On September 2nd, 1939, independent Ireland officially declared its neutrality during the Second World War. This period is known as "the Emergency." How and why has public memory and commemoration of this period changed over time? This dissertation traces the causes and consequences of social, political, and cultural shifts in how the Emergency has been officially and publicly remembered in Ireland since 1945. Ireland's neutrality during the deadliest and most widespread war in history, during which it abandoned allies and neighbors and failed to defend democracy against fascism, created difficulties in a post-World War II European context. As such, the Emergency presents a unique case to examine how nations construct and reconstruct particular unpleasant or embarrassing aspects of their past. This project involves analysis of archival data (political speeches, government documents), survey data (Irish opinion polls), and interview data (interviews of Irish soldiers who fought in WWII despite neutrality).
Broader Impacts Findings from this research may be of interest to a broad set of stakeholders, including policy makers, and the general public. Many states and nations periodically face a situation in which part of their past requires interpretation, and re-interpretation. Public memory and efforts to memorialize the past plays an important role in enabling countries to promote national cultures, legitimate the state, and address both positive and negative events of the past. Findings from this research may improve our understanding of how shifts in public memory and commemoration contribute to political stability over time, and to the development of more democratic societies.
On September 2nd, 1939, independent Ireland officially declared its neutrality during the Second World War. This period is known as "the Emergency." My project looks at how and why official and public remembering of this period has changed over time. I traced the causes and consequences of social, political, and cultural shifts in how the Emergency has been officially and publicly remembered in Ireland since the end of the Second World War. Ireland's neutrality during WWII was controversial, to say the least. They were neutral during the deadliest and most widespread war in human history, and were seen as abandoning their friends and neighbors, and as failing to defend democracy in the face of Nazism. Furthermore, once the full impact of the Holocaust was revealed, neutrality was viewed as an especially poor decision and there was a sense that Ireland should have done more to help Hitler's victims, especially the Jews. Thus, the Emergency presents a unique case to examine how nations construct and reconstruct particularly unpleasant or embarrassing aspects of their past. To carry out this study, I analyzed archival data, which included political speeches and various types of government documents (to access official memory), and survey and interview data (to examine public memory). To analyze both official and public memory, I relied on Jeffrey Olick and Daniel Levy's (1997) differentiation between rational and mythic cultural logics and discuss how these distinct cultural logics operate as constraints on political claim-making. While they primarily focus on official memory, I extend their framework to also examine public memory. The past can impose constraints mythically (through taboos and duties) or rationally (through prohibitions or requirements). I used the award to purchase the technology and manpower necessary to collect, analyze, store, and print thousands of pages of archival data. I also used to award to purchase Irish history textbooks that are used in secondary schools. I then analyzed these texts to see what Ireland teaches its young people about Irish neutrality and the Emergency. In my research, I found that official agents of memory (politicians, Irish leaders) most often relied on rational logics, whereas the Irish public was most likely to rely on mythic logics when discussing the Emergency or Irish neutrality. In other words, politicians--who are constrained by economic and political concerns—tended to approach neutrality in a practical manner. Once it was clear that Ireland needed to participate more broadly in the international politics to save its economy, and that neutrality was impeding such a development, political leaders were willing to abandon neutrality. The Irish public, however, viewed neutrality very differently. For them, it was not something that could simply be discarded as a means to an end. It was already in the process of becoming a tradition, something that needed to be upheld, no matter the circumstances. Today, Ireland remains a neutral country, but conflicts between politicians and the general public still arise. For example, after September 11th, Irish politicians felt it was in Ireland's interest politically and economically to aid the United States by allowing overflight and landing privileges at Shannon airport, on Ireland's west coast. The public, however, felt that this was a violation of Ireland's neutrality, and many public protests and outcries ensued. This is just one example of how one event—the Emergency, the foundation of Ireland's neutrality policy—can be interpreted in multiple and conflicting ways. Findings from this research may be of interest to a broad set of stakeholders, including policy makers, as well as the general public. Many states and nations periodically face a situation in which part of their past requires interpretation or re-interpretation. Public memory and efforts to memorialize the past plays an important role in enabling countries to promote national cultures, legitimate the state, and address both positive and negative events of the past. Findings from this research may improve our understanding of how shifts in public memory and commemoration contribute to political stability over time, and to the development of more democratic societies. This project resulted in the completion of a successful dissertation (August 2013) and several papers that are in the process of being submitted for publication. I have also worked to make the data and findings from this research useful to the public. The data and dissertation will be publicly available through the University of Virginia. Additionally, I have presented this research at conferences in Las Vegas, Denver, and New York City. Finally, my research also contributed to the teaching and learning of undergraduates. I involved undergraduates in my research and plan to teach upper-level courses on memory and difficult pasts.
