Lost In Transition? Republican Women’s Struggle After Armed Struggle

This thesis explores the conflict transition experiences of republican women in the North of Ireland, and examines how they politically organise in post-war scenarios. Based on semi-structured interviews, it presents four key findings. First, republican women use alternative forms of post-war commemoration in order to encapsulate their vision of what constitutes a combatant role and war-time sacrifice. In doing so, it reveals insightful new ways in which women’s war-time contributions are conceptualised. Second, their vision of peace and equality is embedded within an anti-imperial and anti-capitalist struggle, representing significant points of departure from prevailing feminist definitions. Third, the institutionalisation of Provisional republicanism impacted negatively on both women’s roles during peace negotiations and their feminist organising within the republican movement. Finally, findings indicate that republican women’s post-war activism resides not solely in institutional politics, but across a broad-based terrain of political struggle, including grassroots activism, semi-autonomous organising, electoral politics and community work. The thesis finds that formal politics provides an important yet highly restrictive terrain of political struggle with limited transformative potential. In addition, the research demonstrates that political consciousness and mobilisation gained during the war-time period continues to motivate their full-time activism today, indicating that women’s empowerment within armed conflict can be successfully carried over into post-war scenarios. Theoretically, this research demonstrates that women’s differential positioning means that they experience, respond and resist post-war patriarchy, among other forms of oppression, according to their unique standpoint. The thesis argues for a shift away from highly generalised approaches based upon universal categories in favour of a more nuanced direction within the field of women and conflict transition. Examining all of the ways in which all women organise for peace and equality yields a stronger feminist analysis of patriarchy and women’s eclectic forms of resistance in post-war scenario