Today, April 10, marks the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a peace agreement that ended The Troubles, a period of sectarian strife and violent attacks in Northern Ireland that lasted from 1968 to 1998 or so, in which more than 3,500 people lost their lives.
Since the signing of the agreement in 1998, the question of the representation of this highly contested history has been the subject of an ongoing debate in Northern Ireland. The role of museums has become central to this debate, in part because of the need for publicly run and funded institutions to remain politically neutral and fair to Northern Ireland’s disparate communities. Today, a number of museums across Northern Ireland and elsewhere in the UK reflect on how the Good Friday Agreement transformed Northern Irish society, while telling the stories of those who brought a fragile but lasting peace to the region.
Throughout the Troubles, the prevailing images of Northern Ireland were often dramatic and polarized. The majority of these images were taken by foreign photojournalists working for international media. Donovan Wylie, a former Magnum photographer and professor at the University of Ulster, says this has pushed photographers in Northern Ireland to portray their own culture. “It pushed us to seriously tackle issues of authenticity and authorship,” Wylie says. “As a result, the caliber of photography in Belfast is very high.”
jail and peace
To mark the anniversary of the deal, a film based on Wylie’s landmark series The labyrinth, a glimpse of the eponymous prison used to hold paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles, is presented by Belfast Exposed, the state-funded photography gallery (until 13 May). The film is co-directed by artist Peter Mann. “Exhibiting it on the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement will be symbolic,” says Wylie.
In another exhibition, Belfast-born artist Hannah Starkey will present a series of 21 portraits of women who have been influential in building peace. Principles and Revolutionaries: The Peaceful Women of Northern Ireland (April 7-September 10), is on view at the Ulster Museum, part of the National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI), and was commissioned by the Belfast Photo Festival.
“I’ve always wanted to thank the women who were around the table during the peace process, many of whom are from working class backgrounds, like my own mother,” Starkey says. Also giving a platform to lesser-known stories is Silent testimony, an exhibition of portraits by Belfast painter Colin Davidson that focuses on victims and survivors of the Troubles. The series is the result of a partnership between the artist, the Ulster Museum and the Wave Trauma Centre, a cross-community charity for victims. The paintings will be on display at Stormont, the seat of devolved government in Northern Ireland.
Multiple Perspectives
NMNI, meanwhile, launched Collect problems and beyond, an initiative supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, which aims to make the Ulster Museum’s Troubles Gallery more inclusive by collecting and displaying acquired objects to the public.
Hannah Crowdy, curatorial officer at NMNI, says the title of the project is carefully considered. “It’s an ongoing project,” she says. “We have a common past, but we don’t have a common memory. So, while the exhibition considers the legacy of the past, we also look beyond, towards a better future.
In 2021, Array Collective, a Belfast-based group of 11 artists, became the first Northern Irish winner of the Turner Prize for their recreation of a síbín, now on display in Belfast.
Photo © Ulster Museum
But perhaps the most important work on display will be that of the Array Collective, a group of 11 artists based in Belfast. In 2021, the collective became the first Northern Irish artist to be awarded the Turner Prize for The Druthaib Balla building of a sibin, an illicit pub. The installation, which explores the multivalence of Northern Irish identity, has been acquired by the Ulster Museum.
“Array Collective represents the nuance of life in Northern Ireland today,” says member Emma Campbell. “We don’t make conflict art. Our work is about other parts of our identity that come before the question of whether we are green, orange, neither or both.
The Druthaib Ball has previously been shown at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry as part of the Turner Prize exhibition, and is now on view for the first time in a Northern Irish museum (until 3 September). “It’s really important that the work be placed in an institution in Northern Ireland like the Ulster Museum,” says Campbell. “The work tests the boundaries of the institution and pushes the buttons through its acquisition.”
Existential threat
But pressing buttons always carries an element of risk; the work is shown just as the Good Friday Agreement itself is existentially threatened. Northern Ireland’s parliament collapsed in 2022 due to Democratic Unionist Party concerns over the complex post-Brexit trade deal known as the Northern Ireland Protocol. In the same year, the Republican party Sinn Féin – which during the Troubles was closely associated with the paramilitary group the Irish Republican Army – won a majority of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The exhibitions therefore also confront the fact that the hard-won peace agreement is increasingly fragile and still in danger.
“For a lot of artists, there’s a sense of wanting – but also not wanting – to rock the boat”
This feeling of fragility is felt by artists in Belfast, especially when they exhibit works in museums in Northern Ireland. “We were nervous when we came to show the installation at the Ulster Museum,” says Sighle Bhreathnach-Cashell of Array Collective. “There is a very real and understandable fear of undermining the delicate peace, and this extends to the museum sector. For many artists, there is a contradictory feeling of wanting – but also not wanting – to rock the boat.
The Windsor Framework, the post-Brexit legal agreement proposed by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom, was announced on February 27 and aims to simplify trade agreements between the Kingdom Continental UK, Northern Ireland and EU. “Brexit has complicated customs, shipping and supply issues,” says Mary Cremin, outgoing director of Void Gallery in Derry. “This has made the organization of some exhibitions prohibitively expensive and has had an impact on how we can partner with other museums across the UK.”
Return from Stormont
Cremin thinks more partnerships with the UK and EU could be possible for museums in Northern Ireland, if the Windsor framework restores commercial confidence. But the most beneficial outcome, she says, would be the restoration of an executive to Stormont. Crowdy agrees: “The main frustration is that there are certain high-level decisions that cannot be made without Stormont being restored,” she says.
The anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement will also be recognized by cultural institutions in the British capital. At the London Irish Centre, an exhibition, Belfast—Conflict to Peace (April 6-April 11) by Northern Irish photographer Sean McKernan will offer insight into the troubles across four decades. At the Imperial War Museum, Northern Ireland: living with the troubles (May 26-January 7, 2024) will explore the era from all sides of the conflict.
As Northern Ireland remembers the Good Friday Agreement, the mood is optimistic. The nation’s museums can play a unique mediating role in a divided society where the past is alive in the present. But that’s cautious optimism, in a region that knows the complexity of upsetting the status quo.
