"In providing an incisive thick description of the centennial commemorations of the decimation of the 36th (Ulster) Division at the Battle of the Somme—a foundation myth of Ulster unionism—Jonathan Evershed deftly reveals how grassroots remodeling of Protestant-Loyalist social remembrance feeds into a culture war, which continues to unsettle Northern Ireland in a charged political climate that has too-readily been hailed as ‘post-conflict.'" —Guy Beiner, author of Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory
"Jonathan Evershed’s work demonstrates the value of an ethnographical study of commemorative practices in a divided society. Significantly, he engages with Loyalist social memory on its own terms, bringing intellectual curiosity and openness to his subject. This allows Evershed to provide a deeper understanding of the role of commemoration in the construction and assertion of Protestant, Unionist, and Loyalist identity and illustrates the multiple ways in which recourse to the past is freighted with the politics and economics of the present." —Roisín Higgins, Teesside University
"The author draws on a theoretical framework strongly influenced by Jacques Derrida and locates his work in debates about memory . . . most of the book is centered around interviews with those invoived in loyalist commemoration and the author's own experience of these. . . . Evershed's book provides a template that other scholars should follow as they interrogate the diverse commemorative agendas of our centenary decade." —History Ireland
"A rich, vivid, complex analysis, at once both empathetic and critical, that provides real insight into the contradictions of working-class loyalism, the invented tradition of the Somme commemorations as a central element of the 'culture war' of 'post-conflict' Northern Ireland, and the difficulties and possibilities of social transformation in the landscape of the post-industrial city." —Mark McGovern, Edge Hill University
“. . . a thoughtful and provocative exploration of Loyalist discourses of memory in the new (post-Belfast Agreement) Northern Ireland. . . there is no denying that Evershed has written something introspective and unique.” —Irish Political Studies
“For Evershed, it is important to understand what commemoration means to people who feel left behind, people who feel that the past was far better than an uncertain future. . . . The result is a book well-worth reading.” —Slugger O’Toole
