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Palgrave Macmillan

Ex-Combatants, Gender and Peace in Northern Ireland

Women, Political Protest and the Prison Experience

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Azrini Wahidin

    1. Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict (PSCAC)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Introduction

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 1-8

  3. Women, War and Peace

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 9-21

  4. An Cogadh Fada: The Legacy of Conflict in Northern Ireland

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 23-60

  5. Mná sa Streachailt: The Role of the Accidental Activist*

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 61-78

  6. From Footnote Soldiers to Front-Line Soldiers

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 79-106

  7. Sites of Confinement: The Stories of Armagh and Maghaberry Prison

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 107-121

  8. Nor Meekly Serve My Time: ‘A’ Company Armagh

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 123-139

  9. Parthas Caillte: The Politics of Resistance and the Role of the Gendered Incarcerated Body

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 141-167

  10. The ‘Norms of Our Conflict’: The Use of Strip Searching as Gendered Punishment

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 169-196

  11. There Is No Glory in Any War

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 197-210

  12. Conclusion: Compromise After Conflict—Making Peace with the Past

    • Azrini Wahidin
    Pages 211-240

  13. Back Matter

    Pages 241-253
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores the contours of women's involvement in the Irish Republican Army, political protest and the prison experience in Northern Ireland. Through the voices of female and male combatants, it demonstrates that women remained marginal in the examination of imprisonment during the Conflict and in the negotiated peace process. However, the book shows that women performed a number of roles in war and peace that placed constructions of femininity in dissent.


Azrini Wahidin argues that the role of the female combatant is not given but ambiguous. She indicates that a tension exists between different conceptualisations of societal security, where female combatants both fought against societal insecurity posed by the state and contributed to internal societal dissonance within their ethno-national groups. This book tackles the lacunae that has created a disturbing silence and an absence of a comprehensive understanding of women combatants, which includes knowledge of their motivations, roles and experiences. It will be of particular interest to scholars of criminology, politics and peace studies.

Reviews

“In Ex-Combatants, Gender and Peace in Northern Ireland, Wahidin uses interviews to expose the intimate and poignant accounts of the prison experience through a gendered lens. … It is a must-read to understand the integral role that female combatants had during the conflict and that female ex-combatants must have during social transformation for a solid and lasting peace. Wahidin’s work is a seminal text that should be read by everyone studying post-conflict reconstruction and peace-building.” (Ashleigh McFeeters, LSE, blogs.lse.ac.uk, February, 2017)

“Ex-Combatants, Gender and Peace in Northern Ireland is a powerful account of women’s involvement in the republican movement and their experiences of imprisonment in Northern Ireland’s jails.  Includes harrowing first hand accounts of strip-searching and punitive prison regimes, along with rare insights into female volunteers’ participation in the IRA.  Wahidin’s book will be essential reading for those studying modern Irish history and politics as well as for criminologists.” (Dr Linda Moore, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, University of Ulster)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

    Azrini Wahidin

About the author

Azrini Wahidin is Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Nottingham Trent University, UK. She is on the Executive Committee of the British Society of Criminology and is Chair of the Professional Affairs and Ethics Committee. She has held visiting posts at Melbourne University, University of Sydney, Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Malaya.

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