ABOUT THE PMA
The Prisons Memory Archive (PMA) is a collection of filmed walk-and-talk recordings with those who had a connection with Armagh Gaol and Maze and Long Kesh during the conflict known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland / the North of Ireland.
In 2006 and 2007, the filmmakers invited an inclusive range of people – loyalist and republican former prisoners and internees, prison officers and governors, visitors, educators, journalists, probation officers, welfare workers, and chaplains – to revisit the prison sites and recount their experiences there. The result is a rich, multi-narrative collection that preserves personal memories of these historical sites from different viewpoints.
In the recordings, participants recall numerous aspects of the prisons during the conflict. Themes include the experience of internment; everyday life for prisoners and prison officers; the culture of different organisations in the prisons; education, art and crafts; and the architecture and facilities of the prisons as they changed over time. Many participants offered deeply personal recollections of some of the most challenging and momentous events in recent history.
Thanks to a partnership between the Public Record Office (PRONI) and Queen’s University Belfast, supported by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the PMA collection is now preserved and available to the public. Full recordings, catalogued in detail, can be viewed at PRONI. The PMA website features numerous extracts, education resources, short- and feature-length documentary films, interactive maps of the prison sites and background to the prisons during the conflict.
The PMA Team
Led by the PMA Director, Cahal McLaughlin, many people have worked on the PMA over the years. Small film crews set up at each prison site to record participants’ stories in 2006 and 2007. In the years since, researchers, archivists, film editors and outreach staff have been working to catalogue, document and curate the archive for future generations.
Ethical Framework
The PMA’s ethical framework ensured that a wide range of participants felt comfortable to have their stories recorded. After the recordings were made, participants have retained co-ownership of their contributions.
Participant Testimonials
During the lockdown in summer 2020, the PMA held a special online event to celebrate the transfer of the collection to PRONI and the launch of the new project website. During the event, participants reflected on why they wanted to get involved in the PMA, and their memories of recording at the prison sites
Further Reading and Viewing
Over the years, many millions of words and countless hours of film footage – both fictional and non-fictional – have been dedicated to documenting and understanding the conflict in Northern Ireland. Here, the PMA presents just a small listing of articles, books, films and resources that either relate directly to the PMA or act as important background context to the prisons and the archive.
PMA Bibliography
Journal articles, reviews, presentations, news stories and podcasts relating specifically to the PMA
Aguiar, L.
2018
What if We Had Been the Heroes of the Maze and Long Kesh? Collaborative filmmaking in Northern Ireland’
In Liddy, Susan. Women in Irish Film: Stories and Storytellers (Cork University Press).
Aguiar, L.
2017
More Than ‘Collaborative Rubber Stamps’: Cross-Community Storytelling in Transitional Northern Ireland
In IAFOR Journal of Media, Communication and Film Issue 4
Aguiar, L.
2015
We Were There: The Women of the Maze and Long Kesh Prison: Collaborative Filmmaking in Transitional Northern Ireland
PhD Thesis. Queen’s University Belfast
Aguiar, L.
2015
Back to Those Walls: The Women’s Memory of the Maze and Long Kesh Prison in Northern Ireland
Journal of Memory Studies. Issue 8.2.
Aguiar, L.
2012
Book review: Recording Memories from Political Violence: A film-maker’s journey
Crime Media Culture Journal. No.8, pp. 374-376.
Concordia Irish Studies Podcast
2018
Cahal McLaughlin on The Prisons Memory Archive
Dennis, L.
2015
Visual Voices of the Prisons Memory Archive’. Viewfinder 101, November 2015
Dennis, L.
2020
'Reflections on Trauma in the Prisons Memory Archive: How Information Literacy, Human Experience and Place are Impacted by Conflict' in Melania Gallego (ed.)
Trauma and Identity in Contemporary Irish Culture. Peter Lang.
Leebody, C.
2020
Students get 'reel' education into life behind bars during Northern Ireland Troubles’. Belfast Telegraph, 11 February 2020
Keane, K.
2020
Stories from the Cells: The Role of the Maze and Long Kesh Prison in Peace Time Northern Ireland In: F. McCann (ed.), The Carceral Network in Ireland: History, Agency and Resistance. Palgrave McMillan.
Mairs Dyer, J.
2013
Unseen Women: Stories from Armagh Gaol. Collaborative post-conflict documentary
Journal of Media Practice: Screenworks. Vol 4: 5
Mairs Dyer, J.
2014
'Unseen Women: Stories from Armagh Gaol. Exhibiting contrasting memories of a contested space.’
In: Kidd, J., Cairns, S., Drago, A., Ryall A. and Stearn, M. (eds.) Challenging History in the Museum.
McCafferty, C.
2021
Presentation: 'Future Tuesdays presents Prisons Memory Archive'. Belfast: Future Screens.
McLaughlin, C., Mairs-Dyer, J. and McCafferty, C. (eds.).
2021
The Prisons Memory Archive: A Case Study in Filmed Memory of Conflict. Wilmington, VA: Vernon Press.
McLaughlin, C.
2006
Inside stories, memories from the Maze and Long Kesh Prison’, Journal of Media Practice Volume 7 Number 2.
doi: 10.1386/jmpr.7.2.123/1
McLaughlin, C.
2012
Recording Memories from Political Conflict: a filmmaker’s journey.
Intellect: Bristol.
McLaughlin, C.
2014
Who Tells What to Whom and How: The Prisons Memory Archive. p-e-r-f-o-r-m-a-n-c-e , 1 (1).
McLaughlin, C.
2016
‘Stories from Inside: The Prisons Memory Archive’ in Andres, C., and McGuire, M., (eds) Post Conflict Literature: Human Rights, Peace, Justice.
Routledge: London.
McLaughlin, C.
2016
‘The Prisons Memory Archive: Representing the Troubles,’
The Irish Times, 1 March 2016.
McLaughlin, C.
2017
‘The role of oral history in societies emerging from conflict.’ NI Assembly Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series.
McLaughlin, C.
2018
‘Cahal McLaughlin on the role of the Prisons Memory Archive in Northern Ireland.’ Faculty of Law, University of Oxford: Atrocity's Archives: the Role of Archives in Transitional Justice
McLaughlin, C.
2018
‘Memory, place and gender: Armagh Stories: Voices from the Gaol. Journal of Memory Studies.
Murphy, M.
2018
‘Telling stories from The Troubles - the Prisons Memory Archive’, Irish Central, 9 October 2018:
Terrazas, M.
2018
Review: 'Armagh Stories: Voices from the Gaol' and 'We Were There'.
Side, K. and McLaughlin, C.
2016
Many of Those Stories Don't Sit Easily Next to Each Other": Stories about Conflict, Trauma, and Injustice. An Interview with Documentary Filmmaker Dr. Cahal McLaughlin
The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 57-81
McMinn, K.
2020
Visual Voices of the Prisons Memory Archive: Preservation, Access and Engagement; End of Project Evaluation.
Belfast Telegraph
2012
Belfast Telegraph of Unheard Voices
Further Readings
- Aretxaga, B, (1997) Shattering Silence: Women, Nationalism and Political Subjectivity in Northern Ireland. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- Beresford, D. (1987) Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. London: Pluto Press.
- Corcoran, M. (2006) Out of Order: The Political Imprisonment of women in Northern Ireland. Devon: Willan Publishing.
- Dawson, G. (2007) Making Peace with the Past: Memory, Trauma and the Irish Troubles. Manchester University Press.
- D’Arcy, M. Tell Them Everything: A sojourn in the prison of Her Majesty Elizabeth II at Ard Macha, Pluto Press, 1981.
- Dowler, L (1998) ‘And They Think I am Just a Nice Old Lady’: Women and War in Belfast’ in Gender, Place and Culture. Vol 5.
- Fairweather, E. et al, (1984) Only the Rivers Run Free. London: Pluto..
- Hackett, C. and Rolsten, B. (2009) The burden of memory: Victims, storytelling and resistance in Northern Ireland’ in Memory Studies, 2.3
- Little, L. (2002) Unheard Voices. Belfast: Epic
- McDowell, S (2009) ‘Negotiating Places of Pain in Post-Conflict Northern Ireland: Debating the Future of the Maze Prison/Long Kesh’ in Logan, W. etc Places of Pain and Shame: Dealing with Difficult Heritage. New York: Routledge.
- Ryder, C. (2000) Inside the Maze: the Untold Story of the Northern Ireland Prison Service. London: Methuen.
- Shirlow, P. et al (2008) Beyond the Wire: Former Prisoners and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland. London: Pluto Press.
- Shirlow, P. et al (2010) ‘”Wee Women no more’: female partners of republican political prisoners in Belfast’ in Environment and Planning. 42.2.
- Ward, R. (2006) Women, Unionism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland: from Tea-Makers to Political Actors. Dublin: Irish Academy Press.
