The purpose of this book is to examine and evaluate the political memoirs written by some of the many individuals who were engaged in or affected by the conflict in Northern Ireland in the period 1969–1998. Much scholarly attention across several disciplines has been devoted to the interlocking series of issues that, taken together, constitute efforts to address the complex legacies of this conflict. At least since the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement of 1998, questions concerning how society should remember the ‘Troubles’ have been at the forefront of both popular and academic debate. The nature of the conflict, its genesis, its prosecution, and its outcome, if indeed it can be said to be definitively over, are all key aspects of this urgent, though often unfocused, attention. In an emerging, though still fragile, post-conflict environment, ‘dealing with the past’, whether in terms of a mooted overarching truth and reconciliation process, or through piecemeal attempts to uncover hitherto disputed or neglected aspects of the violent conflict, has become a critical arena within the contemporary political life of Northern Ireland. These are inevitably fraught and unsettling processes, often accompanied by ongoing ideological and political confrontation. The Consultative Group on the Past report (2009) is probably the most comprehensive attempt to date to put in place a systematic process for revisiting the contested past in Northern Ireland. However, the report was effectively shelved, largely as a result of controversy generated by its recommendation of a ‘recognition payment’ for all those bereaved as a result of the Troubles.

All sides to the conflict recognise that Northern Ireland is in a period of transition, but from what and to what is the subject of intense debate and confusion. Many of Northern Ireland's weary and traumatised inhabitants might be expected simply to be thankful for a period of relative peace, after the intensity of the violence. However, this is a deeply politicised society, for better or worse, and there is little realistic prospect of erasing the Troubles from collective memory, even if moving on from a tabula rasa does have its attractions to some.