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| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
080577
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| Publication |
2007.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Memories of military sacrifices and demonstrations of 'national' characteristics of bravery, comradeship and integrity still have considerable popular purchase within contemporary states and communities, and as such can accrue significant political capital. With this in mind, this paper will show how Ulster Loyalists attempt to anchor themselves in the memory of the Somme, seeking to deliberately construct a line of direct continuity between modern Loyalism, which has been suffering from a variety of pressures, fissures and marginalization throughout the Northern Ireland peace process, and Ulster Unionism of the early 20th century, a period which in contrast was marked by unity, mass mobilization and elite leadership. Crucially, that political generation's decimation during the First World War is a potent myth of blood sacrifice which thickens, rather than pollutes, the narrative of a Unionist 'Golden Age' of mobilization and strength. As such, the mythic proving grounds of battlefields long gone have become advantageous sites for modern political acquisition. This use of the memory of the Great War as an identity resource will be compared and contrasted with similar projects in Canada and Australia.
Rather than simply miring Loyalists in archaic and militaristic tropes, and invented links to the past, this paper will argue that commemorations, particularly that of the Somme, can have a transformative and cohering effect on modern Loyalism, in both the political and paramilitary spheres.
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| 2 |
ID:
089412
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| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article uses the controversial November 2008 Belfast homecoming parade of local men and women in the British armed services as a case study to examine the mechanisms at work picking away at inter-communal trust, and the speed and persistence of their application, a defining characteristic of these mechanisms. The article conceptualises trust partially by reference to social capital, and closely examines how issues of post-conflict memory and contested space intersected and damaged nascent networks of inter-community trust. The article will also tentatively suggest means by which such cultural conflicts can be allowed to combust without ripping away grassroots trust and threatening civil disorder.
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