Security in Past Tense

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis is to illustrate how collective memory is the basis of ontological security in conflicts and how this hinders reconciliation. The thesis argues that the narrative that stems from the actor must be validated by its relationships otherwise ontological dissonance occurs. Furthermore, the thesis argues that when ontological dissonance occurs the identity does not avoid the dissonance. Instead it holds on to what it knows, which is the collective memory. The thesis has looked at murals in Northern Ireland and has investigated what themes are displayed as chosen glories and chosen traumas. Through this analysis the thesis has been able to show that when a narrative is not validated the narrative is put in trauma time, which is an outcome of the ontological dissonance and also maintains it. When this happens reconciliation cannot take place since trauma time forces the community to remain in their antagonistic collective memory in order to have an ontological secure world. This can be seen by loyalist murals, which are in trauma time. Republicans are not in trauma time since their narrative has been validated by their relationships.