![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
Abstract
This article examines and develops a comparison of the Holy Cross School conflict and the campaign by Robert McCartney's sisters and partner to bring those responsible for his murder to justice in Northern Ireland. Both events involved women who identify with the Irish nationalist community in public protest. The article employs a feminist theoretical framework to investigate the ethno-gender dynamics of these particular manifestations of women's political protest. By engaging in a comparative analysis of both protests, the article exposes how these specific expressions of women's political agency and the political discourses and images that they stimulated were influenced by, reflected and disturbed notions about the role of women in nationalist societies.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and close reading of the article. Gratitude is also due to colleagues in the School of Economics and Politics at the University of Ulster for their support and advice during the writing of this article.
Notes
1. Loyalist women participated in the Loyalist blockade of the Holy Cross School. I consider their role in the dispute through a different theoretical framework in Ashe Citation2006.
2. I am indebted to one of the anonymous reviewers for this observation.
3. Key figures in American politics supported the McCartney campaign including Edward Kennedy and Hilary Clinton. The campaigners were also invited to the White House to meet President Bush.
4. McGuinness gave this interview on 15 March 2005. It was repeatedly aired throughout the day by news agencies. At the time there were suggestions that one of the McCartney sisters was considering standing against a Sinn Féin candidate in a local election.