The Active Use of Narratives in Collective Memory

The previous chapters have outlined some of the main discussions around the concept of collective memory and attempt to highlight everyday use. This chapter develops some of these ideas and considers how, in actively engaging in the conceptual landscape, people frame and structure the politics of the society in which they live. It engages with understandings surrounding memory narratives and how these have become a refrain central to social and political life of Northern Ireland. Further, the chapter highlights how narratives use of collective memory to access and interpret senses of personal, social, political and cultural identity.