'THE NEW FRONTIER': A SERIES OF REFLECTIONS ON THE IRISH BORDER IN ITS HUNDREDTH YEAR
If anything, much of the writing here seems to embody the inter-generational trauma wrought upon the region by a century of warfare...' James Conor Patterson, editor of The New Frontier: Reflections from the Irish Border (published by New Island) introduces his new anthology, marking the centenary of partition and renewed international focus on the Irish border.
For a region which has long been stigmatised within the popular imagination, it strikes me how absent voices from the Irish Border are in their own story. Perceptions tend to range from stereotypes about smuggling, anxieties about nationhood, religion and landscape, to an almost unshakeable association with paramilitary and State-sponsored violence. But in my experience, something is almost always being projected onto a population who for the most part have more mundane concerns: schools, jobs, healthcare, family, shelter.
It was this imbalance that I sought to redress when I first approached New Island Books with The New Frontier: Reflections from the Irish Border. I knew the centenary of Partition was looming and that it was likely to bring with it a plethora of political clown artistry. So far, so predictable. But what the book eventually became – that is, an anthology containing some of the most vibrant pieces of writing I’ve ever read – exceeded even my own expectations.
The New Frontier: Reflections from the Irish Border
To my great surprise, 27 of the country’s best writers – all of whom happened to be from different Border areas – agreed to partake in the project. Within a few months I knew that I had something special on my hands, for here was a document which at last seemed to collate the region’s lived experiences, stories and mythologies in all its complexity. Which didn’t pander to or patronise its subject, and which interpreted the Border in a myriad of ways other than the traditional binary we’ve all been conditioned think about. Put another way, everyone who took part in The New Frontier immediately understood the assignment.
Which isn’t to say that this is an unbiased book, or indeed one which shies away from the gruesome reality of Partition. If anything, much of the writing here seems to embody the inter-generational trauma wrought upon the region by a century of warfare. Darran Anderson and Colette Bryce’s pieces, for example, reflect on the legacy of deprivation wrought upon their home city of Derry. In The Muffin Man, Pat McCabe writes about the ailing health of an elusive (yet brutal) former member of the British State Security Services, and essays by Maria McManus and Brónagh McAtasney delicately emphasise the sometimes choking inseparability of domestic and political life during the Troubles.
But where the pieces in The New Frontier differ from other high-profile treatments of the Border is in their refusal to be pigeonholed by victimhood, insurgency and secrecy. Contained within these pages is not the mysterious 'Otherworld' sensationalised by Colm Tóibín in his 1986 travelogue Bad Blood (Picador): "Everyone told me to be careful; this was South Armagh, you couldn’t just walk around casually talking to people." Nor do we encounter the titular ‘Bandit Country’ coined by Merlyn Rees in 1974 and written about by Toby Harnden in 1999. The catastrophe of Partition – in as much as it features at all – is a domestic event characterised by daily incursions on the lives of ordinary people.
As academic and teacher Dr Patrick Mulroe points out in a 2018 article he wrote for the Writing the Troubles blog: ‘…conjuring up a mythical ‘bandit country’ adds nothing to our understanding of the [Troubles] conflict. If nothing else, those studying the period should avoid use of such pejorative and simplistic terms.’ And so it is, this is what I have attempted to do. To remove the narrative from the hands of absentee stakeholders and allow people with lived experience to tell you what it’s really like here. Lean in. You might learn something.
The New Frontier: Reflections From The Irish Border (published by New Island) is out now.
