Description
Book SynopsisNorthern Ireland has entered what is arguably the key phase in its troubled political history - truth recovery and dealing with the legacy of the past - yet the void in knowledge and the lack of academic literature with regard to victims'' rights is particularly striking. This book analyses truth recovery as a fundamental aspect of the transition from political violence to peace, democracy and stability in post-conflict Northern Ireland. Kirk Simpson argues that it is essential for any process of truth recovery in Northern Ireland to provide the victims of political violence with the opportunity to express and articulate their narratives of suffering within the context of public dialogic processes. He outlines a unique and original model: that victims of political violence should be enabled to engage in meaningful truth recovery through a Habermasian process of public democratic deliberation and communication involving direct dialogue with the perpetrators of such violence. This proces
Table of ContentsList of boxes
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. The conflict in Northern Ireland: a contextual and thematic analysis
2. Truth Commissions and dealing with the past
3. Voices silenced, voices rediscovered: victims of violence and the reclamation of language in transitional societies
4. Victims of political violence: a Habermasian model of truth recovery
5. Memorialisation in post-conflict societies: critically interpreting the past
6. Conclusion
References
Index
