Background to the Research

• The possibility that memories for political violence are related to mental health is suggested in the emerging literature. To date research in NI has focused on the short-term link between political violence and psychological disorder.
• The main aim of this study was thus to investigate how salient the Rememberance Day bomb was in present day Eniskillen and Lowtown some eight years after the original event and to examine how memories of that particular bomb are related to current psychological well-being. In this context it is important to note that the Enniskillen bomb was placed by the Provisional IRA, who Protestants would see as their enemy, and was targeted at an event which in NI is seen as largely involving Protestants - the commeration of the deaths of members of the British armed services. For this reason it was predicted that Protestants would be more likely to recall the Eniskillen bomb as a significant event.
  

Research Approach

• Quota sampling was employed with quota targets to ensure that approximately equal numbers of people were interviewed in each town (Enniskillen and Lowtown) and that the sample contained approsimately equal numbers of women/men and Catholics/Protestants and people from each of the age ranges 18-33, 39-49, 50-65 and 66 years and over.
  
• All interviews were carried out by male and female Northern Irish postgraduate students, on the same day, on the streets of both Enniskillen and Lowtown. Those fitting the quota requirements were asked to take part in the study concerned with 'the sort of things people remember about the past'. Respondents were asked to recall two national or world events that had taken place over the past 50 years that 'come to mind as important to you'. These questions were then repeated but this time with the emphasis on Northern Irish events or changes. In order to tap into current psychological well-being, each respondent was also asked to complete the 12-item version of the GHQ.
  

Main Findings

• Of the 282 people interviewed, a total of 281 recalled at least one 'important' Northern Irish event while 229 (81%) mentioned a second Northern Irish event. The vast majority (87%) of events could be classified as political violence in NI and of these the cease-fire was mentioned most often (61%) followed by the Enniskillen Bomb (25%) and the 'troubles' in general (23%).
  
• Of those who chose to mention the bomb in Enniskillen, 34 did so as a first event and a further 34 as a second event. Using data from 257 respondents from whom sufficient information was available, a log-linear analysis was undertaken in order to examine the possibility that mentioning the bomb in Enniskillen influenced by place of residence, religion, age or gender. This resulted in two statistically significant two-way associations; The two-way association for mentioning the bomb and town indicated that the vast majority of those who mentiones the bomb came from Enniskillen, whereas the two-way association between mention and religion indicated that 57% of those who mentioned the bomb were Protestants.
  
• The mean GHQ score for Enniskillen was 10.21 and for Lowtown 10.26 compared to 10.81 and 10.82 respectively in 1988 (a high GHQ score indicated poorer health.
  
• As hypothesized more people from Enniskillen mentioned the bomb and with the exception of the ceasefire, the Enniskillen bomb was the only single Northern Irish event considered to be important by at least 20% of the respondents.
  
• The actual memory for the Enniskillen bomb was not tested in this study and thus there is no evidence to suggest that people failed to recall the event, just that they did not mention it when asked to list important events.
  
• There were no generational differences among respondents who remembered the bomb.
  
• Sorting out cause and effect in this study is difficult; the study simply recorded self-assessed denominational membership. The results of the study highlight, but do not explain, the complex relationship that is the possible between politics, memory and mental health in a divided community such as NI. Future studies should measure social identity more accurately, particularly strength of social identity.