Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I discuss the connection between real life storytelling and the current peace building process in Northern Ireland. I specifically focus on one community arts project that uses storytelling as a primary strategy to achieve social change whilst considering issues of ‘truth’, ownership and power discourses.

Paper long abstract:

Since the 'Good Friday Agreement' in 1998, peace-building initiatives have proliferated in Northern Ireland. Amongst these, the arts have played a prominent role, drawing on a range of international and locally devised models. Some of those, mostly community-based, arts projects attempt to reconcile identity groups who are in conflict by using narratives and personal storytelling. However, research on both the processes and the impact of such work has been scanty and under-developed. In this paper, I analyse those processes of telling personal life stories in public and seek to explore their impact on an inter-personal, inter-group and wider societal level within a still divided society. I also take into account the interdependency between private and public meaning and consider aspects of ownership, agency and power discourses as well as issues of 'truth' and possible risks through this process of displaying one's own experiences to a public space.

The paper is based on ethnographic research on a community project that used the tool of storytelling transformed into drama to foster stability, reconciliation and peaceful human interaction in the post-conflict society of Northern Ireland. At the end of a two year long process, two original theatre productions were performed by inter-generational groups of people from different backgrounds who have been affected directly or indirectly by 'The Troubles'. Through methodological triangulation using participant observation, in-depth interviews and other sources of data (written feedback, project reports, reviews, newspaper articles) I seek to understand and explain what storytelling can contribute to a peace process in a society coming out of conflict.