‘A human story’: remembering the Troubles’ forced displacement
by Laura RODRIGUEZ-DAVIS
2 May 2024
In the small atrium of Ulster University’s Belfast campus, local authors and researchers Dr Niall Gilmartin and Dr Brendan Ciarán Browne launched the paperback edition of their book Refugees and Forced Displacement in Northern Ireland’s Troubles: Untold Journeys, previously reviewed by Shared Future News. Chaired by sociology lecturer Dr Tawanda Nyawasha, the event featured remarks from the authors and public anthropologist Dr Fiona Murphy while attendees enjoyed light refreshments.
Following a welcome from Dr Nyawasha, Ulster University sociology lecturer Dr Niall Gilmartin reflected on the book’s beginnings and how he came to collaborate on this project with Dr Browne.
Gilmartin observed a notable absence of recognition regarding the forced displacement of thousands in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. “So there’s a double displacement there: there’s the actual displacement itself,” the scholar explained, “but they’re also displaced from the conflict narrative.”
From 2018 to 2021, Gilmartin and Browne collected over 87 interviews from residents who had been displaced as a result of the conflict. Interviewees were scattered across the globe, from the island of Ireland to Glasgow, Liverpool, Canada, Australia, and even the Canary Islands. According to Gilmartin, participants were eager to share their experiences and that of their families, some sharing their stories for the first time.
Not only does the book provide a record of firsthand accounts of Troubles-related displacement in Northern Ireland, it contributes to the international discussion regarding refugees and displacement, Gilmartin asserted. He continued reviewing the findings of the research, including the phenomenon that, even 50 years on from being displaced, interviewees reported still feeling “biographically dislocated”. Before concluding, Gilmartin reminded the audience, “At the heart of this book is a human story. It’s the human cost of displacement.”
Nyawasha then invited Browne to the podium for his commentary. After expressing thanks to the many contributors to the book and its launch, the Trinity College Dublin Fellow emphasised the need to spotlight the experiences of victims and survivors. “We must find creative ways of capturing the experiences of the past and find ways to avoid being beholden to it and burdened by it,” Browne contended, “but in so doing, we must learn from it.”
He reported being drawn to this collaborative project due to his interest in forcible transfer and displacement and his own father’s experience of being ‘burnt out’ of his home in the 1970s. The book, Browne continued, aimed to examine the consequences and implications of displacement on multiple levels, which expands beyond the borders of Northern Ireland. “Violent forced displacement is a feature of conflict globally,” he stated, drawing attention to the millions of refugees displaced around the world including those forced from their homes due to the crisis in Gaza.
Browne concluded by calling for appropriate redress of past harms through “better listening to each other to ensure it is never allowed to happen again”.
Nyawasha introduced the next speaker, Dr Fiona Murphy, who lauded the book for highlighting the varied dynamics of forced displacement in Northern Ireland.
She further discussed the significance of the book in providing space for marginalised narratives and offering a catharsis for unacknowledged grief. Murphy emphasised the pain of disorientation due to being displaced that affects identity and belonging, which the book captures with “profound insights into the multi-faceted layers of loss”.
The anthropologist noted the relevance of the themes of the book to current headlines and debates regarding refugees. Murphy affirmed, “I see this book as not only as a book about Northern Ireland, but it is in fact an invitation to reflect on contemporary global issues of forced displacement and its legacy.” She further praised the book for its inclusion of practical policy suggestions, such as oral history archives to ensure these stories are not lost.
Murphy finished by deeming the book an act of “beautiful resistance”, a reference to the works of Palestinian poet Abdelfattah Abusrour.
Covering themes such as grief, loss, identity, belonging, Refugees and Forced Displacement in Northern Ireland’s Troubles remains a timeless and relevant read that offers remembrance to an often overlooked memory of Northern Ireland’s conflict that is, at its core, a very human story.
