From thorn to thorn
Commemorating the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3977228 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Catherine Switzer (University of Ulster), Brian Graham (University of Ulster) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 153-171 |
| Publication date | 2009-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14649360802652129 |
| OpenAlex | W2071752335 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 21 |
Although the literature on memorialisation often stresses the role of the national, there is a growing understanding of the polyvalency and dispersal of memory. Here, we address the rather difficult process of memorialising the security forces of a state which denies that it was a participant in a conflict. In Northern Ireland, the British state pursued a policy of 'Ulsterisation' of security forces, the result being that the memorialisation of their dead is either a partisan unionist process or confined to private institutional space because these forces were seen as an impediment to the Peace Process. We focus in particular on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) which was disbanded in 2001. The paper establishes the context for commemorating both the RUC dead but also the institution itself, a dimension to commemoration that has been largely elided from the vast literature on the Troubles in Northern Ireland and their consequences. We then examine the non-state memorialisation of RUC personnel in public space within Northern Ireland, an ambiguous and fragmented process that is then contrasted with the formal but closed institutional space of the RUC George Cross Garden, sited within the bounded and heavily monitored precincts of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Headquarters at Knock in east Belfast
Archaeology · Context (archaeology · Ethnology · Institution · Northern ireland · Political science · Sociology · State (computer science · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Irish and British Studies · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Public Administration
Memory and History in Northern Ireland
The Iraq casualty, the listed monument and the missing child
We have long memories in this area’
The diplomacy of the United Kingdom in Dudgeon v UK (1976–1983)
Narrative and the Start of the Northern Irish Troubles
A Lens Over Conflicted Memory
Antiquity at the National Memorial Arboretum
Geographies of Conflict and Post-Conflict in Northern Ireland
Violent Geographies
Trauma and the Memory of Politics
Unionists And Great War Commemoration in The North of Ireland 1914-1939
Killings of local security forces in Northern Ireland 1969–1981
Armalite, the ballot box and memorialization
Commemorating dead ‘men
The New Northern Irish Politics
Making Sense of the Troubles
Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning
Political Skills or Lying and Manipulation? The Choreography of the Northern Ireland Peace Process
The Battle of the Somme in Ulster memory and identity
A shared future
The Great War and Modern Memory
Contesting and Surviving Memory
The Legacies of the Dead
The Power of Commemorative Street Names
Human rights politics and scaled performances of memory
Meaning in the Maze
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2025 (16) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |