Publicerad: 2012-10-30
ISBN:
ISSN: 1650-3686 (tryckt), 1650-3740 (online)
The article explores the production of historical narratives in two national museums; the National Museum of Ireland (Dublin; Republic of Ireland) and the Ulster Museum (Belfast; Northern Ireland) in the context of political reconciliation. In 1998; the Irish and British governments associated with most of Northern Ireland’s political parties; agreed to set the bases for restoring peace through the Good Friday Agreement. This was in this context that the two national museums arranged exhibitions for the bicentenary of the 1798 Rebellion; which had been at the heart of the opposition between nationalist and unionist conceptions of the relations between Ireland and Britain. The purpose of the article is to question how; and to what extent; the organisation of the commemorations impacted on the construction of historical narratives in the two national museums in Ireland and Northern Ireland. The two commemorative exhibitions and their organisation reveal how the 1990s politics of reconciliation contributed to building new historical narratives in Ireland and Northern Ireland’s national museums. However; I argue that the two exhibitions were still representative of the opposition between cultural diversity and national unity supported respectively in Northern Ireland and in the Republic.
Bardon; J. (2005) A History of Ulster; Belfast; The Blackstaff Press.
Brady; C. (ed.) (1994) Interpreting Irish History : The Debate on Historical Revisionism; Dublin; Irish Academic Press.
Collins; P. (2004) Who Fears to Speak of ’98? Commemoration and the Continuing Impact of the United Irishmen; Belfast; Ulster Historical Foundation.
Cox; J. and Stromquist; S. (eds) (1998); Contesting the master narrative: essays in social history; University of Iowa Press.
Cox; M.; Guelke; A. and Stephen; F. (eds) (2006) A Farewell to Arms? Beyond the Good Friday Agreement; Manchester; Manchester University Press.
Crooke; E. (2000) Politics; archaeology; and the creation of a national museum in Ireland: an expression of national life; Dublin: Irish Academic Press.
Cullen; F. (2000) “Radicals and Reactionaries : Portraits of the 1790s in Ireland” in Smyth; J. (ed.); Revolution; Counter-Revolution and Union: Ireland in the 1790s; Cambridge; Cambridge University Press.
Czarniawska-Joerges; B. (2004) Narratives in Social Science Research; London; SAGE publication.
Foster; R.F. (1989) The Oxford History of Ireland; Oxford; Oxford University Press.
Frazer; H. and Fitzduff; M. (1986) Improving Community Relations: A Paper prepared for the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights; Belfast.
Gowan; R. (1998) Murder Without Sin. The Rebellion of 1798; first published 1859; Belfast; Education Committee of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland.
Horne; J. (2002) « Démobilisation culturelle après la Grande Guerre »; in 14-18 : Aujourd’hui; Today; Heute; n. 5.
Hughes; J. (2010) “Paying for peace : Comparing the EU’s role in the conflicts in Northern Ireland and Kosovo” in Hughes; J. (ed.); EU Conflict Management; London; Routledge.
Kenny; M. (1996) The 1798 Rebellion. Photographs and memorabilia from the National Museum of Ireland; Dublin; Country House.
Leonard; J. (1997) Memorials to the Casualties of Conflict: Northern Ireland 1969-1997; Belfast; CRC.
McBride; I. (2009) Eighteenth Century Ireland: The Isle of Slaves; Dublin; Gill & Macmillan. Maxwell; W.H. (1845) History of the Irish Rebellion; London; Baily.
Nesbitt; N. (1979) A museum in Belfast : a history of the Ulster Museum and its predecessors; Belfast; Ulster Museum.
Whelan; K. (1987) ‘The Role of the Catholic Priest in the 1798 Rebellion in Wexford’; in Whelan; K. and Nolan; W. (eds); Wexford History and Society; Dublin; Geography Publications.
Whelan; K.; Dickson; D. and Keogh; D. (eds) (1993) The United Irishmen: Republicanism; Radicalism; and Rebellion; Dublin; Lilliput.
Whelan; K. (1996) The Tree of Liberty: Radicalism; Catholicism; and the Construction of Irish Identity; 1760-1830; Cork; Cork University Press.
Whelan; K. (1998) Fellowship of Freedom : the United Irishmen and the 1798 Rebellion; Cork; Cork University Press.
Whelan; K. (2004) “The Revisionist Debate in Ireland”; in Boundary 2; Spring.
