Published 2024 by Liverpool University Press
praise for writing resistance
‘This is a ground-breaking piece of scholarship, meticulously researched and highly original in its pairing together and examination of political and historical accounts, fictional narratives, textual and audio-visual documentaries, and poetry. It is full of fascinating analyses of republicanism and feminism, and how they interact in the context of the Troubles between 1975 and 1986. A must-read for all scholars and students of this period!’ – Fiona McCann, Professor of Postcolonial Literature, Université de Lille
‘For students and scholars working on Northern Ireland, the Troubles, Irish nationalism, feminism, or women’s writing, Writing Resistance in Northern Ireland is an exciting contribution to the field. Making visible in one place a wealth of archival materials and scholarship while providing comprehensive and intelligent readings of these, the book will be a welcome addition to university libraries and undergraduate reading lists.’ – Ciara McAllister, Irish Studies Review
‘One of the many strengths of Walsh’s book is her ability to weave into the analysis examples from many different forms of writing including testimony, memoir, novels, autobiographical fiction as well as periodicals, film, and oral history. This is a rewarding and very useful book which adds to our understanding of overlooked dimensions of the study of Irish republicanism and feminism.’ – Stephen Hopkins, Irish Political Studies
In a nutshell
This research explores how republican women in Northern Ireland navigated politics, identity and autonomy during a period of intense conflict. Drawing on literature, journalism and documentary, it examines how their voices challenged male-dominated historical narratives and shaped cultural understanding of nationalism and gender. By tracing both militant and literary strands of republican feminism, the work highlights the intersections of politics, culture and storytelling, showing how women’s writing can reframe history through a feminist lens.
Deeper dive for the willing
This monograph is an examination of feminist republicanism(s) in the north of Ireland between 1975 – 1986. This era has been chosen as republican prison protest was rife, and due to this, fractures between the feminist and republican movements were opened. The aims of both republicanism and feminism overlap in their objective of self-determination. Despite these similarities, the two movements did not come to a natural nor total congruence. While it has been argued that there is a disjuncture between feminism and nationalism, this book argues for a new consideration of feminist republicanism(s) in the north. A niche collective of republican feminists developed during this period and sought bodily, political and economic autonomy.
In this monograph, I map these aims onto historical narratives, jail-writings, journalism, documentary film and literary arts. The body of the book is divided into three sections: the representation of republican women within the history of the republican movement, with a particular focus on the prison protests held within Armagh Gaol; an examination of republican feminism within feminist periodicals such as Women’s News, Socialist Women’s Group, Belfast Women’s Collective, and Women Against Imperialism; and an interrogation of the representation of republican women in literary arts, including the works of Mary Beckett, Brenda Murphy, and documentary films, Mother Irelandand A Kind of Sisterhood.
The key research aims are: to assess the intersections of republicanism and feminism within cultural history and literature; to examine disparate strands of republican feminism(s) during the period; and how forms of literature can serve to reassess the interactions and intersections between the two movements. To this end, I explore a movement of women’s writing concerned with political crisis, gender, and the nation during the ‘Troubles’ conflict.
I use the plural republicanism(s) as a way of encapsulating the variant iterations of nationalist feminism, from militant republicanism in Armagh Gaol to a passive non-violent literary nationalist feminism. To do this, the research has drawn on the works of Theresa O’Keefe, Begoña Aretxaga, Fiona McCann and Claire Hackett. This monograph also has an anti-imperialist feminist approach, which draws upon the work of feminist theorists bell hooks, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Nira Yuval-Davis. My research uses testimony as a tool of disruption and resistance against the exclusion from masculine-dominant historical narratives.
This research draws parallels in literature, print and history between nationalism and feminism, and in drawing these comparisons I argue that women voicing their own history acts as a remedy to dominant patriarchal narratives which silence women. This examination of the interaction between nationalism and gender shows how women’s writing offers a paradigm shift in nationalist history as seen through a feminist lens.
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