Lecture 4: Britain and War ii) Northern Ireland

Some Mass Observers touch on issues surrounding Northern Ireland throughout the 1980s. For example

1982 Special: Falklands War G226 

1984 Summer-Banking W632

1989 Spring-Disasters B1215  

One of our voices C1191 wrote from Northern Ireland. British Library oral histories include Oonagh Marron's and Lawrence McKeown's accounts of the Hunger Strikes and Russell Conlon's account of serving in the British Army in Northern Ireland.

For more background in issues of oral history methodology and memory in historical research read Portelli A ‘What makes oral History different’ in Perks and Thomson eds The Oral History Reader (2006) or Thompson, Paul Voice of the Past especially the chapter on ‘memory and the self’ ed (2007. You will find more literature on oral history in the extended reading for seminar 2. There are numerous online collections of sources that use personal testimony. For example the BBC has collected personal testimony.

Irish Journalist, Ed Moloney's account of press control 'Media Censorship During the Troubles' sets out some useful context and also raises some issues about the the assumed function of the press. The BBC's coverage of the Brighton bombing is available on their website.

If you would like to know more about 'Bloody Sunday', its aftermath and subsequent enquiries then the Bloody Sunday Trust website has a lot of useful resources. Tony Crowley curates an online archive of murals from Northern Ireland. You might make some interesting comparisons of the use of history in oral testimony and in murals.