Thomas Hennessey: Legacy - Securing a proportionate and balanced picture of the past, Belfast News Letter, November 3rd, 2022

How should a society work through its past? In Northern Ireland, this question appeared to have been answered with the Stormont House Agreement (2014). But I am concerned that the proposals in it excludes archival historians.

The Model Bill team – who have set out how the Agreement should work in practice – appears self-selecting and to be dominated by lawyers. The only historian on the team works on oral sources; they do not appear to have anyone who knows what is in the archives. I can vouch, as an archival historian, that the idea there is nothing new in the archives is untrue.

I believe that complete access to the archives, without political interference, is the only way to secure a balanced and proportionate picture of the past. In particular, intelligence files will allow historians to trace the internal dynamics of paramilitary organizations as well as the state’s motives. This will complement oral history not replace it.

A process can be devised to hold individuals, organisations, and institutions accountable for their decisions to keep to or go against accepted political, social, moral, and legal standards. Reconciliation is a long-term process and must not be directed at one actor in a conflict. It must include all participants. My concern is the Agreement proposals are seriously unbalanced. Without archival history they will neither address the legacy of the past nor bring reconciliation in the future.

I must take issue with the claim that any ‘self-respecting historian’ would be unwilling to participate in such an initiative’ as erroneous. Historians seek out the context for what was said and done. Archival documents can give one a window on decisions at the time. They are not written with a view to justifying a decision, taken in the heat of the moment, to future generations. They are about the conditions and pressures of the time one is assessing. This has implications for forgotten voices: oral history can give agency to those silenced by contemporary narratives; likewise archival evidence can restore voices lost by the dominant narrative now. They are recorded in the archives.

The path of historical research has been taken by many of our western European neighbours and shows an alternative way to the dealing with the past. This can make for uncomfortable reading for many.

When President Emmanuel Macron watched antiracism protests in French cities during the summer of 2020, he saw the poison of the Algerian War still coursing through society. This war – fought between 1954 and 1962 – had been hugely destructive. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed, more than two million people were forced from their homes, bombs went off on both sides of the Mediterranean, officials, politicians and journalists were targeted for assassination, and the French Fourth Republic was overthrown.

Macron called on France to ‘look at all of our history lucidly together’. On the advice of the historian Benjamin Stora, Macron committed to running oral history projects, appointing commissions, publishing history books, opening archives, and creating a museum. He did not apologise, he did not repeal the amnesty, and he did not seek the approval of Algiers.

In Germany, government departments commissioned official histories of their conduct during the Nazi era. The Dutch government charged the Institute for War Documentation with authoring a historical report on the fall of Srebrenica during the break up of Yugoslavia. Spanish archives declassified papers on Franco’s dictatorship. The Swedish government funded studies into the activities of their intelligence services. Austria’s federal authorities tasked a historian with setting up a museum of contemporary history.

What do historians offer societies seeking to come to terms with the past? A historical narrative can incorporate multiple voices and perspectives. Alongside stories about suffering, struggle, and service, it can explore the strength shown by ordinary people going about their everyday lives.

Historians can capture complexities, ambiguities, and contradictions. We can put into context the acts and omissions of people in the past – but without ever allowing understanding to become excusing or endorsing.

While neither historians nor the sources and tools we use are neutral, we do practise objectivity. Historians aim to be accurate, comprehensive, and consistent. This set of practices are less a scientific procedure and more a code of ethics. Our fellow historians around the world make sure we stick to it. We check each other’s scholarship both before and after it is published.

Watching historians at work and seeing what we can deliver has won over sceptical European publics. The German official histories debunked the myth that civil servants had been non-political. Far from being a whitewash, the Dutch report brought down the government. Swedish historians secured access to the files of the intelligence services. The Austrian museum received awards for how it explored the civil war of the 1930s as well as the Nazi years.

Could Northern Ireland do what other parts of Europe have done? Polls and survey show the majority of people here broadly agree that the Troubles harmed all communities, that the legacy of the past needs to be addressed, and that reconciliation should be embedded. We owe it to ourselves to fully understand what happened in the conflict not one version of it.

This involves a commitment to basic honesty and integrity; an absence of wilful distortions or omissions; and a commitment to accepting the possibility of the revision of particular interpretations in the light of further evidence.

A multi-disciplinary approach, including historical procedures, will produce a multi-narrative perspective. The model, as currently outlined in the Stormont House Agreement, will not.

Thomas Hennessey is Professor of British and Irish History at Canterbury Christ Church University. Among his publications are Northern Ireland: the Origin of the Troubles.