How Do We Remember History?

By Andrew Moffa, DIS Cross Cultural Communication student, spring 2015

We walked down Shankill Road as the snow continued to fall, approaching a mural depicting small children and babies being carried away from what looked like a bombing. Our tour guide told us about how this mural depicted the aftermath of the Shankill Road bombing, an attempt by the enemies to murder the leaders of the side he fought for.

While on the long study tour to Belfast, Northern Ireland, I was struck by the great divide that still exists between Catholics and Protestants in the aftermath of The Troubles, a conflict rooted in the British colonization of Ireland associated with protestantism and Catholic human rights activism in the late 60s causing 30 years of violence and terror among the citizens.

I had never visited a true post-conflict society before, and traveling to Belfast proved to be quite the first experience. One of the most interesting aspects of our time in Belfast for me were our walking tours of Falls Road, a historic Catholic road in the city, and Shankill Road, a nearby Protestant road also known for being a hotspot of violence during the Troubles. This tour, given by individuals who were directly involved in The Troubles, gave me a closer look at how both sides perceive the two groups’ tumultuous past.

The scene I described at the beginning took place during our walking tour of Shankill Road. Our tour guide was a former Unionist paramilitary and politician named William “Plum” Smith, who said something during the tour that immediately caught my attention and made me stop and think. While explaining one of the murals that could be seen on nearly every corner, Smith made the comment, “the first casualty of every conflict is the truth.”

Us and Them
It is often said when referencing historical conflicts that the victor writes history. However, the case in Northern Ireland does not seem to be so clear-cut. Because the region is still very much divided in terms of Protestants and Catholics, each side tells a different narrative about the past. This was especially evident when we were hearing directly from individuals who participated in The Troubles in some capacity.

Despite the time that has elapsed since a peace treaty was negotiated in the 1990s, neither side seems willing to admit any wrongdoing. This was very quite obvious when our teacher, Gry, was questioning Smith during one portion of the walking tour. Despite Gry’s persistent questioning, our tour guide continually defended the cause himself and other Protestants spent nearly 30 years fighting for.

Hearing this comment directly from someone who fought on the side of the Protestants in this conflict, I started to wonder whether we will ever really know the truth of what happened in Northern Ireland for close to 30 years. I even began to think about whether or not there will ever be an objective history of The Troubles.

It is also important when discussing memory and how different people perceive and remember The Troubles in Northern Ireland to think about the future. We were often reminded during our time in Belfast that the majority of the people who were on the front lines during The Troubles were young men.

Those who survived the violence are now around middle age or even a little older. We were told by many of our tour guides and presenters how the younger generation in Northern Ireland is not as knowledgeable about the extent of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. It is worth looking to the future when the majority of the participants in The Troubles have passed away.

With no more eyewitnesses to describe the 30-year period of chaos, how will The Troubles be remembered? Will we only have biased accounts of what happened?

Remembering through art
Something closely connected to the search for truth in the aftermath of tense conflicts is the presence of art and how this form of expression complicates our remembrance of past events. It was easy to notice while walking through both the Falls Road and Shankill Road neighborhoods that murals play a major role in how the Northern Irish remember The Troubles.

These murals seem to serve a variety of purposes, as some are commentating on current events going on around the world while others serve as memorials to the individuals who sacrificed their lives during The Troubles. The murals as well as other forms of artistic expression also showcase the inherent bias that comes with remembering The Troubles.

Touring Falls Road and Shankill Road within a span of an hour or so made this quite obvious. The individuals for whom murals were painted on Falls Road were the same people described as killers while we were on Shankill Road. One group’s martyrs are another group’s murderers.

While you can make the case that this is the result of just about every conflict, this seems to be even more evident in the case of Northern Ireland because both groups are still present and hold a certain amount of power.