Potential Impacts

The existence of the archive will make extensive qualitative research on the Northern Ireland conflict much more feasible than at present. The wide scope of material will add to the reliability of research on 'the Troubles', which presently tends to be dogged by issues of partiality. The extent and variety of potential material that the archive would make available provides scope for innovative approaches to qualitative analysis that could be ground-breaking in a methodological sense.

However, the greatest impact of the creation of the archive could be upon the political situation. As long as the constitutional aspirations of Catholics and Protestants continue to remain diametrically opposed there remains the danger that any aspect of the currently 'normalised' conflict again could flare up into large scale violence. Furthermore, a development in recent years there has been a re-emergence of community disputes surrounding the issues of victims, survivors, and commemoration. Currently it is not clear how either the general conflict or this particular dispute is going to be resolved. Social commentary on Northern Ireland remains bound by 'myths' that impede political progress. The existence of the archive would allow for more informed evaluations of these myths.