Write a Critical Survey of a Historiographical Debate Relating to the topic of your Special Study Dissertation

The Troubles is the name for the conflict surrounding Northern Ireland during the 1960’s to 1998. Although the Good Friday Agreement brought the Troubles to an end, outbreaks of violence have continued to be seen. Opposed sectarian groups who both wanted a different constitutional status for Northern Ireland fought the political conflict. Unionists and Loyalists wanted to remain with United Kingdom whilst Republicans and Nationalists wanted to join with the South to form a united Ireland. For the last 70 years in Ireland an ever-changing historiographical debate has come about concerning the Troubles. Divides in Ireland are due to past conflicts but also current ones, the people of Ireland always look to their history for answers and solutions. Historians form the historiographical debate to explain the contemporary situation; they look for new answers to help prevent the Irish nation of living in a past shadowed in violence. The biggest break in history came in the 1990’s, when the ceasefire was established marking a turning point for the people and historiography of Ireland. From 1960 to 1990 historical revisionism was the main historical writing perspective. Context needs to be given to the debate as the main historiography is written on the political and social situations. Historians do not always get it right and many, not just other historians, have challenged revisionist historiography, however all histories and historians are constantly coming under scrutinisation and criticism.

Historians have a role in analysing current situations, and they have a duty to point out the mistakes, which have been made throughout history. The Freedom of Information Act allowed historian’s access to archives making their work more thoro...

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... historians have tended to take a kinder perspective on the events which occurred, as the people who carried out the actions appear to have acted more gallantry than the paramilitary groups of the Troubles.

Irish historians can encounter grave problems in accessing archives, in the South the only areas which have released records is the Irish Department of Finance. Therefore, Ronan Fanning’s book on the financial history is a great contribution to historiography. In the North of Ireland the government only allows select historians in to the archives while denying others. The government have a very cautious relationship with Irish history, causing different debates among historians. Although revisionism has been the main historical school of thought in Ireland other histories also been prominent causing a mixed interpretation on the troubled past of Ireland.