The Politics of Memoir and the Northern Ireland Conflict

Dr Stephen Hopkins is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Leicester.

• Acknowledgements x1 The Study of Political Memoir and the Legacy of the Conflict in Northern IrelandIntroductionThe Politics of Memoir: Establishing the Parameters of StudyThe Construction and Narration of Exemplary LivesThe History of an Individual’s Soul: Truth and Memory in Life-Writing2 Provisional Republican Memoir-WritingIntroductionBecoming a Provo: Narratives of BelongingDifferent Worlds of the Troubles: Locality and Internal Republican Politics3 Departing the Republican Movement: Memoir-Writing and the Politics of DissentIntroductionExplaining the Break: Dissent or Disavowal?4 Loyalist Paramilitarism and the Politics of Memoir-WritingIntroduction: A New Phenomenon?A Line in the Sand? Authorial Motivation and Loyalist Paramilitary MemoirA Confusion of Voices: Author and Subject in Loyalist Life-WritingAn Enclosed World? Localism and Loyalist Memoir-Writing Loyalists, Life-Writing and Motivation: Exploitation orReconciliation?Conclusion5 Memoir-Writing and Moderation? Ulster Unionists Face the TroublesIntroductionUnionists and Reform: O’Neill and Narratives of FrustrationReflections on Unionist Political Division: O’Neill and Faulkner6 Northern Nationalists and Memoir-Writing: The Social Democratic and Labour Party and the TroublesRejecting Republicanism?A Paradigm Shift? Civil Rights and the Attitude to UnionismThe SDLP and the Troubles7 A Case-Study of Memoir-Writing and the Elusive Search for a Political Settlement: The 1974 Power-Sharing Executive andSunningdaleIntroductionHope and Hesitation‘A Government of All the Talents’The Ulster Workers’ Council Strike: ‘A Nightmarish, Surreal Experience’8 British Ministers and the Politics of Northern Ireland: Reading the Political Memoirs of Secretaries of StateIntroductionThe Experience of Northern Ireland: Marginal or Central?Welcome to Belfast, Minister! Appointing the Secretary of StateThe ‘Loneliness of the Northern Ireland Secretary’: Reflecting on Policy-Making as SOSNIWorking with the Northern Irish PartiesConclusion9 Journalists, the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ and the Politics of Memoir-WritingIntroductionMy War Gone by, I Miss it so …‘Blow-Ins’ and BelfastmenForgive Us Our Press Passes: Political Space and JournalismConfronting the Past: Distance and DenialTelling the Story and Telling one’s StoryReflections on Reporting Political ViolenceConclusion10 Victims and Memoir-Writing: Leaving the Troubles Behind?IntroductionInsiders and Outsiders: The ‘Different Worlds’ of the TroublesMemoir-Writing and the Question of TimingVictims and Perpetrators: Towards Understanding?Conclusion11 Chroniclers of the ConflictNotes and referencesBibliographyIndex

'A short yet comprehensive account of Troubles-related memoir that can benefit anyone who wants to read about Northern Ireland’s recent history.'Malachi O'Doherty, The Irish Times