Tiocfaidh ár Mná: Women in the Provisional Irish Republican Army

Abstract

This article seeks to answer the question of who were the women of the Provisional IRA and to assess any demographic patterns of PIRA involvement. We use a multi-method approach to describe the many roles and functions of female members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army from 1970 to 1998. Drawing on a sample of 61 convicted or deceased PIRA members, we outline the shifting socio-demographic and operation profile of these women and how structural, tactical and strategic needs of PIRA accounted for those changes. Women in the Provisional IRA played crucial operational roles throughout the period both front-line and behind the scenes. From the outset of the conflict, women consistently took part in violent operations. We also provide a historical case study of Mairéad Farrell's PIRA career to provide further illustrations of these themes in greater detail.

Keywords:

• Provisional IRA
• terrorism
• political violence
• Irish Republican Army

Acknowledgement

The work presented in this paper was supported (in part) by the Office of Naval Research under grants N00014-09-1-0667 and N00014-09-1-0667. Any opinion expressed in whole or in part are those of the authors and do not represent those, nor reflect the official policy, of the Office of Naval Research, Department of the Army or the US Department of Defense. The authors would like to thank John Morrison and Rachel Monaghan for their helpful suggestions as well as the three anonymous reviewers for corrections to earlier drafts. ‘Tiocfaidh ar la’ is an Irish phrase regularly used by the Irish Republican Army, which translates as ‘our day will come’. ‘Mna’ is the Irish phrase for women thus, ‘Our Women will Come!’