Orchestrated Loss

Whilst there have been allegations that republican paramilitaries carried out disappearances during the Troubles for the purpose of social control, there have similarly been denials that this was the case. It has been suggested that Disappearances were ad hoc, sporadic, local initiatives (i.e. not sanctioned by the republican leadership). Whatever the truth, the accounts of the families of the Disappeared show how they clearly felt that there was orchestration of both the disappearance and the events that occurred in the aftermath of the violence. The coercive control experienced by the families in terms of community silence; threats to life; denial of employment; denial of religious participation; disinformation in relation to the fate of their loved one and denials regarding the participation of the paramilitaries in their disappearance was fundamental to the trauma experienced right from the moment of the disappearance. This chapter explores the impact of disappearance as a specific form of loss, on frameworks of grief, trauma and loss, thus giving a conceptual structure to how we might understand and respond to the experience of disappearance.