Divided Society

The decade that saw Nelson Mandela freed and elected President of South Africa, the break out of the first Gulf War, Harry Potter exploding onto bookshelves, and the appearance of the Euro was also the fourth decade of the ‘troubles’. A historically significant period of momentous change, the Divided Society digital resource covers peace talks, the Downing Street Agreement, ceasefires, all-party talks, and negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement, and subsequent referendum.

The full text of hundreds of journals published by government, political parties, community groups, pressure groups, charities, and paramilitary organisations, comprising thousands of individual issues are digitised and searchable, along with posters illustrating the key themes of the period. The website is curated and focusses on 24 themes – such as ‘ceasefires’, ‘decommissioning’, and ‘elections’. Within each theme there are relevant categories – for example Elections includes categories for each election fought during the 1990-1998 period. Timelines help navigate the content, and keys players such as community activists, local and national politicians, and international statesmen are tagged. And to put the time period in context, the site also includes video clips from the archives of UTV and RTÉ, specially commissioned essays from leading academics, and educational toolkits.