Migrants, transcultural memory and World War I commemoration in post-conflict Northern Ireland

Abstract

This article explores a community memory project on World War I led by first-generation migrants living in Northern Ireland. As a location recovering from 30 years of political violence, debates on commemoration are frequently reduced to the bi-partisan lens of Irish nationalism or British unionism. World War I is one episode often interpreted through this exclusivist framework. Recent immigration, however, raises questions as to how those who are neither nationalist nor unionist can partake in public memory debates. Drawing on the project’s experiences, I argue that incorporating migrants’ worldviews on the past can elucidate important transcultural analysis and positively aid in reframing simplistic ethno-national interpretations. Transcultural methods can illuminate cross-cultural themes and explicate differences and similarities across multiple groups rather than just two historically divided communities. Thus, transcultural approaches offer a novel means of generating holistic dialogue on memory which has transformative potential for a society transitioning from conflict to peace.