The mini -skirt brigade: Feminist identity construction in the Irish republican movement

This thesis examines women's participation in the struggle for Irish self-determination. It raises two central questions: (1) how republican women developed a political identity; and (2) how this identity simultaneously contributed to, and conflicted with, the struggle for women's emancipation. It explores how and why women became active in the armed Irish republican movement, and demonstrates that the national liberation movement in the North of Ireland had positive repercussions for women interested in advancing a feminist agenda. The dissertation suggests one of the most important factors in identity formation is how people construct their identities in relation to the recognition of a shared oppression with others. Identity categories, the dissertation shows, often become more salient in the process of responding to oppression.;Unlike previous studies that examine women's place in revolutionary movements, this study does more than just establish the gendered dimensions of nationalism. It explores how republican women respond to the 'gendering' of nationalism, and the forms of political organising that surface as a result. In effect, this thesis argues that women's participation in the national struggle empowered them and, in turn, paved the way for a progressive feminist community within the republican movement. The dissertation also compares the agenda of republican feminism to that of the broader women's movement in the North of Ireland. This comparison raises significant questions regarding the limitations of autonomous women's organising, and its ability to be inclusive.