This article critically examines the difficulty with creating a shared narrative in post-conflict Northern Ireland. Using the legacy of policing as a case study for drawing more general conclusions about creating a shared narrative, the article interrogates how disagreement over where to start and end the discussion and exclusivist approaches to victimhood are obstructing attainment of a shared narrative. The article analyses competing policing narratives as constructed from the lived reality of opposing ethno-nationalist collectives with different experiences in a heated ‘memory politics’ domain. Concluding with the argument that the prerequisite to successfully building a shared narrative is departure from competing ‘memory politics’ understandings of the past, the article suggests a new understanding of victimhood and perpetratorship in Northern Ireland.