Dealing with the Past: shared and contested narratives in ‘post‐conflict’ Northern Ireland

This article explores a West Belfast commemoration project that challenges dominant narratives shielding State-sponsored violence from interrogation and demands that these acts be recognized and redressed. The remembrance trail offers a counternarrative by presenting memory that contests hegemonic constructs and articulates the need for justice. Both the trail’s temporality and its insistence on making conflict visible rather than homogenizing the past demonstrates its innovation and necessity in a society in transition.