By Charitini (Hari) Ntini- In June 1985, twenty-two-year-old Martina Anderson was arrested in a flat in Glasgow along with four others by armed police officers. She was held and questioned for seven days before being flown to London for further interrogations. Within the next year, she was convicted of conspiring to cause explosions in England.[1]... Continue Reading →
By Miren Mohrenweiser- “Maternal activism” and “wee women’s work” are phrases typically applied to women’s activity during the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’ regardless of political or religious affiliation.[1] What’s notable about these terms is that their implied opposites—i.e. “paternal activism” and “big men’s work”—are never referred to in this gendered sense. Men’s political activity doesn’t require... Continue Reading →
By Eileen Harrisson - I grew up by Bangor, Co Down and, after obtaining a Joint Honours BA in Italian and Art from Aberystwyth University in June 1975, I returned to Northern Ireland. The severity of the illness that had led to my father being invalided out of the RAF during World War II was... Continue Reading →
By Abigail Fletcher- Writing on a wall is always political’. So writes Adam Turkington, organiser of Belfast’s annual Hit the North street art festival. One of the attractions of the 2019 event was an image of Lyra McKee, who was murdered by dissident republicans that April. The mural is accompanied by text from a letter... Continue Reading →
By Bethan Johnson- In the opening pages of his 2001 work Masculinities and Culture, John Beynon reminded his readers: ‘Men are not born with masculinity as part of their genetic makeup; rather it is something into which they are acculturated and which is composed of social codes of behaviour which they learn to reproduce in... Continue Reading →
By Aimée Walsh- My PhD examines testimonies and political writing of gender and the Irish nation between 1975 and 1986. During this time republican prison protest was rife. As such, fractures between the feminist and republican movements were opened. Nationalist feminism in the north of Ireland is an area which has yet to be explored... Continue Reading →
By Rachel Sayers- When you think of Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’, clothes shopping is not something you would generally consider in the narrative of the conflict. Indeed, you could say that concentrating on such matters is frivolous when compared to the lives lost and irreversible damage wrought by thirty years of inter-communal conflict. However, I argue... Continue Reading →
By Dieter Reinisch- The recent RTÉ screening of the I, Dolours documentary, directed by Maurice Sweeney, received much media attention in Ireland and was reviewed by several national newspapers, including the Irish Times, Irish Independent, and Irish Mirror. The documentary is, indeed, a gripping, and at times disturbing, insight into the history of the Northern... Continue Reading →
By Caroline Magennis Like all of the readers of this blog, my own scholarship sits at the intersection of multiple disciplinary interests. I work on Northern Irish fiction, but of course I also attend conferences in Irish Studies and contemporary literary studies. This post, then, will be a reflection on what it has meant for... Continue Reading →
By Briege Rafferty – I read with interest Eli Davies’ contribution to Writing the Troubles, and concur with her argument that the voices of women have been marginalised within the historical narrative of the conflict. Indeed, Eilish Rooney’s assessment of the situation is unambiguous: ‘If you want to learn about women in the Northern Irish conflict, you... Continue Reading →
Writing the 'Troubles' 