Navigating fraught legacies with trauma-informed archival practice
by Allan LEONARD
24 February 2026
The Quill Project recently hosted a comprehensive event focusing on the examination of archival practice, care, and ethical responsibility in a post-conflict context. Hosted by the Quill Project — a digital humanities research enterprise based at Pembroke College, Oxford, which is currently focused on building an inclusive digital archive of the Northern Ireland peace process — the gathering at Holywell Trust in Derry/Londonderry was chaired by Barry Houlihan, an archivist at the University of Galway. The event featured a series of presentations and panel discussions from archivists, journalists, and historians, providing deep insights into how to navigate the fraught legacies of conflict contained within historical records.
Following the opening, Iqbal Singh of the National Archives (UK) Outreach Team delivered a workshop on “Archives and Emotions”. Singh, drawing on his personal background of navigating diverse cultural spaces as the child of parents who experienced the legacy of partition in India and Pakistan, uses creative practice to engage with historical records. He advocated for an approach that processes emotion rather than sanitising it, emphasising the profound emotional impact of records.
Singh detailed his work with his colleague Dr Elizabeth Haines on “audio-centred learning”, creating audio zines that utilise actors and soundscapes to produce immersive experiences. For example, in exploring the “Global Second World War”, Singh noted the vast, fragmented nature of records beyond the Western Front. He highlighted how audio can capture the divergent and contradictory nature of the archives, pointing to a 1943 Japanese propaganda broadcast aimed at Indian troops that reveals complex language battles and patriotic music working against the intended messaging. By playing with audio, Singh argued, historians can open up conversations about the psychological world of records, facilitating imagination and acknowledging the messiness that public history often lags behind in conveying.
The subsequent panel discussion, titled “Archives, Trauma, and Public Access”, began with Joy Carey, Senior Archivist at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI). For the past two and a half years, Carey has led a team dedicated to identifying, preserving, and digitising surviving records related to mother and baby institutions and Magdalene laundries in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1995. Carey stressed that these files are “not neutral documents”. Instead, they “carry the weight of systems and of practices that caused real harm to individuals”. Detailing her trauma-informed practice, she explained that establishing physical and psychological safety is paramount. She noted the painful power dynamics and antiquated language preserved in the archives, remarking that even the word “home” can be deeply distressing for victims and survivors, as these institutions were devoid of the love and security the word implies. Records often used euphemisms, frequently referred to grown women as “girls” or “children”, and applied criminal phrasing such as “first or second offense” for pregnancies.
Carey also addressed the profound ethical challenges her team faces, including the vicarious trauma experienced by digitisation specialists exposed to such harrowing material. She recounted a poignant moment when a survivor visited the PRONI conservation studio and asked, “Why do you put so much effort into saving… all these lies?”. Carey explained that preserving these records, alongside new oral testimonies, lays the foundation for a future Independent Truth Recovery Archive, ensuring that individuals are “seen and heard and remembered not just as a number in an admission register… but as a human being”.
Sam McBride, Northern Ireland Editor of the Belfast Telegraph and Sunday Independent, offered a journalist’s perspective on the balance between transparency and sensitivity. McBride praised the general openness of UK archives, pointing out that files detailing top-secret SAS operations and the sovereign’s travel plans during the Troubles have been released. “We live in a very open society where we can argue with these people,” he stated. However, he expressed deep concern over instances of excessive caution and unjustified redaction. McBride argued that withholding information can be damaging, as redactions often make innocuous content appear far worse, suggesting a cover-up to the public. “I think we should be really careful about trying to sanitize this for good reason,” he warned, asserting that starting assumptions should always favour openness.
McBride highlighted a worrying trend of diminishing access to Northern Ireland Office archives in Belfast, noting that material is increasingly housed solely in London, reducing local scrutiny. He also pointed to instances where memos naming established figures were inexplicably pulled back, or where the names of senior civil servants were redacted in Belfast but left open in corresponding files at the National Archives in London. He viewed this as a “pendulum swinging much more towards a caution”, driven by a bureaucratic fear of causing awkwardness rather than protecting genuine state secrets, a practice that ultimately undermines public confidence.
Huw Bennett, a military historian teaching at Cardiff University, explored the systemic suppression of trauma within military archives. Bennett observed that while military archives are “replete with instances of trauma”, military institutions systematically repress this reality to maintain operational function. He detailed the mechanisms of this repression, including the use of jargon to disguise violence — such as describing executions as a suspect being “shot attempting to escape”. Bennett also discussed the sanitised flow of information up the chain of command, which shields top-level decision-makers from the human implications of their orders.
Beyond the archives themselves, Bennett shared his own struggles with institutional obstruction, recounting how the Ministry of Defence informally pressured a veterans association not to speak with him during his research on the Parachute Regiment. He underscored the ethical duty historians possess when writing about conflict, stating, “There’s also an ethical obligation to discuss the trauma of war, because not doing so is fundamentally misleading about what war is.” Bennett argued that in democracies, citizens must understand the true costs of conflict to properly restrain their governments.
The panel was followed by a question-and-answer session that brought forward practical challenges from the audience. One professional archivist highlighted the difficulty of cross-archival vetting, sharing an example where pages of meeting minutes had to be urgently removed from different files because an individual mentioned was appearing in court that very day. Another attendee reinforced McBride’s point about redaction, noting that families often spend a decade fighting for access to information only to find the withheld details were minor. She stressed that paternalistic decisions to withhold files to prevent pain often cause far more devastation. Conversely, another attendee shared a positive counter-example, explaining that her archival team was instructed that “in case of doubt, release it,” an approach that fostered immense public trust and professional pride.
The final session of the event featured Eamon McCann, a renowned journalist, author, and civil rights activist, who delivered a sharp critique of the Northern Ireland peace process. McCann said that conventional histories incorrectly present the main problem as a division between nationalism/unionism, Catholic/Protestant — he called this dichotomy “phony”. He argued that the true division lies “between the working class… and the whole setup of a capitalist society”. McCann pointed to massively attended non-sectarian demonstrations in the early 1980s that focused on class politics and the National Health Service as evidence of a suppressed history of working-class unity.
McCann said that challenges by masses of people, for example in areas such as the Bogside, were “written out of history”. When asked by the audience how the Quill Project might address this, he initially answered that he had no saved papers of his own, to the audible gasp of some of the archivists in the room. McCann suggested incorporating archives and papers of civil rights organisations and individuals who focused on class politics, as well as the need to include international dimensions, such as the Black Panthers speaking at Free Derry Corner and the 1970 Kent State shootings.
In conclusion, the Quill Project’s event provided a vital and multifaceted examination of how societies interact with their most painful historical records. From the meticulous, trauma-informed care required to preserve the legacy of institutional abuse, to the journalistic and historical battles against unwarranted censorship, the discussions made clear that archives are active battlegrounds for truth. Furthermore, the robust ideological challenges presented by veteran activists remind us that the narratives we accept as history directly shape the political realities of today. Ultimately, whether dealing with government files or grassroots movements, preserving clarity, openness, and an unvarnished account of the past remains essential for ongoing conflict transformation in Northern Ireland.