CAIN Associate Programme

CAIN as a Resource for Research and Teaching the Troubles

Professor Robert Savage

For over twenty-five years I've been writing about Irish and British media history, addressing how radio and television proved transformative throughout twentieth century Ireland. My more recent work has focused on Northern Ireland and addressed how the broadcast media developed and responded to 'the troubles'. This work has paid particular attention to how the BBC and independent television companies in London responded to the outbreak of violence in 1969 and the coverage they provided throughout the course of the conflict.

As an historian I've used a variety of sources to write these histories, sources that have enabled me to write what I hope is informed narrative history. I've used material from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast, the National Archives (TNA) at Kew in London, the National Archives, Ireland (NAI) in Dublin as well as the archives of the Independent Broadcasting Authority and especially the BBC Written Archives in Caversham. Gathering all of this archival material together takes a tremendous amount of time and effort. The task of synthesising diverse primary sources into what one hopes is informed and balanced historical narrative is a challenge.

When writing about the 'troubles' I've found two resources help keep my writing focused. One is Lost Lives, the stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland troubles. Written and complied by David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney and Chris Thornton, the volume is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the conflict. Lost Lives details the deaths of civilians, soldiers and paramilitaries who perished in the conflict. However, it also provides insight into the human cost of 'the troubles' by moving beyond statistics to identify the individuals who died, allowing one to gain a sense of the terrible toll the violence inflicted on society. This book continues to serve as a reminder that this history is, in the end, about the human cost of violence.

The other resource that remains invaluable to teacher and student alike is the Conflict Archive on the Internet, better known as CAIN. Developed by the International Conflict Research Institute at Ulster University, this website provides access to a rich variety of online primary and secondary sources that address and document 'the troubles'. I've used CAIN extensively at Boston College where I've been offering graduate and undergraduate courses over the past 25 years. CAIN is a rich and diverse resource for students enabling access to a range of invaluable material including primary sources from the NAI and PRONI. Students use the website knowing they can find informed histories that explain the background of the conflict and provide critical insight into key issues. Finding balanced information for internet driven students is critical in enabling a comprehensive understanding of the conflict. CAIN remains an important resource that features on the syllabi of academics across North America.

For the historian, CAIN enables one to step back to see chronologies that can help provide insight into the relationship between events that defined the conflict. Like Lost Lives, CAIN also enables one to see the human cost of the conflict in graphic terms. Having at one's fingertips access to the chronologies, articles, documents, bibliographies and biographies that address the contours of 'the troubles' over the past 30 years is invaluable. CAIN is a website that continues to play a critical role in enabling students and researchers to access a variety of important sources that explore the political, social and economic complexities of Northern Ireland. It provides teachers, students and researchers with a wide array of cutting-edge material that helps explain the complex history of the Northern Ireland crisis.

Author
Professor Robert Savage is currently the Director of the Boston College Irish Studies Program and a member of the university's History Department faculty. He is the author of four books that explore contemporary Irish and British history including 'The BBC's Irish Troubles: Television, Conflict and Northern Ireland' (2015) and 'A Loss of Innocence? Television and Irish Society 1960-1972' (2010), winner of the 2011 James S. Donnelly Sr. Book Prize from the American Conference for Irish Studies. Robert has been awarded Visiting Fellowships at the Long Room Hub, Trinity College, Dublin; at the University of Edinburgh, where he held a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship, at Queen's University, Belfast and at the National University of Ireland, Galway. His latest book The Oxygen of Publicity? Northern Ireland and the Politics of Censorship in Thatcher's Britain, was published by Oxford University Press in 2022.

CAIN
CAIN (cain.ulster.ac.uk) is an on-line Archive of resources related to the Northern Ireland conflict, peace process, and politics in the region. CAIN is part of the ARK (www.ark.ac.uk) research centre within Ulster University and Queen's University Belfast. CAIN is known and used internationally by academics, journalists, policy makers, students, and the general public.

CAIN Associate Programme 
The CAIN Associate Programme was established to showcase how CAIN has underpinned and supported the work of a range of scholars, journalists, community sector practitioners and others.  Each Associate was invited to give a seminar (due to COVID this became a webinar) and then produce a short paper to accompany the seminar.