Did you know that Belfast’s Linen Hall Library’s Political Collection consists of over 350,000 items? These include books, pamphlets, leaflets, posters, manifestos, press releases, newspapers, objects and many thousands of periodicals.

Much of this material has been digitised and catalogued for the Library’s ‘Divided Society’ digital archive, a project set to launch on 22nd January 2018. The resource, which includes periodicals published here and elsewhere between 1990-1998, will be free in the UK and Ireland and available via subscription to the rest of the world.

The project guides us through a significant period in the history of Northern Ireland; covering events such as the Downing Street Declaration, paramilitary ceasefires, and political negotiations which culminated in the signing of the Good Friday Agreement.

Titles, amongst others, include:

  • ‘Fortnight’ magazine – which provided analysis on the current affairs and political developments from across the political spectrum
  • ‘Captive Voice’ – a Republican prisoner magazine
  • ‘Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!’ – a revolutionary Communist newspaper
  • ‘Combat’ – the Ulster Volunteer Force’s journal

Further content includes hundreds of political posters, a video and audio gallery, educational toolkits and exclusive essays specifically written by academics for the ‘Divided Society’ project.

The Linen Hall Library conducted interviews with members of the public who have stories and recollections about the conflict. Community groups from throughout Northern Ireland discussed these issues alongside students from schools, colleges and Universities. Many of these stories are available to listen to as part of the audio gallery or read as transcripts. The video gallery is made up of RTE and UTV news-reports from the 1990s.

Gavin Carville, Project Manager, said: “Alongside the journals, posters and outreach material, ten essays have been commissioned. Each issue will focus on a particular theme, so we have Professor Marianne Elliott talking about sectarianism and Professor Adrian Guelke focusing on parallels between Northern Ireland and South Africa. The essays work to give the digitised material context, and are exclusive to the site.”

Senator George Mitchell, former United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, said: ‘The peace talks were a long and difficult process and this archive provides its users with a sense of the atmosphere of the time, the issues affecting daily life, how they were debated, and the various attempts at a resolution.’

For more information on the project visit: www.dividedsociety.org

Also published on Medium.