The Island Pamphlets series was initiated in 1993 for the purpose of stimulating and informing a community-wide debate on historical, cultural, political and socio-economic matters pertinent to Northern Ireland. Some of the first titles sought to explore aspects of Northern Ireland’s shared history and culture. However, very soon the pamphlets began to focus on the deliberations of small, informal gatherings of individuals who came together to explore issues relevant to their everyday lives (convened under the auspices of Farset Community Think Tanks Project). These Think Tank pamphlets sought to provide working-class communities on both sides of Northern Ireland’s so-called ‘sectarian divide’ with a vehicle through which they could not only describe their experiences and express their fears and concerns, but also articulate their hopes for the future.

The Think Tanks have embraced (on both a ‘single identity’ and a cross-community basis) Republicans, Loyalists, community activists, women’s groups, victims, cross-border workers, ex-prisoners, young people, those with disabilities, senior citizens and others. To date 134 pamphlet titles have been produced, with 201,500 hard copies widely disseminated (free of charge) across the community network. For some years the project was funded by EU Peace money.

These two books offer a selection of 11 titles from the series. 

See image 4 above for the contents of Selection 1 (220 pages in length) and image 5 for the contents of Selection 2 (200 pages in length).

Selection 2 also includes an overview of the entire series, with the pamphlet titles listed (a) chronologically, and (b) by theme.

The series has received a very positive response from grassroots organisations as well as academics and researchers (see images 6–8 above).

Michael Hall