Tag Archives: Northern Ireland

Eighth review of Digital contention in a divided society published in Estudios Irlandeses

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The eighth review of Digital Contention in a Divided Society has been published in Estudios Irlandeses . Sarah Ritt (University of Vienna) provides a very comprehensive reflection on the book’s key themes. Some quotes from the review are below:

“Online communities are their own little microcosms. Often either overlooked or blamed for everything wrong with today’s society, the online space has only rather recently become a subject of academic study, probably partly because in order to produce telling results, large datasets need to be retrieved, categorized, and analyzed This is exactly what Paul Reilly does in his monograph Digital Contention in a Divided Society“

“In order to root his analysis in the offline world as well, Reilly supplements it with an actors’ analysis of events coverage in main regional newspapers. This keeps his insight from being reduced to the infamous online “bubbles”.”

“Digital Contention in a Divided Society: Social Media, Parades and Protests in Northern Ireland is a valuable resource for those working with social media studies who are looking for a comprehensive and triangulated set of data that has been researched with a great amount of consideration for its social / historical contexts and the quantitative care necessary when working with a fast-changing environment such as social media platforms.”

I am very grateful to Sarah for such a thoughtful review of the book, which can be read in full here

Invited presentation at Memory, Conflict & Peace event

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Yesterday I gave an invited presentation at an event entitled ‘Memory, Conflict & Peace’. It was organised by the University of Glasgow’s Memory Lab, an interdisciplinary initiative exploring how memories are made, stored and retrieved by individuals.

Featuring a keynote by Prof. Ann Rigney (Utrecht University), the event considered how memory contributes to conflict. It addressed questions such as: How do official narratives sustain nationalism and preparedness for war? In what ways do digital media amplify, reshape, or contest memories of past violence? What can we learn from societies where memory of division remains a site of contestation?

My paper was called Random Access Memories or clichéd representations? How historical photographs of the Troubles are interpreted on Instagram. This was based on my previous article published in the journal Information, Communication & Society,

The slides can be read below.

Many thanks to the organisers (Yulia, Maria & Craig), the other speakers and attendees for such an thought-provoking workshop.

Presentations at MeCCSA 2025

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This week I was at Edinburgh Napier University to attend the annual MeCCSA conference. The theme this year was ‘Identity and Belonging’, with a specific focus on how identities are mediated and mediate themselves.

First, I was part of a Glasgow University Media Group panel on the Cost of Living Crisis. I presented an overview of the key findings with Cairsti Russell and Gavin Hawkton (unfortunately Catherine Happer was unable to join us due to ill-health).

Key themes included the debate over the use of the word ‘crisis’. There was also a focus on the impact of austerity and cuts in public services on low-income households. Our results suggest that media coverage of the COLC prioritised business perspectives over those of civil society. Citizens are increasingly attracted to alternative news sources. The slides from the session can be viewed below:

These findings are from the GUMG’s forthcoming book ‘Bad News for the Cost of Living Crisis’. The book, edited by Catherine Happer, Alison Eldridge and me, will be published with Palgrave Pivot in December 2025.

My second paper was on my ongoing research on social media, parades and protests in Northern Ireland. I drew on my book Digital Contention in a Divided Society and article on #Brexitriots in my presentation. It explored hashtags as affective ritualised responses to contentious events in Northern Ireland. I examined who was behind these discursive formations online, and who benefited from this activity. The slides can be viewed below:

Thanks to everyone who attended the sessions. asked questions, and provided important feedback on the work.

The Herald op-ed on racist violence in Northern Ireland

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Yesterday I had an op-ed published in the Herald (Glasgow). It discusses the racist rioting seen in Northern Ireland earlier this month.

I argued that politicians have to take responsibility for their role in producing a toxic political discourse about immigration. In towns like Ballymena and Larne, there was violence. Politicians framed anti-migrant demonstrations as representing the ‘legitimate concerns’ of local communities. Now, more than ever, we need a fact-based narrative on immigration. It should be anti-racist to prevent a repeat of these racist riots.

Many thanks to Charlotte Morris and the Herald for arranging this. The op-ed can be read in full here.

Publication: Article on #BrexitRiots published in International Journal of Communication

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The start of the brexit riots
byu/mrdougan inbrexit

My article ‘The Blame Game? #Brexitriots as an affective ritualized response to civil disorder in Northern Ireland has been published in the International Journal of Communication.

This paper focuses on how the April 2021 violence in Northern Ireland were discursively framed on Twitter. I argue that #Brexitriots was an affective ritualised response to civil unrest in Northern Ireland. It demonstrated a lack of knowledge of the grievances fuelling this violence.

The abstract is below:

The protests and violence in Northern Ireland in April 2021 were nominally a manifestation of Loyalist anger at the “Irish Sea border” created as part of the deal that saw the United Kingdom leave the European Union. Social media were widely blamed for having amplified tensions surrounding the protests. This study explores how affective publics, mobilized on Twitter, responded to the “Brexit riots.” It does so by providing an overview of how online platforms are used during contentious episodes in divided societies, examining the background of the disorder, and presenting the results of a reflexive thematic analysis of #brexitriots tweets (N = 8287) posted between April 9 and April 13, 2021. Results indicate that #Brexitriots was an affective ritualized response from tweeters who appeared unaware of the manifold grievances of the protesters. They used these events as a source of partisan political expression, confirming their view that the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union was a mistake.

I would like to thank Suay Özkula and Victoria Baskett for their feedback on an earlier draft of this study. Also, a special mention to Kady and the IJOC team for their editorial help.

The paper is published Open Access and can be read in full here

Sixth review of Digital Contention published in LSE Review of Books

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Digital Contention in a Divided Society, MUP, 2024

The sixth review of Digital Contention in a Divided Society was published in LSE Review of Books last week. Penny Nakou (University of Bath) provides a very comprehensive and detailed reflection on the book’s key themes. Some quotes from the review are below:

“The book enables a wide range of readers – academic scholars and researchers, but also citizens and activists – to grasp the relevance of contentious politics and how these are articulated and disputed in the digital era, especially in our increasingly datafied social world”

“This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the context of NI as a divided society, understanding the recent history of local protests and disputes (between 2012-2015) and the wider scene of the relations between NI, Ireland, and the UK”

“Overall, this book offers valuable and detailed insights into the ways that digital media shape and fuel contentious politics, social mobilisation and citizenship. It shows how online platforms can impact polarised societies negatively, by reproducing prejudice and hate speech, but also positively by managing inter-group tensions, avoiding violence and social unrest, and providing informal learning”

“This work can help academics, activists, political and media experts, as well as the general public evaluate the occurrence of disputable events, such as protests and demonstration parades, within profoundly fragmented contexts like NI particularly in the face of rising mis- and dis-information in the digital age”

I am very grateful to Penny for such a thoughtful review of the book, which can be read in full here

Article published in UK General Election Analysis report

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UK General Election Analysis 2024 report

I have an article in a new publication on the 2024 UK General Election edited by Dan Jackson, Julie Firestone, Emily Harmer, Einar Thorsen, Darren Lilleker, Katy Parry and Scott Wright. This rapid response report features 101 contributions from 130 UK and international academics .

Many thanks to the editors for the invitation to participate and all their hard work in producing this comprehensive report.

My article explores the Facebook ads paid for by the parties in Northern Ireland. I analyse who spent the most, who were the most prominent politicians, and the rhetoric deployed in these ads.

The article can be accessed here.

The full report is available to download from here

Participant in BBC Radio Ulster Talkback debate on misinformation and the UK General Election

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Photo by Joshua Miranda on Pexels.com

Yesterday I participated in a segment on BBC Radio Ulster Talkback about the misinformation and the 2024 UK General Election. Presented by William Crawley, I joined Claire Graham and Orna Young and to discuss how best to identify misinformation circulated via online platforms, how easy it is to do so, and the potential use of deepfake technologies to alter speeches made by politicians.

You can listen to the segment below

Part 1

Part 2

Many thanks to William, Kerry, Zahra and the Talkback team for the invitation to participate. 

Article in The Conversation about social media protections and peacebuilding

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I have a new article published in the Conversation UK. In this piece, I argue that the removal of guardrails and safety measures from online platforms makes it harder to promote reconciliation in deeply-divided societies. Drawing on examples such as my own work on Northern Ireland, I suggest that commercial platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter) are not the best place to promote peace. Perhaps a public service internet would be a more suitable forum in which to reconcile former antagonists.

Many thanks to Charlotte Morris, Dale Berning Saw and the Conversation UK for their feedback and assistance in getting this published.

The article can be read here

New blogpost on role of social media in protests and disorder in post-conflict societies

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Invited book talk, Leicester, 16 April

I have written an essay for the University of Glasgow Social Sciences Hub on the role of social media in protests and disorder in divided societies. In the piece, I reflect on something I wrote about the 2011 English riots and consider how online platforms are used by citizens to frame contentious issues. I argue that the indirect effects of online incivility seen during divisive events can be detrimental for efforts to promote peace and reconciliation in divided societies.

Thanks to Andrew MacIver for the help in publishing this. It can be read in full here and you can buy a copy of Digital Contention in a Divided Society here.