kritika kultura_hoey_performing the peace process and performing the past

8/12/2019 KRITIKA KULTURA_Hoey_Performing the Peace Process and Performing the Past

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Hoey / Performing the Peace Process 436

Kritika Kultura 21/22 (2013/2014): 456 Ateneo de Manila University

IN THE IRISH REPUBLICAN

COMMEMORATION

Paddy Hoey

Edge Hill University

[email protected]

Abstract

In the years since the signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland,there has been a structural realignment of the Irish republican activist milieu. Te agreementdelivered the end of armed struggle for the largest republican militant group, the ProvisionalIRA, and provided the opportunity for the electoral growth of its formerly subordinatepolitical wing, Sinn Fin. Te latter has become the dominant gatekeeper of republicanidentity, defining ideologically important performative rituals, like commemorations.During the period of the Peace Process, these rituals self-consciously eschewed armed anduniformed displays of military force that were central to the propaganda war of the roubles,

such as those of the Hunger Strikes in . New performative rituals of commemorationsymbolized the political transformation in Provisional republicanisms strategy. In termsof typology, rituals such as graveside orations on important commemorative dates, werereimagined to signify not military strength, but political and cultural development, withstreet theatre taking the place of parading and drilling. However, the peace agreement didnot deliver the reunification of Ireland and the end of British rule, which had been thecentral aims of republican resistance. Dissident groups, who split from the Provisionals asa result of opposition to the Peace Process, have grown in support. Militant groups like theReal IRA(RIRA) have contested the internal cultural hegemony of Sinn Fin by emphasizingparamilitarist traditions at their own commemorations and funerals. By utilizing masked

volunteers to deliver graveside orations and employing armed guards to fire gunshots

over the coffins of dead members, they have sought to reclaim the ideologically potentperformative rituals of the recent past to establish their claims to being the true keepers ofrepublicanisms ideological soul.

Keywords

Forum Kritika:Performance and Domination

PERFORMING THE PEACE PROCESS AND

PERFORMING THE PAST


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Commemorative rituals, dissidents, Irish republicanism, Peace Process, Real IRA, SinnFein

About the Author

Paddy Hoey is a lecturer in Media at Edge Hill University. He is completing a PhD at theUniversity of Liverpools Institute of Irish Studies in the development of Irish republicanmedia strategies since the Good Friday Agreement. With Dr. Niall Carson, he is theco-author of Te Bell and Te Blanket: Journals of Irish Republican Dissent for New

Hibernia Review (), and with Dr. Robert Busby, he is the co-author of irg: ChangingNarratives in Irish Republican Activism, for the Cambridge Scholars volume Changes inContemporary Ireland().


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Republican memorialization and republican politics

In contemporary Irish republicanism there has become apparent an internalbattle for the control of the symbols and performative rituals of commemoration

linked to the structural reconfiguration of the aims and objectives of the partiesand groups within its ideological parameters. Te schism is between the dominantideological political party Sinn Fin, which has gradually assumed the role ofEstablishment republicanism (McKearney, ), and those dissident groups whohave diverged from its reformist direction.

Sinn Fin completed a transformation from being the marginalized andsubordinate political wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), tobeing the dominant nationalist party in Northern Irish nationalism in the yearsin which it was involved in the Peace Process (Bean, ; Maillot, ). AlthoughPIRA had waged a -year armed campaign of violence against British rule inNorthern Ireland, aimed at the unification of Ireland and the ending of British

rule in Northern Ireland, Sinn Feins transformation was not born of a victoriousguerilla campaign of liberation, but from being a key actor involved in the PeaceProcess and the facilitation of the decommissioning of PIRAweapons. During thePIRAcampaign, the trappings of militarism including uniformed and armed colorparties were central symbolic and aesthetic anchors of Provisional republicanculture. However, the Good Friday Agreement led to the establishment of thedevolved Northern Ireland assembly that fell some way short of republicanismsaims of Irish separatism. One of the key internal struggles for Establishmentrepublicanism has been to reconcile the transition from strategies predicated onmilitarism to reconfiguring them within a peace settlement that has delivered lessthan republicanisms ultimate goal of a united Ireland.

While Sinn Fin had been engaged in a sustained -year strategy of grass-rootsactivism to build its political and social power and transform the partys raisondtre from political wing to political party, the failure to deliver republicanismsseparatist ideals was the root of the emergence of militant dissident groups. WhileSinn Fin reimagined the aesthetics and language of commemorative republicantradition to emphasize a new demilitarized movement, dissidents and militantshave sought to reclaim and perform older traditions of resistance and defiance.

Sinn Fins reformist impulses have developed modes of performingrepublicanisms past that emphasize non military cultural heritage, while themilitants have sought to establish their traditional separatist credentials by

reaffirming the militarist underpinning of the past. Sinn Fins new commemorativerituals have stripped Republican memorialization of overt paramilitary trappings.Similar cultural re-imaginings have taken place in wider Northern Irish society inthe post GFAera, most prominently with divisive Orange Order th of July paradesbeing rebranded as Orange Fest, an inclusive cultural festival rather than a quasi-fanatical Protestant, celebration of celebration and otherness (Culture Northern


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Ireland, ). Within republicanism, historical reenactment and street theatrehave recreated periods of the revolutionary eras, without the defiant, militaristsymbolism of the recent past. Tis mirrors the changes within the politicalaspirations of Sinn Fin and the political and media demands of the normalization

process inherent to many post-conflict situations (McDowell ).Te reemergence of violent and organized dissident groups, such as the armed

militants of the Real IR A(RIRA) and Continuity IR A(CIRA) and their associatedpolitical outlets, the County Sovereignty Movement (CSM) and RepublicanSinn Fin (RSF), has been based on opposition to the Good Friday Agreementand its confirmation of the partition of Ireland. Within the ambit of the ritualsof commemoration, this opposition, based in republican traditionalism, has seena rejection of Sinn Fins shift to cultural reenactments of the republican pastand a reaffirmation of a performance of republican commemorative rituals thatemphasizes militarism and armed force at memorial events. Tat dissidents havesought to reclaim the tradition of republican militarism at commemorations is

emblematic of the ongoing battle for hegemony within republicanism, with thecontrol of the dominant internal and external symbols and narratives central toany conflict (Gramsci ). Both approaches to commemoration are essentiallyperformative; they are highly choreographed and staged at strategicallyimportant physical and psychological occasions for republicans, like gravesidesor symbolically important dates in its calendar. Teir mise-en-scne is designedto amplify the resonance of the occasions to the audience. Commemorations ofmilitary struggle, denuded of militarism in Establishment re-imagination, havebecome militarized again. Te use of masked volunteers at graveside orations, thedefiant narratives of their speeches and the performance of military strength areconceived not only to appeal to their own dissident audience, but to convey deepersense of intent to wider publics via the watching mass media. Te mass media hasbecome central in the communication of political strategy in late modernity, andperformance, conceived to communicate aims and objectives to wider audiences,has become more important than policy. In effect, politics has become affected bypublic relations and McNair argues that the application of the various techniquesassociated with public relations undermines the communicative and discursivestandards required of a healthy democracy (). Te Northern Irish PeaceProcess has been a key instance of the shift from the process of political policy tothe process of performing politics. Te media space became the key battlegroundof communication, rather than the policy or social space. Te dominant political

actors within the Peace Process have used the mediated and mediatized spaceof political communication to convey implicit and explicit meaning to multiplecompeting publics, both sympathetic and antagonistic to their cause. As Kershawsituated culture within political performance as being saturated with discoursesof power, the exercise of republican rituals can be seen as fundamentally aboutthe politics of performance (Kershaw ). In this sense, the performative rituals of


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Irish republicanism, aimed at conveying progressive demilitarized Establishmentmessages, or traditional resistance of the militants, is based on both semiotic and

verbal nuance. In doing so, it reflects the centrality of both the media as a dominantsite of political engagement in the Peace Process (Dixon, ) and the highly

scripted nature of political communication within in it (Dixon, ). It was alsoan extension of the media as a site of ideological conflict in recent Irish history. Terecent coalescence of republicans and the governmental actors in a more benignand mutually supportive space was a key shift from the period of broadcastingbans in the Republic of Ireland (-) and in the United Kingdom (-).

Mediation and mediatization in the choreography ofthe Peace Process

Commemorative events and their performative rituals are important organizingfulcrums of the republican calendar and have, until the relatively recent past, been

the central means of celebrating the sacrifice of the heroes of the republican strugglewhile also providing a forum in which to restate collective confidence and identityand emphasize optimism for the future success of the republican cause (Jarman). Tey are central points of focus for the republican activist media, framing theproduction of activist texts and providing a strategic focus for activists themselves(Dalton, ). Tey are however conceived as events that are to be consumed inboth a mediated and mediatized sense within the parameters of modern systemsof political communication and their meanings are not limited to their immediatepublics but operate within established economies of mediation of the macro-political arena. While mediated communication relates to the role of the massmedia in the production and reception of interpersonal communication (Krotz,), it is also a mediating or intermediary force in the interrogation of politics bymass publics (Mazzoleni & Schultz, ). Politics is mediated whenever the massmedia are the main channels through which politics is communicated (Strmbck), and within the context of the Northern Irish media sphere, the print andbroadcast media have had an enormous influence on the communication of politicsand, in particular, the promotion of the ideological values of the peace process(Wolfsfeld, ; Baker & McLaughlin, ). As an extension of the influenceof the mediated world, staged political events designed for specific mediatizedpurposes are delineated as pseudo events (Boorstin, ), specifically designedto fit in with the media agenda and influence it. Republican groups have tended to

use commemorations in the manner in which Boorstin theorized press conferencesand photo-opportunities, as events and spaces in which to control the framing ofinformation, both in terms of visual and textual interpretation. In this sense, politicalcommunication and its performance, have become facets of the mediatized world,where political policy, strategy and presentation are shaped to appeal to medialogic (Hjarvard, ). Te media has become, integrated into the operations


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of social institutions and become institutions themselves, and social interactionwithin the respective institutions, between institutions, and in society at large -takes place via the media (Hjarvard ). Te media and its own institutionallyprocessed logic is the dominant arbiter of political and social interaction within

the modern mediated space and, as such, public displays by political actors, to gainwider distribution, must satisfy this logic.

Tus, in the case of the conception of the demonstration or performance ofpolitics at political events by political parties, like commemorations, the script,staging and setting are intended to attract the attention of, and influence, mediagatekeeping institutions covering them. Form and setting therefore dominatecontent, aimed at appealing to a media that is involved in the construction of itsown internally processed meaning of events and personalities that they report(Altheide & Snow, ).

Te specifically mediated / mediatized nature of the Northern Irish PeaceProcess is another important factor to consider in any analysis of the re-imagining

of commemoration by reformist republicans or traditionalist militants. Te PeaceProcess, throughout the period before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement,represented a phase of the propaganda war (Dixon, ), which had first beenwaged against republicans during the roubles (Curtis, ). Tis phase sawpolitical choreography utilized by political elites to communicate appropriatemessages to various audiences in an attempt to bring them to an accommodation(Dixon ). Tese elites, ranging from the British and Irish governments to localnationalist parties, including Sinn Fin, coordinated moves to send appropriatemessages to conflicting audiences and so push the peace process forward (Dixon). While there remains diverse opinion concerning the ethics and efficacy of thepolitical manipulation or lying inherent to the Peace Process, it provided Sinn Finwith the experience to learn the means through which to communicate effectivelyits policy and changes of position (Spencer, ). Sinn Fins external framingemphasized demilitarization, normalization, accommodation and progress awayfrom militarism (Bean, ), while internally, its rituals also had to balance theconjoined need to celebrate the heritage and sacrifice of the armed struggle fromwhich it had gradually built its political platform. Clearly, this presented ideologicalproblems for traditional republicans for whom the Peace Process delivered lessthan the sum of their aspirations. Te normalization of commemorative ritualssymbolized the acceptance of the defeat of republican insurrection and denudedtheir political identity of the symbolic defiance upon which it had historically been

predicated. Te stripping of republican commemorations of overt trappings ofmilitarism is not a recent phenomenon and is indicative of a longer held strategyby Sinn Fin. A concerned contributor to the internal provisional republicanmagazineIris Bheag(Small Magazine) had noted the changes in the performance ofrepublican commemoration in , observing that the usually armed and masked


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color party had been diminished at a key event, saying defiance was always one ofour strong points, without it we will be left to the history books (Moloney ).

The development of republican commemoration

Tere are five major events in republican history that are celebrated each year Bloody Sunday (January), the Easter Rising (March/ April), the birth of leaderWolfe one (June), the Hunger Strikes (August), Internment (August), (Jarman,). Te rituals evident at these marches and commemorations have beeninfluenced by the culture of republican funerals during the roubles, and by theolder ecclesiastical calendar and religious culture of commemoration of sacrifice,particularly that of Easter. Commemorations for the first three saw an escalationin the use of overt trappings of militarism throughout the s, with uniformed,masked and often armed color parties evident at graveyards where the memorialservice were held. While these emphasized strength to the outside world, as mediated

events in the current age, they are designed to convey more nuanced expression ofrepublicanism. Tese mediated events are received and interpreted in the mannerof primary, secondary and tertiary media texts (Fiske, ), where the tertiaryaudience also molds the text through interpretative interaction in mediated spaces.Te primary audience, the participants, and those present at commemorations,are implicated in informing the secondary audience that receives images andmessages via mass media, while the tertiary or subsequent audience, who areinformed of the commemoration through mediated representations from theprimary and secondary audience, become active interpreters of what has been

viewed. Te subsequent audience is a vital target for republicanism, in particularEstablishment republicanism keen to emphasize its social and political progressionaway from armed struggle and paramilitarism. Tis position was communicated inboth direct and sub-textual means and commemorative culture was, a means ofrallying the faithful and presenting an image to the world, and had a number ofsocial functions and multiple meanings for participants and observers (Bean ).

Benedict Andersons analysis of the construct of the imagined community(Anderson, ) is important to consider when explicating the performance ofrepublican commemorative rituals. Tese commonly held and collectively observed,quasi-religious rituals, create physical and psychological spaces within which therepublican community forges and develops a collectivized sense of identity that hasoften been suppressed by the apparatus of the state. Tey represent the creation of

an alternative or surrogate state, in which these performative rituals contribute tothe generation of an individualized internal ideological apparatus that sustains it.Republicanism in this sense works as a state within a state (Bean, ) and the semi-religious nature of the spectacle and observance, and of republican memorialization,inwardly legitimates its subaltern status. Tat these commemorations and theirperformative rituals have maintained a central space in the calendars both of


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Establishment and dissident republican groups speaks to the culturally importantnature of commemoration in the constitution of Irish Catholic identity. Tese differfrom the celebrations of unionists as commemoration not of successes, but ratherthe defiant defeats of previous generations which serve as ideological sustenance.

Tese commemorations often remember history from the point of view of thelosers, the victims, each new hurt ratcheting up the memory of the precedingone, and you are not allowed to forget them (Elliott ), while republican paradescommemorate the continued resolve in defeat and the determination to carry onthe fight (Jarman ). Tis is an important intergroup ideological dynamic forrepublicans as, war commemoration and memorialization is a powerful connectingstrand between national allegiance and national identity, and the legitimation offorce (Brown, Viggiani, ). Tese commemorations, even those for failed rebels,have served to construct collectivized modes of belonging among geographically,politically diverse and marginalized people. Te commemoration of the symbolicsacrifices of republicans across the last three centuries is intentionally constructive

as a unifying force for republican communities still divided by partition.Ideologically and politically marginalized from the states in which they existed

through the twentieth century, the focus of much republican activism on the deadand their sacrifice has allowed for the construction of the imagined collectivizedrepublican people in the face of state repression. Tese commemorative ritualsbecame particularly important for the republican movement in the s and swhere, through the years of state proscription, broadcasting bans and politicalmarginalization, there were few opportunities for overt public displays of politicaland military strength. During the turbulent period of the Hunger Strikes, colorparties firing shots over coffins of dead republican volunteers proved to be a potentsymbol of defiance against the British state and were effective propaganda tools formarginalized paramilitary groups, as were the mass mobilizations of republicansfor the funerals of the dead men (Mulcahy, ). Tese rituals were both powerfulcounter hegemonic rituals of defiance against the British presence in Ireland.

Provisional performance is an amalgam, peppered with emotional contentand appeals, binding together ritual display, blunt symbolic communication,and public projection of political messages and historic tropes and narratives(Brown Viggiani )

In a performative sense, especially taken from the standpoint of reading the

propaganda war as a mediatized conflict, the Hunger Strikes marked a success forthe Provisional movement. Te images of dead hunger strikers, beret and gloveson the open casket at their wakes, the Irish ricolour draped on their coffins and

volleys of shots fired at gravesides, were internal and external shows of defiancecaptured by the global media. Crucially, they also contributed to a period ofmomentary mass support for the republican struggle from the Catholic community,


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both north and south of the Irish border, which had previously been opposed toProvisional IR Acampaign. Te last time there had been mass popular support forthe northern nationalist cause in the Republic of Ireland had occurred in inthe aftermath of Bloody Sunday and centered on mass protests which culminated

in the burning of British Embassy in Dublin. Te mise-en-scneof the republicanfuneral is important in this instance because it denotes both the sacrifice and thebrutality visited upon the dead men and the ultimately symbolically performativenature of their struggle. McLoone notes, it was important for republicans thatthese funerals reflected the military nature of their struggle (). Te resonanceof the funeral rites of republican martyrs remain powerful symbolic presenceswithin the establishment republican identity, note the centrality of Hunger StrikerBobby Sands to the modern republican folk memory. Te outward militarism ofthe funerals and their ritual legacy gradually disappeared from the Provisionalactivist commemorative repertoire from , initially under pressure fromCatholic church leaders (Moloney, ). While militarized displays would garner

infrequent or isolated focus in the mainstream media in the period of gradualdemilitarization, that is from to the signing of the agreement, themilitants would introduce both masked color parties and volleys of shots in recent

years, courting controversy in the process.As a typology, republican commemorative rituals therefore encompass both

commemorations on key dates for the republican struggle and speeches given atthe graves of historically and ideologically important figures, usually martyrs forthe cause. Te graveside or graveyard oration is an enduring feature of republicancommemoration, and in its current phase is directly linked to the orationof Patrick Pearse at the grave of the Fenian leader ODonovan Rossa. Gravesideorations have been laden with direct and symbolic content and have provided aspace to invigorate republicans during periods of struggle and marginalization.Tey have signposted the changing tenor of Establishment republican thinkingwhile also remaining opportunities for politically marginalized traditionalistrepublicans to communicate to wider political audiences via the mainstream andactivist media.

Prior to the Peace Process and at the outset of the Provisionals Long Warstrategy aimed at forcing British public opinion to call for a withdrawal oftroops (OBrien, ), Jimmy Drumms speech at the symbolically importantBodenstown cemetery signposted a shift in Provisional republican thinking with amore pronounced left wing perspective emerging (Bean & Hayes, ). For Sinn

Fin, Bodenstown has become an important site to communicate the gradualistmove away from militarism, while still situating these reforms in the importantideological legacy of Wolfe one for the wider republican movement. Key addressesat Bodenstown commemorations would signify reforms in the establishmentrepublican movement, with one in particular, by Sinn Fins Jim Gibney in ,

preparing the base for a dramatic shift in position (Bean ). Te response of


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militants in the recent years of increased dissident activity, was to use their owncommemorative graveyard orations to reclaim for traditionalist performativepurposes, with masked volunteers reading defiant messages, including threateninga campaign of attacks in Britain (Bates, a).

Performance, power and media reaction to recentrepublican commemorative rituals

While dissident republicans were involved in a recapturing of the defiantaesthetics and performance of older commemorative rituals, Sinn Fin wasinvolved in its own development of the commemorative repertoire. Te newmeans of republican commemoration would see a marked difference in the dressand manner of those parading and would also incorporate street-theatre andreenactment of the republican struggle. Tese were operational examples of thechanging aesthetic and narrative linked to Sinn Fins demilitarization of the IR A

and its reconfigured role within the republican movement. Te Irish News notedof the Bodenstown commemoration:

Te event has been traditionally led by a colour party wearing black beretsand black or khaki jumpers. But this year was different. Gone were theparamilitary trappings and in their place a colour party wore green blazers.It could have been a parade led by tennis umpires at Wimbledon. (Murphy,)

Te process was part of the modern political makeover that re-branded the IR A,both for internal and external audiences (Murphy, ). However, the changingnature of establishment republican commemoration was more than simply anaesthetic re-branding exercise in a modern corporate sense, but was central to theshift from armed political struggle to one which situated the struggle within thewider context of identity politics that emphasized Irish language, history and cultureas shared cultural values for nationalists beyond the republican hinterland (Bean,). o re-iterate McDowell, this reflected the changing political ambitions ofSinn Fin, now the leading nationalist party in government in the north, that hadsignificantly increased its vote and profile in the Republic of Ireland.

Te re-branding process also encapsulated the new repertoire of performancethat replaced displays of militarism and strength with street theatre and tableaux

which recreated republicanisms past for the internal audience, but which wasstripped of menace for those outside of republicanism. Tis strategy wasinitially utilized in Bloody Sunday remembrance marches in Derry in the lates, where street theatre, aimed at parodying the original discredited WidgeryReport into the events of the atrocity, became a playful, carnivalesque andsymbolic inversion of the canonical official memory (Conway ). Tis use of


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drama and reenactment has developed to include performative interpretationsof republicanisms past, including representations of the Easter Rising andthe Hunger Strikes (gra Shinn Fin, ). In , and , the EasterRising was marked in County yrones annual commemoration by street-theatre

productions of specific events of the rebellion. Prior to the reenactment, SinnFin councilor Sean Begley stated, A reenactment of this historic event wouldnot only provide good theatre, but would be extremely educational, as well asbeing a fitting way to remember those who have died (West yrone Sinn Fin,). Rather than being designed for a politically heuristic, emotional responseof solidarity and defiance, it was aimed at different emotional modality. It wasreported after the event that the reenactment was very poignant and emotional,particularly the execution scenes, and received a rapturous round of applause fromthe hundreds who turned out to watch (gra Shinn Fin, ). Photographicevidence of the performance shows costumed volunteers recreating the earlyactions of the uprising and being executed before an audience on the streets of

Carrickmore, a predominantly nationalist town in County yrone. (gra ShinnFin, ). Building on this Sealed Knot style recreation spectacle of , the Easter commemoration utilized a dramatic script and narrative and portrayedthe story of leader Joseph Plunkett and Grace Gifford, the woman he marriedhours before his execution by the British government. Written and choreographedby a local author, it was also performed by actors in a conventional piece of theatre(West yrone Sinn Fin, ). It marked a new dimension in the breadth and scopeof commemoration in the modern establishment republican movement.

Fig. : Re-enactment: Sinn Fin activists recreate the executions of Easter Risingleaders


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While these commemorations were divested of the threat of older displays ofdefiance, some have remained controversial within the context of the contestedspace of commemorative culture of Northern Ireland. In August , at an annualSinn Fin Hunger Strike commemoration in the County yrone town of Galbally,

men paraded as IR Avolunteers on patrol, armed with replica weapons, beforea series of tableaux were performed demonstrating various phases in the life anddeath of a hunger striker, from arrest, to interrogation and the deathbed scene. Teseperformances included activists and volunteers playing parts of IR Amen, Britishsoldiers, police interrogators and family and clergy. However, despite being divestedof the overt menace or defiance of the revolutionary era, they caused controversyafter being displayed on blogs and the social media photography website Flickr.com (Fealty, ). Tis controversy was illustrative of a deeper power battle lyingat the centre of the Peace Process away from the ideological inter group disputes ofrepublicanism. Firstly, the use of replica weapons on a local sporting ground ownedby the Gaelic Athletic Association, a predominantly nationalist organization, were

the focus of objections by pro-British unionist politicians and newspapers witha unionist political standpoint. Nelson McCausland, the Northern Ireland sportsminister from the hardline Democratic Unionist Party, told the unionist newspaperTe Newsletter,

Sport has tremendous potential tobring communities together and tocontribute to a shared and betterfuture. Tis is an aspiration to whichthe vast majority of the populationhere subscribe. Te events inGalbally have been deeply divisiveand do nothing to promote harmonyin our community. (Purdy, )

Secondly, the ethno-religious faultlines inherent in performing boththe Peace Process and performingthe past were evident within thecontext of the direct contemporarypolitical context of the Galbally

reenactment. While the republicanmovement has remained committed

Fig. : Active service: A re-enactment ofIRAactive service at a Hunger Strikescommemoration


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and proud of the contribution made by IR Avolunteers... just like unionists haveevery right to honour their dead, (Maguire, ), it did so within the symbolicallycontested space of commemorative politics in Northern Ireland. As Sinn Fin wasinvolved in historical street theatre at Galbally, it was also actively campaigning for

the banning of Unionist Orange commemorative parades held in Catholic areas.In this case, it objected to the display of paramilitary flags at Orange marches. Inthe aftermath of one petition against a march, in Co Antrim, there were tit-for-tatreprisals of vandalism on an Orange Hall and an Ancient Order of Hibernians Hall(Newsletter, ). Despite the changing nature of the performance of republicanself-memorialization as an outward symbol of progress away from militarism, theinterpretative symbols of commemoration remained contested and divisive withinthe overarching power struggle of the Peace Process and Sinn Fin was chargedwith holding double standards (Henry, ). However, it must be noted thatafter the conflict over the Galbally reenactment and a further storm surroundingthe use of replica weapons in a Hunger Strike memorial in Dungiven, in August

, Sinn Fin, called for an end to military paraphernalia at nationalist parades(Belfast elegraph, ). Te advent of online and social media expanded thecanon of activist media strategies, and enabled activists to exercise a greater degreeof narrative control. In an interesting intervention on a news blog, senior SinnFin figure Sean Murray, responded to an online news article on the Dungivencommemoration, with the words,

We need to question the display of replica weapons as a form of pageantryat some Hunger Strike commemorations. What message does this sendout in the context of a genuine drive for reconciliation and nation building?Do some of our bands in military style uniform, with militarist symbols ondrums convey a sense of de-militarization and an acceptance of peaceful anddemocratic means? Tese and other questions are already being debatedwithin Republican circles. (Rowan, )

Dissident republicanism: reclaiming paramilitarysymbolism

While Sinn Fin was in the process of developing a new form of expressiverepublican commemorative reenactment, dissident republicans were involved inrecapturing the symbolic rituals of the revolutionary era. wo months after the

Galbally commemoration, Real IR Avolunteer John Brady died in police custodyin Derry (McDonald, a). At his funeral, the trappings of Hunger Strike-erafunerals returned, and would set a pattern for both the commemorative ritualsof dissidents and their reporting by the mainstream media. Te dead mans bodywas photographed for dissident media outlets in open casket, his gloves and beretdisplayed prominently as it was saluted by a four man masked guard (Republican


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News, ). Prior to his funeral service, the volley of shots fired over the coffin,that evoked the rituals of the Hunger Strike era was described by the Guardiannewspaper as a show of strength (McDonald, b), and as a chilling scene thatshould have been consigned to history, by the right wingDaily Mail(Bates, b).

Coming towards the end of a year when dissident republicanism was resurgentafter the killings of three members of the security forces and armed attacksin total, it was a show of strength designed to send out a message of defiance tothe British and Irish governments, Sinn Fin, and the political community as awhole. As a performance, it was designed to highlight that dissidents, in this casethe Real IR A, were the real keepers of the republican flame and its performativerituals of commemoration mandated their guardianship of militant republicanismscontemporary legitimacy. It was the latest example of republican groups makingapparent Gerry Adams famous phrase about the IR Aprior to decommissioning,

they havent gone away, you know, described by novelist Glenn Patterson as oneof the soundbites of the Post roubles era. (Patterson, )

Tis sense of recapturing and restating the custodianship of traditional

commemorative rituals for wider mediatized purpose was evident in , whenthe Real IR Aused the funeral of Dublin volunteer Alan Ryan to stage a similarfuneral. However, that it took place in the Republic of Ireland, where support forrepublican militants was more diminished than in Northern Ireland, and isolatedto small pockets of geographically specific support, is central to its defiant design.It was also criticized due to links between dissident activity and conventional

Fig. : Brady Funeral: Te armed salute over the coffin of John Brady


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forms of criminality in the Republic of Ireland. While in Northern Ireland, thePeace Processs legitimation of diverse political activist groups has accommodateddissidents to some extent, in the Republic of Ireland, they were largely portrayedas conventional criminal gangs. Te color party and volley of shots at the Ryan

funeral were a more menacing echo of the republican past, as were other symbolsof republican commemoration, like black flags hung on lamp posts close to RyansNorth Dublin home.

Te arbitrative role of the media is central to the interpretation of dissidentcommemoration in this instance. While the British and Northern Ireland-basedmedia had been more circumspect in their denunciation of the spectacle atBradys funeral, sectors of the traditionally anti-republican media in the Republicof Ireland were more forceful in their condemnation of the Real IR A, and its

well-choreographed republican funeral (Irish Independent, ). Using aninterpretation of the past that Establishment republicanism had been keen to avoidcomparisons with, theIrish Independentnoted of the Real IR A,

Tey would turn Alan Ryan, extortionist and killer, into a martyr who diedfighting the drug barons on behalf of the downtrodden working classes. TeRIRAhad its equivalent of Bobby Sands. (Irish Independent, )

However, despite reclaiming the traditional means of performing the republicanpast, the dissidents achieved little political or media capital with the display, whichcould, at best, be read as merely indulging in paramilitary nostalgia for a limitednumber of core supporters. Mchel Mac Donncha, Sinn Fins councillor for thearea, and former editor of the party newspaper,An Phoblacht (Te Republic), said(in quotes widely circulated by the mainstream media), this violent faction isrejected by the community in Donaghmede and that they represent no-one butthemselves (Sinn Fin, ). Te justice minister in the republic, Alan Shatter,equated the spectacle as atavistic, serving as a performance of a primal and basenature,

Paramilitary trappings should not blind people to the fact that what is at issueis criminal terrorism carried on by people who, for their own reasons, want todrag the people of this island back to a dark past. (Lally, )

Te spectacle of masked men delivering graveyard orations at commemorations

was also an important element which returned to the traditional militant repertoire,or rather, received increased coverage in the media. Unionist politicians andthe mainstream media condemned Real IR A orations at Easter and commemorations. A Easter commemoration speech which threatened

violence in Britain, just weeks after dissident murders of the two soldiers and apoliceman in two separate incidents, received increased coverage from major news


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organizations. In both instances the militarized display of defiance and the orationwere amplified by the media as implicitly threatening spectacles despite notovertly being designated as such by the security forces. Tis internal logic of mediaorganizations clearly saw dissident performances as inherently more newsworthy

because of their links to dissident violence. Te oration, which utilized muchof the language of traditional republican resistance of the roubles and declaredthat the Real IR Awould continue to target crown forces and British interests andinfrastructure, was a target for Unionist politicians, who called for a more seriousapproach to policing commemorations and dissident shows of strength (McDonald,). As the dissident threat had become elevated after a number of attacksand murders on the security forces and increased instances of localized riotingin areas that had passed into dissident control, mediatized responses had calledfor a clampdown on any shows of strength, including those at commemorations.Certainly, in the Easter commemorations of , dissident commemorations weremuted and were denuded of overt trappings of paramilitarism.

Conclusion

Republican commemorative culture is inherently performative, and works on anumber of important levels that reflect the wider narratives of the political situationin which it finds itself and the narrower ideological issues surrounding the situationof contemporary republicanism itself. Te performance of republicanisms past indramatic tableaux or street theatre perhaps reflects the effects of the wideninghistorical and ideological distance between the revolutionary periods surroundingthe Rising and the / Hunger Strikes and the growing, younger voter baseof Sinn Fin. It also reflects the changing nature of the Sinn Fin which is embeddedin parliaments in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. As a result, itspublic expressions are consistently configured to appeal to either the mainstreammedia, or, at least, not to invite its criticism. Sinn Fin speaks more broadly, beyondthe confines of the older radical sector of republicanism in which are situated thetraditionalists and militants. For Sinn Fin the struggle has moved beyond that ofrevolutionary liberation movement, and its performances of the past represent thestruggle of cultural and identity politics at the heart of the Peace Process. Te counterhegemonic struggle is situated in the reconfiguration of commemorative ritualsthat contribute to the legitimation of Establishment republicanism culturally andpolitically it is a performance of the process of peace. Te dissidents, on the other

hand, represent a continuation of traditional republicanism, at least in terms of theircommemorative rituals. It is necessary to note in closing, that the dissidents aremerely a section of those republicans that have taken anti-Good Friday Agreementpositions. However, dissident commemorations that use the setting, language andrituals of the revolutionary era, remain performances. Tey are means of signifyingtheir standpoint and exaggerating their strength, primarily designed as internal


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displays for activists and supporters, but with episodes of mainstream mediaattention. Teir performance of the past is a means of establishing their credentialsas republicanisms custodians in the present, perhaps quixotically in the face of theoverwhelming social and political influence of Sinn Fin.


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Notes

. Baker & McLaughlin suggest that the media was an active and emotionallyinvolved agent in the dissemination of the Propaganda of Peace which emerged

across a range of media and cultural texts after the signing of the Good FridayAgreement in .. Te Bobby Sands rust, set up in the memory of the Hunger Striker, works

effectively as the executor of his cultural legacy. It holds the copyright to publishhis poetry and prose and acts to, inspire Irish republicans in their pursuitof freedom from British rule. Te battle over the control of the republicancommemorative rituals and folk memory is highly evident with the rust. Itis administered by a board including several senior Sinn Fin members, butwas denounced by Sands family as acting as an extension of SF(Sinn Fin)(Moloney, ).

. ODonovan Rossa was a member of the Irish republican separatist organization,the Fenians, and was jailed in England in for plotting a Fenian rising.

He was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and coordinated theDynamite Campaign in England of the s. Te IRBwould go on to be thedominant group in the execution of the Easter Rising which has remained ahuge ideological and cultural influence on republicans. Te oration, given at hisgraveside by Patrick Pearse, which ended with the words, Ireland unfree shallnever be at peace, was a significant ideological sustenance to the Provisionalsduring the roubles.

. Te annual Bodenstown commemoration in Sallins graveyard in Co. Kildarecelebrates the birth of the United Irishmen leader and the progenitor ofmodern republicanism, Teobald Wolfe one. It is a hallowed space, bothphysically and ideologically for republicans, given ones non-sectarianEnlightenment republicanism. His quote, o unite Protestant, Catholic and

Dissenter under the common name of Irishmen in order break the connectionwith England, the never failing source of all our political evils, that was myaim, has become a rallying cry for many republican groups and is included inmost orations at his commemoration. In recent years, seven separate republicangroups have held annual commemorations at his graveside.

. Sinn Fins journey from the political wing of the PIRAto the politicalmainstream was signposted when it replaced the SDLPas the largest nationalistparty in Northern Ireland in . Its vote has grown markedly in the Republicof Ireland and it gained of the popular vote in the general election.

. Te recreation of Bloody Sunday also echoes the documentary theatreproduction Scenes from the Saville Inquiryby Nicholas Kent and the ricycle

Teatre in . Kent told the Guardian newspaper, Te audience cant be aspassive as they would normally be. Tey cant say, Sit back and entertain me.Tey have to listen, they have to bring an inquiring mind. (Hoggard, )

. Te Orange Order is a Protestant group celebrating the victory of the ProtestantKing of England, William of Orange, at the Battle of the Boyne in . It isa strong political influence among northern Protestants and is central to the


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marching season in Northern Ireland. Its halls have historically been targets forbombings, firebomb attacks and vandalism. Te Ancient Order of Hiberniansis a Catholic nationalist organisation that had a strong political influence atthe turn of the th Century. It is, however, a marginal influence in modernnationalist society, but its drinking clubs are symbols of Catholic mobilization,which is why they are targeted for sectarian acts.

. Te Sealed Knot is the best-known British historical society involved inrecreations of the English Civil War, named after a secret th Century groupwho wanted the restoration of the English monarchy.

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