Ex-Combatants, Gender and Peace in Northern Ireland

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

   PDF

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

    PDF

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.

• Criminology
• Transitional justice
• Irish Republican Army
• Political prisoner
• Women
• Gender
• Criminal justice system
• terrorism
• Sinn Féin
• Political Protest
• Armagh
• Disarmament
• Demobilisation
• post-conflict
• Cumann na mBan
• Good Friday agreement
• social reconstruction
• ethnography
• reconciliation
• peace building

“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)

• Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

  Azrini Wahidin

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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