Impact of Performing Memory in Northern Ireland

What is it about?

This article addresses the function of public presentations of personal memory in a post-conflict context and explores whether they may contribute to a preservation of that conflict. Drawing on the responses to the stories portrayed, it argues that, although such performative re-enactment of memory may add to an affirmation of collective ideidentity and thus to preserving boundaries, it allows a community of memory to examine past events of suffering and explore impacts that reach into the now.

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Why is it important?

By using the case study of a commemorative verbatim theatre production about memories of the massacre of „Bloody Sunday‟ in Northern Ireland, the article investigates whether the literal embodiment of memories on a stage triggers memory that is stored in the spectator's own body, if such embodied memory necessarily includes emotions, whether these are essential for a preservation of memory and what such embodiment means for the collective identity of individual communities and the wider society.