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Gendering ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland: A comparative analysis of nationalist women's political protests
Abstract
This article examines and develops a comparison of the Holy Cross School conflict and the campaign by Robert McCartney's sisters and partner to bring those responsible for his murder to justice in Northern Ireland. Both events involved women who identify with the Irish nationalist community in public protest. The article employs a feminist theoretical framework to investigate the ethno-gender dynamics of these particular manifestations of women's political protest. By engaging in a comparative analysis of both protests, the article exposes how these specific expressions of women's political agency and the political discourses and images that they stimulated were influenced by, reflected and disturbed notions about the role of women in nationalist societies.
... Women's engagement in ethno-national conflict has received limited attention, possibly because it is at odds with gender expectations, or because women's actions are less visible to observers (Grayzel 1999;Rooney 2002). Gendered ethno-national categories also downplay women's role and agency within conflict (Yuval-Davis 1997;Ashe 2007). Hence although women worldwide participate in ethnonational conflict, there is limited analysis of their role and, in particular, of their experiences and subjectivities as female protagonists. ...
... Hence women's engagement in wars and other conflicts is often invisible to external observers. Moreover, where such actions are noted, they are evaluated specifically in light of gendered norms and expectations (Dowler 1998;Alison 2004;Ashe 2006aAshe , 2007. This point is explored below; first, we contextualize ethno-nationalism and gender in NI. ...
... The position of Northern Irish women has also been profoundly affected by: (para)militarism; the ideological dominance of constitutional debates; and the limited impact of feminist politics within the province (McWilliams 1993;Roulston 2000;Ashe 2007;Murtagh 2008;McGlynn and McAuley 2011). During the Troubles, the (para)militarism of society was manifested in traditionally 'male' associations with violence, war and carnage. ...
Women's involvement in ethno-national conflicts is often overlooked, due partly to gender expectations. The gendered nature of ethno-nationalist identities and the salience of gender categories during conflict both work to render women ‘invisible’. However, women do frequently engage directly in ethno-national conflict. Such engagement can provide a space to disrupt gender ideologies, but is typically evaluated by others with reference to gender norms. This paper examines direct conflict engagement by a group of loyalist women in Northern Ireland, a region noted for both ethno-national conflict and gender conservatism. Using discourse analysis, it explores how the women themselves understand their central role in street protests and confrontations. It examines: (1) how they construct their identities as women in this situation; (2) the extent to which they refer to gender in explaining the conflict; and (3) how they see their actions affecting gender norms and relations within their community.
... As a representation of nationhood, it overemphasises the importance that masculinity and its integral ideals -bravery, prowess, strength, self-discipline and rationality -have played in the shaping of modern nations (see Mosse 1985;Enloe 1989;Nagel 1998). Moreover, it does not question the reality of the masculinised way in which national conflict is often commemorated (McDowell 2008), even though women have repeatedly been part of political and militant struggles for national independence, for example in South Africa (McClintock 1993), Ireland (Ashe 2007), Algeria and Indonesia (Sunindyo 1998), and Finland (Jallinoja 1988). Yet, if women are commemorated at all, it is in the form of weeping mothers and woeful wives, bemoaning the losses and hardships of sons and husbands (McClintock 1993: 73). ...
... Even Germania and the French Marianne have been portrayed as motherly figures, despite their otherwise martial depictions (Brandt 2010;Mosse 1985). Representations of motherhood have been particularly illustrative of national conflict: Ireland's image of 'Mother Ireland' raped by the British Empire countered Great Britain's portrayal of a young, vulnerable girl as the feeble 'Hibernia' (Ashe 2007;Magennis 2010); with the reinstatement of Home Rule, the latter was transformed into a more robust mother figure caring for her 'unruly lads' (Innes 1994: 9). In the case of Northern Ireland, however, this image then turned into a 'grotesque mother' devouring her 'sons' by sending them to battle (Magennis 2010). ...
In this paper, we argue that beyond understanding nations as imagined communities, the metaphor of an ‘imagined family’ or ‘filial community’ is a more useful concept towards understanding links between gender and nationhood as family relations in four ways: (1) providing a clear, hierarchical structure; (2) prescribing social roles and responsibilities; (3) being linked to positive affective connotations; and (4) reifying social phenomena as biologically determined. In order to empirically substantiate our claim, we will explore the prevalence and use of family metaphors in a key symbol of nationhood discourses. Through a qualitative analysis of national anthems as ‘mnemonics of national identity’, we demonstrate the widespread presence of family metaphors, discussing how they reproduce ideas of family and gender. Finally, we discuss how the ‘imagined family’ as present in anthems and other forms of national representation could inform future studies of nationalism and national politics.
... Norms of femininity and motherhood are important in this context, not only as central to the reproduction of gendered family roles, identities and practices, but also of ethno-national identities. While the configuration of normative clusters connecting gender, parenthood and collective identity in varying ways depends on the dynamics of specific situations and events (Ashe 2007, Joas 1996, motherhood, as a deeply contested role (Smyth 2012), generally provides both an important motivator for acting in specific ways, and a central focus for 3 evaluating the legitimacy and status of such action (Stapleton andWilson 2013, Dowler 2002). ...
... In a society such as Northern Ireland, where the conventional gendered family occupies a central position in collective imaginaries, strongly gendered expectations that mothers play the role of 'protectors of the family' persist, in contrast to men and fathers, who are expected instead to act as 'protectors of the nation' (Anderson 2006, Ashe 2007. What follows explores the varying ways in which these expectations both shape how mothers of young children go about the everyday routines of family life, and the ways in which the changed 'post-conflict' situation has generated uncertainty and innovation in expectations of what good mothering might entail in this changed context. ...
In a society such as Northern Ireland, where the conventional gendered family occupies a central position in collective imaginaries (Anderson, Ashe), strongly gendered expectations persist that mothers play the role of ‘protectors of the family’, in contrast to men and fathers, whose roles are more connected to ‘protectors of the nation’. This chapter explores the varying ways in which these expectations both shape how mothers of young children go about the everyday routines of family life, and the ways in which the changed ‘post-conflict’ situation has generated uncertainty and innovation in expectations of what good mothering might entail in this changed context. The everyday tensions shaping the transmission of collective culture to young children in ways which also affirm non-sectarianism is explored. The discussion focuses on complex orientations towards religion, cross community interactions and friendships, spatial segregation, and conventions of naming and dressing young children (Ashe pg.779, Anthias and Yuval Davis). The discussion also focuses on the anxieties generated by normative innovation, and the gender dynamics of these changes and tensions.
... In Northern Ireland, Dowler (1998) found that women ex-combatants were treated with suspicion and their contribution to the military campaign quickly forgotten. Ethnonationalist discourses tend to frame women's roles as maternal and domestic (see Yuval- Davis and Anthias 1989) and this has been the case in Northern Ireland (see Ashe 2006Ashe , 2007aAshe , 2007cDavis and Roulston 2000). In contrast, men have been associated with public arenas and traditionally dominated military organizations. ...
... In the 1960s in Northern Ireland, the first statement of the paramilitary organization, the PIRA read, ''We will show by our actions that we are the essence of Irish manhood'' (Frontline Online 2005, 7). While Republicans have subsequently developed different forms of masculinities, including nonviolent masculinities, the underlying narrative of the ''hard man'' has always been an element of Irish Republican masculinity (see Ashe 2007a). ...
There has been extensive academic analysis of Northern Ireland’s ethnonationalist antagonisms. However, academic literature that has explored both the region’s ethno-nationalist conflict and its more recent processes of conflict transformation has neglected the concept of masculinities. This article employs the framework of critical studies of men/masculinities to analyze why men’s gendered identities have received so little attention in a society that is marked by deep gendered inequalities and also exposes the consequences of this neglect in terms of exploring gendered power relationships in Northern Ireland society. Additionally, the article employs the concept of militarized masculinities to explore the relationships between ethnonationalist conflict, conflict transformation, men’s gendered identities, and gender power in the region.
... Ethno-nationalist discourses are accused of framing men as 'protectors of the nation', who publicly serve this role within military and political organisations, while women are assigned maternal and domestic roles, restricting their access to the public sphere (see Anthias and Yuval-Davis, 1989). The construction and persistence of these gender binaries has been used to explain the dearth of women entering the political arena in Northern Ireland (Ashe, 2007). Research exploring the relationship between nationalism and gender equality also reveals a diversity of experiences, from women reporting feelings of alienation and hostility, to participation and affiliation with national projects (Vickers, 2006). ...
The office of political party leader remains one that women rarely occupy. In the largest comparative study of party leadership to date, only 10.8% were women. One region which has made significant advances in this area is Northern Ireland. Since 2015, the two largest parties, Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party, have experienced a rapid feminisation of their leadership. Such a development is particularly remarkable given Northern Ireland’s historically poor record on gender equality. This article explores the puzzle of gendered leadership change in Northern Ireland to reveal that the transition was primarily facilitated through the parties’ informal practices rather than embedded structural change. In doing so, it demonstrates the relative importance of party- and system-level factors on women’s political presence. As a power-sharing democracy, this case also provides comparative insights for those interested in addressing persistently low levels of female representation in post-conflict settings.
... Nationalists and Protestant Unionists have to be represented. While the peace agreement and peace process have reduced political violence in society significantly, and transformed Northern Ireland in many ways, ethno-national antagonisms have remained strong, divisions and mistrust continue to exist, and there have been intermittent episodes of political violence with some of the existing paramilitary groups refusing to disband and new groups emerging to replace those on ceasefire (Ashe, 2007(Ashe, , 2012Northern Ireland Executive Panel Report, 2016). ...
Globally, nationally, and locally, domestic violence is an endemic social problem and an enduring human rights issue within all societies and cultures. The international literature highlights how this phenomenon is complex and transversal to all age groups, however, attitudinal research has typically focused on adults, so much less is known about children and young people’s attitudes towards domestic violence. Over the past decade there is increasing awareness that young people experience greater levels of violence and abuse in their relationships, yet domestic violence prevention is still in its infancy and much remains to be accomplished, not least in better understanding young people’s attitudes. The current study aims to explore young people’s attitudes towards domestic violence with a view to generate evidence that can be used to inform and improve domestic violence prevention efforts. Additionally, despite education being the principal mechanism by which society can influence future generations, the role of schools in preventing domestic violence remains largely unexplored across the globe. Therefore, the study also seeks to explore the potential role of schools in both the formation of attitudes towards domestic violence as well as its prevention. The study is a mixed methods model using a combination of survey based and qualitative interview-based methods. The study adopts the World Health Organisation ecological model and employs a two phase, explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. A secondary analysis of the 2013 Young Persons Behaviour and Attitudes Survey was conducted (n=1446), followed by a principal qualitative data collection phase. The qualitative analysis drew upon data generated from 30 focus group discussions with 188 pupils (aged 16-18) and 14 semi-structured interviews with teachers from a convenience sample of 14 post-primary schools across Northern Ireland. These data were analysed using a thematic approach to address the research objectives. Once all quantitative and qualitative data were collected, analysed and discussed, the findings were integrated through a narrative approach to report the results. The results of the combined data revealed a gender gap in young people’s attitudes towards domestic violence with young males more likely to express attitudes supportive of domestic violence than young females. Both data also revealed that post-primary schools currently do not play a role in the formation of young people’s attitudes towards domestic violence, and schools are doing very little to prevent domestic violence. Based on the quantitative and qualitative findings, the study concludes that there is a need for gender-tailored interventions to change attitudes towards partner violence in Northern Ireland. Moreover, one particularly urgently needed step is the substantially increased provision of opportunities for young people to have explicit and compulsory domestic violence preventative education during schooling. Overall, the findings of the study provide important areas for future prevention. After all, it is important that the public develop an attitude that domestic violence is unacceptable in every regard, for as long as domestic violence is tolerated it will not be possible for the goal of eradicating the occurrence of domestic violence to be achieved.
... There is much research to show that women have tended to have been written-out of their active role in Nationalist and Unionist mobilisation and conflictand peace buildingin Northern Ireland (Gilmartin, 2015;McDowell, 2006). For women to constitute such a large portion of those identifying as Neither Unionist nor Nationalist suggests that the rejection of the Unionist/Nationalist typology may also be associated with a rejection of the type of macho, patriarchal politics that is still quite predominant in Northern Ireland (Ashe, 2007; Stapleton and Wilson, 2014). ...
Since 2006, according to the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, the largest portion of people in Northern Ireland identify themselves not as Unionist nor Nationalist but as Neither. This fact is difficult to tally with the patterns of polarised election results and the narratives of a ‘culture war’ that dominate most analyses of contemporary Northern Ireland. This article examines the existence of this large portion of the population in Northern Ireland who reject the identities upon which the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement is centred. We find that those identifying as neither Unionist nor Nationalist are predominantly female, they come from all religious backgrounds, all age groups, and both British and Irish national identities. The majority of those who identify as Neither appear to do so as a statement of rejection of what is on offer from the political parties in Northern Ireland; rather than supporting a centrist party, they support no party at all. The article concludes that the 1998 Agreement has created the conditions for a growing number of people to identify as neither Unionist nor Nationalist, but at the same time it makes the emergence of any strong alternative, ‘third way’ type of politics difficult to envisage.
... 16 Fidelma Ashe, for example, shows how Irish women exploited cultural notions about the role of mothers to justify their involvement in mass protests. 17 Scholars also find that women in the United States used the ethos of maternal identity as a ratio- nale for their environmental-justice activism. 18 Building upon extant research on women's activism in North America, western Europe, and Latin America, recent scholarship applies the notions of motherhood and mothering to ana- lyze women's engagement in contentious politics in eastern Europe. ...
This article examines why Ukrainian women participated in the 2013–14 anti-government protests, widely known as the EuroMaidan. Based upon in-depth interviews with female protesters, the study uncovers a wide range of motivations for women's engagement in the revolution, including dissatisfaction with the government, solidarity with protesters, motherhood, civic duty, and professional service. Political discontent was the most cited reason for protesting. Solidarity with protesters was another major catalyst for political engagement. In addition, women who were mothers invoked the notion of mothering to provide a rationale for activism. The study contributes to the growing literature on women's participation in contentious politics in non-democracies.
... Rather than being uniformly ethnic in character, a number of scholars note that some ethnonationalist movements have articulated a more civic variant of nationalism that includes progressive policies to advance rights for women and sexual minorities. This seems to be particularly the case when women have been involved as armed activists (Ashe, 2007;Gilmartin, 2017;O'Keefe, 2013). Similarly, nationalist movements have also co-opted the discourse of a pro-female agenda and LGBT rights, albeit as a tool to promote their putative liberal and progressive values in contrast to their rivals who are framed as backward and conservative. ...
The issue of sexuality and human rights has generated increasing international attention in recent years. This is particularly the case in societies emerging from chronic ethnonationalist conflict, where scholarly debates on the impact of ethnonationalism on sexual rights, such as abortion and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people (LGBT), generate much controversy and division. It is with this disagreement in mind
that this paper focuses on the influence of ethnonationalism on attitudes towards the legalisation of samesex marriage and abortion. Using nationally representative data from Northern Ireland, the results suggest that while ethnonational identity is a significant positive determinant of attitudes towards same-sex marriage within both the Catholic population and among supporters of their main political party (Sinn Féin), it is also
a key negative predictor of attitudes to abortion, albeit solely among Sinn Féin supporters.
... Both point to the ways in which the contemporary shape and form of the discipline, theoretically and methodologically, operates in such a bounded way that other ways of thinking and doing become marginalized: they are 'othered'. This is nowhere more evident than when gender is the salient variable as illustrated in the work of Eisenstein (2007) and pertinently developed by Ashe (2007). This is not to say that researchers within the discipline have not concerned themselves with the gendered consequences of violence in all its forms. ...
This article explores the questions posed for criminology when war and terror are seen through a gendered lens. Following Barberet this lens demands blurring the boundaries between peace-time, war-time and post-conflict situations. These boundaries frame the nomos of criminology and once challenged the connections to be made between the ‘callousness’ of femicide and the ‘callousness’ of environmental destruction are exposed. Using photographs as the vehicle through which such a challenge can be maintained, the gendered analysis that follows poses conceptual and methodological questions for the discipline which ultimately demands a reimagining of the contribution of criminology and victimology to understanding gendered violence(s).
... A lack of presence adversely afflicts women's interests in other political institutions in the United Kingdom (Lovenduski and Norris 2003) but is most acute in the Northern Ireland assembly and on local councils in the region (Galligan, 2013). The underrepresentation of women owes much to the embedded systems of patriarchy and masculinity which have dominated social and political life in Northern Ireland and are only slowly being eroded (Ashe, 2007;Braniff and Whiting, 2016;Galligan, 2006;Ward, 2006). ...
This article assesses the importance of religious affiliation, observance, faith and party choice in categorising attitudes to two of the most important contemporary moral and ethical issues: same-sex marriage and abortion. Whilst religious conditioning of moral attitudes has long been seen as important, this article goes beyond analyses grounded in religiosity to explore whether support for particular political parties – and the cues received from those parties on moral questions – may counter or reinforce messages from the churches. Drawing upon new data from the extensive survey of public opinion in the 2015 Northern Ireland election study, the article analyses the salience of religious, party choice and demographic variables in determining attitudes towards two key social issues. Same-sex marriage and abortion (other than in very exceptional abortion cases) are both still banned in Northern Ireland, but the moral and religious conservatism underpinning prohibition has come under increasing challenge, especially in respect of same-sex marriage. The extent to which political messages compete with religious ones may influence attitudes to the moral issues of the moment.
... While progress has been made in terms of sexual equality in Northern Ireland, ethnonationalist discourses continue to influence societal values around sexuality. Studies of nationalist societies have illustrated how gender and sexuality are central aspects of nationalist discourses (see Ashe, 2007, 2008; Peterson, 1999. Traditionally, ethnonationalist discourses in both ethno nationalist communities in Northern Ireland have tended to constitute normative models of gender and sexuality that serve their respective political struggles (see Ashe, 2008). ...
This article discusses the challenges of teaching sexual politics in the context of Northern Ireland. In this region, ethno-nationalism has been implicated in the constitution of sexual narratives that serve the respective ethno-nationalist struggles in the region. The interaction of sexuality with ethnicity reinforces the importance of reflecting on pedagogical practices around sensitive/controversial subjects. The article draws on a mixture of pedagogical perspectives and personal reflection to assess a set of pedagogical issues that face educators teaching in these complex contexts. While the reflections and discussions in this essay relate to a particular teaching context and subject matter, they have broader relevance in terms of the teaching of sensitive/controversial subjects.
... For exam- ple, women engaged in cross-community efforts to tackle issues of pov- erty and social exclusion (see Cockburn 1998). Researchers have argued that women in the Irish Republican community have tended to be more politically engaged as women in this community became highly politicized through struggles around ethno-nationalist equality issues (see Aretxaga 1997;Ashe 2007a;McWilliams 1995). However, women in the Unionist community also engaged in work in the voluntary sector, and some worked behind the scenes to support men's election campaigns (Urquhart 2000: 77-84). ...
... 74 Again, a shift in perspective from the decision-making of political elites to the role that liminal groups play has certain normative and historical implications involved with the idea of rescuing hidden or lost narratives and restoring marginalised experiences to the centre of political analysis. 75 The paper's implications extend beyond an analysis of Ulster unionism and Northern Ireland and intersect with important questions raised by political scientists about the historical processes at work in the persistence and settlement of conflicts. The emphasis on hidden processes overlaps with, for example, Stephen Stedman's identification of "spoilers", but demonstrates that marginalised voices and resistance-oriented tactics may play an important and essentially conservative influence by delaying or moderating the pace and extent of change. ...
This paper examines Ulster unionism's responses to and its increased disaffection from political developments in Northern Ireland since the 1990s. I suggest that Ulster unionist politics - and, by way of extrapolation, Northern Irish politics - cannot be understood without taking into account the 'soft' or 'hidden' face of political power. I argue that this aspect of political dynamics has been under-researched and under-appreciated in Northern Ireland and outline an alternative narrative of the 'peace process' as the product of resistance and agenda-setting activities. This changed perspective requires a re- conceptualisation of the role played by unionist politics, which are seen to embody a paradox of alienation and powerlessness operating alongside the effective prevention of specific British government and Irish nationalist policy proposals. I conclude with the suggestion that the 'peace process' occurred largely despite rather than because of elite intervention.
... As in other contexts, ethno-nationalist discourses in Northern Ireland generated a 'body politics' that shaped gender roles in ways that supported the political agendas of both ethnic groups (see Ashe, 2006Ashe, , 2007Ashe, and 2008. Both Irish nationalism and unionism structured women's roles around the ideals of motherhood, domesticity and sexual purity (Ashe, 2006 and. ...
In the summer of 2008, the Westminster MP and Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Iris Robinson, made homophobic statements during interviews with the media. Robinson's anti-gay remarks highlight the continuing challenges for sexual politics in Northern Ireland. However, conflict transformation literature in the region has elided issues of sexuality. This article, drawing on elements of Judith Butler's analysis of injurious speech, assesses the issues that Robinson's homophobic speech highlights in relation to sexual equality in Northern Ireland. It concludes by assessing the role of conflict transformation literature in charting sexual politics in the region.
strong>Abstrak : Syair Doda Idi dan Transmisi Spirit Etno-Nasionalisme pada Masyarakat Aceh . Tulisan ini membahas transmisi spirit etno-nasionalisme dalam masyarakat Aceh berdasarkan studi kasus syair doda idi. Kesarjanaan tentang Aceh kontemporer memperlihatkan tingginya komitmen etno-nasionalisme sebagai identitas sosial masyarakatnya. Tetapi sejauh ini, studi yang membahas tema tersebut belum memberi perhatian yang memadai terhadap penggunaan syair sebagai mekanisme sosial dalam reproduski dan transmisi spirit etno-nasionalisme. Berdasarkan data kualitatif yang dikumpulkan melalui wawancara mendalam, observasi dan studi dokumentasi, tulisan ini mengajukan argumen bahwa transmisi spirit etno-nasionalisme pada masyarakat Aceh lintas generasi dimulai dari mekanisme sosial yang berlangsung alam lingkup keluarga. Syair doda idi yang dilantunkan hampir setiap ibu di Aceh ketika menidurkan anak sejak masih bayi memiliki peranan signifikan dalam proses pembentukan identitas kolektif maupun etno-nasionalisme tersebut di kemudian hari. Sejalan dengan itu artikel ini menyimpulkan bahwa kesadaran etno-nasionalisme yang ditransmisikan melalui syair beroperasi dalam dua kesadaran yang saling berkoneksi satu sama lain, yaitu kesadaran diskursif ( discursive consciousness ) dan kesadaran praktis ( practical consciousness ).
Kata Kunci: syair doda idi, identitas kolektif Aceh, etno-nasionalisme
Abstract: This paper discusses the transmission of ethnonationalism spirit in an Acehnese society based on the doda idi poem case study. The scholarship about Aceh contemporary shows the high commitment of ethnonationalism as the social identity of its people. But, the studies that discuss these themes have not given adequate attention to the use of poetry as a social mechanism in reproducing and transmitting the spirit of ethnonationalism. Based on qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation studies, this paper proposes the argument that the transmission of the spirit of ethnonationalism in Acehnese society across generations begins with social mechanisms that take place within the scope of the family. Dodas poems chanted by almost every mother in Aceh when they put their children to sleep as infants have a significant role in the process of forming collective identity and ethnonationalism in the future. Correspondingly, this article concludes that ethnonationalism awareness transmitted through poetry operates in two consciousnesses that are interconnected with each other, namely; discursive consciousness and practical consciousness.
Keywords: doda idi poetry, Aceh’s collective identity, ethnonationalism
This article examines women’s political empowerment programs that focus on enabling women to run for office. Using the case of Lebanon, the article presents empirical insights highlighting a mismatch between what these programs offer and what women perceive to be the real challenges they face. The article makes a threefold contribution. First, it expands the critiques of women’s political empowerment to include programs focused on helping women run for elections; second, it aims at applying feminist institutionalism to ethno-nationalist power-sharing systems; and third, it highlights the intersection of formal and informal institutional challenges by bringing empirical insights from Lebanese women.
2018 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement and the establishment of devolved governance in Northern Ireland. Yet, whilst devolution has largely been held to have positive effects in Scotland and Wales with regards to both women’s descriptive and substantive representation, this impact has been less discernible in Northern Ireland. Of the four regions of the United Kingdom, politics in Northern Ireland is arguably the most unfeminised—women have routinely seen lower descriptive representation in the Northern Irish Assembly and policy-making in areas such as reproductive rights lies far behind the rest of the UK. The article explores why politics is so unfeminised in the post-conflict context in Northern Ireland, by looking at efforts to feminise formal politics (especially the various peace/inter-party agreements and attempts to include women in formal politics) and efforts to politicise feminist activism (the work of the women’s sector to influence policy-making in the province). It then explores some of the academic explanations as to why the feminisation of politics remains so difficult in Northern Ireland.
Feminist institutionalism has highlighted the ways in which gendered concerns and issues might be more readily incorporated into new, as opposed to already existing, institutions. Yet gendered concerns played a limited role in the negotiations which led to the Good Friday Agreement and the (re-)establishment of devolved institutions in Northern Ireland. This chapter considers how gendered issues, and abortion specifically, were addressed in the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and the institutional design of the new Northern Irish Assembly
Abortion politics have been sorely under-considered in literature which addresses Northern Ireland in the twentieth century. This chapter situates the issue of abortion in Northern Ireland’s contemporary history. It opens with a brief historical explanation of the fault lines in the still deeply divided society. It then considers the central political parties and their electoral support in the region, before addressing the role of religion and national identity in Northern Ireland and the impact these have on sociocultural issues. Finally, it turns to the legal history of abortion in the UK and the specific circumstances in Northern Ireland, as well as social attitudes to terminating pregnancy. In doing so, it provides a concise history of the sociopolitical history of abortion politics in Northern Ireland.
Much recent academic work on Northern Ireland has been concerned with the movement from paramilitary violence to democratic politics. The majority of work on this period, and the dominant narrative which has emerged, has tended to focus on the elite level of political leadership. Yet because women were not especially prominent in paramilitary violence, or the political elite, their experiences have not formed part of this mainstream history. This chapter explores how the processes and institutions that were formed in the movement towards the Good Friday Agreement were gendered, and the ways in which this influenced the type of political institutions that were eventually created.
The article documents the under-representation of women in political wall murals in Northern Ireland. There are significantly fewer representations of women than of men in these murals. Where women do appear, it is within a number of specific themes: as political activists, prisoners, victims or historical or mythological characters. The findings will be located within an analysis which sees the murals as a specific articulation of gender as a dimension of political mobilisation during conflict and in the period of transition from conflict. In short, the images sometimes reinforce and at other times challenge gender role expectations and norms. The extent of that reinforcement and challenge differs significantly between republican and loyalist murals. Nowhere do women receive representational equality with men, but in relation to loyalist murals, that absence comes close to being tantamount to silence.
Gender identity is the main topic within the field of anthropology of gender: it is an identity with a polysemic character. The present paper focuses on the identity of social gender, since gender is a field of negotiation and a criterion for the analysis of culture. Social gender is a result of social-cultural constructions, established through the repetition of stereotypical dance acts. In this context, dance functions as a symbol, and its study allows the understanding of social structures, and therefore, the understanding of gender identity. Every dance event can be approached as a conceptual field, in which participants act according to gender standards and experience themselves as gender subjects.
The aim of this paper is to show the gender social structures and relations within dance and dance practices, as they are imprinted on the mountain and lowland areas of Karditsa (Thessaly), in combination with the predominant social structures. For this purpose, we made use of the theoretical model of Hanna, where dance and dance executions are fields of negotiation of gender identity, as well as Cowan’ s model, according to which social gender can be studied within the context of “dance events.”
Through the analysis of these “events,” several discrepancies in social structures and relations were detected between the lowland and mountain communities. These differences are based on dance occasions, and participation or lack of participation of both genders in these occasions, according to dance norms, dance order, and dance types. The above discrepancies constitute gender diversity among lowland and mountain communities, as a result of local social structures and the performative acts.
Explorations of Protestant, unionist and loyalist (PUL) women’s identities during the conflict suggested that they were less politically active than their Irish nationalist and republican counterparts. Throughout the conflict, they appeared to be suspicious of feminism and content to ‘do their bit’ to defend the Union within the regulatory gender structures of male dominated unionist politics and culture. Generally, unionism has been viewed as providing limited space for feminist reconstructions of PUL women’s identities. Certainly, in comparison to Irish nationalist and republican women, PUL women were less visible during the conflict. However, recent feminist research has illustrated that their political agency and gendered transgressions are diverse and shifting. This chapter employs a radical constructionist framework to explore the complex processes through which PUL gendered identities are constituted, disciplined and transgressed. This volume’s division of pro-unionist identities into the categories of Protestant, unionist and loyalist already recognises the necessity of mapping the effects of intra-communal differences on seemingly homogeneous groups. This chapter explores the concept of difference in the unionist community further by foregrounding the intersection of Protestantism, unionism and loyalism with gender. Throughout, it illustrates how extant feminist research exposes the challenges for PUL women in a context not only marked by contested political histories and processes of conflict transformation/management, but also the historical relationships of gender that have impacted women in both ethno-nationalist communities.
Consociational democracy has become the most influential paradigm in the field of power-sharing institutional design and post-conflict peacebuilding. Consociation institutes representation for certain formerly excluded groups. However, it simultaneously inhibits effective political representation for groups that do not align with the societal divisions that consociation seeks to accommodate, specifically the ‘additional’ cleavage of gender. Given the extensive use of the consociational model as a peacebuilding tool in divided states and the growing awareness of the disproportionate negative effect of conflict on women, there is a surprising lack of consideration of the effect that consociational power-sharing has on women’s representation. This article considers the specific impact that the consociational model has on women’s representation. We argue that because gender is an integral factor in conflict, it should therefore be integral to post-conflict governance. With empirical reference to contemporary Northern Ireland, it is illustrated that consociationalism is a ‘gender-blind’ theory.
Most countries of Latin America lived through long dictatorships before transitioning to democracy in the late twentieth century. Who keeps the spirit of resistance alive during bleak periods of intense repression? Who reaffirms the principles of democracy when they are violated with impunity? In Panama, a clandestine weekly titled El Grito (The Cry), published during the first four years of the military dictatorship installed in 1968, became a reliable source of information, a vehicle of protest, and a mouthpiece of democratic education. Never divining that those responsible for the clandestine publication were women, the military regime was unable to stop it. Uncovering unknown details of the weekly, this paper retrieves the effort made by a small group of middle-class women who did not identify with any political party and had no financial support other than their own limited resources. We suggest that attention be paid to the actors-often from relegated social groups-who keep the spirit of protest alive in countries during long periods of political repression. We show that, contrary to general expectations, those occupying subordinate positions in society may have an advantage in carrying out resistance activities against authoritarian regimes.
Based on in-depth interviews, this article critically assesses the current roles that Republican women occupy as the North of Ireland continues to emerge from conflict. In doing so, it argues that women's political mobilization during the conflict period can be carried forward into post-war scenarios; however, it is the nature of that activism that proves problematic. The conflict transformation period witnessed a more highly formalized role for Republicans that contrasts sharply with radical spaces opened up during the conflict; in particular, the re-emergence of rigid state institutions coupled with formal political parties appears to severely restrict women's sense of political mobility. As Republicans move away from ‘revolutionary agitation’ into more formalized politics, many Republican women are encountering cultural and structural barriers to their involvement within that realm. This research finds that while some women are participating within the sphere of formal politics, many are continuing their political activities within the community and voluntary sector, which they view as a far more effective mechanism for exerting political agency.
This article examines the protest movement that surfaced as a result of the decision taken by Belfast City Council to remove the Union flag from Belfast City Hall in December 2012. This article examines why the issue conflagrated as it did and led to a mobilisation within working-class Protestant/Unionist/Loyalist (PUL) communities on the issue. Examining the flag protests within the context of more general PUL disaffection with the Good Friday Agreement and its associated peace process, this article looks at the flag protests as an avenue for disaffected PUL communities to assert a new counter-memory that challenges not only the ‘other’ but also those within the leadership of political Unionism who are said to have used PUL communities during the conflict only to abandon them in the post-conflict transition. This article concludes by examining the future potential of the new political movement born out of the flag protests and the avenues open to it to challenge the hegemonic position of traditional Unionism that has left PUL communities behind as Northern Ireland progresses in transition out of political conflict.
Research Highlights and Abstract
This article:
Exposes how masculinised accounts of conflict transformational processes in Northern Ireland have distorted the historical record of the region's on-going transition from violent conflict. Assesses the theoretical and practical effects of de-gendering the analysis of conflict transformational processes in the region. Provides an empirical study of women's hidden contribution to the reduction of levels of paramilitary violence in ethnically divided, working-class communities in the region. Utilises focus group data to develop a gender-sensitive reading of community justice, security and peace.
The 1998 Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland provoked local-level processes of demilitarisation that focused on developing community-based restorative justice practices to replace paramilitary forms of justice. These schemes were viewed as important aspects of the broader process of conflict transformation in the region. The dominant narrative surrounding the development of these new justice forms framed them as an outcome of the efforts of ex-combatant men. This article contests this narrative and examines women's contribution to the development of CBRJ in Northern Ireland. Using data from focus groups, the article exposes the consequences of displacing women in conflict transformational analysis. Additionally, it explores how women's articulation of their conflict transformational practices engenders a critical reframing of key terms in conflict transformational narratives including peace, security, and justice. This exploration reinforces wider feminist claims that any analysis of conflict transformational processes that displaces gender is both conceptually and politically problematic.
This study is written by three 'insiders' to church peacebuilding in Northern Ireland, who are also sociologists and bring to their analysis a wealth of experience and analytic insight, based on four years of qualitative interviewing amongst church leaders and rank-and-file members of political parties, prime ministers, paramilitary organizations, community development, and civil society groups, as well as government politicians and advisors. It seeks to correct various misapprehensions about the role of the churches by pointing to their major achievements in both the social and political dimensions of the peace process, by small-scale, lesser-known religious peacebuilders as well as major players. The book is replete with hard sociological realism; it does not treat the churches lightly or sentimentally but highlights major weaknesses in their contribution. It challenges the view that ecumenism was the main religious driver of the peace process; focusing instead on the role of evangelicals, it warns against romanticizing civil society, pointing to its regressive aspects and counter-productive activities, and queries the relevance of the idea of "spiritual capital" to understanding the role of the churches in post-conflict reconstruction, which the churches largely ignore. The study develops a conceptual framework to understand religious peacebuilding in a comparative perspective, allowing the Northern Irish case study to speak to other conflicts where religion is thought to be problematic. © John D. Brewer, Gareth I. Higgins, and Francis Teeney 2011. All rights reserved.
The Progressive Unionist party (PUP) was formed in the late 1970s and is one of the smallest political parties in Northern Ireland, both in terms of its membership size and its share of the vote, which translates into only a tiny number of elected representatives. Yet, supporters and critics alike have marked it out as one of the most distinctive voices in Northern Irish politics—in the main because of its democratic socialist ideology and its class-based character. This article examines the PUP's political programme, its membership and support base, its role in the peace process and its relationship with illegal loyalist terrorist organisations. It does so by drawing on current debates in the political science literature about ethnic parties in divided societies. Moreover, it focuses on the often neglected relationship between ethnicity and class in the PUP in order to explain how the party understands and contributes towards the peace process and democratic stability in Northern Ireland.
Third-sector organizations provide essential services, but not all types of organizations operate equally well given different intensities of public problems. This article argues for maps that would help social service funding bodies. Those maps would include three elements: (1) a measure of service demanded by a community, (2) data on the full range of organizations able to supply those services, and (3) a chart that identifies those organizations that provide services at different intensities of need. By providing information about the supply of organizations in a community, with measures of demand for services, state funding bodies, foundations, and individual philanthropists can make informed decisions about where to allocate funds. An ideal map is illustrated by using the case of the Holy Cross Dispute (2001), whereby a host of voluntary sector organizations provided a voice for residents in this divided Belfast community. The result is a call for more intensive mapping exercises of voluntary sector social service provision.
The fields of gender and social movements have traditionally consisted of separate literatures. Recently, however, a number of scholars have begun a fruitful exploration of the ways in which gender shapes political protest. This study adds three things to this ongoing discussion. First, the authors offer a systematic typology of the various ways in which movements are gendered and apply that typology to a wide variety of movements, including those that do not center on gender issues in any obvious way. Second, the authors discuss the process by which movements become gendered. In doing so, they go beyond current scholarship by bringing “others” (e.g., opponents and the general public) squarely into the gendered analysis. The article concludes by speculating about the outcomes of these processes and suggests that movements that draw on feminine stereotypes face a double bind that hampers their success. Illustrations come from movements in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
War is a highly gendered experience which is both informed by and informs constructions of masculinity and femininity. The dominant depiction of masculine heroes and feminine victims simplifies the complex intersections of militarism, nationalism and gendered roles and identities. Focusing on a case study of the Anglo-Irish War or War of Independence (1919–1921), this paper examines how violence against women, especially sexual violence, was written about and reported in ways which framed representations of Irish and British masculinity and Irish femininity.
In addition, by analysing a range of varied sources including newspapers, autobiographical accounts and recorded testimonies, this paper attempts to assess the extent to which violence against women formed a key aspect of military practice in the war. In conclusion, I engage with some of the difficulties faced by researchers today in exploring evidence of gendered violence in specific historical, cultural and militarized contexts.
Monica McWilliams is a senior lecturer in social policy at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown and acts as the course director for postgraduate and access courses in women's studies at Belfast and Derry. She has been active in the civil rights and women's rights movements, held an elected seat on the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, and has worked closely with a wide range of women's and community groups since 1978. She is coauthor of Bringing It Out in the Open: Domestic Violence in Northern Ireland.
1. Royal Ulster Constabulary Statistics Unit (Belfast: Northern Ireland Office, October 1994). The injuries figure date from 1968 whilst the first death attributed to the political situation occured in 1969.
2. John Ditch and Mike Morrissey "Northern Ireland: Review and Prospects For Social Policy," Social Policy and Administration, 26, 1 (1992): 18.
3. It has been claimed that 35 million tranquilizers are used in Northern Ireland each year and that twice as many women as men are dependent on these. See Marie-Therese McGivern and Margaret Ward, Images of Women In Northern Ireland (London: Crane Bag, 1982).
4. The term "frozen watchfulness" is one that has applied to children who have been victims of abuse.
5. Pauline Prior, Mental Health and Politics in Northern Ireland (Belfast: Queen's University, 1993).
6. Monica McWilliams, "The Woman 'Other,'" Fortnight: An Independent Review of Politics and the Arts in Northern Ireland 328 (1994): 24-25. See Lena Ferguson, "Some Are More Equal," Ibid., 25.
7. Cathy Harkin coined this term when working with Women's Aid in Derry City between 1977 and 1981. She died in 1984; a year after her death an article was published outlining some of these views. See Cathy Harkin and Avilla Kilmurray, "Working With Women In Derry" in Women In Community Work, ed. M. Abbott and H. Frazer (Belfast: Farset Press, 1985), 38-45.
8. Joan McKiernan and Monica McWilliams, "The Impact of Political Conflict on Domestic Violence in Northern Ireland," in Gender Relations In Public and Private, ed. Lydia Morris (London: Macmillan, in press).
9. Royal Ulster Constabulary Statistics Unit (Belfast, Northen Ireland Office, October 1994).
10. Convictions which apply to domestic violence in Northern Ireland are often referred to as part of the "ordinary decent" crime to distinguish it from the convictions which result from political offenses.
11. Margaret Ward, The Missing Sex: Putting Women Into Irish History, (Dublin: Attic Press, 1991).
12. Very little material is available on the lives of Cathy Harkin and Madge Davison who died in 1984 and 1991 repectively. Both were leading activists in the civil rights movement and were influential in the development of the women's movement in Northern Ireland.
13. At a women's history conference in Dublin in 1989, particpants commented that the use of the telephone rather than letter writing may help to explain why so little archival material is currently available.
14. Mary Daly, Outercourse: The Be-Dazzling Voyage (London: The Woman's Press, 1993).
15. Jill Radford, "History of Women's Liberation Movements in Britain: A Reflective Personal History," in Stirring It: Challenges For Feminism, ed. Gabrielle Griffin, Marriane Hester, Shirin Rai and Sasha Roseneil (London: Taylor and Francis, 1994), 40.
16. Ruth Taillon, Grant-aided . . . or Taken For Granted? A Study of Women's Voluntary Organisations in Northern Ireland (Belfast: Women's Support Network, 1992).
17. F. Haug, Lessons From the Women's Movement in Europe," Feminist Review 31 (1989): 109.
18. Rebecca Dobash and Russell Dobash, Women Violence And Social Change (New York: Routledge, 1992), 17-18.
19. Pamela Montgomery and Celia Davies, "A Woman's Place in Northern Ireland," in Social Attitudes in Northern Ireland, ed. Peter Stringer and Gillian Robinson (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1991), 74-96.
20. Monica McWilliams, "The Church, the State and the Women's Movement in Northern Ireland," in Irish Women's Studies Reader, ed. Ailbhe Smyth (Dublin: Attic Press, 1993), 79-100.
21. It is only since the late 1980s that women in Northern Ireland have begun to identify more easily with the label of feminist. At one stage the term "family feminists" was applied to local women...
This article argues against general or unitary theories of nations and nationalism, stressing instead the irreducible specificity of the national phenomena. It is argued that individual nationalisms always contain a very particular ‘content’ that aims to define the general culture and values of the ‘national’ people and which, in turn, is related to the construction and deployment of such values within political ideological discourse. The significance of this specific ‘content’ is obscured by unitary theories.
t is further argued that the best way to understand and analyse this ‘content’ is a discourse analysis that relates the production of nation and national identity to wider political, and other, discourses. Conceptualizing nations and nationalism in this way enables us to see the centrality of nation in framing modern political discourse and its crucial place in the ideological ‘institution’ of modern society providing an appearance of ‘closure’ or ‘unity’ where there is division and contradiction.
This book examines the place of women within ethnic and national communities in nine different societies, and the ways in which the state intervenes in their lives. Contributions from a group of scholars examine the situations in their religious, economic and historical context.
Women in Northern Ireland are no strangers to social and political action, but their efforts have been directed almost wholly to civil rights rather than to women’s issues. At the beginning of this century James Connolly described the Northern Ireland woman as ‘the slave of a slave’ (1981, p. 10). This graphic phrase is no less fitting today. Given the bitter political divisions of Northern Ireland, its depressed socio-economic conditions and the powerfully conservative influence of the dominant churches, it is little wonder that women have remained in a relative backwater of feminism. Striving to survive in difficult circumstances is not the most conducive forum for women’s debate about alternatives that may appear either abstract or totally out of reach for the majority of the working class; more than that, many women have been encouraged to reject such alternatives as alien.
This article revisits the issue of male experience and its possible relationship to gender politics. Traditionally, feminism has viewed male experience as representing a bar to the development of feminist knowledge and consciousness. This conceptualization of male experience continues to inform the contemporary debate on male feminism. The article argues that this experiential bar emerges from a theorization of male experience as singular, fixed, and organic. Challenging this conceptualization, the article retheorizes male experience as a diverse, shifting, and contested category that produces different political outcomes. Through an analysis of men’s group discourse, the article illustrates how particular interpretations of male experience produce both feminist and antifeminist effects. It concludes that feminism needs to examine male experience as a multifaceted category that can act as the material upon which male feminist resistance operates.
ABSTRACT This article examines the spatial construction of gender roles in a time of war. During a period of armed conflict both women and men are perceived as beings who exemplify gender-specific virtues. The relationship of gender and identity in this case is a paradoxical one: war-usually a catalyst of change-can often become an agent of conservatism as regards gender identities. This conservatism can be seen in the wartime spatial relegation of women to the private/domestic realm. When a society is in armed conflict there is a predisposition to perceive men as violent and action-oriented and women as compassionate and supportive to the male warrior. These gender tropes do not denote the actions of women and men in a time of war, but function instead to re-create and secure women's position as non-combatants and that of men as warriors. Thus, women have historically been marginalized in the consciousness of those who have researched the events of war. This article is largely based on interviews I conducted in the fall of 1993, in an Irish Catholic community in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I will offer both female and male interpretations of what women did and how they were affected by the upheavals of the Irish Nationalist struggle in Northern Ireland.
In this book, one of the leading authorities on contemporary Northern Ireland politics provides an original, sophisticated and innovative examination of the post-Belfast agreement political landscape. Written in a fluid, witty and accessible style, this book explores: how the Belfast Agreement has changed the politics of Northern Ireland whether the peace process is still valid the problems caused by the language of politics in Northern Ireland the conditions necessary to secure political stability the inability of unionists and republicans to share the same political discourse the insights that political theory can offer to Northern Irish politics the future of key political parties and institutions.
This paper examines the role of gender in the north of Ireland. This is not to imply that a study of gender relations on its own is adequate to explain recent political developments. Indeed, there is a need to challenge all one-dimensional and reductionist analyses such as those which concentrate solely on ethnicity and including Marxist approaches which are excessively economistic. Whilst giving special attention to gender issues, therefore, the paper will also recognise that these cannot be fully understood unless they are located within the context of social and economic change as well as the politics of ethnic and national identities.
Academic feminists have turned to feminist theory to develop ways of managing or solving ethnic antagonisms, especially among feminists/women in Northern Ireland. This essay troubles the application of feminist theory to conflict resolution/management in Northern Ireland. It examines the impact of this type of deployment of theory on key feminist categories such as identity and difference. It also considers what becomes marginalised from the analysis of gender politics in Northern Ireland when feminist theory is harnessed to solving/managing the Northern Ireland problem. The essay concludes by arguing for the development of alternative feminist frameworks that are not contained within the boundaries of a search for solutions.
This article explores the intimate historical and modern connection between manhood and nationhood: through the construction of patriotic manhood and exalted motherhood as icons of nationalist ideology; through the designation of gendered 'places' for men and women in national politics; through the domination of masculine interests and ideology in nationalist movements; through the interplay between masculine microcultures and nationalist ideology; through sexualized militarism including the construction of simultaneously over-sexed and under-sexed 'enemy' men (rapists and wimps) and promiscuous 'enemy' women (sluts and whores). Three 'puzzles' are partially solved by exposing the connection between masculinity and nationalism: why are many men so desperate to defend masculine, monoracial, and heterosexual institutional preserves, such as military organizations and academies; why do men go to war; and the 'gender gap', that is, why do men and women appear to have very different goals and agendas for the 'nation?'
Ardoyne school dispute parents’ dilemma
- Jane Bardon
Scared - or scarred for life?
- Chris Gilligan
Holy Cross and the victim discourse
- Laura Friel