Ghosts of the Somme : Commemoration and Culture War in Northern Ireland

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. "In 2016, as the Irish Republic marked the hundredth anniversary of its sacrificial founding by the martyrs of Easter week, Ulster Loyalists were making final preparations to mark the centenary of a blood sacrifice of equal and opposite significance for contemporary Irish politics: that of the 36th (Ulster) Division at the Battle of the Somme during World War I. This book examines the complex politics of commemorating Ireland's 'other' 1916. During the present 'Decade of Centenaries, ' commemoration - viewed as a driver or even cause of past conflict in Northern Ireland - has come to occupy a central place in ongoing efforts at peacebuilding and reconciliation. Drawing on more than 18 months of original ethnographic field work conducted in Belfast, this book examines the conflicted politics of Ulster Loyalist commemorations of the Battle of the Somme during the Decade. In a context defined for Loyalists by what they have termed the 'culture war, ' commemoration is the means by which they confront and challenge the perceived erosion of their identity in the 'new' Northern Ireland. Evershed examines how commemoration of the Somme brings Loyalists into conflict not only with the politics of Irish Nationalism, but with the 'peacebuilding' state and, crucially, with each other."--Provided by publisher Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents Foreword Acknowledgments List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations Introduction ONE. (Re)theorizing Commemoration TWO. “What does it mean to follow a ghost?”: Locating “the Field” and the Ethics of Empathy THREE. Policy, Peace-Building, and “the Past” during the Decade of Centenaries FOUR. Peace as Defeat: Loyalism and the Culture War in the “New” Northern Ireland FIVE. “Our culture is their bravery”: Commemoration and the Culture War SIX. The Ghost Dance: Memory Work and Loyalism’s Conflicted Hauntology SEVEN. “Dupes no more”? Loyalist Commemoration and the Politics of Peace-Building Postscript: “All changed, changed utterly”? Notes Bibliography Index