Meaning in the Maze: the heritage of Long Kesh

Abstract

The article examines the role of the former Long Kesh/Maze prison as one of the key heritage sites of the Northern Ireland conflict. It is grounded within the context of the political processes which have followed the implementation of the Belfast Peace Agreement in 1998. A brief history of the site and the salient points in its timeline precedes a discussion of the recommendations of the Maze Consultation Panel which reported in 2005. Among its principal proposals was the reconstruction of part of the Maze site as an International Centre for Conflict Transformation. The article examines the responses of various stakeholders to this idea but uses Sinn Féin's favoured analogies of Robben Island and, particularly, Auschwitz-Birkenau to conclude that only republicanism has a clearly defined sense of the heritage value of the Maze and an understanding as to how the site might be appropriated and exploited as an iconic place for remembering, contestation and resistance.