Irish Violence and the Troubles Essay

In this essay I will examine the effect of silence during the troubles on individual and depicted object identities with particular interest to Seamus Deanes Reading in the Dark, Tim Pat Coogan conjures that the term Irish Troubles refers to a whole history of forcefulness and colonialism that Ireland has endured, over the last railyard years. To the physical force school of Irish nationalism the Norman coming is generally regarded as the starting point for eight hundred years of British oppression (Coogan, 1996, p. 43).In addition to this, he explains that the term troubles, is now directed to the modern, twentieth century troubles. They mainly occurred during 1960 to 1998. The reason for the violence and resentment in northerly Ireland is due to the divisions between the nationalists (Roman Catholics) and the unionists (Protestants). The nationalists identify Northern Ireland as part of Ireland, not a separate country, and not another colony of the United Kingdom whereas the uni onists accommodate great allegiance to Britain and regard their position as part of the UK with pride (Coogan, 1996, p. 1).But the Irish agony had been building up slowly also, rooted in complex occurrenceors, one of which geography, pre-dates the dawn of history others involve the outworkings of two forms of colonialism, those of Mother Church and Mother England (Coogan, 1996, p. 1). Discrimination also factored into the tension between the two groups. The unionists rule over Northern Ireland affected most Catholic lives negatively, as they were a minority they were discriminated in areas of employment, housing and education. Internment or also known as Operation Demetrius is one key issue that contributed to the beginning of the troubles (Coogan, 1996. 30).This was introduced by the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary it involved arresting anyone who was accused of being against the victor military force immediately, without trial. These aspects stirred resentment f rom the nationalists and inconsequence caused violent rebellion (Coogan, 1996, p. 145). Thus, the violence that was carried out during the troubles, was chiefly by the IRA (Irish Republic Army), the Ulster Volunteer Force, the British Army and The Royal Ulster Constabulary (Coogan, 1996, p. 18).The aggression of the troubles constructed Northern Ireland to be a place of great instability and tension. In his book The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon comments on the state of the colonized mind. Fanon was a psychiatrist and a theorist of post-colonialism. His work essentially centred on the developing countries, particularly Algeria. In order to break away from colonisation, Fanon advocates violence to the colonised and he is renowned for this factor (Fanon, 1967, pp. 10-11). His main concern is his patients, who are mentally ill.In his final chapter Colonial War and Mental Disorders, he explains that his patients obtain not merely by war but also from a colonial incident (Fanon, 1967, p. 235). But the doctors described it by portraying as a congenital stigma of the native, an original part of his nervous system where, it was stated, it was possible to find the proof of a predominance of the extra-pyramidal system in the native. This contracture is in fact simply the postural accompaniment to the natives reticence, the expression in muscular form of his rigidity and his refusal with regard to colonial authority (Fanon, 1967, p. 35).It is this colonial circumstance that inevitably yields the native into a nervous, mental state. Fanon pays close attention to language and asserts that language is taken away from the colonised subject (Fanon, 1967, p. 194). The language of colonising involves removing the natives language and speech. Consequently, the colonised is silenced, and this is an oppressive act. Silence is defined in The Oxford English Dictionary as an absence of sound and speech it can be an nonpayment of discussing something in particular, or it can be something that is forced upon (Soanes and Stevenson, 2008, p. 1342).Sara Maitland, author of A Book of Silence, attempts to understand silence and claims that the OEDs definition is far too indeterminate (Maitland, 2008, p. 25). She explores the essence of it in several ways her own life, history, religion, literature and travel. It is apparent from this book that silence is an ambiguous phenomenon that consists of both positive and negative dimensions. Silence is purloin and transforms itself it can be relative or a complete absence. Maitland observes that it is generally recognised negatively, her friend writes in a letter that, silence is the place of death, of steer (Maitland, 2008, p. 8).She justifies that silence is only negative when it obstructs. Maitland describes the three forms of interferences a subjects tongue is cut out then they are silenced if someone is imprisoned, they are silenced, since any noise they make will not be heard if speech is construed as worthle ss and meaningless, then it is silenced (Maitland, 2008, p. 29). This is very telling and useful for your average oppressor calling someone mad, for example, means they can say what they like but no one will hear this was the break up of silencing the Soviet Union went in for (Maitland, 2008, p. 9).This form of silence interrupts speech and creates a barrier that subjugates the potential speaker. It is oppressive and in effect it becomes a metaphorical prison. Seamus Deanes novel Reading in the Dark was published in1996, two years before the end of the troubles. The novel is a bildungsroman, as it reports the whizs growth from child to an adult, so the reader witnesses the protagonists youthful innocence transform with experience, as he comes of age. The narrator is an Irish Catholic boy who is growing up in Northern Ireland, Derry.It is constructed of smaller stories that are dated from 1945 up to 1971, where the protagonist matures into an adult. These stories are fragments of memories, conversations, myths and events that happened in the area. They contribute in narrating the protagonists growth from a new-made child to an adult. Thus with backdrop of the violent troubles, the narrator develops his understanding of who he is, by unearthing a profound family secret (Deane, 1996). Deane complicates the whole novel by play with silence. The style of narration is one of the key methods that he employs to do this.Before the narration begins, the title Reading in the Dark indicates towards a news report of silence and so to a narrative that will be indecipherable. As mentioned before, this novel is a bildungsroman, a story of self-discovery and identity. Ensuing this, to read is to understand, and so the protagonist will understand and discover himself by reading. However, reading in the bad is a paradox, as it is impossible and in result self-discovery is silenced. The opposite of dark is light, and light is generally associated with illumination and kno wledge (Farquharson, 1999, p. 101).Whereas, darkness contains an absence, so it becomes the visual equivalent to silence. Deane implies through this understanding of the title that the unfolding of the narrative will be an intricate and complicated process. This displays that the colonial landscape of Northern Ireland and the troubles create identity as problematic. Pre-eminent among them are the disfiguring effects of both colonialism and postcolonial nationalism alluded to above, the crisis of self-representation produced by colonialist discourse, and the dynamics of male monarch and resistance, history and memory, language and identity within colonial relations.Read from postcolonial perspective, the novel could be described as an exploration of the problematic process of identity organization in a colonialist context (Harte, 2000, p. 152). As a result, Deane deliberately confirms through his title that self-discovery and understanding of identity is furthermore complex in a col onised state (Fanon, 1967, p. 182). In consequence, darkness obstructs light and silence obstructs articulation. Therefore, silence hinders the narration.