Kirk Simpson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3640841 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kirk Simpson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kirk |
| FAMILY NAME | Simpson |
| SIGNATURE | SIMPSON K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ulster |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 68 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Truth recovery in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland has entered what is arguably the key phase in its troubled political history—truth recovery and dealing with the legacy of the past—yet the void in knowledge and the lack of academic literature with regard to victims' rights is particularly striking. This book analyses truth recovery as a fundamental aspect of the transition from political violence to peace, democracy and stability in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It argues tha…
Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland: Critically Interpreting the Past
The conflict in Northern Ireland
This chapter provides a glimpse of the often muscular, politically motivated, and envenomed disagreement that dominates discourse on truth and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. It is immediately apparent that this cannot support feasible consensus on the past, which is arguably necessary to the sustaining of devolved government and continued peace, much less offer any form of psychological or emotional analgesic to victims of political violence…
Political strategies of engagement: Unionists and dealing with the past in Northern Ireland
Untold Stories: Unionist Remembrance of Political Violence and Suffering in Northern Ireland
As evidenced by the histories provided by unionist respondents in the previous two chapters, one of the core socio-political and cultural aspects of contemporary unionist discourse in Northern Ireland is the need to foster and protect a sense of legitimate grievance in respect of the killings and injuries of innocent Protestant civilians (those not affiliated to British state security forces) by the PIRA during the conflict of 1969–1998. This cha…
‘Ready to speak, but will anyone listen?’ Truth Recovery, Unionists and Social Memory
In this chapter I retrace my main theoretical argument: namely, that in the absence of agreed processes of truth recovery following the protracted conflict in Northern Ireland, many unionists now increasingly define themselves as oppositional or peripheral, and will attempt to resist anything which they perceive to be the manipulation and distortion of social memory because of the fear of imposed, manufactured history by their political opponents…
Thematic Introduction and Background to the Northern Ireland Conflict
Northern Ireland has entered what is arguably the key phase in its troubled political history — truth recovery and dealing with the legacy of a violent past — yet the void in knowledge and the lack of academic literature with regard to unionist civilians is particularly striking (Simpson, 2008). This book aims to fill that gap. On the basis of new, original and extensive empirical and theoretical research, this book will begin to fill the ‘hole’ …
‘It was worse in the beginning’ Recalling the Adjustment to Political Violence
If the period from 1969 to 1971 was ‘year zero’ in terms of how unionists framed the ‘before and after’ of the Northern Ireland conflict (and also the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of how they constructed perceptions of the ethnic ‘other’), then the period from 1971 to 1975 represented the political and social apocalypse that many in the Protestant community had claimed to have foreseen since the first murmurs of discontent by Northern Ireland Civil Right…
‘They started it’: Unionists, Memory and Subjectivist Constructions of the Political ‘Other’
In the hundreds of formal and informal qualitative interviews with unionist civilians that I have conducted, various iterations of the sentiment ‘they started it’ — meaning that Irish republicans initiated the conflict in Northern Ireland — have been extremely common. In ethnic conflicts throughout the world, such a process of socio-cultural and political ‘othering’ is far from unusual (cf. Daniel, 1996; Das et al., 2000). In Northern Ireland, I …
Conclusion — Mastering the Past in Northern Ireland
This book began by outlining its stated intentions: not to underscore the veracity or legitimacy of the narratives that would be provided within it, but to give voice to the dialogically and politically dispossessed during an era of transition in Northern Ireland (cf. Douglass and Vogler, 2003). As noted in the introductory chapter, this was important for a number of reasons, not least because large elements of the majority unionist-Protestant po…
‘Cold Storage’: The Disappearance of Unionist Storytelling and the Conflict
This chapter will focus on a collection of retrospective expressions by unionists — in the current post-conflict phase — that detail how during the 1980s and early 1990s, unionists feel that the narratives of their experiences were nearly completely subsumed, silenced or elided. A variety of explanations are offered for this by the respondents. The predominant feeling is that the woes of the unionist community — no matter how dire or callous the …
Unionist Voices and the Politics of Remembering the Past in Northern Ireland
Simpson offers a reflective and theoretical explanation of the ways in which unionists conceive of the past in the present post-conflict environment. He considers the ways in which scholarly literatur
Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland: Critically Interpreting the Past
Northern Ireland has entered what is arguably the key phase in its troubled political history—truth recovery and dealing with the legacy of the past—yet the void in knowledge and the lack of academic literature with regard to victims' rights is particularly striking. This book analyses truth recovery as a fundamental aspect of the transition from political violence to peace, democracy and stability in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It argues tha…
Untold Stories: Unionist Remembrance of Political Violence and Suffering in Northern Ireland
Voices silenced, voices rediscovered: Victims of violence and the reclamation of language in transitional societies
In this article, I argue that the reclamation of language and the rediscovery of victims’ voices in post-conflict contexts are vital to the realisation of full human rights for all citizens, and necessary preludes to processes of truth recovery. Allowing and encouraging victims to engage in dialogue and public storytelling constitutes a crucial part of the transitional legal and political process. However, as a consequence of campaigns of politic…
Victims of Political Violence: A Habermasian Model of Truth Recovery
This article focuses on truth recovery as a core aspect of the transition from political violence to peace and reconciliation. It is crucial within any process of truth recovery in transitional contexts that victims of political violence are provided with the opportunity to articulate their narratives of suffering within the context of a public dialogic process. Using Northern Ireland as an illustrative case study, I outline a unique and original…
Shadows of War: Violence, Power and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century
Silence and Violence among Northern Ireland Border Protestants
Developing recent ethnographic work on the subjective experiences of those involved in traumatic events, this paper examines the stories that Protestants tell about their experiences of violence along the Irish border in the 1970s and 1980s. These stories are only now beginning to surface, and the paper considers the transition from the private experience of suffering to its public telling. It focuses on how people find a voice for their telling …
Changing Relationships in the Irish Borderlands
Citizenship Education and Post-16 Students: A Habermasian Perspective
This article is based on a research project carried out at the Graduate School of Education, Queen's University Belfast. The researchers conducted a study of discussion-based citizenship education for post-16 students in Northern Ireland (UK) over a period of 18 months. One of the researchers designed and delivered a course of citizenship education for students in a case study school (100 of whom were involved). This course was constructed within…
Community and Creativity in the Classroom: An Experiment in the Use of the Guest Interview, Focus Group Interviews and Learning Journals in the Teaching and Learning of the Anthropology of Modern Danc…
This article assesses the experimental teaching and learning of an anthropology module on 'modern dance'. It reviews the teaching and learning of the modern dances (lecture, observation, embodied practice, guest interview), paying attention to the triangulation of investigation methods (learning journal, examination, self-esteem survey, focus group interview). Our findings suggest that—in keeping with contemporary participatory educational approa…
Politics and education in Northern Ireland—an analytical history
There is a complex and fundamentally important relationship between politics and education in Northern Ireland. Indeed, the political and educational history of Northern Ireland provides an importa
Silence and Violence among Northern Ireland Border Protestants
Developing recent ethnographic work on the subjective experiences of those involved in traumatic events, this paper examines the stories that Protestants tell about their experiences of violence along the Irish border in the 1970s and 1980s. These stories are only now beginning to surface, and the paper considers the transition from the private experience of suffering to its public telling. It focuses on how people find a voice for their telling …
Unionist Voices and the Politics of Remembering the Past in Northern Ireland
Simpson offers a reflective and theoretical explanation of the ways in which unionists conceive of the past in the present post-conflict environment. He considers the ways in which scholarly literatur
Untold Stories: Unionist Remembrance of Political Violence and Suffering in Northern Ireland
Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland: Critically Interpreting the Past
Northern Ireland has entered what is arguably the key phase in its troubled political history—truth recovery and dealing with the legacy of the past—yet the void in knowledge and the lack of academic literature with regard to victims' rights is particularly striking. This book analyses truth recovery as a fundamental aspect of the transition from political violence to peace, democracy and stability in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It argues tha…
Voices silenced, voices rediscovered: Victims of violence and the reclamation of language in transitional societies
In this article, I argue that the reclamation of language and the rediscovery of victims’ voices in post-conflict contexts are vital to the realisation of full human rights for all citizens, and necessary preludes to processes of truth recovery. Allowing and encouraging victims to engage in dialogue and public storytelling constitutes a crucial part of the transitional legal and political process. However, as a consequence of campaigns of politic…
Victims of Political Violence: A Habermasian Model of Truth Recovery
This article focuses on truth recovery as a core aspect of the transition from political violence to peace and reconciliation. It is crucial within any process of truth recovery in transitional contexts that victims of political violence are provided with the opportunity to articulate their narratives of suffering within the context of a public dialogic process. Using Northern Ireland as an illustrative case study, I outline a unique and original…
Political strategies of engagement: Unionists and dealing with the past in Northern Ireland
Shadows of War: Violence, Power and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century
Community and Creativity in the Classroom: An Experiment in the Use of the Guest Interview, Focus Group Interviews and Learning Journals in the Teaching and Learning of the Anthropology of Modern Danc…
This article assesses the experimental teaching and learning of an anthropology module on 'modern dance'. It reviews the teaching and learning of the modern dances (lecture, observation, embodied practice, guest interview), paying attention to the triangulation of investigation methods (learning journal, examination, self-esteem survey, focus group interview). Our findings suggest that—in keeping with contemporary participatory educational approa…
Politics and education in Northern Ireland—an analytical history
There is a complex and fundamentally important relationship between politics and education in Northern Ireland. Indeed, the political and educational history of Northern Ireland provides an importa
Citizenship Education and Post-16 Students: A Habermasian Perspective
This article is based on a research project carried out at the Graduate School of Education, Queen's University Belfast. The researchers conducted a study of discussion-based citizenship education for post-16 students in Northern Ireland (UK) over a period of 18 months. One of the researchers designed and delivered a course of citizenship education for students in a case study school (100 of whom were involved). This course was constructed within…
Community and Creativity in the Classroom: An Experiment in the Use of the Guest Interview, Focus Group Interviews and Learning Journals in the Teaching and Learning of the Anthropology of Modern Danc…
This article assesses the experimental teaching and learning of an anthropology module on 'modern dance'. It reviews the teaching and learning of the modern dances (lecture, observation, embodied practice, guest interview), paying attention to the triangulation of investigation methods (learning journal, examination, self-esteem survey, focus group interview). Our findings suggest that—in keeping with contemporary participatory educational approa…
Changing Relationships in the Irish Borderlands
Voices silenced, voices rediscovered: Victims of violence and the reclamation of language in transitional societies
In this article, I argue that the reclamation of language and the rediscovery of victims’ voices in post-conflict contexts are vital to the realisation of full human rights for all citizens, and necessary preludes to processes of truth recovery. Allowing and encouraging victims to engage in dialogue and public storytelling constitutes a crucial part of the transitional legal and political process. However, as a consequence of campaigns of politic…
Victims of Political Violence: A Habermasian Model of Truth Recovery
This article focuses on truth recovery as a core aspect of the transition from political violence to peace and reconciliation. It is crucial within any process of truth recovery in transitional contexts that victims of political violence are provided with the opportunity to articulate their narratives of suffering within the context of a public dialogic process. Using Northern Ireland as an illustrative case study, I outline a unique and original…
Shadows of War: Violence, Power and International Profiteering in the Twenty-First Century
Silence and Violence among Northern Ireland Border Protestants
Developing recent ethnographic work on the subjective experiences of those involved in traumatic events, this paper examines the stories that Protestants tell about their experiences of violence along the Irish border in the 1970s and 1980s. These stories are only now beginning to surface, and the paper considers the transition from the private experience of suffering to its public telling. It focuses on how people find a voice for their telling …
Untold Stories: Unionist Remembrance of Political Violence and Suffering in Northern Ireland
Untold Stories: Unionist Remembrance of Political Violence and Suffering in Northern Ireland
As evidenced by the histories provided by unionist respondents in the previous two chapters, one of the core socio-political and cultural aspects of contemporary unionist discourse in Northern Ireland is the need to foster and protect a sense of legitimate grievance in respect of the killings and injuries of innocent Protestant civilians (those not affiliated to British state security forces) by the PIRA during the conflict of 1969–1998. This cha…
‘Ready to speak, but will anyone listen?’ Truth Recovery, Unionists and Social Memory
In this chapter I retrace my main theoretical argument: namely, that in the absence of agreed processes of truth recovery following the protracted conflict in Northern Ireland, many unionists now increasingly define themselves as oppositional or peripheral, and will attempt to resist anything which they perceive to be the manipulation and distortion of social memory because of the fear of imposed, manufactured history by their political opponents…
Thematic Introduction and Background to the Northern Ireland Conflict
Northern Ireland has entered what is arguably the key phase in its troubled political history — truth recovery and dealing with the legacy of a violent past — yet the void in knowledge and the lack of academic literature with regard to unionist civilians is particularly striking (Simpson, 2008). This book aims to fill that gap. On the basis of new, original and extensive empirical and theoretical research, this book will begin to fill the ‘hole’ …
‘It was worse in the beginning’ Recalling the Adjustment to Political Violence
If the period from 1969 to 1971 was ‘year zero’ in terms of how unionists framed the ‘before and after’ of the Northern Ireland conflict (and also the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of how they constructed perceptions of the ethnic ‘other’), then the period from 1971 to 1975 represented the political and social apocalypse that many in the Protestant community had claimed to have foreseen since the first murmurs of discontent by Northern Ireland Civil Right…
‘They started it’: Unionists, Memory and Subjectivist Constructions of the Political ‘Other’
In the hundreds of formal and informal qualitative interviews with unionist civilians that I have conducted, various iterations of the sentiment ‘they started it’ — meaning that Irish republicans initiated the conflict in Northern Ireland — have been extremely common. In ethnic conflicts throughout the world, such a process of socio-cultural and political ‘othering’ is far from unusual (cf. Daniel, 1996; Das et al., 2000). In Northern Ireland, I …
Conclusion — Mastering the Past in Northern Ireland
This book began by outlining its stated intentions: not to underscore the veracity or legitimacy of the narratives that would be provided within it, but to give voice to the dialogically and politically dispossessed during an era of transition in Northern Ireland (cf. Douglass and Vogler, 2003). As noted in the introductory chapter, this was important for a number of reasons, not least because large elements of the majority unionist-Protestant po…
‘Cold Storage’: The Disappearance of Unionist Storytelling and the Conflict
This chapter will focus on a collection of retrospective expressions by unionists — in the current post-conflict phase — that detail how during the 1980s and early 1990s, unionists feel that the narratives of their experiences were nearly completely subsumed, silenced or elided. A variety of explanations are offered for this by the respondents. The predominant feeling is that the woes of the unionist community — no matter how dire or callous the …
Unionist Voices and the Politics of Remembering the Past in Northern Ireland
Simpson offers a reflective and theoretical explanation of the ways in which unionists conceive of the past in the present post-conflict environment. He considers the ways in which scholarly literatur
Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland: Critically Interpreting the Past
Northern Ireland has entered what is arguably the key phase in its troubled political history—truth recovery and dealing with the legacy of the past—yet the void in knowledge and the lack of academic literature with regard to victims' rights is particularly striking. This book analyses truth recovery as a fundamental aspect of the transition from political violence to peace, democracy and stability in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It argues tha…
Political strategies of engagement: Unionists and dealing with the past in Northern Ireland
Truth recovery in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland has entered what is arguably the key phase in its troubled political history—truth recovery and dealing with the legacy of the past—yet the void in knowledge and the lack of academic literature with regard to victims' rights is particularly striking. This book analyses truth recovery as a fundamental aspect of the transition from political violence to peace, democracy and stability in post-conflict Northern Ireland. It argues tha…
Truth Recovery in Northern Ireland: Critically Interpreting the Past
The conflict in Northern Ireland
This chapter provides a glimpse of the often muscular, politically motivated, and envenomed disagreement that dominates discourse on truth and reconciliation in Northern Ireland. It is immediately apparent that this cannot support feasible consensus on the past, which is arguably necessary to the sustaining of devolved government and continued peace, much less offer any form of psychological or emotional analgesic to victims of political violence…
Political science (19 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Irish and British Studies (16 works) · Politics (16 works) · Criminology (9 works) · Ethnology (9 works) · Northern ireland (9 works) · History (8 works) · Law (7 works)