Burn/t Out

Dealing with Historical Displacement in Contemporary Belfast

Dr. Brendan Ciarán Browne Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution and Fellow at the Centre for Post-Conflict Justice, Trinity College Dublin

Casey Asprooth-Jackson Artist and Filmmaker

In 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 parlance, ‘Internally Displaced Persons’. 2 The impact of this mass movement of civilians remains pronounced in the present day, with residential and societal segregation a feature of ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland. 3

Installation view, Reflection (2019).

Photo by Mark Hamilton

The relatively scant volume of academic work on the issue of historic displacement is perhaps due to how widespread the phenomenon was. Perhaps a more cynical (or realistic) view could be proffered in that, the issue of the forcible displacement of civilians, despite being widespread, is not considered as significant when compared to the more impactful experiences of other victims and survivors; the death of a loved one being the most obvious. 4

And whilst sensitive to the need to avoid adding layers of complexity to the discourse around victimhood in Northern Ireland, with the help of a grant from the ISRF, the authors embarked upon a 2-year project to recover some of the hidden histories of displacement from victims and survivors across Northern Ireland. Subsequently, on April 10 th 2019 (coinciding with the 21 st anniversary of the signing of the historic Good Friday/Belfast Agreement), ‘Burn/t Out’ was launched at ArtCetera Studio, Belfast.

‘Burn/t Out’

Departing from documentary interviews with the ‘displaced’, the ongoing research project examines the long-term impact of being forced from your home as a result of violence or intimidation. In the first iteration of the exhibition in Belfast, these longform qualitative interviews with victims and survivors of displacement were exhibited alongside objects linked to the memories of those who experienced such trauma, as well as textual and visual representations of displacement. Methodologically speaking, research participants were ‘returned’ to the spaces where they were forced from and asked to reflect on the experience in terms of its enduring impact in the present day. The decision to make ‘public’ these oft-hidden ‘private’ experiences of violent displacement was one that the authors considered carefully, with the conclusion reached that, in order to advance a broader debate on the disproportionate impact of this traumatic moment on the many victims and survivors across the north, such experiences deserved to find a public representation beyond the pages of academic journals. Thus, it remains the very strong contention of the authors that, ‘those families who were violently displaced are indicative of the “everyday” victim and survivor in Northern Ireland, whose experiences will remain hidden behind a mask of stoicism’. 5

Sitting alongside recovery of traumatic narratives of displacement, one of the major issues the authors wished to investigate was the impact that continuous reflection on the past has on an exhausted presentday public, particularly those involved in a booming community NGO sector who have been grappling with ‘issues of the past’ since the signing of the 1998 Agreement. Thus, the study of displacement in Northern Ireland seeks to provoke reflection on a critically underexamined experience, while ruminating on the fatigue it has produced across society. Held at once, these opposing tendencies suggest a synthesis: that the endeavor to recall and recover from the trauma of the past is also the struggle not to burnout.

Choosing the Space: ArtCetera and Belfast City Centre

Arguably the most critical decision the authors had to make was where to physically exhibit their work; spatial segregation being one of the most enduring problems of the so-called ‘post-conflict’ political landscape (as noted above). Dialogue with engaged community actors, most notably ‘Healing Through Remembering’, an NGO with over 20 years’ experience in grappling with issues of the past, was considered prudent and necessary. Additionally, in being true to a desire to produce work that transcends disciplinary boundaries—a key feature of the approach to knowledge production favoured by the authors—an ‘expert’ panel from across the fields of art production and community work was assembled at Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room Hub, to problematise, inter alia, issues around curation and dissemination of findings.

Installation view, Remnants (2019) & Return (2019).

Photo by Mark Hamilton.

Installation view, Restitution (2019).

Photo by Mark Hamilton.

The decision where to exhibit was intricately linked to the need to avoid reproducing sectarian interpretations of the issue at hand. The phenomenon of violent displacement at the outset of ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland is one that cuts across the so-called sectarian divide. In essence, the authors were keen to avoid reproducing an ‘us versus them’ binary, one that would ultimately fail to advance meaningful discussion on the issue and effectively shut down wider engagement. Placing the work in perceived ‘single-identity’ community spaces across the city, areas that the ‘other’ community would not readily access, could perhaps have diluted the potential impact of the work overall. Belfast city centre—viewed by many as a ‘shared space’—was deemed the most appropriate location, with ArtCetera Studio, formerly of ‘Red Barn Gallery’ acclaim, chosen for its unassuming, malleable approach to art production and its longstanding engagement with art work that has at its core issues pertaining to social justice.

Detail, Restitution (2019).

Photo by Mark Hamilton.

Additionally, as a space under threat from ‘displacement’ of its own—the result of a rapid and at times, violent process of urban ‘regeneration’ 6 —there appeared something more than symbolic in choosing the venue. 7 Situated just beyond the border of Belfast’s rapidly-developing Cathedral Quarter, ArtCetera Studio is one of a handful of independent enterprises left in a neighborhood increasingly characterised by corporate retail. Indeed, if the ‘shared’ character of the city centre was once defined by the activity of community artists and alternative initiatives, today it is determined instead by neoliberal development policies enacted by the Northern Ireland State. 8 In seeking to produce a space for reflection on the history of violent displacement in Belfast, the authors were drawn to the site of a contemporary contestation regarding the kinds of spaces allowed to thrive in the city’s centre. Rendered within ArtCetera Studio’s walls, ‘Burn/t Out’ aimed to intervene in support of the independent and non-sectarian initiatives that provide the basis for substantive reflection and discourse.

Detail, Restitution (2019).

Photo by Mark Hamilton.

Enduring Violence

As a society in transition, Northern Ireland remains ‘at risk’ of spontaneous acts of violence that often throw the population ‘back’; if not in practice, certainly in thought. During the exhibition’s run (10 th – 22 nd April), news broke on Good Friday morning that a 29-year-old journalist, Lyra McKee, had been shot dead by the so-called dissident republican group, the ‘New IRA’, whilst covering a riot in Derry city.

The death of Ms McKee sent shockwaves across the north, and was felt acutely in both Derry and Belfast, of which Ms McKee was a native. The tragic killing further sharpened the focus of the authors who had long grappled with issues related to the showcasing of work that is ‘backwards’ focussed. However, it further demonstrated the crucial need to address the issues of ‘the past’ and the legacy of the past in the present, to move beyond this ‘negative peace’, 9 at a time when the transition in Northern Ireland remains challenging and unfinished.

Photo: Detail, Burn/t Out (2019).

Photo by Mark Hamilton.

Note: Brendan and Casey received an ISRF Small Group Award, 2018–19. The project continues to be the focus of study for both authors and has been commissioned for exhibition in Brussels https://www.theguardian.com/ news/2019/jun/25/the-new-left-economics-how-anetwork-of-thinkers-is-transforming-capitalism. For more information on the 2019 Belfast ‘Burn/t Out’ exhibition, please visit: https://bit.ly/2UqL2n2.

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).

2. See B.C. Browne & C. Asprooth-Jackson (2019) ‘From 1969 to 2018: Relocating historical narratives of displacement during ‘the Troubles’ through the European migrant crisis’, Capital & Class 43:1 (2019), pp. 23–28.

3. P. Shirlow & B. Murtagh, Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City (London: Pluto Press, 2006); P. Shirlow, ‘Belfast: A Segregated City’, in C. Coulter & M. Murray (eds.), Northern Ireland After the Troubles: A Society in Transition (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008), pp. 73–87.

4. C. Bell, ‘Dealing with the Past in Northern Ireland’, Fordham International Law Journal 26 (2002), pp. 1095–1147; S. McDowell, ‘Who are the Victims? Debates, Concepts and Contestation in ‘Post-Conflict’ Northern Ireland,’ Conflict Archive on the Internet (2007), accessed: 22 nd May 2019; M. Breen-Smyth, ‘The Needs of Individuals and their Families Injured as a Result of the Troubles in Northern Ireland,’ Northern Ireland: Wave Trauma Centre; S. Jankowitz, ‘The “Hierarchy of Victims” in Northern Ireland: A Framework for Critical Analysis’, The International Journal of Transitional Justice 12:2 (2018), pp. 216–236.

5. B.C. Browne, ‘The Troubles: Tens of Thousands of People were Violently Displaced in Northern Ireland’, The Conversation, February 21 st 2019.

6. W. Neill, ‘Marketing the Urban Experience: Reflections on the Place of fear in the Promotional Strategies of Belfast, Detroit and Berlin’, Urban Studies 38:5–6 (2001), pp. 815–828; F. Gaffikin, M. McEldowney & K. Sterrett, ‘Creating Shared Public Space in the Contested City: The Role of Urban Design’, Journal of Urban Design 15:4 (2010), pp. 493–513.

7. For more detail on the issue of the displacement of small business from Belfast city centre, and the process of urban regeneration therein, see: SaveCQ, Belfast. Available at: https://savecq.wordpress.com/whats-the-problem/ (Accessed: 22 nd May, 2019).

8. A. Grounds & B. Murtagh ‘The Neoliberalisation of the Cathedral Quarter and its Contestations’, paper presented at AESOP Prague Annual Congress 2015: Definite Space—Fuzzy Responsibility, Prague, Czech Republic.

9. J. Galtung, ‘Violence, Peace, and Peace Research’, Journal of Peace Research 6:3 (1969), pp. 167–191.