^aTransitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, Jordanstown Campus, Dalriada House, County Antrim BT37 OQB, Northern Ireland. E-mail: kd.simpson@ulster.ac.uk

Abstract

One of the core socio-political and cultural aspects of unionist discourse in Northern Ireland is the need to foster and protect a sense of legitimate grievance in respect of the killings and injuries of innocent Protestant civilians by the Provisional Irish Republican Army during the conflict of 1969–1998. This paper uses illustrative examples to analyse the ways in which unionists narrate, remember, and attempt to politicise suffering in contemporary post-conflict Northern Ireland. Based on extensive and original ethnographic research, it illuminates the ways in which many unionists feel that the stories of those in their community who were assassinated or attacked by Irish republican paramilitaries have remained untold, silenced by their political opponents, and ignored by both their fellow British citizens and successive British administrations. Unless the issue of unionist victimhood is handled sensitively, this will present a significant impediment to the prospects for effectively dealing with the past in Northern Ireland.