Abstract
Although, much has been written about the recent political struggles in Northern Ireland, the experiences of women combatants have too often been silenced and under-explored (Aretxaga 1997; McWilliams 1995). The aim of this book is to address these lacunae and question why women should be so marginalised when they played such a pivotal role in the Conflict and in the transition to peace. The experiences of women combatants demonstrate that their relative invisibility (and, indeed, the lower numbers of women taking up arms as compared with the numbers of men) is a result of ideological constructions of womanhood and manhood in society, rather than a reflection of considered decisions based on objective difficulties in incorporating women in combat roles. In addition, in the last ten years leading women activists in Northern Ireland have died leaving little of the written material which has, in other struggles, so often been of use to the next generation of activists. It is difficult to determine the reason for this gap in the literature; partly, it is due to the fact that these women were so completely engaged in pragmatic politics that they had little time for writing reflectively about their activities (Haug 1989).
Mná sa Streachailt is Gaelic for Women in Struggle.
*McWilliams (1995, p. 21) describes ‘accidental activism’, as ‘women organising as women’ to create social change in Northern Ireland. Women become politicised through their direct action.
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Notes
- 1.
Very little material is available on the lives of Cathy Harkin and Madge Davidson who died in 1984 and 1991, respectively. Both were leading activists in the Civil Rights Movement and were influential in the development of the Women’s Movement in Northern Ireland.
- 2.
Definitions of Nationalist and Republican are contested. ‘Nationalist’ refers to a supporter of Irish Nationalism, generally though not exclusively from the Catholic community. ‘Republican’ refers to supporters of Irish Nationalism and those aligned to a Republican party.
- 3.
Sources that use this term include Edgerton (1986) and Evason (1991). McWilliams (1995, p. 34) states that the term was first coined by Cathy Harkin when she worked at Women’s Aid in Derry City between 1977 and 1981. Harkin stated, ‘both Orange and Green nationalism retained their ultra conservative view that women were both the property of, and inferior to men’ (cited in Harkin and Kilmurray 2002, p. 386).
- 4.
Emergency legislation in Northern Ireland differs from ordinary legislation in as much as it is usually introduced for a limited period to address political violence. However, it has become a feature of government attempts to quell violence in Northern Ireland in much the same way as other forms of emergency legislation have been part of a much longer line of exceptional measures directed against Irish people dating from the early nineteenth century (Hillyard 1993).
- 5.
Turf Lodge is a predominantly Nationalist and Republican area which joins with the Falls Road in West Belfast.
- 6.
On 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, British soldiers shot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march against internment. As a result, 14 people died: 13 males were killed outright, while the death of another man four-and-a-half months later was attributed to his injuries. Many of the victims were shot while fleeing from the soldiers and some were shot while trying to help the wounded. Two protesters were also injured when they were run down by British Army vehicles. The march had been organised by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association and the soldiers involved were mostly members of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, also known as ‘1st Para’.
- 7.
Divis Flats is a high rise block of flats named after the Divis Mountain in Belfast. It was a flash point during the Conflict.
- 8.
Cumann na mBan (women’s association/organisation).
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Wahidin, A. (2016). Mná sa Streachailt: The Role of the Accidental Activist*. In: Ex-Combatants, Gender and Peace in Northern Ireland. Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-36330-5_4
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