‘That's their history’: can a museum's historical programme inform the reconciliation process in a divided society?

Abstract

In 1998 the Ulster Museum's exhibition, ‘Up in Arms! The 1798 Rebellion in Ireland’, commemorated the bicentenary of the 1798 Rebellion, an event which saw the birth of both constitutional nationalism and the concept of the armed struggle in Ireland. The hostilities of 1798 bore all the hallmarks of a civil war, with an estimated 30,000 dead and up to 5,000 transported or exiled. It left long memories in the Nationalist community and something akin to a cultural amnesia among the Unionists (even though the United Irishmen who led the rebellion were originally largely Protestants). The failure of the rebellion led directly to the Act of Union of 1800, the raison d' être of0 the Unionist community. The political and social unrest of the years prior to the outbreak of rebellion in 1798 had seen the formation of the Orange Order, the staunchly Protestant society whose processions, seen as colourful by the Protestant community and as intimidating by the Catholic community lie at the heart of the current post-conflict tensions.