U. of Ulster Data Base Chronicles ‘the Troubles’

The University of Ulster has created an on-line data base of scholarly resources on “the Troubles,” as the lengthy conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland is known.

The “Conflict Archive,” on the Internet, includes bibliographies, time lines, a list of names of researchers, information on organizations and individuals involved in the Troubles, and primary materials, such as Loyalist and Republican newspapers, pamphlets, and memorabilia.

Visitors to the site can examine photographs of political murals that blanket the sides of buildings throughout Belfast and Derry, which is also known as Londonderry. The site also features photographs of parades, marching bands, and banners. Using Adobe Acrobat Reader software -- which can be downloaded free -- visitors can also read civil-rights fliers from the late 1960s.

Martin Melaugh, who helped to develop the project as a research-and-information specialist at the university’s Centre for the Study of Conflict, is director of the site.

Queens University of Belfast is also involved in the project, as is the Linen Hall Library, which has the most comprehensive collection of materials from political and paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. The site is supported through 1998 by the Higher Education Funding Councils of the United Kingdom.