SENSING THE TROUBLES is compiling a history of Northern Ireland’s Troubles using fragments of memories rooted in the senses. By paying attention to sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, we can move beyond well-known political narratives and remember stories of the everyday as well as the extraordinary.

If you would like to send information to the project online please visit the Contact page of the website.

If you would like to upload a message or send a text by phone, the number is (+44) 07514349608. You can click on the contact icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the page.

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For me the sound of the Troubles is helicopters. Helicopters and rifle practice.

Uploaded to website.

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The amount of sensory material stored up or stored down in the brain’s and the body’s systems is inestimable. It’s like a culture at the bottom of a jar, although it doesn’t grow, I think, or help anything else to grow unless you find a way to reach it and touch it. But once you do, it’s like putting your hand into a nest and finding something beginning to hatch out in your head.

Seamus Heaney, interviewed in the Guardian November 2008.