Forgiving And Remembering In Northern Ireland

As Northern Ireland moves from conflict to tentative peace, ongoing violence and unrest underline that the province remains a turbulent and troubled society. This book brings together contributions from those directly affected by the Troubles who work for peace and reconciliation in their communities. The issues they raise are given poignancy and power by being grounded in human experience, and provide a necessary starting point for exploring the tensions which arise in the struggle to reconcile forgiveness and remembrance in order to create a more purposeful and meaningful future. They have important implications not only for Northern Ireland but also for other societies emerging from conflict.

Stephen Cherry's Michael Ramsey Prize shortlisted Healing Agony argues that one of the most profound challenges a human being can ever face is how to forgive in the aftermath of injury, hurt or violation. This book explores the theology of forgiveness alongside a number of contemporary forgiveness stories in order to glean insights for those facing just this challenge. While God's forgiveness is revealed to be a simpler matter than is sometimes imagined, forgiveness between human beings is shown to be far more difficult, enigmatic and open-ended. This book offers a map of the rugged terrain that victims of serious harm, or those who seek to accompany them, will need to navigate if they embark on the venture of trust we call forgiveness. A Group Study guide for this title is available at http://religion.cherry.continuumbooks.com

Northern Ireland has a complex urbanism with multilayered socio-spatial politics. In this environment, issues of communication, self-representation and expression of identity are central to the experience of urban space and architecture where the dichotomy of division and shared living are spatially exercised in everyday life. Unlike other studies in the area, this book focuses on the everyday experiences of local communities in both public and private spheres - issues of ‘shareness’ - challenging conventional approaches to divided cities. The book aims to layer its narratives of architectural and social developments as an urban experience in post-conflict settings over the past two decades.

Based on interview material with a wide range of Protestant clergy in Northern Ireland, this book examines how Protestant identity impacts on the possibility of peace and stability and argues for greater involvement by the Protestant churches in the transition from conflict to a 'post-conflict' Northern Ireland.

The author of such works as Lamb, Cal, and Grace Notes, Bernard MacLaverty is one of Northern Ireland's leading-and most prolific-contemporary writers. Bringing together leading scholars from a full range of critical perspectives, this is a comprehensive survey of contemporary scholarship on MacLaverty. Covering all of his novels and many of his short stories, the book explores the ways in which the author has grappled with such themes as The Troubles, the Holocaust, Catholicism, and music. Bernard MacLaverty: Critical Readings also includes coverage of the film adaptations of his work.

Myriad works discuss forgiveness, but few address it in the prison context. For most people, prisoners exist "out of sight and out of mind." Their stories are often reduced to a few short lines in news articles at the time of arrest or conviction. But what happened before in the lives of the convicted? What has happened after? How have people in prison dealt with the harm they have caused and the harm they have suffered? What does forgiveness mean to them? What can we outsiders learn about the nature of forgiveness and prison from individuals who have both dealt and endured some of life's most painful experiences? Expanding on his MPhil dissertation Echoes from Exile (with Distinction) from Trinity College Dublin, Michael McRay's important new book brings the perspectives and stories of fourteen Tennessee prisoners into public awareness. Weaving these narratives into a survey of forgiveness literature, McRay offers a map of the forgiveness topography. At once storytelling, academic, activism, and cartography, McRay's book is as necessary as it is accessible. There is a whole demographic we have essentially ignored when it comes to conversations on forgiveness. What would we learn if we listened?

Simpson offers a reflective and theoretical explanation of the ways in which unionists conceive of the past in the present post-conflict environment. He considers the ways in which scholarly literature has often painted an outdated and inaccurate portrait of a highly complex people.

What insights can we gain from the social sciences about the role memory plays in creating or re-creating the many conflicts threatening global peace in the twenty-first century? Indeed, can knowledge about the relationship between memory and conflict help resolve intergroup conflicts and heal individual hurts? This book presents a series of essays both theoretical and empirical that approach these questions from a variety of disciplines that will highlight a much-neglected aspect of one of the major problems facing the world today.