Category: Uncategorized

According to the 2020 Census, there are over 31.5 million Americans that claim Irish ancestry. Over 6.8 million of them live in the state of Massachusetts. That is just over the population of the actual Republic of Ireland (5 million), and over three times the population of Northern Ireland. Considering “Anglo-Protestants and Ulster Presbyterians, defining themselves as Scots-Irish,” were able to blend with the Protestant hegemony of the US in a way Catholics could not, partially through their own contribution to the othering of Catholic immigrants, the difference in those communities and their experience in America is large (McCaffrey 2004). Thus, I focus my analysis of Irish Americans on Catholic communities, and their relations to Catholic republicans in Northern Ireland.

Thus, it would seem at the very least improbable that these diasporic communities wouldn’t be involved in the Troubles in some way, considering the population of people identifying with Irish identity outside of the conflict. Indeed, Catholic Irish Americans had a very deep and complex relationship with the Troubles. Alongside their general connection through shared struggle with discrimination and oppression, some Irish Americans felt very tied to the conflict and did whatever they could to support the cause. In addition to political action in the US government, aided by a mid-20^th century improvement in socio-political status that was conducive to larger-scale influence, Irish Americans rallied support, raised funding, and even directly supplied weapons for the IRA. In all of these diverse ways, Irish Americans assisted other Catholics suffering from the Troubles.

Also across all of these methods of support, you find ties back to Boston, Massachusetts. Boston’s South End, or “Southie,” is notably one of the most Irish neighborhoods in the United States. This large population of Irish Americans left their mark on the Troubles in many ways, from the dollars gathered in pubs, to firepower from the Irish mob, and even just providing an accepting community for visiting IRA members. Outside of Southie, the Massachusetts originating Kennedy family’s rise to political dominance in the mid-20^th century marked a shift in US Catholic tolerance that brought new opportunities to all Irish Americans.

Oh to hear the cheers from Southie when JFK won, may he rest in peace.

In this exhibit, I’ve analyzed the growth and evolution of the Irish American identity, looking at the sources of Irish emigration and how they influenced the communities it spawned. I’ve shown how these communities remain spiritually connected to those still in Ireland, and how this connection inspired support for the Catholic cause in Northern Ireland, extending to support for the paramilitary action of the PIRA. I’ve displayed the various avenues of interaction Irish Americans have had with the Troubles, and how they ultimately culminated in peaceful, political action. Finally, I look forward to the future of Irish American relations with the island, and how they extend beyond the Troubles as much as the Troubles have proven to display this relationship.

In a deeply sectarian community like Northern Ireland, history and memory are powerful weapons. Both the nationalists and the unionists reached deep into the past to obtain historical precedent and to justify their tactics during the Troubles. The opposing communities each used “regional and historical happenings” to invent the “logic of their respective nations” (Mac Laughlin 2001). The nationalist community used historical events as far back as the original conquest of Ireland in the 12th century as the basis of an ideological canon that justified their cause throughout the Troubles and in turn perpetuated  the conflict. Martyrization and memorialization are central to these narratives, which attempt to discredit the foundation myths of their opponents (Loughlin 2007). In particular, the nationalist-endorsed “Fenian cult of political martyrdom” has a strong tradition of building these mythologies through music, utilizing emotional appeals to reinforce their position (Beiner 2018). Nationalist music has been wildly successful in perpetuating pro-nationalist narratives, enduring far beyond the official end of the Troubles. Though the Troubles are over, the divide in Northern Ireland persists, and the continued popularity of nationalist music reflects the stamina of the sectarian struggle in the region.

There is a fine line between memorializing suffering through artistic expression and using art to glorify or romanticize aspects of conflict. Instead of solely honoring tragedy, sometimes music becomes a tool to further entrench one’s own faction and perpetuate a message of righteousness at the cost of dialogue or resolution. The nationalists walk this line, and according to their opponents, frequently cross over to participate in the “glorification of terrorism” (Hargan 2022). Nationalist music employs historical motifs to immortalize the conflict, frequently referencing tragedies such as the Easter Rising and Bloody Sunday in order to drag every grievance of the past 900 years into the present and make it immediate and therefore threatening. By concentrating on incidents of Catholic oppression, this music casts nationalist groups like the IRA as victims, martyrs, and righteous actors rather than perpetrators and reactionaries in their own right. This process transforms the contention between the residents of Northern Ireland from a mere sectarian struggle into a holy war.

The reasoning behind this behavior is not unfounded. British and Protestant oppression of the native Irish and the Catholic minority was real, brutal, and lasted hundreds of years. However, the rhetorical nature of the nationalist case doesn’t leave any room for discourse between the actors in Northern Ireland. A holy war can’t end in a truce. Therefore, it leads to perennial violence with no end in sight. However, there are also songs from Irish and Northern Irish musicians that refute this nationalist rhetoric, denouncing the conflict as a whole rather than denouncing just the unionists and British position. These songs are not pro-nationalist, but anti-conflict, and they offer a far more honest and productive perspective on the situation. They recognize the impossibility of either community winning the Troubles through continued violence, and advocate for an end to the armed conflict through pragmatism.

Artifact 1 – Aftermath of the Easter Rising

This video was recorded after the Easter Rising in 1916, and shows the rampant destruction in Dublin in the wake of the uprising. Burned and bombed buildings are visible, as well as remnants of barricades that had been erected to block off streets. The Easter Rising was initially unpopular with the people of Ireland, but when the British retaliated by crushing the rebels brutally and mercilessly, then executing their leaders, support grew exponentially for Sinn Féin and the Republican movement, as the public viewed the harsh punishment as an overreaction (Parfitt 2017). As a result, executed republican leaders like Patrick Pearse and James Connolly quickly became martyrs. 

The Easter Rising grew into a key moment for the nationalist movement, often referenced as an example of British cruelty and suppression. Any mention of the year 1916 in nationalist messaging is shorthand for the uprising and its effect on the nationalist community. Nationalist music draws heavily on the events of 1916; songs such as The Foggy Dew and Grace were written as direct reactions and memorials, and were performed throughout the twentieth century as a way to connect the events of the Troubles to the larger nationalist struggle for freedom and reunification. Musical representations of the Easter Rising “provided nationalists with subjects and grievances on which to pontificate and exercise political energies” (Parfitt 2017).

Artifact 2 – The Foggy Dew

“The Foggy Dew,” written by Father Charles O’Neill in 1919 after attending the first sitting of the Dáil (BBC 2014), recounts the 1916 Easter Rising, invoking nationalist pride in its audience. It refers to nationalist history throughout, including events like the Irish nationalist refusal to fight in World War I, saying “‘Twas better to die ‘neath an Irish sky than at Suvla or Sud-El-Bar. Suvla and Sud-El-Bar are both on the Gallipoli peninsula, where Britain’s forces suffered crushing losses. Irish nationalists at the time maintained that the fight was at home, against British occupation, rather than overseas in support of their oppressors. This reference to glorious Irish resistance helps to drive home the nationalist themes of the song.

The lyrics lament Irishmen who fought and died overseas, calling their graves “lonely” and expressing the wish to connect fallen Irishmen with their republican ancestors. The line “had they died by Pearse’s side or fought with Cathal Brugha / Their names we’d keep where the Fenians sleep” links the leading figures of the Easter Rising and the historical tradition of Irish republicanism by naming the Fenians, who were Irish nationalists active since the mid 19th century and named after the mythological hero Finn MacCool (Britannica 2022). The reference to the Fenians demonstrates the historical precedent for Irish nationalism and thus legitimizes the nationalists who participated in the Easter Rising. In turn, the righteous deification of the leaders of the Easter Rising legitimized the cause of the nationalists in the Troubles, allowing them to rely on a greater continuity of rebellion.

Vibrant, sentimental Irish imagery shines through this song, with frequent reference to the “Irish sky,” “foggy dew,”  and “Liffey’s swell” that create a “heightened sense of place” (Mac Laughlin 2001) in order to strengthen the mental image of an Irish nationalist nation. This strategy effectively strengthens  the collective consciousness of nationalist Northern Ireland, supported by an enormous continuity of nationalist martyrdom.

Artifact 3 – Grace

This song named for Grace Gifford tells the tragic story of her wedding to Joseph Plunkett in Kilmainham Gaol, hours before Plunkett was sentenced to execution for his participation in the Easter Rising of 1916. 

“Grace” as a political tool effectively serves to create a pair of martyrs for the nationalist cause as a tragic, somewhat melodramatic lament for their doomed romance. For the nationalists, the story of Grace and Joseph Plunkett could be considered akin to that of Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy for the ages. 

The song masterfully connects the sorrowful parting conversation between the two main characters to the rebel cause, as the narrator, Joseph, says that he knows “it’s hard for you, my love, to ever understand/The love I bear for these brave men, my love for this dear land,” aggrandizing the narrative from one of personal pain to one of noble sacrifice for a cause greater than the individual.

“Grace” is a perfect example of the process of deification that Irish songwriters often apply to historical figures with the goal of providing support to one side or the other in the Catholic/Protestant conflict. Though the events of the song occurred seventy years before it was written, it still produces outrage in its audience, illustrating the staying power of this kind of strategy.

Artifact 4 – The Men Behind the Wire

“The Men Behind the Wire,” written in 1971, describes the practice of internment in Northern Ireland, which has its foundations in 1916 with the Easter Rising. The uprising “heralded executions for the leaders and imprisonment for many more rebels and sympathizers. In excess of 1,800 men and women were interned without charge or trial,” (Lowry 268) beginning the long tradition of imprisonment without trial for nationalists in Northern Ireland. As a result of the harsh retribution that the British government dealt to the rebels in 1916, “Irishmen began to perceive internment as a continuing legacy of the rebellion. The internees became hero figures and acted as catalysts for revolutionary activity in Ireland” (Lowry 268). Those sentenced to internment became heroes to their communities and operated within British prisons with a high degree of solidarity, often rendering the punishment less effective than hoped. Rather than stopping rebel sentiment in its tracks, “martyrs had been made, then the survivors were turned loose to an admiring audience” (Lowry 269).

The practice of internment was reintroduced in 1971 with Operation Demetrius, interning hundreds of men suspected of aiding the rebel cause, and prompting the writing of this song. The author, in the tradition of Irish political music, harkens back to the seventeenth century, warning that “CromweIl’s men are here again,” despite the three hundred years separating the two events. He calls his audience to continue the Irish tradition of rebel solidarity, reminding them that “every man will stand behind/The Men Behind the Wire.”

Artifact 5 – Photos from Bloody Sunday

These color photos were taken in the Bogside neighborhood of Derry, Northern Ireland, by William L. Rukeyser, an American reporter for the United Press International during the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972. This was the bloodiest year of the Troubles, with the casualty count reaching 479. The violence of the day began with a civil rights march in Derry, and ended with British soldiers shooting indiscriminately into a crowd of civilians, killing 13. As one of the most important events of the Troubles, Bloody Sunday took its “place in Irish history as a formative moment which…hardened attitudes, increased paramilitary recruitment, helped generate more violence, and convulsed Anglo-Irish relations” (McKittrick and McVea 2002, 77). These photos show a merciless perspective of the brutality of Bloody Sunday, and were revolutionary due to their global distribution. Bloody Sunday had unprecedented media coverage, which sparked a kind of worldwide outrage and support for the nationalist cause that was theretofore unheard of.

The atrocity of Bloody Sunday stands unfaltering in the collective consciousness of Northern Ireland as a prime reason for the prioritization of victory over the British and by extension the Unionists at all costs. It’s the perfect event to point at and claim that vengeance is an appropriate, necessary form of justice. However, while the horror of Bloody Sunday is undeniable, that kind of reasoning only serves to fuel the conflict, encouraging an inescapable cycle of violence and revenge.

Artifact 6 – Interview with Reverend Edward Daly

This recorded interview with the Reverend Edward Daly, days after the events of Bloody Sunday in 1972, provides a valuable firsthand account of the violence. Thanks to the extensive media fallout after Bloody Sunday Daly became one of the most recognizable figures from the Troubles, as a photo of him waving a white handkerchief to escort a victim out of the line of fire appeared in newspapers and on screens all over the world. In this interview, Daly calls the events “cold-blooded murder, nothing else” verifying that when the paratroopers began shooting, the citizens were all unarmed and attempting to leave the area. The public was outraged by the brutality of the British troops on Bloody Sunday, which radicalized civilians and created a surge in membership in the Provisional IRA (McKittrick and McVea 2002). 

The indiscriminate murder of unarmed citizens was unforgettable, and provided valuable fuel for the republican cause. The actions of the British troops were widely considered “completely disgraceful,” a sentiment expressed by Daly. Bloody Sunday became a widely-referenced event in nationalist music and art, held up as a contemporary injustice on par with the Easter Rising. Songs such as “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2, “Go On Home British Soldiers”, and “Give Ireland Back To The Irish” were written with references or in response to Bloody Sunday. This constant rehashing of the event ensured that Bloody Sunday would never fade from memory

Artifact 7 – NORTHERN IRELAND: 1972 WORST YEAR YET (AP)

This clip from the Associated Press on January 5, 1973 provides a contemporary perspective on Bloody Sunday from the world at large, and an example of the kind of press coverage that ensured that it would be permanently etched into the recollections of the global community. It was clear even at the time that the events of that day “when death itself became a cliche” would be remembered by the Catholic community as a core tenet of the list of grievances that nationalists could lay at Britain’s feet. For them, “the troops were murderers and the dead were martyrs, and the events of that confused afternoon became indelibly engraved on catholic consciences in the phrase Bloody Sunday.” Though this anger and sorrow was certainly justified, it would also in turn be used by violent paramilitaries to justify further retaliation, extending the bloodshed for decades.

Bloody Sunday shifted public opinion away from the British troops, “bolstered support for the IRA, which many Catholics saw as their only means of defense against both the Protestants and the British Army,” and marked the beginning of the bloodiest year of the Troubles, with 479 total casualties. Previously, the Catholic citizens had had a relatively positive opinion of the soldiers, who had purportedly been sent to protect civilians from sectarian violence.

Artifact 8 – Go on Home British Soldiers

The lyrics of this song, written by The Wolfe Tones, extend the narrative of British oppression centuries into the past, to the very beginnings of an English presence on the island of Éire (Ward 1980). Beginning in the 13th century, the Wolfe Tones illustrate a timeline of Irish suffering at the hands of the British, drawing on specific, traumatic events like Operation Motorman where British soldiers shot four people while trying to take control of Catholic neighborhoods in Derry, the killing of children with plastic bullets, and Bloody Sunday to create a chronicle of oppression and resistance. This song vindicates Irish nationalists who “perceive Anglo-Irish relations as a tale of over seven-hundred years of conquest, savage exploitation and repression” (Ward 1980, 30). The Irish suffering and resistance recalled in this song is intended to maintain nationalist and more specifically, anti-British–sentiment by making it effectively impossible to forgive or forget the Troubles. 

According to Jim Smyth, “remembering the Troubles was always part of the Troubles” (2017, 5). Collective memory is a powerful tool in Irish nationalism, often invoked by the IRA to ensure that the conflict remains in the forefront of people’s minds. The Wolfe Tones play to the sense of Irish pride, bravery, and perseverance, asserting that “we’ve fought you without fear” and that the British will “never ever beat the I.R.A,” neglecting to mention the ways in which the IRA uses self-defeating methods, alienating the communities that they claim to protect by killing innocents. 

This way of thinking perpetuates divisions in Northern Irish society, particularly when songs such as “Go On Home British Soldiers” continue to be performed. The recording of this song is from a concert in Belfast in 2022. Even though the performance of pro-IRA music does not explicitly endorse communal divisions, it makes no effort to renounce them or acknowledge the harm caused by the IRA.

Artifact 9 – Give Ireland Back To The Irish

“I see the trouble now being that certain people think that the British shouldn’t be there, and if they are there they certainly shouldn’t be shooting the Irish people. I think they shouldn’t be, you know? It’s a bit much.”

​​”The morning after what they call in the newspapers Bloody Sunday, I read the newspapers and it just looked a bit wrong, what the British Army was doing in there… A bit wrong for me.”

Paul McCartney, Interview with ABC News, 1972

“Give Ireland Back To The Irish” was written and recorded by Paul McCartney and his band, Wings, directly after Bloody Sunday (McCartney and McCartney). The BBC swiftly banned the song due to its inflammatory nature, but it nonetheless reached number 1 on the charts in Ireland and Spain (McCartney and McCartney). Similarly to “Go On Home British Soldiers,” this song denounces the British presence in Ireland. Written by the British McCartney, it takes a somewhat more forgiving stance to Great Britain, as demonstrated by the lyrics “Great Britain you are tremendous / And nobody knows like me.” The deep-seated righteous anger clear in “Go On Home British Soldiers” is, understandably, less present in the lyrics of “Give Ireland Back To The Irish,” which were described by critics at the time as clumsy and simplistic, yet well-intentioned (McCartney and McCartney). Critic Chris Ingham stated that this song “managed to irritate everyone, not least for its naive, simplistic attitude to a complex situation” (Ingham 2003).

This song, written hastily by an outsider, lacks the same enduring spirit present in the nationalist songs written by Irish citizens. Notable features of other nationalist songs are their extension into Ireland’s past and reference of specific atrocities in order to stir up traumatic memories. Lacking these features, which are critical to a successful mythologization, “Give Ireland Back To The Irish” exemplifies a sloppy approximation of nationalist music, without the poignancy or staying power of its peers. 

Artifact 10 – Pro-IRA Chanting At Feile An Phobail

During a Wolfe Tones performance at a festival called Feile An Phobail in Belfast in 2022, the crowd took part in chants such as “Up the Ra” and “Brits out.” The willingness of the crowd to verbally support the IRA and by extension the republican movement points to the success of nationalist mythmaking, over 20 years after the official end of the conflict. Even if members of the crowd might not approve of sectarianism in practice, they signaled support through their participation in the chant. A member of the DUP condemned the chanting, calling it a “hate fest” and saying that “glorifying that… is never an acceptable form of cultural expression” (Hargan 2022). She went on to say that “this is not the Northern Ireland we need to be building” (Hargan 2022).

The Wolfe Tones, named after a leader of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, describe themselves as “living Irish legend of ballads, folk and traditional music” (The Wolfe Tones). Their image relies on the rich past of Irish music and Irish nationalism; they bring historical events and attitudes into the present, ensuring that history and the mythology stemming from it cannot be forgotten. The Wolfe Tones continue the tradition of using song to “capture the hearts and minds of the Irish people,” just as the United Irishmen did in the 1700s (McCann 1995, 56). Rhetoric alone is not enough to build a movement; there must be an appeal to culture and tradition through varied means. Music in particular has the power to reinforce beliefs (Stuckenschmidt 1976, 133), and has proved essential to the nationalist movement in Northern Ireland.

Artifact 11 – Sunday Bloody Sunday

Released by U2 in 1983, “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is a rejection of the entrenched sectarianism in Northern Ireland, challenging the basis of the conflict itself. During their concert in Belfast that same year, Bono spoke to the audience, asserting that “It’s not a rebel song. It’s a song of hope and a song of disgust.” Larry Mullen, the band drummer, shared his perspective on the paramilitaries that fought the Troubles: “​​During the hunger strikes, the IRA would say, “God is with me. I went to Mass every Sunday. “And the Unionists said virtually the same thing. And then they’d go out and murder each other.” Despite being from the Republic of Ireland themselves, the members of U2 grew up within the context of division between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, and personally experienced the horror that the world felt on Bloody Sunday.

With “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” U2 emphasizes the futility of the fighting, asking their audience “how long, how long must we sing this song” with no end in sight? They outline the failings of nationalist and unionist rhetoric, pointing out that within the paradigm of grievance politics the rallying cry has been “the battle’s just begun” for hundreds of years, but although “there’s many lost,” they want to know, “who has won?” Though they use some of the same methods as traditional nationalist music by using striking imagery of an important event in the Troubles to make their point, the song breaks from the nationalist perspective by taking an unequivocally nonsectarian, pacifist stance on the rhetoric of the Troubles.

Artifact 12 – Zombie

The lyrics of Zombie by the Cranberries provide what Vox called at the time a “seething condemnation of the IRA” and the continuing conflict between nationalism and unionism in Northern Ireland, with “Dolores bringing forth a fearsomely angry vocal from a previously untapped reservoir of bile.”

The Cranberries rejected the glorification of violence in the name of nationalism, highlighting the realities of armed conflict and angrily rejecting the methodology of the IRA. In a 1994 Vox interview, Dolores O’Riordan said “The IRA are not me. I’m not the IRA. The Cranberries are not the IRA. My family are not. When it says in the song, ‘It’s not me, it’s not my family,’ that’s what I’m saying. It’s not Ireland, it’s some idiots living in the past, living for a dream… there was no reason why that child should have been taken, why that woman would have gone through that.” With “Zombie,” the Cranberries try to force their audience to confront the outcomes of violence. 

The lyrics address the misuse of martyrs and eye for an eye thinking, reminding the audience that “it’s the same old theme since 1916,” the two sides continue to engage in the same struggle without real progress.

Traditional nationalist rhetoric relies on the narrative that Catholics have been victims for the past 700 years, and that revenge must be attained in order to make it right, through violence if necessary. The Cranberries confront the senselessness of that argument, asking “what’s in your head,” and holding responsible the perpetrators of violence who refuse to let their martyrs die, instead choosing to resurrect them like zombies and use the same old undead rebel saints to justify vengeance over and over again.

References

BBC. 2014. “1916 Easter Rising.” Retrieved May 24, 2023 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/songs/rs04.shtml). 

 Beiner, Guy. 2018. “A Short History of Irish Memory in the Long Twentieth Century.” Pp. 708-725 in The Cambridge History of Ireland, T. Bartlett, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Britannica. 2022. “Fenian”. Retrieved May 24, 2023 (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fenians).

Hargan, Garrett. 2022. “Feile an Phobail branded a ‘hate fest’ after video shows pro-IRA chanting at Wolfe Tones concert.” Retrieved May 20, 2023 (https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/feile-an-phobail-branded-a-hate-fest-after-video-shows-pro-ira-chanting-at-wolfe-tones-concert/41912431.html). 

Henke, J. 1983. “Blessed Are the Peacemakers, U2.” Rolling Stone 397: 11.

Ingham, Chris (2003). The Rough Guide to the Beatles. London: Rough Guides.

Loughlin, James. 2007. “Creating ‘A Social and Geographic Fact’: Regional Identity and the Ulster Question, 1880s-1920s.” Past & Present, 195(1): 159-196 

Lowry, David R. 1976. “Internment: Detention without Trial in Northern Ireland.” Human Rights, 261-331.

Mac Laughlin, Jim. 2001. Reimagining the Nation-State: The Contested Terrains of Nation-Building. London: Pluto Press. 

McCann, May. 1995.“Music and Politics in Ireland: The Specificity of the Folk Revival in Belfast.” British Journal of Ethnomusicology, 4:51–75.

McCartney, Paul and Linda McCartney. “Interview with ABC News, 1972.” Retrieved May 28, 2023 (https://www.the-paulmccartney-project.com/interview/interview-with-abc-news/). 

McKittrick, David and David McVea. 2002. Making Sense of the Troubles: The Story of the Conflict in Northern Ireland. Chicago: New Amsterdam Books.

Parfitt, Robert. 2017. “Musical Culture and the Spirit of Irish Nationalism, c. 1848-1972.” PhD diss., University of Oxford

Smyth, Jim. 2017. “INTRODUCTION: From Popular Mythology to History and Memory.” Pp. 1-8 in Remembering the Troubles: Contesting the Recent Past in Northern Ireland, J. Smyth, ed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpj7cpp.

Stuckenschmidt, H.H. 1976. Twentieth Century Music. Translated by Richard Deveson. New York: McGraw-Hill.

The Wolfe Tones. “The Wolfe Tones Official Site Home.” Retrieved May 23, 2023 (https://www.wolfetonesofficialsite.com/). 

Ward, Alan J. 1980. The Easter Rising: Revolution and Irish Nationalism. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson.

Modern Western conceptions of childhood rely on the notion that the child is distinctly different from the adult; typical coming of age stories introduce individuals that transition from pure, dependent children into enlightened and independent adults, positing innocence as a key marker of childhood (Brocklehurst 2006). But in regions of conflict, such as Northern Ireland, where violence is as present as play in the lives of children, young people threaten traditional understandings of the child. As external actors attempt to reconcile these discrepancies, two competing narratives of the child in conflict emerge—that of the helpless victim or the war-provoked militant. This exhibit will examine the limitations of these essentialist constructions, and how they compare to the real experiences of the children of the Troubles.

The notion of the “innocent victim” emerges in many combat zones, as Western media sources latch on to perceived ideas of purity. In the case of Northern Ireland, the children of the Troubles were, and still are, sensationalized by news sources. Throughout the conflict, television outlets and on-site photographers captured footage of Northern Ireland’s children, showing them playing on deserted streets, or walking past heavily armed soldiers (Newby 2021). As childhood was juxtaposed with the violence, young people became symbols of the tragedy of the conflict– a generation of children needing to be saved. Films depicting the Northern Irish youth similarly capitalized on images of war, constructing the child in conflict as a powerless victim (Newby 2018).

But in conjunction with this depiction, a competing narrative also began to emerge; that of the radicalized combatant. As newspaper articles picked up on stories of adolescent violence, and photographers captured images of teens throwing stones, the public began to see the youth of Northern Ireland as traumatized and unstable (Cairns 1987). The unpredictable youth thus became not only a victim of violence, but also a potential threat to social order. Heightened levels of paramilitary involvement amongst young people further stoked fears of the children-in-conflict gone rogue, blurring the lines between victim and perpetrator (Reinisch 2020). 

These two imagined formations of the Northern Irish child attempt to make their struggle more visible; however, in making the symbol of innocence visible, they ultimately reduce the youth of the Troubles to that innocence, or lack thereof, effectively silencing chlidrens’ authentic experiences growing up within the conflict. In response to these narratives, the now grown up children of the Troubles are aiming to retell their stories. These newer modes of looking back at the Troubles have destabilized the victim-combatant trope of the child in conflict, suggesting that Northern Irish youth often lived in tight-knit communities, and had happy and loving childhoods. This exhibit will look at these accounts in conjunction with tropes about Northern Irish youth, examining how the child in conflict can be given agency.

Artifact #1: Nationalist Mural Commemorating the Dead

Plastic Bullets Plaque and Mural. Islandbawn Street, Belfast.

This photograph, taken by Martin Melaugh, captures the Plastic Bullets Mural in Belfast. The Nationalist mural is located at the intersection of Islandbawn Street and Falls Road, in a predominantly Catholic area. Painted after 1989, it commemorates the victims of rubber and plastic bullet shootings, which were controversially used by security forces to subdue rioters.

The headline of the painting, which reads, “Since 1970 Seventeen People killed-including 8 Children, ” underscores the ways in which children came to personify the horrors of war. Children, acting as symbols of innocence, were posited as the most undeserving victims, consequently becoming metaphors for the tragedy of all lost lives.

But although the mural seeks to honor the victims of the Troubles, it also transforms them into involuntary martyrs, as they are painted onto plastic bullet caps, and are made to look friendly, approachable, and quasi-angelic. Thus, the bullet caps, which resemble candles found in Church services, serve to not only memorialize the “victims,” but to further attach a narrative to their lives.

The separation of the mural’s 8 children from the other dead, marked by a darker plastic cap commemorating Norah McCabe, emphasizes their distinctive position within the role of the victim. McCabe’s identity as the only mother among the dead is not accidental; as she stands between the lost children and the other martyrs, the viewers understand that violence has done more than just take McCabe’s life; it has also impacted the children she has left behind. Similarly, newspaper articles about McCabe’s death define her first and foremost as a mother (McConville 2021).

As the mural tells the dead’s names, and shows their faces, it attempts to make them more visible. However, it ultimately still compromises their agency. In the case of the “8 children,” the victims remain defined by their youth, becoming unconsenting vehicles to represent all of the innocent lives lost in the Troubles.

Artifact #2: “Summer of 69” Mural

“Summer of 69 Mural,” Belfast.

This loyalist mural, coined “The Summer of 69,” depicts two young protestant boys in front of a decimated street. The mural is located at Hopewell Crescent near Crumlin Road in Belfast in a predominantly Unionist area, and commemorates the riots during the summer of 1969, which marked the beginning of the Troubles. That summer almost 2,000 families had to evacuate their homes, with rioters looting properties and dumping civilians’ belongings onto the streets. These boys were likely affected by the looting, as they disappointingly stand in front of a crumbling street.

As the boys are depicted without colorl and alone, they evoke the image of displaced youth, unprotected from the destruction around them. The black spiked barbed wire and jagged pieces of broken furniture are juxtaposed with the boys’ smooth and white clothing, as they are set apart from their decayed street as symbols of life and purity. The colors of Britain, found in the flags behind them and on their drum sets, reveal a source of hope for the children amidst violence. At the same time, the flag turns them into sectarian figures, politicizing the childrens’ innocence and robbing them of their agency. Ultimately, children come to represent the purity of the Unionist cause.

Artifact #3: The Petrol Bomber Mural

“The Petrol Bomber” mural, Belfast.

“The Petrol Bomber” is a mural painted in 1994 in honor of the 25th anniversary of Battle of the Bogside. The mural is located in the Bogside neighborhood of Derry, and replicates Clive Limpkin’s iconic photograph of a little boy throwing a petrol bomb during the Bogside riots of 1969.

The boy’s mask serves both to physically protect him from the gas and to preserve his anonymity, a feature that allows him to stand in for all of Nationalist Ireland. The boy’s badge further cements his connection to the nation, as the image of the innocent child fighting back against its oppressor becomes a personification of a United Ireland.

As the mural transforms the boy into a symbol of rebirth, growth and resilience, it politicizes him in the eyes of the public. The child, who is normally seen as delicate and innocent, now becomes a combatant, which is meant to discomfort the audience and upend ideals of childhood purity. This narrative maintains the notion that youths in conflict are both undeserving receptors of violence, emphasized by the gas creeping up to the boy in the background, and perpetrators of violence, since their vulnerable position in society makes them more likely to emulate the actions of the adults around them.

Artifact #4: Headline of Youth Rioting

Youth Battle Troops in Five Cities in Northern Ireland. New York Times, 1981.

The headline “Youth Battle Troops in Five Cities in Northern Ireland” was published in a 1981 issue of the New York Times. The article outlines “youth” riots in Belfast, (London)derry and other cities following the funeral of two catholic teens who had been killed by British troops. 

It consequently demonstrates the opposing public perception of the youth; on one end, the dead teens are presented as victims of war, and on the other, young rioters are constructed as threats to social order. This article is one of many that highlights adolescent violence, as teenage riots became a fixture of media coverage of the Troubles (Cairns 1987).

Public piqued interest in adolescent combatants is partially sound; in both Loyalist and Republican paramilitary groups, young people were key demographics in the recruitment process. Many times having grown up with paramilitary neighbors or relatives, adolescents were attracted to these groups, which offered a source of security and stability amidst uncertain times. Mostly male combatants found agency through recruitment, which allowed them to protect their communities and make the transition into manhood (Reinisch 2020)

But through the media, young combatants were simultaneously discredited, as their actions were abstracted by their position as children. Thus, the young militant became a fixture of public imagination, coming to represent the ultimate corruption of innocence.

Artifact #5: Photograph of Belfast Children Making Petrol Bombs

This photograph, taken by Ian Berry in 1981, portrays a group of Nationalist boys preparing Molotov cocktails to throw at British troops. 

The two younger boys in the image keep their faces uncovered, while the older boys are masked to protect their identities. In this way, childhood, and the perceptions associated with childhood, serve as protectors for the young boys, allowing them to behave violently without fear of legal repercussions. As they physically risked their bodies, children were able to remain press-friendly, revealing their complicated position in the public eye.

But while the media was generally sympathetic to children, it also helped further the notion that the traumatized children of the Troubles were inherently violent. Berry was unsettled to find that his images of children gained more traction among the public than his photographs of security force violence (Genova 2008). This suggests that although violence against children was a powerful media weapon throughout the Troubles, violence caused by children was equally sensationalized. As children were lured by older boys into joining their ranks, they were seen as individuals who were vulnerable to paramilitary recruitment, and were destined to become future actors in a cycle of destruction.

Artifact #6: The End of War as an End to Childhood in “Derry Girls”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12y0FgERhQecnyLlkICzyWYRkD8UHNDE5/view

“The Agreement.” Derry Girls, created by Lisa McGee, season 3, Episode 7, Hat Trick Productions, 2022. 

Lisa McGee’s sitcom “Derry Girls” tells the story of four teenage girls and a teenage boy growing up in Northern Ireland during the mid 1990s. McGee centers traditional coming-of-age themes within her narrative, creating distinct identities for the girls outside of their proximity to the Troubles, and portraying conflict as only one of many shaping influences on the girls’ journey through adolescence, a journey that is characterized by laughter, love, and a strong sense of community.

In the series finale “The Agreement,” a newly-of-age Orla, Michelle, Clare, and Erin vote on the Good Friday referendum, which marks a potential end to both the Troubles and their childhoods.

Throughout the episode, McGee highlights the protagonists’ girlhood to subvert notions of conflict-traumatized youth; Orla dresses colorfully, makes faces for her voting card picture, and remarks she has just read the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. The schoolgirls’ exaggerated reenactment of the Troubles later on in the episode, and girl-group background music like “I Know Where It’s At” further cement the Derry Girls’ youth.

But the potential end to the conflict also marks the girls’ transition from childhood into adulthood. As a montage of Derry’s citizens voting, along with footage of the conflict and children playing on a spinning wheel, plays in the background, Erin reflects that “There’s a part of me that just wishes everything could stay the same. That we could all just stay like this forever. There’s a part of me that doesn’t really want to grow up.” By complicating Erin’s perception of the Troubles’ ending, and riddling the conflict with sentiments of McGee’s own nostalgia, McGee suggests that the young people of Northern Ireland were not hopeless victims robbed of their childhoods. Instead, they were a generation bolstered by their remarkably tight-knit communities, and who were able to find joy and connection despite the landscape of conflict.

Artifact #7: Remembering Childhood in Northern Ireland in Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast”

Kenneth Branagh’s film “Belfast” is a coming of age story about Buddy, a young boy living in Belfast at the start of the Troubles. Taking inspiration from his own life, Branagh sets the Troubles as a backdrop for the boy’s childhood, which is filled with love and curiosity, but also with sacrifice.

At the start of the scene, as Buddy works on a puzzle with his mother, grandfather and grandmother, Branagh emphasizes Buddy’s positionality as a young boy within the Troubles. Despite asking about Santa, he is aware of his family’s difficult financial situation, which was exacerbated by the start of the conflict; Branagh uses this contrast to reveal the coexistence of innocence and loss of innocence in the lives of Northern Irish youth.

Although “Belfast” focuses on the impact the Troubles have on Buddy’s life, Branagh emphasizes the moments of happiness and love that are present throughout the young boy’s childhood. When Pop talks to Buddy about his move to England, he tells him to remember, “You’re buddy, from Belfast 15. Where everybody knows you and your pop looks out for you and your mommy looks out for you and your daddy looks out for you and your granny looks out for you your brother looks out for you and the whole family looks out for you.” Despite Belfast being a place rife with violence, Pop encourages Buddy to be proud of his roots, as they are a testament to the people in his life who have supported him, and the strength of community in the face of conflict. 

Buddy’s aspirations for film, as seen in his love for “Chitty Chitty bang-bang,” reveal his developing passions amongst the turmoil of the Troubles.

Artifact #8: “Guerillas” by Northern Irish Poet Seamus Deane

When the Portuguese came in

from manoeuvres in the North

Atlantic, they brought a scent

Of oranges and dark tobacco

To our Arctic streets. Norwegians,

However, were tall and cold,

Drinkers of cheap wine

That blued their eyes more

Than was good for anyone

Who bothered them. Some women

Became sailors’ dolls and others

Disapproved. We smelt corruption

In the hot grease of liquor

And foreign language that spat

Around us in ‘The Moonlight Club’.

Some pleasure writhed there

And some fear. A fight occurred

And then there came the Military

Police who hammered silence out

With night sticks, wall to wall.

And then we’d steal the drinks

Left on the tables they had pushed

Aside to clear the floor.

The whiskey was watered, we could tell,

A medical treacle had been served

As rum. But that was business.

Pollution entered everything and made it

Fierce. Real life was so impure

We savoured its poisons as forbidden

Fruit and, desolate with knowledge,

Grew beyond redemption. Teachers

Washed their hands of us.

Innocent of any specific crime,

We were beaten for a general guilt,

Regular as clockwork. We watched

And questioned nothing. There would be a time

When the foreign sailors would be gone.

Business would still be business.

Whiskey would still be watered,

Some girls would still be dolls

The Arctic would have inched nearer,

Pollution have gone deeper

And life, entirely domestic, would carry on.

Seamus Deane’s poem Guerillas outlines a scene from Deane’s childhood in Derry in the mid 1940s-1950s during the years leading up to the Troubles.

Throughout the poem Deane maintains a childlike voice, displaying both his wonder at the sight of foreign sailors, and a general understanding that the scenes around him are in some way tainting his innocence. As Deane writes “We smelt corruption in the hot grease of liquor” and later, “Real life was so impure / We savoured its poisons as forbidden / Fruit and, desolate with knowledge / Grew beyond redemption,” he rejects the notion that children are passive onlookers in a world that they don’t understand. Instead, he posits them as aware contributors of society who ultimately endure the beatings of those who wish to shield them, children who comprehend that despite corruption, “life, entirely domestic, would carry on.”

The presence of violence in Seamus’ early life, as evidenced by the actions of the Military Police, reveal the role of the conflict throughout his childhood, despite having grown up over a decade before the Troubles began. As a young Seamus coexists with the military, and even steals liquor from officers that are breaking up a bar fight, an older Seamus suggests that adolescence manifests itself similarly universally, even in regions prone to conflict.

Works Cited

Brockelhurst, Helen. 2006. Who’s Afraid of Children?: Children, Conflict and International Relations. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company.

Cairns, Ed. 1987. Caught in Crossfire: Children and the Northern Ireland Conflict. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

Derluyn, Ilse, Wouter Vandenhole, Stephan Parmentier, et al. 2015. “Victims and/or perpetrators? Towards an interdisciplinary dialogue on child soldiers.” BMC Int Health Hum Rights 15(28).

Duffy, Joe and Freya McClements. 2019. “Children of the Troubles: They took a child off the road, put a hood over his head and killed him.” The Irish Times, 5 October (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jim-2x5MiW_-fx6g_Ls25EVR0TL_GqwOvDsx3JEwq0I/edit).

Genova, Alexandra. 2008. “The Troubles: Capturing the Conflict.” Retrieved May 29, 2023 (https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/northern-ireland-troubles-capturing-the-conflict/).

McConville, Mary Louise. 2021. “Family of Plastic Bullet Victim Calls for ‘Deadly Weapon’ to be Disbanded.” Irish News, 12 August (https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2021/08/12/news/family-of-plastic-bullet-victim-call-for-deadly-weapon-to-be-disbanded-2415269/).

Newby, Lucy and Fearghus Roulston. 2018. “Innocent Victims and Troubled Combatants: Representations of Childhood and Adolescence in Post-conflict Northern Irish Cinema.” Pp. 23-38 in Representing Agency in Popular Culture: Children and Youth on the Screen and in Between, I. Castro and J. Clark, eds. Lanham: Lexington Books.

Newby, Lucy. 2021. “Troubled Generations? (De)Constructing Narratives of Youth Experience in the Northern Ireland Conflict.” Journal of War & Culture Studies, 14(1): 6-24.

Reinisch, Dieter. 2020. “Teenagers and young adults in dissident Irish republicanism: a case study of Na Fianna Éireann in Dublin.” Critical Studies on Terrorism, 13(4): 702-723.

Tabak, Jana. 2023. “‘Children Without Childhood’: Representations of the Child-Soldier as an International Emergency.” Pp. 161-180 in The Politics of Children’s Rights and Representation: Studies in Childhood and Youth, B. Sandin, J. Josefsson, K. Hanson and S. Balagopalan, eds. Palgrave Macmillan.

The IRA, and Republicanism in Northern Ireland in general, has suffered significantly from division throughout its history. The following infographic gives a cursory overview of the various IRAs and the main dissident or violent Republican movements. In it, seventeen separate organizations and three different splits are outlined. This online exhibit will focus on the history of the Irish Republican Army following 1919, and the subsequent claimants to that throne of Irish Nationalism.

Infographic explaining the the splits in the IRA over time.

The exhibit will begin with artifacts dedicated to memorializing or paying tribute to the IRA martyrs, establishing the history which all organizations that use the name ‘IRA’ seek to claim. Following those artistic expressions— which also denigrate British and Unionist forces— the exhibit turns to the Troubles and the many break-out groups which formed during that period. The events of the Troubles as well as those which predate them are still relevant in Northern Ireland, but especially in dissident Republican circles.

Critically, these divisions are not a matter of history but of current debate. McGlinchey (2021) describes how “the New and Continuity IRAs remain wedded to an armed campaign for Irish sovereignty” while the “independent ‘dissident’ republicans, formerly
in the Provisional IRA, criticize the ongoing campaign by the groups as futile” (714). The collection of artifacts and their subject matter spans the entirety of the conflict after the Irish War of Independence. This history is clearly relevant to the conflict today, as the grievances and divisions of the past are either still present or have direct counterparts that mirror previous disagreements. The final artifacts of this exhibit explore the impacts of the current existing divisions in dissident Republicanism, contextualizing that situation in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement and the end of the Troubles.

The fissures in Republicanism are integral to understanding the movement as a whole, with the cracks becoming present at the most impactful moments in the conflict. Consequently, through tracing through the many splits in Nationalism through a variety of collected artifacts, this exhibits seeks to not only help explain Irish Republicanism, but the conflict in Northern Ireland following the 1919 partition. This collection of artifacts is made up of a diverse array of source material, including a political cartoon, official government and paramilitary press releases, and a protest song. Some of the included artifacts more directly relate to the topic of IRA divisions, such as Cathal Goulding’s statement as IRA Chief of Staff immediately before the Official/Provisional split. Others, such as The Wolfe Tones’ rendition of “Come out, ye Black and Tans” demonstrate a larger characteristic of Nationalism which is used to explain a specific divide. Together, they explain the mosaic that is Republicanism following partition.