Memory, ‘Post-Conflict’ Temporalities and the Afterlife of Emotion in Conflict Transformation after the Irish Troubles

Emotion, feeling, affect are central to the ways in which ‘the past’ is thought to live on after violent political conflict; permeating ‘post-conflict’ memory, reproducing antagonism and hostility, and liable to erupt into the present in repetitions of intractable discord that subvert or complicate efforts towards reconciliation. This chapter explores what I call the temporal afterlife of emotion and its relation to memory in Northern Ireland. First, I draw on recent thinking on regimes of temporality and the politics of time to illuminate the complex temporalities of emotion, feeling and affect in a ‘post-conflict’ or ‘transitional’ society. I go on to explore the implications of this approach for understanding struggles over memory, truth and justice in Northern Ireland during and after the Troubles, focusing on the arrest of Gerry Adams in 2014 and an extended case study of the Kingsmills Justice Campaign.