Features of Community Commemoration Practices Formation in Northern Ireland

This article highlights the developmental aspects of the Protestant and Catholic urban community commemoration traditions in their interrelationship in the period up to 1969. It provides a critical evaluation of historiography of this problem and highlights the importance of its resolving for peace-making efforts in Northern Ireland. Main features and milestones of regional unofficial memorial culture evolution were reconstructed based on the study of photo documents and press materials. Special attention was paid to historical, genetic and comparative historical analysis of formative factors of similarities and differences of Catholic and Protestant community practices. It is concluded that the nature of the dialogue between memorial traditions of Ulster’s ethno-confessional communities is dialectical, based on both functional assimilation and ideological opposition of the forms and themes of monuments.