Trading the past: material culture of Long Kesh/Maze, Northern Ireland

Abstract

Long Kesh/Maze, once Northern Ireland’s largest prison, is one of its most important sites of conflict. Since closure in 2000, its demolition and development have been contested. Its material culture, the remaining architecture as well as the artefacts that belonged to either prisoners or prison officers’, are implicated in the processes of remembering or forgetting violence and defining perpetrators and victims of conflict. The traces of the prison feature in the hesitant process of conflict-resolution and a vibrant trade in conflict heritage. This article examines both: political debate concerning the future of the prison site and ebay auctions of the traces of its past.