Shattering Silence

by Begoña Aretxaga

This book, the first feminist ethnography of the violence in Northern Ireland, is an analysis of a political conflict through the lens of gender. The case in point is the working-class Catholic resistance to British rule in Northern Ireland. During the 1970s women in Catholic/nationalist districts of Belfast organized themselves into street committees and led popular forms of resistance against the policies of the government of Northern Ireland and, after its demise, against those of the British. In the abundant literature on the conflict, however, the political tactics of nationalist women have passed virtually unnoticed. Begoña Aretxaga argues here that these hitherto invisible practices were an integral part of the social dynamic of the conflict and had important implications for the broader organization of nationalist forms of resistance and gender relationships.


Combining interpretative anthropology and poststructuralist feminist theory, Aretxaga contributes not only to anthropology and feminist studies but also to research on ethnic and social conflict by showing the gendered constitution of political violence. She goes further than asserting that violence affects men and women differently by arguing that the manners in which violence is gendered are not fixed but constantly shifting, depending on the contingencies of history, social class, and ethnic identity. Thus any attempt at subverting gender inequality is necessarily colored by other dimensions of political experience.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthropology, Feminism, Gender, Ireland, Politics, Ethnography

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1997

Reviews

[Conor Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insanely readable for an academic book, absolutely breezed through this. such an interesting insight into the intersections of gender, sexuality and class within republican movements/northern Ireland more broadly

[Emily Smith]

“Terrorism has ironically become for the IRA the only space from which to speak.” pp 174

[Sugarpunksattack Mick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Begoña Aretxaga’s ‘Shattering Silence: Women, Nationalism, and Political Subjectivity in Northern Ireland’ is a unique look at Northern Ireland politics given it is the first and the only feminist ethnography on the subject. Aretxaga focuses on the nationalist, working-class women in catholic west Belfast. She attempts to show how they are represented and misrepresented, and how their experience is structured and how they re-structure it through their own actions against colonialism, class, and gender systems of power.

One of the strengths of Aretxaga approach is her ability to provide nuance for various aspects around the Northern Ireland ‘conflict’. In particular, she offers an early note on the use of terms ‘catholic’ and ‘nationalist’ explaining that she use them as stand in for each other, but they represent more an ethnic identity more than a religious or political one. Within this nationalist community, Aretxaga explains that there is a wide range of views and parties and perspectives, but they all see themselves as part of this nationalist community much in the spirit of Benedict Anderson’s ‘imagined community.’

Aretxaga’s goal is to render women’s political subjectivity visible and comprehensible against the backdrop of often marginalized representations of women as passive, helpless victims especially in the eyes of outsiders. The nationalist Irish woman as passive victim or helpless pawns is a prominent feature of fictional accounts of Northern Ireland in books as well as movies. On the one hand, Aretxaga is trying to explain the outside/colonial representation of women and how nationalist community have tried to overcome this or turn it on its head as a weapon. On the other, Aretxaga seeks to highlight how nationalist women have problematizes the nationalists’ community own representation of women at various points, but most astutely during the prison protests of 1980s when 32 women launched their own dirty protest in Armagh prison in attempt to resist British criminalization of Irish political prisioners.

Aretxaga’s is essential for anyone studying Northern Ireland in order to have a comprehensive view of the struggle and to construct a anti-colonial, feminist framework to understand the past and possible future there. Aretxaga renders the complicated role of women’s political subjectivity legible and exposes the tensions between the historic representations by British colonial forces of women in Ireland, but also the tension in the nationalist community—between nationalist men and women and between nationalist women and anti-nationalist, feminist women.

[anique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps one of the most thoughtful, critically-engaged ethnographies I've ever read.

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Academic text

[Ginger · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this ethnography, Arextaga discusses the women's role in the fight for independence by women in Northern Ireland. Before reading this ethnography, I was unaware of the event and status of Northern Ireland. What really shocked me was that most of what the women in Northern Ireland were doing to fight against imperialism by Britain was unacknowledged by their society.

[Joann]

I think this book is great because it discusses the womens' rights in the movement. People are fighting for womens' freedom/ independence. I also think this book is great because I'm soon to be a woman myself and I need/want the same rights as men does too.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

very powerful. I never knew anything about the Northern Ireland conflict.

[Crystal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Spent far too much time talking about herself & not about her subject. Felt repetitive; struggled to care not too far into the book.