Search

This paper explores how and why the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) and the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) in the Newry-area engaged in a type of violence commonly referred to as 'punishment attacks' during the first half-decade of the Troubles. A rich literature has developed to explain the use of punishment attacks, and their consequences, in Northern Ireland's two largest cities of Belfast and Londonderry/Derry. This paper builds on this work by drawing on the emerging political science literature on rebel governance to develop a resource constraint model and an internal competition model to explain the use of punishment attacks in the rural and semi-rural areas along the border with the Republic of Ireland. The explanatory models are then evaluated against newly collected quantitative data on punishment attacks reported in the Belfast Telegraph from 1974–1975 and qualitative evidence from archival and newspaper sources. The analysis suggests that the resource constraint model provides a better, although imperfect, explanation for PIRA punishment attacks during this period, while the internal competition model provides a better, although imperfect, explanation for OIRA activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Brexit negotiations continue to draw criticism nearly two years on from the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, many media outlets have concentrated on making sense of what has been dubbed the 'Brexit circus'. In particular, significant media attention has been directed towards obstacles to Brexit's progression, such as the issue of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and the 'backstop' arrangement. Through an examination of different media efforts to explain the border issue, this paper will discuss how conventional reporting methods have been unable to make this issue comprehensible to the individual. This paper will suggest that a hypertextual aesthetic form would provide a more effective means of making sense of the complexity of the border issue and its relationship to global political and economic structures. However, an understanding of the border issue also requires an understanding of the affective reality of life in this region and the history upon which this reality is founded. In this manner, this paper also argues that representational regimes capable of conveying affective realities could contribute important experiential dimensions to efforts to render dominant political and economic structures both cognisable and contestable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to engage in a new conceptualisation of liminality, as it applies to space and place in societies emerging from conflict but not yet at peace. We adopt a case study approach of two urban environments: Derry/Londonderry, a city that experienced acute levels of violence during the Northern Ireland conflict, and Bilbao, the largest city in the Basque Country, which has been at the crux of the cultural and economic struggle for Basque independence. The visual, built environment has been significantly reconfigured in both cities to communicate the transition from conflict. Yet the optics of peacebuilding does not necessarily reflect the experiences of communities as they move through complex processes. A more nuanced and critical reading of the urban environment often reveals stagnation within peace processes and the existence of liminal, inbetween spaces. This paper suggests that 'transitional optics' in societies moving out of conflict can physically illuminate the complex nature of building peace, and argues that the idea of permanent liminality can offer new ways of understanding the ways in which transitional processes can become trapped. An 'end-point' is not always achievable, or perhaps, for some, desirable. The characteristics of permanent liminality can be identified in three main areas: political imagery, physical regeneration and public space as a conflict arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Londonderry in Northern Ireland is a city divided both physically and symbolically by the River Foyle. As part of an integrated programme of regeneration for the city, a new pedestrian and cycle bridge was constructed to provide access from the historic city centre to a new mixed-use development on the opposite side of the river. Because of the symbolic significance of creating a link between the historically divided communities on either side of the river, the bridge was named Peace Bridge. The 310-m-long curved self-anchored suspension structure was opened in June 2011 and has already become a landmark for the city. This paper describes how the client's requirements were incorporated into the unique design and summarises the main elements of the detailed design and construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I plan to discuss the interplay of temporal shifts between the spatial and the spiritual / incorporeal or psychological patterns, artistically and aesthetically blended with the Irish pastoralism in Human Chain, the last collection of poems by Seamus Heaney. Time is a liquid entity in Heaney's poems that blends intricately with the functions of the mind of the entities "I/me," and at times, the "We/us." This paper will confirm the proposed premises by re-reading the images intertwined with the poet's constant consciousness of the time- "In illo tempore" (in that time), "in the years to come" and in "all the dynasties /of the dead." It will also study the role of the Classical and Irish myths in connecting the three temporal phases while drawing analogies between the human and environment. Simultaneously, the paper will make quite a few allusions to 'Wraiths', 'Sidhe and other existing and non-existing entities in County Derry in Northern Ireland. The poems are catalogued into two types in this essay- the family poems and the County Derry poems in order to explore the timeline concomitant to the psychological movements of the poet/speaker in the poems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated schooling is currently promoted in post-conflict Northern Ireland, but an earlier attempt to establish secular education in Ireland during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - the Irish National Schools system - is often forgotten. A preliminary study of former National Schools indicated architectural differences between rural and urban buildings, possibly linked to the expression of divergent cultural and religious traditions in conflict with the reforming principles of the national system. This paper uses archaeological and anthropological perspectives, including the first recorded excavation of a National School in Northern Ireland, to examine their past and current significance for education, identity and place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the discovery of the Mobuoy illegal dump in Derry, known to the public as one of the largest illegal dumpsites in Europe, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency adopted a so-called 'co-design' approach to the remediation of the contaminated site. As part of it, the Mobuoy Stakeholder Group was established so that local communities could represent their concerns and give feedback to the government's remediation project. Based on semi-structured interviews and policy analysis, this article examined the level of inclusiveness and representativeness of the Mobuoy Stakeholder Group by looking into the decision-making processes over two divisive agendas on the remediation project. This article concluded that a so-called 'co-design' approach to remediating the Mobuoy site was significantly misleading. The Mobuoy illegal dumpsite is an alarming case of environmental unsustainability in Northern Ireland, not only because of its massive scale, but also because of the government's closed and siloed approach to environmental governance. Through a lens of agonistic participation, this article argued that for co-design approaches to environmental governance to function as intended, power inequalities among participants, particularly the government and ordinary citizens, in environmental governance should be taken into consideration seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability under the Thirty Years Rule of the Northern Irish and UK state papers for the start of the Troubles has made it possible to reassess what happened on 5 October 1968 in Derry. This article uses these files, other primary sources such as newspapers, and the ‘Flashpoints Model of Public Disorder’ to examine how the civil rights march and the police reaction transformed the contexts within which people in Derry and Northern Ireland as a whole thought and acted. It goes on to explore the three days of rioting that followed the violent scenes on Duke Street and the ‘collective remembrance’ of the event, which reached its climax during the Stormont general election campaign of February 1969. The article argues that the existing literature has overlooked not only the complexity of what happened on 5 October 1968 in Derry, but also the conflicting readings that were subsequently developed by contemporaries. The struggle to control the narrative helped drive the fragmentation and polarization in the second city that was encouraging certain individuals and groups to adopt violent strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the embodied remembrance of Bloody Sunday (1972), when thirteen civilians were shot dead by British soldiers while peacefully marching against internment. The work of Paul Connerton represents a crucial analytical starting point in a growing number of studies examining the body as site of memory. While Connnerton's theorisation has been very influential and persuasive, I argue that there is some scope for improving his ideas about the changeability of bodily memory and the Bloody Sunday case represents an interesting empirical example of how embodied remembrance reflects and responds to transformations in the wider socio-political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological evidence for the use of wheeled vehicles with horses in Ireland is remarkably scant for the Bronze Age, Iron Age and early medieval periods. An isolated linchpin of Hallstatt C1/D (c. 800-600 BC) from Dunmore, Co. Galway, is intrusive from the near Continent, but how it arrived in Ireland can currently only be a matter for speculation. What may be identified as a linchpin cap from the Portstewart sand-hills and a harness ring from Kilrea, Co. Londonderry-both overlooked by archaeologists in recent years--bear distinctive ornamentation indicating a later Iron Age date of c. AD 50-450, close associations with northern Roman Britain and survival of tack elements used on a driving arrangement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) ability to concentrate both direct and diffuse solar irradiation exhibits exciting potential as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) in urban environments. As BIPV elements, LSCs are often imagined as semi-transparent solar windows which can be integrated seamlessly into a building's façade and architectural applications as solar harvesting devices. One application explored in this research is a solar geodesic dome panel for an ongoing community greenhouse development in Derry, N-Ireland. A 4V and 2 m diameter geodesic dome were modelled in Revit, and an Insight Solar Analysis model optimised the LSC-geodesic dome and calculated the solar potential. The triangular LSC panel of 875 cm2 was modelled using raytracing software to obtain efficiency parameters. Subsequently, fabricated using a luminescent acrylic 6T66 waveguide, edge-mounted silicon solar cells and tested outdoors for 29 h. A power conversion efficiency of 0.60% compared to theoretical power conversion efficiency of 1.49% was measured. In the optimum location of the dome, the LSC panel would produce 444.22 Wh and, overall, 74.2 kWh in a year. While this power generation is essential, semi-transparent LSC-geodesic dome panel transmission can downshift solar radiation in the photosynthetically active radiation range, better suited for plant growth and the greenhouse effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article chronicles the industrial crisis that took place in Derry in the summer of 1924, when the city was engulfed by mass strikes and a lockout in its staple industry, shirt making. The article begins by putting Derry in its socio-economic and political context, illustrating how sectarian and gender divisions determined the local employment structure. It demonstrates how the Irish revolution, the partition of Ireland, labour militancy and unionist gerrymandering of Derry Corporation laid the foundations for the intense episode of class conflict that took place in the city in the summer of 1924. It describes how the crisis emerged and how, for a six-week period, it made Derry the most strike-ridden city for its size and population in either Britain or Ireland, with tragic social consequences for its inhabitants. There is a strong emphasis on detailing the strike of the corporation employees because their wage demand became embroiled in the political conflict between nationalists and unionists for control of the city. The article concludes by analysing the lockout's immediate outcome and long-term ramifications and scrutinizes what role sectarianism played in the labour movement in Northern Ireland before, during, and after the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of the Third Home Rule Bill in 1912 to the House of Commons created further tension between the unionist and nationalist communities in Ireland. This tension was described that year by the Times journalist William Flauvelle Monypenny as more than a political dispute; instead, during the nineteenth century, the country had split into “Two Irelands”. Monypenny described two communities which existed separately and with completely different histories. This was particularly evident in the press at the time. This article examines the growing alienation of religious minorities in Galway and Derry in 1912, through a close reading of the unionist Galway Express and nationalis tDerry Journalnewspapers respectively. These provincial newspapers represented a minority community or opinion within their wider geographical area, at odds with the political and cultural background of the majority of the local population. Over the year, articles in these papers illustrated the growing unease of these minority border communities as more extreme opinions began to take hold in the Home Rule debate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Was Derry's independent city police force wholly inadequate, was it just inefficient for the suppression of riots; or was it the demonstration of politico-religious partisanship that ensured the force's abolition in 1870? This paper will attempt to explore and answer these three questions. It will also look at the borough force in some detail, examining issues with regard to the force's pay, discipline, its duties and conditions of service. It will not attempt to analyse Derry's nineteenth-century riots or the political and sectarian issues surrounding these riots, except where aspects of these directly affected the borough police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the impact visits to community-based museums in a divided society, Northern Ireland, had on young people's historical, political, and cultural understanding of the commemorated past. It examines the responses of two student groups, one predominantly Protestant and the other Catholic, to two museums, each presenting its own community's perspective on one contentious aspect of Derry/Londonderry's past. Data were collected through observation, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews from students, teachers, and museum staff. In the emotive environments of the two museums, findings indicated that community background remained important in shaping responses, but critical thinking allied to personal engagement with testimony and artifacts, particularly related to the recent, contentious past, was also influential. In one group, the experience was powerful in causing affective disruption, which challenged established positions, but in the other, it largely consolidated existing norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Policy & Politics is the property of Policy Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In April 2019, a so-called 'dissident' republican New IRA gun-man killed journalist Lyra McKee, whilst firing at police during a riot in Derry in the North of Ireland. The New and Continuity IRAs remain wedded to an armed campaign for Irish sovereignty, drawing legitimacy from partition and the ongoing British 'presence' in Northern Ireland – and rejecting the significance of altered conditions within the state. Conversely, independent 'dissident' republicans, formerly in the Provisional IRA, criticise the ongoing campaign by the groups as futile. This article examines key areas of debate within the 'dissident'/radical republican base, on armed actions at present – drawing on unpublished qualitative interviews with independents, the RSF Movement, and Saoradh,– the organisation believed to be the political wing of the New IRA. This article assesses the nature of the campaign waged by the Continuity and New IRAs and examines whether it represents a continuation of the Provisional IRA campaign, or a new departure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the urban policy and local economic interests in Northern Ireland. In an uneven process of industrialization in Ireland, Belfast emerged as the seedbed of industry, commerce and government in the North of Ireland. This paper traces the evolution of local economic regeneration policy in the 1980s and 1990s in two Northern Ireland cities, Belfast and Londonderry. In these cities, the Department of the Environment which is the principal agent of urban and rural policy in Northern Ireland, has been concerned with constructing government-led pro-growth regimes. The article also describes the phases of regional and local economic development and politics in Belfast and Derry up until the 1980s. This is followed, first, by an analysis of central state rationales for urban policy and, following that, of the role of party politics and political ideology in policy-making in the two cities. The fourth section contrasts key features of economic development in the 1980s in Belfast and Derry and relates them to the dominant urban regeneration strategies and the realignment of commercial and development interest in growth coalitions.

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In October 1968, an illegal civil rights march in Londonderry in Northern Ireland was broken up by the local police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Hitherto, Northern Ireland, although a constituent part of the United Kingdom, was an unknown quantity for most British people, who knew or cared little about its endemic sectarian problems, and its one-sided and discriminatory system of government. Had the march taken place in 1958 rather than 1968, it very likely would be remained an item of local interest and controversy only. However, the presence in 1968 of three television crews, who recorded what transpired, meant that the problems of the province were cruelly exposed, leading to a spiral of violence known as 'the Troubles' which would cost the lives of some 3,600 people in the succeeding decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Great Parchment Book of the Honourable the Irish Society is a major surviving historical record of the estates of the county of Londonderry (in modern day Northern Ireland). It contains key data about landholding and population in the Irish province of Ulster and the city of Londonderry and its environs in the mid-17th century, at a time of social, religious, and political upheaval. Compiled in 1639, it was severely damaged in a fire in 1786, and due to the fragile state of the parchment, its contents have been mostly inaccessible since. We describe here a long-term, interdisciplinary, international partnership involving conservators, archivists, computer scientists, and digital humanists that developed a low-cost pipeline for conserving, digitizing, 3D-reconstructing, and virtually flattening the fire-damaged, buckled parchment, enabling new readings and understanding of the text to be created. For the first time, this article presents a complete overview of the project, detailing the conservation, digital acquisition, and digital reconstruction methods used, resulting in a new transcription and digital edition of the text in time for the 400th anniversary celebrations of the building of Londonderry's city walls in 2013. We concentrate on the digital reconstruction pipeline that will be of interest to custodians of similarly fire-damaged historical parchment, whilst highlighting how working together on this project has produced an online resource that has focussed community reflection upon an important, but previously inaccessible, historical text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When British Paratroopers shot dead 13 people at a civil rights march in Derry on January 30, 1972 it dealt a hammer blow to British government claims of neutrality and moral authority in dealing with the escalating violence in Northern Ireland. Existing historical accounts of Bloody Sunday treat the killings as the outcome of a more-or-less unified military anxiety at increasing disorder in Derry, combined with unexpected events on the day, presenting the killings as the outcome of essentially responsive actions by the British military. In so doing they lend support to the 'cock-up' theory that represents the killings as the outcome of a series of errors of interpretation and communication. This article provides an alternative interpretation of the political and military decision-making process, challenging key elements in the analysis in the existing literature. By contrast with existing accounts, it argues that the Bloody Sunday operation was a calculated plan devised at a very high level to stage a massive and unprecedented confrontation that would disrupt and shatter an established policy of security force restraint in the city of Derry. It argues further that the operation that day emerged from an intense internal struggle to shape security policy that reflected deep divisions within the security forces, analysing the statements and evidence of key participants much more critically than existing accounts do. It argues that high-level decision-making is central to the explanation of the outcome that day and that the operation raises serious questions about the relationship between political decision-making and the operational decision-making of the army in Northern Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excavations on this site, undertaken by Paul Logue for EHS: Built Heritage DOE: NI, produced evidence for at least two phases of occupation outside Bishop's Gate, Londonderry during the 17th century. This occupation came to an end with a phase of activity dated to the commencement of the Jacobite siege in A.D. 1689. Further evidence of that siege was uncovered in the form of a ravelin ditch 2.8 m wide and 0.57 m in depth, constructed in early 1689 to front Bishop's Gate. The extant remains of a sally port interrupted the ditch. A nearby larger ditch, scarped from the sloping ground outside Double Bastion, measured a maximum of 8.4 m in width and 1.4 m in depth. This larger ditch may have been part of efforts to improve the City defences in the wake of the 1641 rebellion. Further evidence of conflict archaeology was recovered in the form of lead shot, weapon furniture and flint gunspalls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]