BURN/T OUT Dealing with Historical Displacement in Contemporary Belfast Dr. Brendan Ciarán Browne & Casey Asprooth-Jackson Dr. Brendan Ciarán Browne is Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution and Fellow at the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice, Trinity College Dublin Casey Asprooth-Jackson is an artist and filmmaker from Rochester, New York
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n Northern Ireland, addressing the legacy of over 30 years of armed conflict is a feature of the so-called ‘post-conflict’ climate. Dealing with the past has become an industry, with myriad (and much needed) community-based NGOs developing projects that shine light on those legacy issues that impact the everyday lives of victims and survivors. Simultaneously, ‘top-down’ historical enquiries and judicial investigations have been initiated alongside perceivably ‘softer’ grassroots approaches. Art, theatre and curatorial practice have been employed to widen the discussion and engage with a broader and more diverse public audience. One of the most under-examined aspects of the period of time often referred to as the “the troubles” (1969–1998) is the displacement of some 45–60,000 civilians forced from their homes as a result of outbreak of civil unrest and the associated trauma they experienced.1 Those who were ‘Burnt Out’ (to borrow the colloquialism) became either refugees (moving south of the Irish border or further afield), or remained within the Northern Irish state, becoming in modern-day 1. See S.J. Connolly & G. McIntosh, ‘Imagining Belfast’, in S.J. Connolly (ed.), Belfast 400: People, Place and History (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012), pp. 13–62; P. Conroy, T. McKearney & Q. Oliver, All over the Place: People Displaced to and from the Southern Border Counties as a Result of the Conflict 1969–1994 (Monaghan: Border Action, 2005). 15
