Overview
- Considers different understandings of the past that are crucial to any study
- Looks at how collective memory is formed and used to create group identities and the basis for political statements
- Draws heavily on existing and new case study material
Part of the book series: Memory Politics and Transitional Justice (MPTJ)
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Table of contents (10 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book covers the notion of collective memory – broadly defined as the ways in which differing pasts are created, understood and reproduced – and how this is perpetuated in Northern Ireland by a wide set of social actors, including nations, religious and political groupings, and local communities. Such collective memories are not a preservative for historically accurate recall of bygone events but rather readings of the past subject to contemporary interpretations and political pressure. The adoption of political symbolism remains central to subsequent events. Indeed, in Northern Ireland, both communities hold their conflicting ‘memories’ dear and, importantly, rival political organizations have invested much in their own reading of the causes of the outbreak and continuation of the conflict. Set alongside constant exposure to other forms of discourse, texts, songs, prose and more visible physical manifestations – such as murals, commemorative gardens, personal tattoos, and even gravestones – there are a multitude of ways of reminding people of particular memories, community histories and interpretations of events, and of providing the background within which attitudes are formed.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
James W. McAuley is Professor Emeritus of Political Sociology and Irish Studies at the University of Huddersfield, Visiting Professor in Political Sociology at Leeds Beckett University and Honorary Research Fellow in Political Psychology at Liverpool Hope University.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Collective Memory and Political Identity in Northern Ireland
Book Subtitle: Recollections of the Future
Authors: James W. McAuley
Series Title: Memory Politics and Transitional Justice
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47675-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-47674-7Published: 24 January 2024
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-47677-8Due: 01 March 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-47675-4Published: 23 January 2024
Series ISSN: 2731-3840
Series E-ISSN: 2731-3859
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 278
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: European Politics, Memory Studies, Political Science