Northern Ireland: Living with the Troubles

I recently saw the newly opened exhibition Northern Ireland: Living with the Troubles at the Imperial War Museum in London.

It’s not the typical exhibition that you find in museums, like a history lesson or a chronological series of objects and events that tell a story. Instead, it’s focused on the human experience of the Troubles.

For most non-British people, we learned about the history of the United Kingdom and Ireland and Northern Ireland as we’ve learned about any historical event: this happened then, and that happened then, and so on. But we didn’t get to discover what the people living through those events felt or hear their voices.

‘Northern Ireland: Living with the Troubles’ is one great opportunity to do precisely that. It puts human stories at the heart of the exhibition through newly collected objects and first-hand testimony.

The Imperial War Museum affirmed in its press release that The Troubles engulfed Northern Ireland in conflict for nearly 30 years. It was – and remains – a contentious period, with roots going back centuries. A cease fire was signed in 1998, yet many aspects of the conflict remain unresolved to this day and are highly contested by those who experienced and participated in it. While there are key events and defining moments that make up the history of the Troubles, there is often no single story that everyone involved can agree on. People have different perspectives on what took place.

The exhibition is based on testimonies related to four themes: the night of 27-28 June 1970; the heightened violence of the 1970s and 1980s; the everyday experience for those affected by the Troubles; and the legacy of the conflict within Northern Ireland today.

Through these voices, recorded as recently as 2022, you can hear from individuals on all sides of the conflict, from republican and loyalist paramilitaries to British soldiers, local police and ordinary civilians. A glossary at the start of the exhibition will explain who is who. Recounting everyday scenes of violence and the reality of living among deeply divided communities, these different perspectives help us understand the nuances and challenges of this conflict and the motivations, attitudes, anxieties, hopes and fears felt by those closest to it.

But the exhibition is not only about voices, and you can also see new objects, never-before-displayed in the museum: rubber bullets, propaganda posters and a Good Friday Agreement booklet, and rarer items, like a screen-printed handkerchief made by UVF paramilitaries in the Long Kesh internment camp.

Alongside these, archival photography depicting hunger strike riots, streets lined with Army checkpoints and wreckages of bombings paint a vivid picture of a country shaped by restrictions and torn apart by violence.

Another particularity of Northern Ireland: Living with the Troubles is that you find the curator’s words at the beginning of the exhibition. Craig Murray, Senior Curator, Cold War and Late 20th Century, also said: “So much of what took place during the Troubles is contested. This complex conflict, which happened on our very own doorstep, is remembered differently by those who lived through it and little understood by many of those who didn’t. In this exhibition, we hear from individuals who experienced the conflict first-hand. Sharing their stories is crucial to deepening understanding of this difficult period which is still felt in life and UK politics today.”

Northern Ireland: Living with the Troubles will be open at the Imperial War Museum in London until 7 January 2024.