ABSTRACT
Transitional justice and truth commissions attempt to mediate between what Cohen (2001: 6) terms the competing ‘forces of denial and acknowledgement’. In essence, the field and its central institutions grapple with the clamour for truth, justice and reconciliation after mass atrocity on one hand, and the desire to bury and silence the past on the other. ‘Dealing with the past’, often through the recovery of truth about past human rights violations, is now a frequent demand and expectation post-conflict (Hayner 2011). While the scholarly literature reflects this emphasis, less wellexplored are those sites where a formal truth process – which would explore the causes, context and consequences of a period of political violence, has been rejected or remains hotly contested some time after the cessation of violence and the signing of peace accords. Northern Ireland is one such site. Focusing on unionist, loyalist and security force opposition to a formal truth process, this book has sought to develop a fuller understanding of the political, sociological and ideological objections to truth recovery.
