Talking Stones

<p> If memory was simply about past events public authorities would never put their ever-shrinking budgets at its service. Rather memory is actually about the present moment as Pierre Nora puts it: Through the past we venerate above all ourselves. This book examines how collective memory and material culture are used to support present political and ideological needs in contemporary society. Using the memorialization of the Troubles in contemporary Northern Ireland as a case study this book investigates how non-state often proscribed organizations have filled a societal vacuum in the creation of public memorials. In particular these groups have sifted through the past to propose official collective narratives of national identification historical legitimation and moral justifications for violence.</p>