Gender and the Politics of Justice in the Northern Ireland Peace Process: Considering Róisín McAliskey

Abstract

This essay explores reactions to the 1996–1997 incarceration of Róisín McAliskey, a young Irish republican, pregnant at the time of her arrest. The case revealed tensions and contradictions in the politics of gender, national identity, and reconciliation at a tentative stage in the Northern Ireland peace process. Special attention is given to the negotiation of the case by the politically diverse Northern Ireland Women's Coalition and other activists who worked to forge broad-based support campaigns. Along with reactions to them, these efforts were diagnostic of the challenges of developing new politics during this transitional period. These included prospects for new gender-based alliances as well as the potential and the limitations of human rights and political recognition to contribute to projects of reconciliation. For some activist women, the McAliskey case was unsettling to their own sense of political identity, a disruption that may be understood as symptomatic of the intersubjective quality of recognition. It suggests that, although demands for recognition are often most salient in ethnic or nationalist “conflict zones,” the dilemmas attached to extending recognition may be especially acute in just such contexts, where both political subjectivity and physical safety have often hinged on avoiding ambiguity. Similarly, human rights are frequently presented as vehicles for peacemaking. When the state's legitimacy is the focus of conflict, however, demands for human rights often appear as attacks on the state and, by implication, those who identify with it.

Key Words:

• Northern Ireland peace process
• gender politics
• justice
• human rights

Peter Hart, Tracey Heatherington, Nicole Power, Sharon Roseman, Gabriela Vargas-Cetina, and the editors and anonymous reviewers at Identities provided valuable critical comments on this piece. Thanks also to Ann Rossiter and the pseudonymous research participants in this study. My research was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship. The Canadian and International Federations of University Women, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, and the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Memorial University all offered additional support at various junctures. I am grateful to all.

Notes

1. Bew and Gillespie 1999: 335; “Irish political prisoners.” An Phoblacht 5 December 1996.

2. Names listed in association with a “Save Róisín” baby shower benefit held in New York City on 27 April 1997. Leaflet on file at the Linenhall Library, Belfast.

3. For example: “Spring acts to head off McAliskey row.” Belfast Telegraph 20 February 1997; “McAliskey: only high risk is to her health.” Sunday Tribune 16 February 1997; “Treatment hasn't changed in 100 years.” Derry Journal 28 February 1997; “Church accused of McAliskey bias.” Sunday Times 16 March 1997.

4. I joined in autumn 1996 and served on the talks team in 1997–1998, as press officer in several campaigns and as a Coalition executive member in 2000–2001.

5. “Roisin McAliskey” Irish News 15 January 1997.

6. Including me. Although I wrote the British Home Secretary in support of McAliskey's bail, I recall feeling uncertain. This was likely a combination of relatively recent entry into a situation where even the terms of conflict were disputed and picking up on the responses of others.

7. My thinking has been stimulated by Aretxaga (1997), Bell (1998), and conversations with Barbara McCabe.

8. Sources consulted include Bew et al. 1995; Bew and Gillespie 1996, 1999; Buckland 1981; Cochrane 1997; Darby 1983, Elliott and Flackes 1999; Fearon 1999; McGilloway 1996; McWilliams and Kilmurray 1997; Purdie 1990.

9. Republicanism and loyalism are often equated (not entirely accurately) with support for political violence.

10. “McAliskey daughter wanted,” Guardian 26 November 1996; also see Clár na mBan 1994: 13–16, 33–34.

11. Aspects of the letter echoed republican criticisms of the talks process.

12. The Alliance Party is cross-community in confessional terms, but members agree the Union should be maintained as long as a majority is in favour.

13. Amnesty International 1997a offers a detailed account of McAliskeys arrest and imprisonment to April 1997. Thanks to Ann Rossiter for providing information compiled by Women in Fuascailt and Róisín's Sisters, both London-based groups that campaigned on behalf of McAliskey.

14. “McAliskey protests her innocence before she is remanded.” Irish Times 28 November 1996.

15. Amnesty International 1997a, b; “‘No evidence’ against McAliskey” Sunday Tribune 9 November 2003; “Róisín McAliskey released,” Just News: Bulletin of the Committee on the Administration of Justice, 13 (3), March 1998.

16. “Reynolds asks Kohl to help on McAliskey,” Sunday Tribune 2 March 1997.

17. Ian Goswell, Home Office, Organised and International Crime Directorate, Extradition Section (letter to the author, 26 November 1997); Amnesty International 1997b.

18. For example Kevin Myers, “An Irishman's Diary” Irish Times 20 February 1998; “Anger and Joy as Roisin is freed” Belfast News Letter 10 March 1998; Hugo Young “It was a terrible thing to release Roisin McAliskey—but it was necessary” Guardian 12 March 1998.

19. The Home Office insisted it could only make a decision on extradition after all legal appeals had been exhausted and also that it had no locus with regard to bail (letter to the author, cited above). Also see: “A cause celebre?” Belfast Telegraph 3 March 1997.

20. “Daughters of Ireland” Sunday Independent 9 March 1997.

21. Among many other places, the image appeared in The Guardian 26 November 1996. This funeral lacked other paramilitary trappings, but was attended by many prominent republicans (McKittrick et al. 1999: 1349).

22. All names are pseudonyms with the exception of material drawn from the public record and interview material from Ann Rossiter, who asked to be cited by name.

23. “‘I was chained and caged like a wild animal’,” Sunday Tribune 29 June 1997.

24. “Róisín thanks her supporters,” An Phoblacht/Republican News 15 May 1997; http://www.wbaifree.org/radiofreeeireann/prison.html (accessed 30 June 2002).

25. “McAliskey may stand for election,” Irish Times 21 March 1997.

26. “McAliskey pulls out of election contest,” Belfast Telegraph 24 March 1997; “SF-SDLP dog fight back on,” Derry Journal 25 March 1997; “Róisín not to stand,” An Phoblacht/Republican News 27 March 1997.

27. “Roisin not to stand,” An Phoblacht/Republican News 27 March 1997.

28. He also contrasted McAliskey's treatment with campaigns for the release of two British soldiers, jailed for killing a Belfast teenager in 1992. “Treatment hasn't changed,” Derry Journal 29 February 1997.

29. “McAliskey: Only high risk is to her health.” Sunday Tribune 16 February 1997; also see: “Presumed innocent.” Sunday Tribune 14 March 1997; “Spring acts to head off McAliskey row.” Belfast Telegraph 20 February 1997.

30. “Women's Centre demands ‘respect’ for McAliskey—‘Violation’ of prisoner is unacceptable,” Derry Journal 11 March 1997. See McVeigh 2002 on anti-Irish racism.

31. See “A culpable slip,” The Guardian 15 March 1997; “MP's remarks about McAliskey condemned” Irish Times 8 March 1997.

32. “More McAliskey madness,” Sunday Tribune 16 March 1997. When the Home Secretary announced he would block McAliskey's extradition Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis remarked, “No one will be surprised if she now makes a miraculous recovery.” Democratic Unionist Peter Robinson accused the British government of having “pandered to republicans” and interpreted her release as “part of the process of attempting to woo [Sinn Féin leader] Gerry Adams.” See: “Anger and joy as Roisin is freed.” Belfast News Letter 10 March 1998.

33. “Daughters of Ireland.” Sunday Independent 9 March 1997.

34. “McAliskey may stand,” Irish Times 21 March 1997.

35. “Women's Coalition supports McAliskey bail call,” An Phoblacht 16 January 1997.

36. Cedric Wilson (UKUP), Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue, Record of Debates No 24 (17 January 1997): 42.

37. I was dropped into the deep end of the Coalition policy-making process in the wake of Drumcree, as women argued about police and nationalist protesters' actions—then repaired to the pub to share a good-humored pint.

38. “Women: Inside Story,” The Guardian 10 March 1997.

39. “Róisín McAliskey” Irish News 15 January 1997.

40. “The Women's Coalition,” Warrior May/June 1997: 18–19. In early 1997 an information meeting about the case, held in a Derry hotel, was cut short by a loyalist bomb threat. As we exited, the owner told Máire, one of the organisers, that he would never have let the group use his premises had he known the subject of the meeting. The bomb threat shows that, for at least some loyalists, anyone willing even to consider supporting McAliskey was a legitimate target. The hotelier's reaction might be seen as a businessman's desire to protect his property; Máire felt it also showed how the case was beyond the pale even for many nationalists.

41. This account is based mainly on an interview with Rossiter conducted in Belfast in October 2001. Her PhD thesis, forthcoming from the University of the South Bank (London), discusses earlier prison campaigns.

42. Aretxaga (1997) discusses the discomfort even many republicans felt at the appearance of menstrual blood, a visible reminder of women's involvement in the “dirty protest,” a fact that sat awkwardly with gendered ideologies. Reactions might also reflect feminist ambivalence over whether to highlight gender differences or deny their relevance.

43. “SPUC to approach prison authorities on behalf of Roisin McAliskey,” Irish Times 17 February 1997.

44. Among others, see: Brown 1995; Collier et al. 1995; Fraser 1993; Kendrigan 1991; Lister 1997: 66ff; Pateman 1989; Phillips 1991, 1993, 2003; Scott 1988: chapter 8; Young 1990: chapter 7.

45. The valence of such demands can be seen both in provisions in the 1998 Belfast Agreement designed positively to recognise political and cultural identities and in the extent to which repeated disputes over “symbolic” matters, such as flags and emblems, have figured as real threats to the peace process.

46. Ireland and other nations are often imagined in gendered terms that have implications for actual women and men (e.g., Aretxaga 1997; Conrad 2004; Stevens 1999; Taylor 1996; Yuval-Davis 1997). Kelleher (2003) shows how masculine idioms of work and national identity can limit the prospects for political action and solidarity and shore up class as well as gender hierarchy.

47. Exceptions include an interview with Susan McKay (“I was chained and caged like a wild animal,” Sunday Tribune 26 June 1997); and an open letter (see n24). In the McKay piece, McAliskey recalled wanting to shout a denial of the evidence against her, “but [solicitor] Garth [Pierce] had warned me not to.”

48. When McAliskey returned home, her mother stated: “She [Róisín] has returned to her capacity as a private citizen and respect for her privacy would be appreciated.” “McAliskey returns to North with daughter,” Irish Times 13 April 1998.

49. For example, at her first remand hearing, she “only spoke to confirm her name, date of birth and that she understood all the charges.” Her solicitor stated, “Through me she would like to say she is innocent of all the offences she is charged with.” “McAliskey protests her innocence,” Irish Times 18 November 1996.

AI-Index EUR 45/008/1997. Amnesty International 1997b. United Kingdom: Extradition Warrant for Róisín McAliskey Should be Reviewed. AI-Index EUR 45/16/97.

Clár na mBan 1994. A Women's Agenda for Peace—Clár Síochána na mBan. Conference Report. N.p: Clár na mBan. (Conference held in Belfast, 12 March 1994).

Whitaker, Robin 2001. Talking Politics: Gender and Political Culture in the Northern Ireland Peace Process. PhD dissertation, University of California, Santa Cruz.