Yet Another Irish Question

Even in the midst of being starved, massacred and partitioned, Ireland has rarely been among the more grateful beneficiaries of British imperialism; and the possibility of a board game based on the Troubles has elicited an expectably dour response. Though not yet ready for sale, the game has been advertised on the website of its US-based manufacturer, whose company president defended it on educational grounds: nobody under thirty in America can be bothered to watch a documentary, let alone pick up a book, so history must be told in more engaging ways, such as a game involving two hundred and fifty-nine "rich narrative cards" and two hundred pages of instructions. Nevertheless, a victims' rights organisation in Northern Ireland has protested that the game oversimplifies the issue, and that its existence could re-traumatise any survivors who see it marketed. Happily, assuming that the game's educational ambitions survive its developmental rigors, it seems unlikely to become much more engaging without also, perish the thought, becoming rather less historical; so those who live long enough to be re-traumatised may well end up relatively few.