Laura McAtackney (Oxford University, UK)

Few would now debate that the widespread civil unrest that afflicted Northern Ireland from the occupation of British troops in the late 1960s throughout the rest of the 20th century was less than a low-level war. The impact of the euphemistically known ‘Troubles’ on many aspects of Northern Irish society was marked but little research has been done on the materiality of this conflict. Whereas the material remains of the world wars of the twentieth century are now accepted as mainstream subjects for study, how do we access the remains of more ephemeral and recent conflicts? Many of the monumental and more prominent elements, such as the Maze prison, are still very apparent today and subject to much debate about their future. The majority of these large scale standing elements were built by the government forces as a means of cementing occupation and have created their own highly-visible landscape of the Troubles. However, there is a need to consider the full scale and extent of the materiality of the conflict through investigation of the more transient elements of resistance. The less obvious materiality of resistance needs to be added as a means of expanding and balancing the narratives that are currently being constructed of the Troubles. In a society where the past is omnipresent, this paper aims to explore the many different manifestation of resistance – some more obvious and permanent than others - and will ask do we need to record, interpret, discuss and remember these traces or should the past be forgotten in the interests of moving forward?