“It’s not anything normal people would find funny”: the role of humour in conflict affected societies, editing the prison officers in the Prisons Memory Archive

In this research, the primary location of conflict is Northern Ireland (c1968-1998).The project examines, as its principle case study, how humour is used by prison officers, who feature in the Prisons Memory Archive, to explicate traumatic experiences endured while working within the confines of the conflict setting of the Maze and Long Kesh Prison during the ‘Troubles’.

The findings of the project reveal that dark humour is often borne out of political conflict, emerging as a coping mechanism to help people process and survive traumatic experiences. <br>The project adopts a practice-based methodology consisting of editing a feature documentary film, Under Pressure: The Prison Officer’s Story, and writing a sustained critical reflection of the process. By employing creative practice to edit a film from the archive, the project researches the audio-visual recordings from the Prisons Memory Archive and offers an original contribution to knowledge by revealing the untold narrative of the prison officers.