Abstract:Northern Ireland is currently emerging from three decades of conflict. Belfast, its largest city, experienced some of the worst levels of violence. During these 'Troubles' it became a highly segregated city in which its citizens understandings of the urban fabric were mediated through their ethno-religious backgrounds. Yet as the region moves into a post-conflict situation, Belfast has been undergoing rapid physical change. One result of this has been an effort to remove evidence of the conflict from the 'new'… Show more
“…The political transition in Northern Ireland following the GFA witnessed accelerated attempts to reverse this divisive tendency via creating 'shared space' in Belfast City Centre (Switzer & McDowell, 2009). The decision to stop the permanent flying of the Union flag in Belfast must therefore be seen within the confines of these wider attempts to create 'shared space' that is characterised by the absence of divisive symbols and flags.…”
Section: Flags Symbols and 'Shared Space'mentioning
This article examines the protest movement that surfaced as a result of the decision taken by Belfast City Council to remove the Union flag from Belfast City Hall in December 2012. This article examines why the issue conflagrated as it did and led to a mobilisation within working-class Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist (PUL) communities on the issue. Examining the flag protests within the context of more general PUL disaffection with the Good Friday Agreement and its associated peace process, this article looks at the flag protests as an avenue for disaffected PUL communities to assert a new counter-memory that challenges not only the 'other' but also those within the leadership of political Unionism who are said to have used PUL communities during the conflict only to abandon them in the post-conflict transition. This article concludes by examining the future potential of the new political movement born out of the flag protests and the avenues open to it to challenge the hegemonic position of traditional Unionism that has left PUL communities behind as Northern Ireland progresses in transition out of political conflict.
“…The political transition in Northern Ireland following the GFA witnessed accelerated attempts to reverse this divisive tendency via creating 'shared space' in Belfast City Centre (Switzer & McDowell, 2009). The decision to stop the permanent flying of the Union flag in Belfast must therefore be seen within the confines of these wider attempts to create 'shared space' that is characterised by the absence of divisive symbols and flags.…”
Section: Flags Symbols and 'Shared Space'mentioning
This article examines the protest movement that surfaced as a result of the decision taken by Belfast City Council to remove the Union flag from Belfast City Hall in December 2012. This article examines why the issue conflagrated as it did and led to a mobilisation within working-class Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist (PUL) communities on the issue. Examining the flag protests within the context of more general PUL disaffection with the Good Friday Agreement and its associated peace process, this article looks at the flag protests as an avenue for disaffected PUL communities to assert a new counter-memory that challenges not only the 'other' but also those within the leadership of political Unionism who are said to have used PUL communities during the conflict only to abandon them in the post-conflict transition. This article concludes by examining the future potential of the new political movement born out of the flag protests and the avenues open to it to challenge the hegemonic position of traditional Unionism that has left PUL communities behind as Northern Ireland progresses in transition out of political conflict.
“…Through these, the material world is thus manipulated to ‘exorcise’ or ‘manage’ troubling memories. Embodying avoidance refers to the strategy of avoiding places to avoid unwanted recollections (Switzer and MacDowell ). These are the ways in which one may implicate the material world when forgetting.…”
Section: Forgetting Materiality and The Immanent Pastmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…the mind produces invisible boundaries that prohibit physical access to the site [which] are very real for those with a significant attachment to the site [even if] they simply do not exist in the cognitive maps and everyday geographies of others. (Switzer and McDowell , 347)…”
Section: Materialising Forgettingmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Even when there is nothing that explicitly mentions the war, latent memories remain in the minds of those who witnessed their war uses such that any contact with them triggers trauma, wherecognitive maps with their linked understandings of which places are safe and unsafe and how each of these categories may be defined, are much more resistant to change than the material realities of brick and mortar. (Switzer and McDowell , 348)…”
Section: Memory Returnsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…cognitive maps with their linked understandings of which places are safe and unsafe and how each of these categories may be defined, are much more resistant to change than the material realities of brick and mortar. (Switzer and McDowell , 348)…”
Much geographical attention is paid to issues of memory and its relationship to place. Yet, there has been less disciplinary interrogation of what goes on when one forgets. This paper argues that forgetting, as it involves active embodied, material and spatial practices of producing absences, is just as salient as its counterpart, and worthy of analysis on its own terms. Drawing on the personal experiences of individuals who went through the Second World War in Malaysia, this paper first examines individuals' strategies for obscuring if not obliterating memories that are personally traumatic and injurious to well-being. The paper then shows how these memories can re-emerge, frequently in an involuntary or unexpected fashion, despite attempts to render them pass e. In doing so, the paper espouses forgetting as a 'productive' practice; yet such practice is frequently incomplete as materials limit -as well as support -explicit efforts to keep the past in the past. More broadly, it challenges the valorisation of 'presence' in human-landscape interactions to expose the ways 'absence' too is imbricated in the everyday milieu.
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