Loyalist women paramilitaries in Northern Ireland: Beginning a feminist conversation about conflict resolution

Security Studies

Volumn 18, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 262-286

  McEvoy, Sandra ^a,b  

^a CLARK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 70449574234     PISSN: 09636412     EISSN: 15561852     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09636410902900095     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. Anonymous interviewee, interview by Sandra McEvoy, Belfast, April 2006.
2. The concept of Loyalism and those who identify as "Loyalists" is a hotly contested term within Northern Irish Protestantism. Here the term is used to refer to those people and groups who support or are affiliated to Loyalist paramilitarism and affirm Northern Ireland's connection to the United Kingdom. For more on Loyalist identity see Arthur Aughey, "The Character of Ulster Unionism," in Who Are 'The People'? Protestantism, Unionism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland, eds., Peter Shirlow and Mark McGovern (London: Pluto Press, 1997), 16-33.
3. Interviews were conducted in confidentiality, and the interviewees have been assigned fictional names by mutual agreement.
4. Laura Sjoberg and Caron E. Gentry, Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women's Violence in Global Politics (London: Zed Books, 2007).
5. See Cynthia Enloe, Does Khaki Become You? The Militarization of Women's Lives (London: Pluto Press, 1983)
6. Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1989)
7. Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000)
8. Cynthia Enloe, The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004)
9. Ann Tickner, Gender in International Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1992);
10. Ann Tickner, Gendering World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002)
11. V. Spike Peterson, ed. Gendered States: Feminist (Re)Visions of International Relations Theory (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1991)
12. Christine Sylvester, Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994)
13. Christine Sylvester,Feminist International Relations: An Unfinished Journey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
14. Cynthia Enloe, "Feminist International Relations: How To Do It; What We Gain," in International Relations for the 21st Century, ed. Martin Griffiths (New York and London: Routledge, 2007), 6.
15. Laura Sjoberg, "Gendered Realities of the Immunity Principle: Why Gender Analysis Needs Femi-nism," International Studies Quarterly 50, no. 4 (December 2006): 897.
16. Enloe, "Feminist International Relations," 1.
17. See Eileen MacDonald, Shoot the Women First (New York: Random House, 1991)
18. Barbara Victor, Army of Roses: Inside the World of Women Suicide Bombers (New York: Rodale Press, 2003).
19. Sara Ruddick, Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995).
20. Alisa Stack-O'Connor, "Picked Last: Women and Terrorism," Joint Forces Quarterly 44 (1st Quarter 2007): 95-100.
21. Stack-O'Connor, "Picked Last," 97.
22. Sjoberg and Gentry, Mothers, Monsters, Whores, chap. 5.
23. Stack-O'Connor, "Picked Last," 96.
24. Stack-O'Connor, "Picked Last," 96.
25. Stack-O'Connor, "Picked Last," 98.
26. Roy Garland, Gusty Spence (Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 2001).
27. Jim Crothers, Reintegration: The Problems and the Issues: Ex-Prisoners Information Center Research Document, No. 2 (Belfast: EPIC Print Press, 1998).
28. See Jim Cusack and Henry McDonald, UVF (Dublin: Poolbeg Press, 1997)
29. David Boulton, The UVF 1966-73: An Anatomy of a Loyalist Rebellion (London: Torc Books, 1973)
30. Steve Bruce, "Turf War and Peace: Loyalist Paramilitaries Since 1994," Terrorism and Political Violence 16, no. 3 (Autumn 2004): 501-21
31. Derek Lundy, The Men That God Made Mad: A Journey Through Truth and Terror in Northern Ireland (London: Jonathan Cape Press, 2006).
32. Ian Wood, God, Guns and Ulster: A History of Loyalist Paramilitaries (Christchurch, NZ: Caxton Editions, 2004).
33. Peter Taylor, Loyalists (London: Bloomsbury Press, 2000).
34. See Miranda Alison, "Women as Agents of Political Violence: Gendering Security," Security Dialogue 35, no. 4 (2004): 447-63
35. Eileen Fairweather et al., Only the Rivers Run Free: Northern Ireland: The Women's War (London: Pluto Press, 1987)
36. Rachel Ward, Women, Unionism and Loyalism in Northern Ireland: From 'Tea-Maker' to Political Actors (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2006).
37. The Ulster Special Constabulary or "B Specials" were a Northern Ireland based police unit organized by the British government charged with anti-terrorism duties in the province. Due in part to controversy over the Constabulary's antiterrorism tactics, the unit was disbanded in 1970. Many Protestants and Loyalists were angry that the unit was disbanded and felt that the unit was one of the best forms of protection against armed Republicanism in the late 1960s.
38. Snowball sampling is a chain of referrals whereby one person involved in the study referred another person to me so that ultimately a series of participants may be developed from one initial contact. This was important to my research related to illegal activity of study participants, because snowballing served as a way of building trust between potential respondents and me. Because the women knew and trusted one another and because there were no negative repercussions following my initial interviews, each loop in the chain of referrals made me more and more trustworthy.
39. Sydney Elliot and W.D. Flackes, Northern Ireland: A Political Directory 1968-1999 (Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 1999), 474.
40. Elliott and Flackes, Northern Ireland, 474.
41. UVF member, interview by Sandra McEvoy, 26 July 2006.
42. At the time of my 2006 interviews, three agreements were negotiated between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. At the time of this writing an additional agreement, the St. Andrews Agreement (2007), has also been negotiated between these two governments.
43. See John Leavy, Political Thinking Behind Sunningdale (Dublin: Talbot, 1973)
44. Rhoda Margesson, Changing Perceptions about Resolving Conflict in Northern Ireland: The Failure of the 1974 Sunningdale Agreement and Its Implications for Settlement in the 1990s (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law School, 1991).
45. Elliott and Flackes, Northern Ireland, 460-61.
46. Peter Shirlow and Brendan Murtagh, Belfast: Segregation, Violence and the City (London: Pluto Press, 2006), 32.
47. "Gloria," interview by Sandra McEvoy. Rural County Antrim, June 2006.
48. "Chloe," interview by Sandra McEvoy, Belfast, June 2006.
49. Alan Bairner, "The Battlefield of Ideas: the Legitimation of Political Violence in Northern Ireland," European Journal of Political Research 14, no. 5-6 (November 1986): 642.
50. Bairner, "The Battlefield of Ideas," 32.
51. Alan Wright, "Hoping for the Best but Preparing for the Worst." Fortnight 233 (1986): 5.
52. Anonymous interviewee, interview by Sandra McEvoy, June 2006. In the poem, the interviewee uses the term "Ulster" to refer to the province of Northern Ireland. This reference is frequently used as a synonym by traditional Northern Irish Protestants within Unionism and especially among Loyalists.
53. As a further indicator of the ongoing divisions between Republicans and Unionists, each group refers to the agreement by a different name. For Protestants the agreement is referred to as the Belfast Agreement while Republicans refer to it as the Good Friday Agreement.
54. Shirlow and Murtagh, Belfast: Segregation, 37.
55. Shirlow and Murtagh, Belfast: Segregation, 5.
56. Bill Rolston, "Dealing with the Past: Pro-State Paramilitaries, Truth and Transition in Northern Ireland,"Human Rights Quarterly 28, no. 3 (August 2006): 666.
57. Anonymous interviewee, interview by Sandra McEvoy, July 2006.
58. Anonymous interviewee, interview by Sandra McEvoy, July 2006.
59. See Myrtle Hill, Women in Ireland: A Century of Change (Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, 2003)
60. Margaret Fine-Davis, "Attitudes toward the Role of Women as Part of a Larger Belief System," Political Psychology 10, no. 2 (June 1989): 287-308.
61. David G. Winter, "Circulating Metaphors of Sexuality, Aggression, and Power: Otto Rank's Analysis of 'Conquering Cities' and 'Conquering' Women,"' Internationale Zeitschrift fur arztliche Psychoanalyse 2 (2001): 54.
62. Email correspondence from anonymous interviewee to Sandra McEvoy, Belfast, July 2007.
63. Anonymous interviewee, interview by Sandra McEvoy, Rural County Antrim, June 2006.
64. "Loyalists to Oppose Republican Parade Through Ballymena," Belfast Telegraph, 31 July 2007, accessed at http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/loyalists-to-oppose-republican-parade-through-ballymena-13463378.html.
65. "Orde Hits Out at UDA Over Rioting," BBC, 1 August 2007, accessed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uknews/northernireland/6928004.stm.
66. Email correspondence from anonymous interviewee with Sandra McEvoy, April 2007.
67. Rolston, "Dealing with the Past," 661-62.
68. Anonymous interviewee, interview by Sandra McEvoy, Rural County Antrim, June 2006.
69. Cynthia Cockburn, The Space Between Us: Negotiating Gender and National Identities in Conflict (London: Zed Books, 1998)
70. Cynthia Cockburn, The Line: Women, Partition and the Gender Order in Cyprus (London: Zed Books, 2004)
71. Cynthia Cockburn, From Where We Stand: War, Women's Activism and Feminist Analysis (London: Zed Books, 2007)
72. Karen Turner, Even the Women Must Fight: Memories of War from North Vietnam (New York: Wiley and Sons Publishers, 1999)
73. Mary Ann Tetreault, "Women and Revolution in Vietnam," in Global Feminisms Since 1945: Rewriting Histories, ed. by Bonnie Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 45-64
74. Martha Ackelsberg, Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women (Oakland, West Virginia, and Edinburgh: AK Press, 2005)
75. Azza Karam, "Women in War and Peace-building: The Roads Traversed, The Challenges Ahead," The International Feminist Journal of Politics 3, no. 1 (April 2001): 2-25
76. Laura Shepherd, "'Victims, Perpetrators and Actors' Revisited: Exploring the Potential for a Feminist Reconceptualisation of (International) Security and (Gender) Violence, " British Journal of Politics and International Relations 9 (2007): 239-56.
77. Karam, "Women in War," 10.
78. For Vietnamese women's post-conflict experiences, see Mary Ann Tetreault, "Women and Revolution in Vietnam," in Global Feminisms Since 1945: Rewriting Histories, ed. Bonnie Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 45-64. For women's experiences in post-conflict Russia, see Linda Racioppi and Katherine O'Sullivan, see "Organizing Women Before and After the Fall: Women's Politics in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Russia," in Global Feminisms Since 1945: Rewriting Histories, ed. Bonnie Smith (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), 205-34.
79. Karam, "Women in War," 4-5.
80. Adopted by the United Nations in 1979, but not implemented until 1981.
81. Shirlow and Murtagh, Belfast: Segregation, 2.