Vol. 12 No. 12 (2022): Exploring Digital Literature and Humanities in Ireland
Sezione monografica / Monographic Section

Reading Republican Murals in Northern Ireland: Archiving and Meaning-Making

Published 2022-06-30

Keywords

  • Archive,
  • Interpretation,
  • Murals,
  • Northern Ireland,
  • Republican

How to Cite

Crowley, T. (2022). Reading Republican Murals in Northern Ireland: Archiving and Meaning-Making. Studi Irlandesi. A Journal of Irish Studies, 12(12), 87–117. https://doi.org/10.36253/SIJIS-2239-3978-13738

Abstract

In this paper I will use my experience in compiling an online archive of the murals of Northern Ireland 1979-2021 to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of work in the digital humanities. I will argue that such a collection of visual materials from the war and post-war periods in Northern Ireland affords us the opportunity to assess major shifts in stance, policy and practice amongst unionists and loyalists, and nationalists and republicans. But I will also contend that although the archive itself can provide us with a rich set of materials, it cannot in and of itself give us their meaning. That task, I will conclude, depends on a set of traditional skills that long pre-date the digital order of things.

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