Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at the changing place and placing of the Maze/Long Kesh. It does this by examining the official tours of the site that are unscripted narratives by an explicitly neutral official tour guide.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at the changing place and placing of the Maze/Long Kesh. It does this by examining the official tours of the site that are unscripted narratives by an explicitly neutral official tour guide. Unlike the general scripting and construction of the tourist's gaze, the Maze/Long Kesh tours take shape from the visitors themselves, and the memories and recollections of time spent incarcerated there during the Troubles as they are recounted to the tour guide. In this way, the Maze/Long Kesh visit is an ever-emerging non-tourist activity, one that evolves through the visits. And yet, these nostalgic 'unscripted' events, for all their prohibitions on recording and restricted government-approved access, are staged in their authentic and sanitized preservation of the past. This paper examines the current Maze/Long Kesh tour in detail, using this everchanging event to engage with the theorization of dissonant heritage, and to critique the notion of the tourist's gaze. This dark heritage venue is subject to further change as it is currently prepared to become a popular open tourist attraction with a set script and charging structure.