Ghosts of the Somme

Commemoration and Culture War in Northern Ireland

Nonfiction, History, Ireland, Military, World War I, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science
Cover of the book Ghosts of the Somme by Jonathan Evershed, University of Notre Dame Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jonathan Evershed ISBN: 9780268103880
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press Publication: May 30, 2018
Imprint: University of Notre Dame Press Language: English
Author: Jonathan Evershed
ISBN: 9780268103880
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
Publication: May 30, 2018
Imprint: University of Notre Dame Press
Language: English

Once assumed to be a driver or even cause of conflict, commemoration during Ireland's Decade of Centenaries came to occupy a central place in peacebuilding efforts. The inclusive and cross-communal reorientation of commemoration, particularly of the First World War, has been widely heralded as signifying new forms of reconciliation and a greater "maturity" in relationships between Ireland and the UK and between Unionists and Nationalists in Northern Ireland. In this study, Jonathan Evershed interrogates the particular and implicitly political claims about the nature of history, memory, and commemoration that define and sustain these assertions, and explores some of the hidden and countervailing transcripts that underwrite and disrupt them. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Belfast, Evershed explores Ulster Loyalist commemoration of the Battle of the Somme, its conflicted politics, and its confrontation with official commemorative discourse and practice during the Decade of Centenaries. He investigates how and why the myriad social, political, cultural, and economic changes that have defined postconflict Northern Ireland have been experienced by Loyalists as a culture war, and how commemoration is the means by which they confront and challenge the perceived erosion of their identity. He reveals the ways in which this brings Loyalists into conflict not only with the politics of Irish Nationalism, but with the "peacebuilding" state and, crucially, with each other. He demonstrates how commemoration works to reproduce the intracommunal conflicts that it claims to have overcome and interrogates its nuanced (and perhaps counterintuitive) function in conflict transformation.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Once assumed to be a driver or even cause of conflict, commemoration during Ireland's Decade of Centenaries came to occupy a central place in peacebuilding efforts. The inclusive and cross-communal reorientation of commemoration, particularly of the First World War, has been widely heralded as signifying new forms of reconciliation and a greater "maturity" in relationships between Ireland and the UK and between Unionists and Nationalists in Northern Ireland. In this study, Jonathan Evershed interrogates the particular and implicitly political claims about the nature of history, memory, and commemoration that define and sustain these assertions, and explores some of the hidden and countervailing transcripts that underwrite and disrupt them. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Belfast, Evershed explores Ulster Loyalist commemoration of the Battle of the Somme, its conflicted politics, and its confrontation with official commemorative discourse and practice during the Decade of Centenaries. He investigates how and why the myriad social, political, cultural, and economic changes that have defined postconflict Northern Ireland have been experienced by Loyalists as a culture war, and how commemoration is the means by which they confront and challenge the perceived erosion of their identity. He reveals the ways in which this brings Loyalists into conflict not only with the politics of Irish Nationalism, but with the "peacebuilding" state and, crucially, with each other. He demonstrates how commemoration works to reproduce the intracommunal conflicts that it claims to have overcome and interrogates its nuanced (and perhaps counterintuitive) function in conflict transformation.

More books from University of Notre Dame Press

Cover of the book Chicano Experience, The by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book The Uses of Darkness by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book Shadow and Substance by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book Religious Movements in the Middle Ages by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book Gregory the Great by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book Summa Contra Gentiles by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book Between Two Millstones, Book 1 by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book "The Soul Exceeds Its Circumstances" by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book Before the Dawn by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book Machiavelli, Leonardo, and the Science of Power by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book Immigration and the Border by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book The Priestly Kingdom by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book Meditations on First Philosophy/ Meditationes de prima philosophia by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book St. Thomas Aquinas by Jonathan Evershed
Cover of the book German Catholics and Hitler's Wars by Jonathan Evershed
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy