Ireland and Victims ― Confronting the Past, Forging the Future

Recent years have seen the topic of victims and victimhood brought to the fore on the island of Ireland, both in the North with the publication of the controversial Eames/Bradley report dealing with victims of the Troubles, and in the Republic with the publication of the final Ryan Report on institutional abuse.
In this collection, drawing on the cross-disciplinary nature of Irish studies, contributors from the fields of history, literary and cultural studies, politics, sociology and civic society provide multifaceted perspectives from which to examine the issue of victimhood in Ireland. The volume explores in detail how a traumatic past, whether repressed or proclaimed, can continue to impact on the present, both at a personal and societal level.

Lesley Lelourec is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Languages and Irish Studies at the Universite Rennes 2, France. She holds a PhD on contemporary English perceptions of the Irish Question. Her main research interest is in Anglo-Irish relations and the impact of the Troubles in Britain. She has published a number of articles on British attitudes towards Northern Ireland and British media representations of the Troubles.
Grainne O’Keeffe-Vigneron is a Senior Lecturer in Irish Studies at the Universite Rennes 2, France. She completed a PhD on the Irish in England in the post-Second World War period and their fight for recognition as an ethnic minority group. She has recently started a project on Irish emigrants living on the European continent and is currently researching the Irish diaspora in France.