Trading aprons for arms: feminist resistance in the North of Ireland

This article examines women's feminist resistance under the rubric of nationalism. It challenges the commonly held assumption that participation in nationalist movements is not self-serving for women, that fighting in a national liberation movement is detrimental to women's emancipation. It accounts for the rise of feminist-nationalist organizing in the North of Ireland, and its impact on the most radical element of Irish nationalism--republicanism. It argues that women's participation in the armed struggle empowered republican women to develop and advance a progressive, feminist agenda in conjunction with republicanism. This analysis is primarily based on interviews conducted with former female members of the Irish Republican Army.