In 1998, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) killed 29 people in the Omagh bombing, only four months after the Good Friday Agreement purported to put an end to the three-decade-long sectarian conflict known as the Troubles. It was the deadliest terrorist attack in Northern Ireland’s history.
During the Troubles, Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists clashed over whether Northern Ireland should remain in the United Kingdom or become part of a united Ireland. The conflict still permeates social and political life in the country, where efforts to confront its legacy are ongoing. In 2024, Northern Ireland established an independent inquiry to determine whether British state authorities could have prevented the carnage of the Omagh bombing. Two years later, the inquiry drags on, impeded by the difficulty of collecting evidence that is over a quarter of a century old, and the pain of dredging up historical grievances.
In Northern Irish author Jan Carson’s new novel, Few and Far Between, a young anthropologist named Alex sets out on another mission to examine a messy past when she visits the place where her mixed-religion parents raised her: a fictional island archipelago that once sheltered a utopian community from the Troubles. Through chapters from Alex’s ethnography and the narration of the book’s central characters, Carson explores the dynamics of memory, reconciliation, and accountability that continue to haunt Northern Ireland.
