The Prisons Memory Archive: A Case Study in Filmed Memory of Conflict

“The Prisons Memory Archive: A Case Study in Filmed Memory of Conflict” is a highly significant collection of writings that offer a model of participatory practice in filmmaking and history-making, oral history and storytelling, as well as the creation of archives. The juxtaposition of accounts from researchers, who established the Prisons Memory Archive with the reflections from participants, who told the histories and stories of imprisonment that form the Prison Memory Archive’s content, represents the practice of co-authorship that has guided the Prisons Memory Archive project from the outset. The inclusive methodology of the collection is an extension of that of the Archive, and while both will, no doubt, inform the practice of remembering and documenting conflict in Ireland, the development of the Prison Memory Archive methodology and its critically reflective priorities is relevant to archival work and memory work more generally. Alongside the writings of Prison Memory Archive researchers and participants are a series of important essays that position their collaboration in a wider context of writing contested histories, seeking transformative justice, reading architecture and understanding the intersection of the digital and spatial in archival studies.

Dr Louise Purbrick

School of Humanities and Social Science

University of Brighton

[...] this volume features unique insights from and about archival practices in the digital age and showcases how community engagement can enrich academic research and create access to dealing with a complicated and troubled past. It is suitable for a general audience interested in audio/visual archiving, documentary filmmaking and local history with or without an academic background, while prior knowledge about the conflict in Northern Ireland would be beneficial.

Katharina J. Bock. [Extract from book review appearing on the journal 'Media Practice and Education'. Sep 09, 2022. DOI: 10.1080/25741136.2022.2113241]

[...] This is an interesting account of a project to record history that is real and relevant now. It is somewhat academic and the participants’ reflections on the past are the most interesting. People change their views and move on. Preserving personal accounts is important and this is principally about people, not politics.

[Extract from book review appearing at the 'Law Society Gazette.' November 4, 2022. Reviewer: David Pickup]