Memory Beyond Borders: Dealing with the Legacy of the Northern Ireland Conflict in the Irish Republic, 1969-2017

Following the Second World War and the Holocaust, the role of nation-states in engaging with the legacy of political violence and conflict has become crucial in many academic studies exploring how the past shapes present politics and society (Bell, 2010). Whilst academia and the state has engaged with this important debate in relation to the legacy of political violence in Northern Ireland, there has been no dedicated study nor detailed discussion considering the impact of the Northern Irish conflict on the Republic of Ireland. This omission is surprising considering that there were 121 conflict related deaths there between 1969 and 1998, and because the conflict in the north has contributed to significant political change in the Republic of Ireland even today. The central theme of this paper is to assess Irish state efforts towards dealing with the legacy of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland. It considers why particular conflict-related incidents have been explored in Irish state-sponsored tribunals and reconciliation processes since the peace agreement in 1998. But the paper also explains why the Irish state has downplayed or forgotten particular aspects of the conflict. A variety of factors are explored to account for state-sponsored remembering and forgetting in the Irish Republic, including competition between various Irish nationalist parties for historical legitimacy, ambition to enhance cross-border political and economic cooperation with Ulster Unionists, and self-preservation for the Irish state. In order to investigate the Irish state’s approach to dealing with the legacy of the conflict in and about Northern Ireland, I primarily cross-reference an extensive range of unique interview material with various political parties, former paramilitaries and victims groups from across the island of Ireland, with government inquiries and papers relating to dealing with the past.