Conflict-Shaped Peace: Memorialscapes of Victory and Victimhood in Contemporary Belfast

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Cities on the Move: Reflecting on Urban Archaeology in the 21st Century", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper will explore how the pre-existing structure of Belfast has shaped and materialized an uncertain peace in the quarter of a century since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. While there are many academic studies of wall murals – and a more limited number of studies of memorials – they often focus on the particularities of individual examples rather than taking a more holistic approach to the connections of materials, time and place needed to understand how these spaces of lived experience and everyday heritage have evolved in various ways. I will argue that close examination of Belfast as a memorialscape can reveal how conflict-era structures continue to shape community reactions to the uncertainties of a fragile peace. This includes interrogating the role of class, reactions to political events, and competing claims of victimhood / victory playing out within and against adjacent communities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Cities on the Move: Reflecting on Urban Archaeology in the 21st Century   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow