Sharing Space? Geography and Politics in Post-conflict Northern Ireland

Abstract

In pursuing the idea that cultural memory is central to the recognition that any present must have a past, the author contends that the peace process in Northern Ireland has largely elided both the role of culture and its cognates–memory and identity–and the symbolic realm of meaning, which, ultimately, is the force that validates the notion of citizenship and thus the legitimacy of any polity. The author first explores the question of identity, politics, and territoriality before moving on to examine the British government’s rhetoric of a “shared future” and of “shared space.” He then uses the example of “the past that is not the past” to illustrate limitations of this rhetoric. Lastly, he argues that the political invisibility of geographical and cultural processes–especially memory work–is compromising and undermining the attainment of a peace process that might extend beyond the limitations of power-sharing between the two antipluralist political parties.