MASKS: The Persistence and Symbolism of Paramilitary Violence in Northern Ireland

This photobook research output critically examines the enduring symbolism of the three-hole balaclava ski mask as a visual motif within the context of resurgent paramilitary violence in Northern Ireland. Addressing the period of increased political uncertainty following BREXIT, the collapse of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and threats to the Good Friday Agreement, the work situates the balaclava both as a signifier of sectarian anonymity and as a commodity in global digital marketplaces. Drawing upon appropriated internet-sourced images of masks—screen-grabbed from commercial platforms and transformed into silver gelatin contact prints via experimental darkroom techniques—the project interrogates the tension between the individual and the type, anonymity and identity. The resulting images evoke both the traumatic legacy of the Troubles and the contemporary realities of punishment attacks within loyalist and republican communities, where violence is enacted and experienced in deeply familiar settings. By foregrounding the iterative, decontextualised nature of photographic reproduction, the photobook reflects on how images of violence and their symbols are endlessly replicated, subsuming individuality and reinforcing collective imaginaries of terror and control.