experiences? Visitors, politicians and the public who are likely only to be familiar with the State s narrative? It is a daunting task to come up with answers to these questions, and yet it is also an opportunity to disrupt the functional-rational manner in which the history of the killings has been officially reported. This is part of bearing witness, as Salzman puts it, when a visual in this case, the commemorative trail provides testimony to what has not been said (Salzman and Rosenberg, 2006). The trail accomplishes this through the coherent de-formation of State representation through its use of visuals and the narration provided during the public anniversary walk, and in the daily sounds of urban community life which inform visitors of a neighbourhood that good people call home. Making the faces visible The features of the commemorative site broaden the characterization of the bereaved as not only victims of the past, but as family members victimized by a continuing lack of justice, and as survivors with agency in writing righting their past and their future. As visitors view a photograph housed on a plaque, the gaze of the dead calls out, requiring more than remembrance demanding justice. In this moment, the visitor takes the place of the deceased s voice, breaking the silence about their death, and in a sense transforming the site into an interactive memorial one that makes its subject the visitor and the public as well as the dead and their families. In their analysis of the role that photographs can play in commemoration, Herron and Lynch write: it is in the presentation of the faces of the dead [ ] that resides the power [ ] as a direct response to the effacing of identity undertaken by the British Army (2007: 36). Making these faces visible is an intervention against the invisibility of their killing and the marginalization of their lives and deaths. The trail also breaks the silence of what Wodiczko calls the double victimization (Salzman, 2006: 87) of the bereaved, who not only lost a family member, but were also dispossessed of their right to justice. The inclusion of the bereaved in creating the narrative of the Ballymurphy murders is technically further developed through an interactive mural memorial at the end of the trail, created in 2009 by and for the families. It has become a living site of remembrance and a space for them to communicate their campaign for justice to the dead as well as to recount other news, such as births in the family. It enables them to continue to connect and celebrate their lives, not just mourn their loss. The terrain through which visitors travel is a key element in the commemoration trail, impacting the role of the State in the narrative that visitors help to construct. Legalized violence echoes throughout the walk, not only through the narration provided at each site, but also in the physical surroundings. For example, a visitor might wonder, The fortress provided cover for soldiers and police and this large field provides none with only a few people in the field surely the soldiers could see that they had no weapons and did not pose a threat? Why were they shot in these conditions? Bringing people to the locations where the murders occurred strategically helps to engage them in co-constructing the past along with those who lived it. A walk along this trail places the visitor into a contested terrain that lies between 34 Published by UNESCO Publishing and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Dealing with the Past: shared and contested narratives in post-conflict Northern Ireland Leah Wing the State and its victims. Engagement with this geography thus invites participation in building a counter-narrative to make sense of how violence took place in this context. The narration at each spot re-enacts what Salzman calls the rhythms of repetition and deferral that mark the experience of trauma (2006: 99). The recitation of each victim s name and story forms a pattern over the course of eleven sites. The names of those who formulated policies and pulled the trigger are absent, highlighting the deferral of truth which relatives continue to await. Such repetition and deferral within the narration provoke visitors to join the search. Leerssen, however, dismisses the utility of repetition, disparaging the practice of commemoration and memorialization of trauma in Ireland, as an impulse to return, again and again, to the scenes, to describe the event or the story over and over again and yet feel that it is never adequately described or formulated in a final, definitive form (2001: 221). But Leerssen s uneasiness with the creative use of the past does not recognize its value in rooting the incident in the living present of history. In a society in transition, a narrative that has been suppressed undoubtedly experiences change as it becomes safer to articulate, thereby impacting the direction of the future as it helps uncover more truth. The lack of stasis, then, reflects movement forward, changing the oppressive nature of State narratives and the silences in history. Longley, like many scholars analysing the role of museums and heritage sites in Northern Ireland, criticizes the act of remembering for only one community, seeing it as driven by partisan politics and therefore unfit to depict the past accurately (Longley, 2001: 235; Boyce, 2001: 269). She argues for historical ecumenism (2001: 235), the inclusion of the other narrative or the uncovering of joint heroism or suffering that will valorize both communities. It is important to note here that a reference to both communities refers to Protestant and Catholic or nationalist and unionist. This, of course, excludes the historic presence of the British, as State and actor in this conflict. And, Boyce reminds us, when the heritage industry serves to transmit the past in ways that would help stabilize the present [... it] runs the risk of distorting the past in ways that make it harder to understand the present, especially the divided present (Boyce, 2001: 270). In other words, to value only the creation of a common narrative (particularly in the absence of sufficient mechanisms for truth recovery and justice) leaves wounds to fester. This ignores rather than diminishes conflict when many still require an acknowledgement and redress of wrongs specific to their community, and what they deem as the truth, in order to move beyond the past of the war and into a shared future (Berry et al., 2009). The call by cultural critics, museum curators and conflict resolution practitioners to present a fixed narrative about a common heritage of loss undermines the role performed by the organization of a site such as the Ballymurphy commemorative trail. Community-led commemoration projects which bring visibility to those wrongs yet to be addressed serve as a conscience, both to honour the past and to pave the way to a future that recognizes the role of justice and ethicality. This is increasingly seen as part of reconciliation efforts in post-conflict societies where violations of human rights have occurred. It is an important step in the transition process as it validates the experiences of victims, provides a framework for articulating what happened, and helps to set the stage for rectifying the past and planning for a peaceful and just future. REFERENCES Adams, G. 2003. A Farther Shore: Ireland s Long Road to Peace. New York, Random House. Barnes, C. 2008. Same snipers cut down Derry and Murph victims. Andersonstown News, 2 February. Berry, J., Beyers, M., Carr, A., Cook, S., Cooper, D., Dover, J., Hackett, C., Harkness, C., Kelly, G., McAnulty, M., McCartney, K., Meegan, J., Naylor, Y. ISSN 1350-0775, No. 245 246 (Vol. 62, No. 1 2, 2010) 35
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