“Is That It?”: Veteran Reflections on the Falklands 40th Anniversary and Northern Ireland Peacekeeping Exhibitions at the Imperial War Museum London

This study uses a museum “walk-through” and focus group approach to examine how British military veterans who had served in the Falklands (1982) and Northern Ireland conflicts (1969–1998) responded to the Imperial War Museum’s (IWM’s) commemorative exhibitions. This was especially pertinent in 2022, the 40th anniversary of the Falklands campaign. We examine how the veteran participants expressed disappointment in response to the displays, generating deeply affective responses (“that taste in your mouth”), and we contextualize this with curator reflections. The focus groups prompted a lively discussion on the commemoration of recent and contested conflicts and on whose stories get told or omitted. Our study contributes to a “dialogical approach” in the emerging field of veteran studies while considering the politics of conflict representation. We argue that nurturing a critical yet compassionate understanding of what war does to combatants and civilians is essential for museums and scholars of representational practices.