Get your questions in now!

Brilliant initiative! Preserving the past is important for the future.

'Real reconciliation would mean being transparent. Rather than giving access to a curated handful of historians why not put all the information into the public domain? Let's see all the elements and make our own minds up.'

garethmulvennana.substack.com/p/a-public-his…

Just a few days after the UK Govt announces it will open its files to approved academics for a ‘public history’ of the Troubles, here’s another example of files being withheld in the interests of the state. irishnews.com/news/northern-…

This one has turned into a bit of an odyssey. Won't be ready for Monday, but it'll hopefully be done by mid-week!

Bit of a clue as to how any intended 'full access' public history will pan out 👇

James Leonard This is a good and balanced analysis

Q. In writing a 'Public History', is there justification for limiting access to archival files to vetted 'independent historians'?

'Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants'
Louis Brandeis, 'What Publicity Can Do' in Other People's Money And How the Bankers Use It (1914)

Among many other things, I do wonder how ‘a fuller examination of the Troubles than has ever been possible before’ can be the sole province of historians, even if other ‘perspectives’ are included.

irishnews.com/news/northern-…

An excellent assessment by Gareth, asking all the right questions of the newly-announced public history of the Troubles.

A public history should not be limited to an academic exercise using 'official' archives (especially when open only to a select few) but should include community archives and testimonies. Archivists have fought hard to dispel the assumption that archives are an elitist world

Opening up archives to a carefully curated handful of historians while the rest of us get worn down by bureaucracy and obfuscation.

There, I fixed it for you.

My takeaway from all of this is that people here are being trolled at every level.