This book contains edited versions of 100 oral interviews and a photographic archive project recording Ireland and Northern Ireland’s borders. The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is a constitutionally and ethnically contested area, born out of civil and political strife in 1921.

Since the Good Friday Agreement, people have sought to address the legacy of 30 years of conflict. Dialogue began then on how we deal with the past. In 2001, the Healing Through Remembering project was founded and sought out answers to the question “How should we remember the events connected with the conflict in and about Northern Ireland so as to individually and collectively contribute to the healing of the wounds of our society?” One of the forms of remembering suggested was a collective storytelling and archiving process.Borderlines offers a platform for those who have been affected by the borders to speak on their own terms.

The voices are individual and give their own unique views of experiences connected to the border. The project opens the possibility for a society to learn from its past and hopes to contribute to personal and societal healing. This book is an integral part of the Borderlines Project and includes an audiovisual archive and exhibition.The researchers were all local to the border or working within those communities. The research approach was phenomenological, seeking to understand and record the reality as the participants perceived it, whilst being mindful for personal subjectivity. The fact that the researchers were local to the area and from diverse backgrounds is essential to the ethos of the project. Likewise is that the skills and expertise gained through this experience would remain in the locality