Louise Purbrick

The Last Murals of Long Kesh: Fragments of Political Imprisonment at the Maze Prison, Northern Ireland

The prison called both Long Kesh and the Maze is regarded as a symbol of the Northern Ireland conflict. Since its closure in 2000, the meaning of its history, the significance of its legacy and its possible futures have been disputed. The majority of the site has been demolished, access to its buildings restricted and plans for re-development have faltered. Using records of the prison made prior to the demolitions, this chapter interprets a fragment of the material culture of the prison; it examines a series of murals in one of its H Blocks, and argues that close attention to the materiality of this site can contribute to some understanding of the violence of the conflict itself.

Trading the Past: Material Culture of Long Kesh/Maze, Northern Ireland

Abstract Long Kesh/Maze, once Northern Irelands largest prison, is one of its most important sites of conflict. Since closure in 2000, its demolition and development have been contested. Its material culture, the remaining architecture as well as the artefacts that belonged to either prisoners or prison officers are implicated in the processes of remembering or forgetting violence and defining perpetrators and victims of conflict. The traces of the prison feature in the hesitant process of conflict-resolution and a vibrant trade in conflict heritage. This article examines both political debate concerning the future of the prison site and eBay auctions of the traces of its past.

Nitrate ruins: the photography of mining in the Atacama Desert, Chile

A photographic album entitled Oficina Alianza and Port of Iquique 1899 illustrates the industrial development of nitrate mining in Chile. From the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth, British capitalists dominated the extraction of Chilean nitrate and its export as a fertilizer and an explosive. The Oficina Alianza, a nitrate works at the centre of British monopoly of the trade, is, as other oficinas across the Antofagasta and Tarapacá regions of the Atacama Desert, a ruin. This article considers the correspondences between Alianza’s photographic album, a record of a working nitrate oficina, and its abandoned industrial structures. It examines the ruin and the photograph as Benjaminian allegories.