Conflict in Colours

Conflict in Colours is about the role of cultural violence in maintaining and transferring conflict situations by investigating republican and loyalist murals in Belfast during the Troubles and the Northern Irish peace process. It is the first study to compare republican and loyalist murals over time and space. Drawing on theories on cultural violence, historical narratives, visual culture and symbolic landscapes, it provides insight into how the cultural violence in the narratives has continuously presented the Northern Irish conflict as ongoing and the identity as the victim of the adversary. It also shows how cultural violence has and continues to, impede the efforts to build a shared Northern Ireland. By juxtaposing the presentation of victimhood in loyalist and republican murals, the study shows how the narratives of the murals portray their victimhood seductively and persuasively through symbols with established meanings of victimhood and visual techniques, which influences whom the outside world understands as the victim. Therefore, one of the main findings of the thesis is how the narratives of victimhood are not only a source of security to the identity in question; they are also weapons to use in the second phase of the conflict, regarding whose violence was legitimate, which affects how the parties understand the Troubles and the perception of the outside world of whose violence was legitimate.