“Alternative Ulster”

Abstract

In the Northern Ireland of 1976, The Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the UK” was more than just a song: it was what they experienced in their everyday lives. Yet, while the conflict raged on, and at a time when cross-community contact had become uncommon, a minority of the North’s youth turned to punk. These young Catholics and Protestants ignored their political and religious differences and met up in streets and record shops during the day and at night crowded into the few bars and pubs that allowed punk rock bands to play. This chapter examines the mechanisms that enabled punks to imagine and embody an “Alternative Ulster.” The research assesses the impact of this popular music phenomenon on the practices of the young people who took part in this scene and subculture in the midst of the “Troubles” by analyzing the ways in which punk spaces were “practiced,” by examining the oppositional quality of punk style and, finally, by highlighting some of the themes which appear in the songs of the first wave of Northern Ireland punk (1976–1983).