Qualitative Research 2002 Mcintyre 387 409

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DOI: 10.1177/146879410200200306
2002 2: 387 Qualitative Research
Alice Mcintyre
Women researching their lives: exploring violence and identity in Belfast, the North of Ireland
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ABS TRACT As the newly elected members of the Northern Ireland
Assembly work towards implementing mechanisms for protecting
and furthering the economic, social, political, cultural, and civic
rights of the people of the North of Ireland, many local people are
simultaneously developing strategies for addressing the legacy of
violence that has characterized life in that region of the world for
over 30 years. In this article, I describe how one group of working-
class women living in Belfast address their personal and collective
experiences with the multiple forms of violence that structure their
daily lives. I do so by describing an ongoing feminist participatory
action research (PAR) project that provided the women with a cultur-
ally relevant lens through which to view the historical and political
contexts in which they live and act.
Although there were multiple dimensions of the womens lives
that were revealed in the project, in this article I focus specifically on
the frozen watchfulness that characterizes life on Monument Road
a watchfulness that is born out of years of living in and with
chronic and unpredictable violence. First, I provide an overview of
the overall project. Second, I provide a glimpse of how violence acts
as an organizer in the womens lives. Lastly, I discuss the
importance of opening up spaces for women living in conflicted
communities to speak about their lives and develop strategies for
generating new contexts for the revitalization of everyday life.
KE YWORDS : participatory action research, violence, womens agency
The incidence and prevalence of violence in the North of Ireland
1
over the
past four decades makes public the continued need for social scientists, policy
makers, educators, and community groups to develop strategies for individual
and community well-being (see, for example, Byrne, 1997; Cairns, 1994;
ARTI CLE 387
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Women researching their lives: exploring
violence and identity in Belfast, the
North of Ireland
Qualitative Research
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AL I CE MCI NTYRE
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Dowler, 1998; Fry and Bjrkgvist, 1997; Holliday, 1997; Leavitt and Fox,
1993; McLaughlin, 1993; Toner, 1994). At present, those strategies must be
developed within the context of the Good Friday Agreement,
2
a document
that was signed in 1998 by all the major political parties in the North of
Ireland. The Agreement outlines the structure for the Northern Ireland
Assembly
3
and the mechanisms for protecting and furthering the economic,
social, political, cultural and civic rights of the people of the North.
As the newly elected members of the Assembly work towards implementing
the Good Friday Agreement, many local people are simultaneously developing
strategies for addressing the legacy of violence that has characterized life in
the North of Ireland for over 30 years. Many of those local people are women
whose educational and political opportunities, emotional and psychological
well-being, sense of self and identity, and ability to deal with death, loss, and
trauma have been deeply affected by the unrelenting violence in the North of
Ireland (see, for example, Aretxaga, 1997; McWilliams, 1998; Roulston and
Davies, 2000; Sales, 1997).
Many psychologists and researchers have explored the relationship between
war, multiple forms of violence, and womens (and peoples) lives (see, for
example, Comas-Daz and Jansen, 1995; Lykes, 2000; Martn-Bar, 1994).
These psychologists situate their work among the people whose lives [they]
seek to understand (Comas-Daz et al., 1998: 779). By doing so, they attend
to peoples individual and collective lives within a multilayered social, histor-
ical, and cultural context (Lykes, 2000: 387). By focusing on the individual
and the collective [within] the systemic and structural forces in which they
are socially embedded. . . . [these psychologists] respond in a more integrated,
comprehensive way to war and its effects (p. 386).
Situating individuals within multilayered contexts that mediate their life
experiences has contributed to my own thinking as a psychologist about the
breadth and narrowness of the definitions, terminologies, and theory-build-
ing associated with war and violence and their effects on women. As Dobash
and Dobash (1998) suggest, while specificity in the concept of violence and
here, I would add war as well is needed . . . in order that the term not be mis-
understood or devalued, there is concern about how narrow the definition
can or should become and still reflect a close approximation to the reality of
those who experience violence in its multiplicity of overlapping forms (p. 5).
Through my experiences as a psychologist, and as a practitioner of feminist
participatory action research (PAR)
4
in urban settings in the US, and in
Belfast, the North of Ireland, I have learned to focus on the importance of
context in explaining the emergence, sustainability, and continuation of vio-
lence in all its forms. In addition, I have learned the importance of co-creating
spaces with marginalized groups where they can speak their stories into life in
ways that reflect their understanding of what life is like when lived in the con-
text of violence and/or war.
In this article, I describe how one group of working-class women living in
Qualitative Research 2(3) 388
Belfast address their personal and collective experiences with the multiple
forms of violence that structure their daily lives. I do so by describing an ongoing
feminist PAR project that provided the women with a culturally relevant lens
through which to view the historical and political contexts in which they live and
act. In so doing, the women co-created spaces where, as one of the women stated:
We had a sense of shared experiences. There was a sense of support, and the
humor, bein able to talk about the violence and acknowledge it. And a feelin of
havin time just for us, dya know what I mean? Of havin time set aside for our-
selves. It was lovely.
FEMI NI ST PAR AND EVERYDAY LI FE I N LOCAL COMMUNI TI ES
I was first introduced to two community members from Monument Road
5
in
1996. They had been invited there by a local Irish community group to speak
in a nearby university about the violence in the North of Ireland. At that time,
I spoke with the two representatives about the possibility of collaborating on
a project aimed at developing strategies for addressing how young children
living in Belfast experience the violence in their community. (By community,
I refer to a geographical section of Belfast that is commonly referred to as
Monument Road.)
The two community members were eager to participate. I visited Belfast
shortly thereafter and made contact with a number of women, local commu-
nity workers, teachers, children, parents, and caregivers. I returned to Belfast
a number of times over the next two years to work with children and youth in
a local Irish school as well as in the local youth center.
Although I was primarily working with children and young people during
the first two years I visited Belfast, I was also learning a great deal about the
day-to-day lives of the women on the Road. Together, we spent many hours
talking, laughing, crying, eating, drinking, and engaging in multiple forms of
community work. Out of those experiences, we decided that I would facilitate
a number of workshops with a small group of women with the aim of explor-
ing issues that affect them as mothers, daughters, wives, partners, caregivers,
and the primary stakeholders in community life.
Two of the women I live with when I am visiting Belfast, as well as two other
women in the community, agreed to invite some of the women in the com-
munity to join us in the project. They based their decisions about who to invite
on availability and who they felt would enjoy the opportunity to engage in a
group project. Overall, 11 women were invited to participate in the project.
Two women were unable to participate for reasons associated with their work
lives. Thus, the project began with nine women.
The nine women who chose to participate in the project ranged in age from
24 to 40. Two of the women are single; three are married; four are either sep-
arated or divorced. Sorcha is married and lives with her husband, their three
children ranging in age from six months to 10 years old, and her sister, Nra.
Nra is single and is also a participant in the project. Tricia and Patricia are
McIntyre: Women researching their lives 389
both divorced. They each have four children who range in age from 14 to 21.
All their children live at home. Donna lives with her partner and has three
children ranging in age from 4 to 20. Lucy is married with six children who
range in age from one to 18 years old. One of the children, a friend of Lucys
daughter, has been living with Lucy and her family since 1995 when her
mother died. Five of Lucys children live at home. Jacqueline lives with her
husband and their three children who range in age from six months to eight
years old. Winnie is a single mother with a nine-year-old son. They live with
their housemate, Deirdre, who is single and is also a participant in the project.
Lucy, Tricia, and Jacqueline were all born in the community and have lived
on Monument Road all their lives. Nra and Sorcha moved to the road 11
years ago. Donna moved to the Road over 15 years ago. Patricia grew up in
West Belfast, was married, moved to another county, and returned to
Monument Road 10 years ago after divorcing her husband. Deirdre and
Winnie have lived on the Road for five years.
THE COMMUNI TY
Monument Road is a small, predominantly nationalist and republican work-
ing-class community with about 3500 residents.
6
People in the area have suf-
fered greatly over the past three decades from sectarian violence. Over 50 res-
idents have been murdered and many more injured, imprisoned, or forced to
leave the area.
In 1992, a loyalist paramilitary group attacked a bookmakers shop located
on Monument Road. Five people were killed. In response to those killings, a
group of local women formed a concerned community organization aimed at
stopping the Orange parades
7
from marching down Monument Road. They
hoped that in doing so, they could relieve some of the everpresent tension that
pervades the community, particularly during the summer months. Two of the
original members of the concerned community group are participants in the
project I describe herein.
THE FRAMEWORK OF THE FEMI NI ST PAR PROJ ECT
Participatory action research is a process whereby people reflect on particular
aspects of their lives so as to engage in individual and/or collective action that
leads to a useful solution which benefits the people involved. The roots of PAR
can be traced back to Latin America where, in the 1960s, social scientists
were engaged in collaborative processes of investigation, education, and
action with poor and oppressed groups with the ultimate goal of transforming
community and societal structures so as to improve the lives of those involved
(Hall, 1981).
Practitioners of PAR draw from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Marx
and Engels, both of whom engaged in participatory approaches to social class
struggles, have contributed to looking at people themselves as catalysts for
change a hallmark of participatory action research (Hall, 1981). Similarly,
Gramscis participation in class struggles and his identification of workers as
organic intellectuals resonates with an underlying tenet of PAR which posits
that people have the potential to be community organizers and create knowl-
edge that leads to action. In addition, Paulo Freires (1970, 1973) theory of
conscientization and his belief in critical reflection as essential for individual
and social change have contributed significantly to the development of par-
ticipatory action research. Feminist theories have also informed the field of
PAR with perspectives that have evolved out of a refusal to accept theory,
research, and ethical perspectives that embody firmly entrenched double
standards for men and women (Maguire, 1987; McIntyre, 2000). Finally,
critical theory, which grapples with the central questions facing groups of
people differently placed in specific political, social, and historical contexts
characterized by injustice (Collins, 1998: xiv) has contributed significantly to
how practitioners of PAR think about people and their lived experiences.
There are a wide range of research practices and an equally wide range of
political ideologies that frame PAR projects. However, there are underlying
tenets that are specific to PAR and that distinguish it from other research
approaches: (1) a collective commitment to investigate an issue or problem,
(2) a desire to engage in self- and collective reflection in order to gain clarity
about the issue under investigation, and (3) a joint decision to engage in indi-
vidual and or collective action that leads to a useful solution which benefits the
people involved. These aims are achieved through a cyclical process of explo-
ration, knowledge construction, and action at different moments throughout
the research process. When the above elements are working in tandem, and
when the participants believe that they have a stake in the overall project,
then PAR becomes a living dialectical process changing the researcher, the
participants, and the situations in which they act (McTaggart, 1997).
8
Although not widely employed by social scientists, I chose to explore the
idea of developing a project within the context of PAR because PAR has the
potential to create public spaces where researchers and participants can
reshape our understandings of how the political, social, economic, and famil-
ial contexts that exist in many conflicted communities mediate daily life. In
addition, as a researcher, activist, educator, and psychologist, PAR affords me
the opportunity to engage in a host of experiences related to peoples everyday
lives opportunities that have enriched my understanding of how people
survive and thrive in difficult and challenging circumstances, and how their
stories contribute to developing strategies for individual and community well-
being.
TI ME AWAY : PAR AS A TOOL FOR MAKI N ROOM I N MY HEAD
In many cases, the initial stage of a PAR process begins with consciousness-
raising and reflection about an issue salient to a community, followed by an
action initiative created by and out of the desires, commitments, and
resourcefulness of the participants and the researchers. Through individual
and collective investigation about issues that are of concern to them, people
investigate their realities so as to define, redefine, and, when necessary,
change those realities in ways that contribute to individual and community
well-being.
The women participating in the PAR project described herein did not need
to investigate their day-to-day lives to realize that there were issues that need-
ed to be acted upon. They came to that realization long before I was invited to
facilitate a project with them. For years, the women on the Road have been
actively involved in developing strategies to revitalize the everyday within the
context of violence and social suffering. They volunteer at the local commu-
nity center; participate in various strategies to stop the Orange marches in
their area; organize community celebrations and events; teach Irish; volun-
teer in after-school clubs; and enroll in adult education courses that are
offered at the community center in their neighborhood. Yet even though the
women spend lots of time together actively working in the community, they
have little time to step back and reflect on how that work intersects with their
individual and collective lives.
Thus, the PAR project became an opportunity for the women to take time
away from their daily responsibilities and see themselves, and their daily
lives, from new and different perspectives. It was through reflecting on their
life experiences, as well as through engaging in various stages of analysis and
interpretation, that the women came to understand that in the midst of their
involvement in the community, they could carve out a project for and about
themselves. As the women stated when I asked them about their reflections on
the first workshop we participated in together:
Deirdre: It gave me a sense of identity and some head space. Makin room in my
head. Lovely, very good. Very nice.
Jacqueline: Friendships, gettin together, and trust. You were able to all be the same.
We were all equal. And you were valued, what ya had to say was valued,
I think.
Sorcha: A safe space to talk and just a range of feelins. Some of them were quite
gentle . . . gentleness to anger. There was a range of things that were
discussed.
Patricia: Gettin to know people better. And a closeness, bein able to open up your
thoughts. And sayin things from the past that maybe ya havent talked
about ever. (March 10, 2001)
Complementing feminist PAR is photovoice a methodology that (1) enables
people to record aspects of their daily lives from their own perspective, (2) pro-
vides opportunities for people to attend to aspects of their lives and communi-
ties that they take great pride in, or have the greatest concerns about, and (3)
uses photography to catalogue social issues in the hopes of influencing social
policy. Photovoice (Wang, 1999) has been used to develop collaborative expe-
riences with homeless children, (Hubbard, 1996), children of Appalachia and
India (Ewald, 1985; 1996), women in rural China (Wu et al., 1995), women
in Guatemala (Women of ADMI and Lykes, 2000), and urban youth in
Bridgeport, CT, USA (McIntyre, 2000) so as to facilitate social change.
During the initial photovoice workshop, which took place in October 2000,
each woman was given two cameras (one that used color film, the other black-
and-white) and invited to tell a visual story about her daily life. This story
included anything the women felt belonged in their photographs, e.g. their
children, friends at work and in the community, upcoming events, geograph-
ical locations, and holiday festivities. It was also during this time that we dis-
cussed the possibility of organizing a photo-text exhibit for the community
festivals that occur in Belfast during the summer months. Our belief is that
the photo-text exhibit can be used as a tool for providing knowledge to local
(and international) communities about the ways in which women engage in
the formulation and reformulation of place and identity within contexts of
violence and the uncertain moments of peace. I will discuss the photo-voice
project in more detail in later writings.
Although there were multiple dimensions of the womens lives that were
revealed in the overall PAR project, in this article I focus specifically on the
frozen watchfulness (McWilliams, 1995: 14) that characterizes life on
Monument Road a watchfulness that is born out of years of living in and
with chronic and unpredictable violence. First, I provide an overview of the
overall project. Second, I provide a glimpse of how violence acts as an organ-
izer in the womens lives. Last, I discuss the importance of opening up spaces
for women living in conflicted communities to speak about their lives. In so
doing they and we have the potential to generate new contexts for the revi-
talization of everyday life.
(Re)constructing everyday knowledge
During the initial workshop, which was held in October 2000, we used
numerous creative techniques and processes to reflect upon and make mean-
ing of the womens lives, particularly as their lives are mediated by violence,
gender, and politics (e.g. collages, symbolic art, painting, and poetry). I
returned to the US after the first workshop and transcribed the workshop ses-
sions as well as the individual and paired interviews I conducted with the
women during that time. The interviews I conducted were modifications of
what Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) call the community resource
inventory (CRI). The CRI is a tool for gathering information about people,
identifying community concerns as well as individuals gifts and skills, and
generating knowledge about how assets can be tapped and utilized within
schools and communities. I developed specific community inventories tailored
for the women participating in the project.
I used social constructionist grounded theory method to analyze the infor-
mation gathered from the womens audiotaped group discussions and inter-
views (see, for example, Charmaz, 1990; McIntyre, 1997, 2000; Orona,
1990; Strauss and Corbin, 1990). I situated the data analysis in the womens
meaning-making, specifically in terms of how they construct meanings about
violence, community life, politics, and how they intersect with their identities
as Irish women. I sent copies of the transcripts and the interviews to the
women prior to my visits, and during the scheduled workshops presented my
analyses of the transcripts and interviews to the group. The women either
agreed with my analyses or suggested that I modify particular themes. For
example, the theme of womens identity was modified to include another
theme the women called ourselves alone a theme the women created to
represent the importance of having time, activities, and interests that are for
ourselves alone. They dont include us having to do something for someone
else (Lucy). In addition, the women engaged in individual and group analy-
ses of their photographs and texts (see McIntyre, in press). From those analy-
ses, the women created a set of themes that we integrated into the themes that
were generated from the group sessions (e.g. family, community, and vio-
lence). Notwithstanding the contribution of the women to the analysis of the
data, I take responsibility for how that data is presented in this article.
Frozen watchfulness: violence and gendered identities
Monica McWilliams (1995) argues that many women in the North of Ireland
live their lives marked by a frozen watchfulness (p. 14) a constant sense of
impending doom about what might happen to them, their families, and in
particular, their children. This feeling of frozen watchfulness was a constant
thread in our discussions. The frozen watchfulness that characterizes the
participants lives is intimately linked to what the psychologist Ignacio
Martn-Bar
9
(1994) calls normal abnormality (p. 125) a state of
being/living where people come to anticipate living with multiple forms of
sanctioned and unsanctioned violence, marginalization, and oppression, all
of which inform and shape the dailyness of their lives. Even though Martn-
Bar was referring to communities of people living within the context of state-
sponsored violence in Latin America, his words ring true for many people in the
North of Ireland who live in environments characterized by types of violence
that are chronic, pervasive, and allowed to remain intact. For the women of
Monument Road, the violence over the past 30 years has resulted in them
living with a sense that they and their children are never really completely
safe and that violence is one of the organizing principles in their lives.
The chronic yet unpredictable violence that mediates life on the Road also
has implications for how the women participating in the project construct
their individual and collective identities. One of the activities we engaged in
during the initial workshop generated some of the most thought-provoking
discussions among the women in terms of how they identify as Irish women.
I gave the women large pieces of chart paper, asked them to form three
groups, and then invited them to reflect on how they think people outside
both the North and South of Ireland perceive Irish women. In addition, I
asked them to record how they themselves perceive Irish women. Once they
completed that aspect of the activity, I invited the women to design a symbol
that reflected their image of what best represents an Irish woman. Once com-
pleted, the women presented their lists and symbols to the larger group. The
remainder of the participants were then invited to ask questions and/or offer
comments about each groups presentation. The resulting dialogue led to
spontaneous and lively storytelling, moments of introspection and humor, as
well as moments of discomfort and self-consciousness.
All the groups believed that outsiders view Irish women as either sweet
Colleens or fiery, bad tempered Mata Haris. They also believed that people
outside Ireland think Irish women are always barefoot and pregnant and
have one foot in the bog (theyre old-fashioned). In addition, all the groups
agreed that outsiders perceive Irish women as the symbol of Mother Ireland:
long-suffering, noble, nurturing, family-oriented, and always there to keep
the home fires burning.
Although the women identified with how they think other people view Irish
women, and could understand why outsiders would perceive them in those
ways, their own perceptions of themselves were far less monolithic. Instead,
their perceptions of themselves revealed a more nuanced identity of Irish
women, particularly women living in the North of Ireland. The women over-
whelming supported the image of Irish woman as the backbone of the fami-
ly . . . the one that keeps the family together. Yet their descriptions of Irish
women as homemakers and babymakers did not end there. Instead, they
described Irish women as being all things to all people: mother, sister, friend,
worker, entertainer, lover, soldier, and shoulder to cry on. Having to live out
so many roles, many times simultaneously, complicates the unidimensional
image of Irish women as solidly planted in the kitchen or the bedroom
holding everything together. It is not to say that the women do not have their
feet planted there many of them do. But they also have them planted in,
among other places, community organizations, adult education courses,
protest marches, careers, politics, the Irish language movement, support
groups, and their childrens schools.
REMEMBERI NG THE PAST TO ORGANI ZE THE PRESENT
Tricia, Jacqueline, and Patricia created a symbol of a pregnant woman with a
baby on her lap, one child sitting next to her on the floor, and one child stand-
ing next to her. The word Protector was written above the picture. The
womens symbol generated a discussion among the larger group about how
important it is for the women to protect their children, their home, and their
community. As Lucy stated, Women will do anything to protect their families.
And theyll do anything to keep their kids safe.
Below, I present a lengthy discussion that is representative of many others
the women and I had over the course of the project. Tricia and Jacquelines
conversation reveals the extent to which early memories of violence shape the
womens beliefs, fears, and everyday actions as protectors of their families,
friends, and overall community:
Jacqueline: Im like my Ma, really nervous, any shootin or anythin, my kids are in.
[Orange] parades. My kids are in. I wouldnt let them out. Id be terrified
of somethin happenin on the Road. . . . When its comin up to the 12th
of July on the Road, you panic. I keep sayin, Youre not allowed on the
Road, specially at that time.
Tricia: It is hard. I mean like as you said, your kids are young. I cant keep mine
in. Mines at an age, they was all on the Road last year [protesting an
Orange march]. Kayla got trailed off the Road and Sarah got kicked off it.
Ya ought to see the black and blue marks on them. But then they believe
in what I believe in.
(crosstalk)
Tricia: My Mommy always kept us in but, I mean, the time the Galway [a local
pub] was blown up in 1974. I was at school so I was and I came home
from school and I was seein those people lyin outside the Galway.
(crosstalk)
Alice: What do you teach your kids about the Troubles?
10
Tricia: They know I support Sinn Fein. I believe in it because I believe in the
struggle. . . . I mean my brother was interned
11
in 1974 and what they
went through in there was unbelievable. Internees I mean, they were
beat. They were. Between him being interned and another brother was
lifted [arrested], it was. . .
Jacqueline: Theres stuff you remember. Did ya ever get your house raided, Tricia?
Tricia: Our house was raided 12 times in a fortnight.
Jacqueline: Ours was raided and raided.
Tricia: Twelve times and they refused to let me go to the toilet. Only if a soldier
came with me. . . . We were raided one time and they come in and Ive
always had bad kidneys and once I need to go, I need to go. Mommy said
to the soldiers, Look, she needs to go to the toilet. Only if he goes up
with her one of them says. And I started cryin and I says, Mommy, Im
not goin and I thought, Oh, God, theres goin to be murder. My broth-
ers jumped up and all, She needs to go! So in the end, they eventually let
me go up to the toilet, but I had to keep the bathroom door open, just a
bit open, while I went to the toilet. That Brit stood outside the door.
Alice: How old were you?
Tricia: Um, must have been 15, maybe 14.
Jacqueline: I remember them raidin our house and sayin to my Ma, Will you make
us tea? My Ma says, No, I wont. I havent enough cups. He says, We
have cups. And they went out and brought in wee plastic cups, and my
Ma says, Im not makin yous tea. I havent enough tea bags. They went
and got tea bags. . . . She wouldnt make the tea [and] I remember I think
I was about 10 and when I opened my eyes in bed, I remember the Brits
standin with a torch like that and a big dog. That always sticks in my
head cause I remember goin, What do they want? They were big, they
were like aliens.
(crosstalk)
Jacqueline: The ceasefire
12
breaks, the bars are goin up in the house and I would be
scared to go into my kitchen. I have a terrible fear goin into my kitchen
when theres no ceasefire.
Alice: Why?
Jacqueline: Because all there is behind me is a railway. And the last time one of them
parades was rerouted, the Orangemen come up the back and lit all the
bushes and all the shrubbery and they burned it all. And I always have a
fear in my mind. Id always be scared of them comin up the back of the
houses and maybe shootin in. . . . Ill take a heart attack.
Tricia: Thats my worst fear with me bein on the [committee that deals with the
marching issues], ya know? Im always afraid of the house gettin hit or
one of the kids gettin it, ya know? (November 3, 2000)
The womens concerns for the safety of their children and their community
are as prevalent and visible today as they were during the Troubles. Although
the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 paused the unrelenting
violence that pressed upon daily life in the North of Ireland for three decades,
a feeling of vulnerability among many people, including the women of
Monument Road, continues to prevail. This is due, in part, to the riots, multi-
ple murders, and hundreds of bombings that have killed and injured a num-
ber of people since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. Ceasefires have
been brokered, broken, resumed, and broken again. Politicians have compro-
mised, refused to compromise, resigned, been reinstated, and resigned again.
Rules have been suspended; government officials have been denied access to
meetings; and discussions have been aborted due to lack of agreements on
particular issues relating to the Agreement.
The response of local communities to the setbacks and crises that are being
worked out among politicians and government officials in Great Britain,
Ireland, North and South, is inseparable from the long history of violence and
polarization that marks the geographies of the people of the North. Thus,
many people, including the women of Monument Road, negotiate the current
uneasy peace in the face of a skepticism that surrounds [them] like a ditch
(Das and Kleinman, 2000: 8). In this case, the women of the Road do not feel
safe simply because an agreement was signed. Rather, they feel safe by relying
on past experiences. It is by remembering their own experiences with vio-
lence, and by remembering how their parents and other adults in the com-
munity resisted the violence that mediated their lives for so long, that the
women endure and work through the violence and other forms of social suf-
fering that affect them and their families in the present day.
Patricia moved to the Road over 10 years ago. She doesnt consider herself
a community activist or a visible and vocal leader when it comes to commu-
nity issues. Yet after living on the Road for a few months, she told me that Ya
have to be involved, because it is part of where you are, its part of you as well.
Prior to moving to the Road, Patricia lived in a rural area outside the city of
Belfast. It was a familial community, according to Patricia, where families
spent Sundays together, everybody knew each other, no violence, no march-
es. Her life there was in sharp contrast to her life as a child and adolescent
growing up in West Belfast during the Troubles.
I mean we talk about what it was like when I was growin up, when I couldnt
go out of the area. I lived in West Belfast and we couldnt venture anywhere
except in our own area. . . . I mean I was 11 in 1969 when the Troubles were at
their worst. We had the army inhabiting half of our school. They took it over.
And we only had half a school to go to school in. . . . I mean that was normal. I
seen gunmen in the streets. That was normal. I seen soldiers shot. That was nor-
mal. To us, that was what we grew up with. I didnt know any different. I didnt
know what it was like to go into town and go to dances because you stayed in
your own area. You went to clubs in your own area. I never went to the pictures.
Ya never went into town to do anything. And now its different because my kids
are at the age to do things. My kids are able to go out and do things Ive never
done. (November 1, 2000)
Although Patricia recognizes that things have changed since she was a
schoolgirl, she is also clearly aware of how precarious those changes are. She
hopes for peace but takes the necessary steps to be ready for violence, partic-
ularly during marching season. Although she was once beaten by the police
for protectin my son during a march, Patricia believes that the only way to
keep her family safe is to go go back out there again. I have to go out on the
Road if there is a march. Lucy agreed stating, I know they have to have their
culture. But they dont have to have it over me.
Like Tricia and Jacqueline, and the other women in the project, Patricias
early experiences of violence are significant factors in how she and they
respond to and experience the current climate of uneasy peace in the North
of Ireland. Their memories are not lying dormant in their individual and col-
lective psyches, nor are they perceived by the women as experiences that
occurred in the past. The past is ever-present. The present is ever informed by
the past. As Deirdre once stated, Its just mad that the violence is so recent
history for people. Its not even history really. Its like people who were there
are still livin their lives today. And, as noted earlier, for the women on
Monument Road, living their lives today is inseparable from remembering
their lives yesterday.
Jacqueline stated that she lives with the fear that someone will attack her
home and hurt her family. In response to that, and in response to experienc-
ing the multiple raids that occurred in her home while she was growing up,
Jacqueline protects her children by, among other things, keeping an iron gate
secured at the bottom of a set of stairs leading to the second floor of her
house. She showed us a photograph she had taken of her two young children
standing behind that iron gate. Her words, and the discussion that followed,
reveal not only the extent to which the womens experiences of and with vio-
lence influence how they protect their children, but also how the multiple
forms of violence that have characterized life in Monument Road become
threaded into the routines of the everyday.
Jacqueline: This is what I wrote for this picture. This photo is of my two sons on my
stairs. The gate you see is a security gate. It gets locked at night to stop
unwanted visitors.
Lucy: [Paramilitary] death squads.
Jacqueline: from harmin my family when we are in bed. Most families, 90 percent,
mostly 90 percent of the families in the community have some sort of
security in their homes. The children in the community are used to this.
Mine have never asked why we have this and we will never remove this
gate as I do not trust enough yet.
Tricia: Funny, before the ceasefire, my sister stopped usin it. She took her gate
off.
Nra: Youre jokin?
Tricia: And then a girls house got blew up four doors down.
Lucy: I wouldnt take my gate off. I would not take my gate off. My doors can lie
open but I would not take my gate off.
Jacqueline: Same as me. When I go to bed and know its locked, I sleep. If I hadnt got
them, my nerves would be shot.
Tricia: Funny you sayin that. From them pipe bombs over the last couple of
weeks, I havent been able to sleep properly. Its just, Im not worried, if
they throw a pipe bomb in. I dont care as long as I can get my kids out.
Thats my real fear, gettin them out. I dont know how many times I had
the dreams.
Jacqueline: Do you have an escape route?
Lucy: Even before I got my security in, I always talked, that if somethin hap-
pened, anythin, I always have an escape route cause ya dont know
whether its goin to happen to you.
Jacqueline: Ya dont. And my nerves, if I have a couple of drinks, it wouldnt annoy
me. See, goin to bed sober, lyin in bed, and everything goes through yer
mind.
(crosstalk)
Tricia: Thats just the way Ive been feelin because of the pipe bombs, ya know?
Alice: So is the fear greater now? Or was it, is it the same as what it was during
the Troubles?
Jacqueline: I think its still the same.
Tricia: Still the same.
Lucy: I think its more because of them pipe bombs, cause theyre so danger-
ous. Before it was death squads comin in with guns and poppin your
door down. This is blatantly puttin it through a window. Its a scary
thing, still is scary. (March 10, 2001)
Although the women realize that the area in which they live is vulnerable to
bomb attacks, they do the best they can to defend their families by designing
escape routes, installing various forms of security, and keeping a close watch
on who comes in and out of the neighborhood. The women learned how to
protect themselves by growing up in families where one of the most signifi-
cant lessons they learned was how to survive police interrogations, house
raids, drive-by shootings, bomb threats, Orange marches, and the unrelenting
surveillance that marked their lives for so many years. As young girls, many
of the women stated that they had watched their mothers hold down
the fort, keep the homefires burning, and stand up to peelers (police) and
the RUC.
13
Now, as young women and mothers, they embody similar roles
facing many of the same responsibilities and challenges that their mothers
once did.
Lucy grew up in a house where her mother tried to discourage her from tak-
ing part in the political turmoil that existed in the North of Ireland. Her moth-
er felt the best way to protect Lucy was to keep her off the streets and away
from the war. In Lucys words, It didnt work. I got involved in protests and
things when I was a teenager. Lucy later married a local man, moved into her
own home on the Road, and began her life as a wife, mother, and community
worker. Due to Lucys husbands notoriety, (he is an ex-prisoner and a well-
known community activist), the British government was forced to provide
Lucy and her family with home security. That meant that last year the gov-
ernment installed bullet-proof windows, cameras outside the front door, and
other precautions to protect Lucys family. Prior to the government providing
her family with security, Lucys family lived with thick steel shutters that com-
pletely covered their front windows, multiple locks on the door, and a dog in
the backyard.
Unfortunately, the new security has not deterred people from attacking
Lucys home. The day before I arrived in Belfast for the second workshop,
Lucys house was riddled with ball bearings shot from a gun in a passing car.
The bullets cracked Lucys kitchen windows but did not penetrate them. She
found it amusing that the RUC sent forensics out to look in the street for the
ball bearins the next day. Amusing because the RUC used to raid her house
on a regular basis and now they had to come and make sure it was protected.
I stopped by Lucys house one day shortly after the above incident. As we
talked over tea, I looked over and noticed the cracks in the window. I thought
of what Lucy had said at the workshop about pipe bombs being a scary thing.
Looking at the cracks in the kitchen window was also a scary thing. If the
ball bearings had penetrated the window, they would have struck one of her
children or someone else sitting at the kitchen table. I have sat at that kitchen
table many times myself as have numbers of other people who stop by on a
regular basis.
I sat at that kitchen table on March 15, 1999, when we were awaiting news
about Rosemary Nelson, a human rights solicitor, who was murdered in a car
bomb explosion that day. Rosemary was an advocate of human rights and
social justice who represented the family of Robert Hamill, a young Catholic
man who was kicked to death by a group of loyalists in 1997 while a group of
RUC officers looked on. Rosemary also represented the residents of Garvaghy
Road in Portadown a Catholic area that is repeatedly targeted for Orange
marches. While Sorcha, Nra, Deirdre, and I were working with the children
in the Irish school across the street from Lucys house, we heard the news that
someone had been involved in a car bombing. Within minutes, we were
informed that it was Rosemary Nelson a good friend to and of the Monu-
ment Road community. Within the hour, we were informed of her death.
The women responded to Rosemarys murder the same way they respond to
many other murders and tragedies that have befallen them and their friends
over the past 30 years. They do what needs to be done: caring for their chil-
dren, meeting their responsibilities at work, and making sure that people in
the area are informed about whatever the current situation is. They acknowl-
edge the violence but they do not surrender their lives to it. Instead, the
women engage in it all with a mixture of humor, alcohol, work, activism, and
a get over it there is another fight around the corner attitude. Oftentimes,
they respond by stepping into the role of Mother Ireland: keeping a stiff upper
lip and keeping the home fires burning. They grieve, heal, and get on with it,
sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, continually finding ways to contain,
seal off, and manage the multiple forms of violence that are an unfortunate
aspect of their lives.
That is not to say that the women ignore the rest of life as they wait for the
next round of violence. The most significant and visible thing I see the women
do is refuse to relinquish the everyday as they resist, rebel, and recast the con-
straints of violence and social suffering. Even though their lives are put on
hold in many ways, they continue to map the interpolations of violence into
their lives while simultaneously maintaining a sense of joy and connected-
ness in their family and community relationships. The women meet for drinks
at the local pub a site where they can also be found playing Bingo, enjoying
karaoke, and/or simply enjoying the craic (fun and conversation). They gos-
sip, laugh a lot, and dont take themselves too seriously. They celebrate births
and deaths, weddings and graduations, Holy Communions and Halloween.
They live with hopes, dreams, boyfriends, husbands, partners, children,
friends, sex, television, music, and other factors that make up the everyday-
ness of life. They live their lives, not as if the violence was not happening, or
may not happen, but precisely because it is happening.
Notwithstanding the joys and laughter that are present in the womens
lives, unpredictability and violence are still too close to them, too threaded
into the womens everyday for them to let their guard down. It has only been
within the context of the PAR project that the women, as a group, have even
begun to address the hyphenated nature of war and peace, of promises kept
and promises broken, of freedom and bondage. By engaging in a host of cre-
ative activities and group dialogues, the women have taken the first steps in
an ongoing process of recalling, remembering, and retrieving memories not
just of violent events but of the conditions that characterized and shaped
them. These acts of tentatively stepping into the experience of narration bear
testimony to the womens determination to disrupt the normative state of vio-
lence that has organized their daily lives and create a different set of memories
for the next generation. As Lucy stated, I been here all my life and I dont
want my kids growin up the way I grew up. I just think my kids deserve bet-
ter. And if I can do that, then Ill do it. The rest of the women agreed stating
that the photographs they took and the stories they told about their lives
would assist them in educating their children about the history of the com-
munity within the context of the Troubles. Many of the women spoke about
how their parents never talked about the war because they were afraid that if
they did, their children would run off and join the IRA. These women feel dif-
ferently. They want their children to be aware of what the community has
endured and how, as a collective body, they have survived, even thrived in the
midst of violence and social suffering. They believe that if their children
understand how the community has responded to the Troubles, they will be
better able to make decisions about their own lives in the context of the ongo-
ing struggles for peace and justice. As Winnie stated in regards to her nine-
year-old son:
I explain a story and let him come up with his own ideas. I say, This is what
these people think. Now do you think thats right or wrong in your opinion?
Because I dont want him just to say, The Oranges are bad and the RUC is bad
because my Mommy told me they were. I just dont think that helps him in his
education process. I dont think people should just be told that thats the way it
is. They should decide for themselves. I want him to think and sort it out for him-
self. But in order to do that, he has to have information.
Along with the womens desire to give testimony to their lives, and provide
their children with information about the history of the war and its relation-
ship to the community, is a need to be silent about a number of events that
have informed and influenced their identities, daily experiences, and ways of
engaging the world around them. As Ross (2001) suggests, silence, like
speech, is a legitimate response and discourse to pain; it is an act of conscious
agency (p. 272). For the women of Monument Road, the PAR project provid-
ed opportunities for them to speak their stories into life. In addition, it created
spaces for them to be comfortable with silence to hold on to stories that need
to remain underground at least for the present moment. And it is within the
contours of their silences and their speech that we hear what it is that
women say (Ross, 2001: 273).
Engaging in the (re)making of hope
Given the ways in which multiple forms of violence shape, twist, bend, and
sometimes even break the ordinary lives of the women from Monument Road
(Kleinman, 2000) it is essential that they have opportunities to engage in the
(re)making of hope through the everyday. The strategies we employed in this
project offered opportunities for this group of women to focus on themselves
as women and on their everyday lives which are threaded with, among other
things, hope, humor, uncertainty, doubt, and fear.
The opportunity to engage the multiple aspects of the womens lives, and to
negotiate an everchanging meaning-making process, was a challenging one.
They experienced a back-and-forthness about the photographs they took rep-
resenting their lives, and a shifting and reshifting about the meanings of those
photographs that oftentimes was disorienting. At the same time, the revisiting
of the photographs, and the telling and retelling of the multiple stories that
were generated during the project, were creative catalysts for the women as
they reassessed their stories and re-evaluated the significance of particular
events and experiences that have shaped their lives. In the end, the cyclical
nature of re-viewing the photographs and texts, analyzing their own speech,
and sharing individual and collective stories provided the women with a sense
of confidence about how they were representing their lives through the over-
all process. As importantly, the process of telling stories about ones life gave
the women a sense of their own individuality within the context of living in a
close-knit community characterized by violence and social suffering. As Lucy
stated, I mean the thing of it is, I know we all live in close proximity. But were
all very individual and were all different. And I think the photographs and
texts say that.
The womens moments of uncertainty about the issues that were generated
in the project were integral aspects in the process of constructing meaning
about their lives. Equally important were the multiple moments of connection
the women experienced during the PAR process aha moments when the
womens sense of belonging across places and spaces in time enlivened and
affirmed them. For instance, Tricia took a photograph of two two-year-old
children at the local community center:
This photograph shows two kids in our parent and toddler group and shows
how people in the community really love each other.
From a young age we try to encourage friendship. This is the way the world
should be, everyone lovin each other. (March 10, 2001)
After Tricia described the photograph, the women broke into applause agree-
ing with Tricia that indeed, the community does work hard to encourage chil-
dren to be loving and friendly. Lucy looked over at Tricia and said, Perfect
world, huh? To which Tricia replied, Thats what I live in, Lucy. I lock myself
in my room and just believe that it can be a perfect world.
Tricia, and the rest of the women, recognize that their realities do not exact-
ly represent a perfect world. Yet the moments of connectedness they shared
over the idea of a perfect world provided a sense of hope, safety, and security
that helped the women to feel, as Tricia said, Proud of what we done. Now
well show the rest of Belfast and the world how we really live.
Concluding reflections
The womens hope is that by exploring and describing their lives through an
ongoing participatory process, they can create effective strategies for protect-
ing future generations from the spirals of continuing violence that disrupt,
disorganize, and threaten normal life. This is particularly true at this histor-
ical moment when the peace agreement that was brokered over four years
ago remains elusive in its implementation, and when various forms of
violence continue to structure the lives of people living in the North of
Ireland.
My belief is that there is much to be learned about identity, violence, and
agency from the experiences of women who live in contexts of violence.
Researchers and local women throughout the world have developed multiple
diverse research projects employing PAR to examine mental health in the con-
text of state-sponsored violence (Lykes, 1997, 2001), womens health in India
(Khanna, 1996), AIDS intervention in South Africa (Preston-Whyte and
Dalrymple, 1996), and the effects of battering on women living in New
Mexico (Maguire, 1987). These projects suggest that when we individualize
the effects of violence and see the effects of [violence] as primarily or exclu-
sively residing in the individual (Lykes, 1994: 546), we run the risk of mini-
mizing and or failing to take into account the social roots, in other words, the
traumatogenic structures or social conditions (Martn-Bar, 1994: 125) that
contribute to sustained violence in many parts of the world.
By viewing violence as a psychosocial phenomenon, as a phenomenon that
involves the individual within the context of her multiple environments, psy-
chologists and researchers can focus the problem of violence within a system
of social relations and institutional and societal infrastructures rather than
strictly within individual people. In so doing, we can contribute to remaking
the world a quest which [may] not yield any final destinations but [can
point] to some resting places, some temporary closures (Das and Kleinman,
2001: 27), some moments of peace and justice.
NOTE S
1. Many nationalists, republicans, Catholics, and international activists use the
North of Ireland or, the occupied six counties to describe what is commonly
referred to as Northern Ireland. Using the term the North of Ireland is a counter-
hegemonic practice that challenges the authority and legitimacy of the present
sociopolitical structures in that country.
2. The Good Friday Agreement represents multi-party negotiations between the
North of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Great Britain. The Agreement out-
lines the structure for the Northern Ireland Assembly and the mechanisms for
addressing a number of issues to protect and further the economic, social, politi-
cal, cultural, and civic rights of the people of the North of Ireland. See
http://www.niassembly.gov.uk/agreement.htm for the complete document.
3. The Assembly is the newly formed governmental body in the North of Ireland. As
of this writing, the Assembly consists of 108 members representing 11 political
parties. Each party has a specific number of elected representatives. For more
information about the Northern Ireland Assembly, see http://www.ni-
assembly.gov.uk/parties.htm.
4. There are multiple principles, guidelines, and theoretical perspectives that inform
traditional PAR. Many of those underlying principles also guide feminist PAR
projects. Yet, there are particular dimensions that distinguish feminist PAR from
traditional PAR. In order to maintain consistency, I use the term participatory
action research (PAR) throughout the article. For further discussions of feminist
PAR, see Chataway, 1997; Lykes, 1997, 2001; Maguire, 1987; McIntyre, 2000.
5. The names of some people, places, and things have been changed. Some of the
women participating in the project chose their own pseudonyms that were used
throughout the project. Others, like Patricia, refuse to use any other name than
my own, so just put me down with my real name.
6. The conflict in the North of Ireland exists between multiple groups and con-
stituencies. The terms used to define such groups are important for understand-
ing how people make meaning of their religion, ethnicity, nationalism, and
politics. These terms are not fixed, nor are they similarly defined within and across
constituencies. The terms I use (e.g. nationalist, republican, unionists, and loyal-
ist) are presented with the recognition that terminology is always changing. For
the purposes of this article: nationalists are predominantly Catholic by religion,
encompass a range of social classes, and desire an end to British rule; republicans
are predominantly Catholic by religion, are mainly from the working class, desire
an end to British rule, and actively support and work toward the goal of a united
Irish Republic; unionists are predominantly Protestant by religion, encompass a
range of social classes, and want to see Northern Ireland remain part of the
United Kingdom; loyalists are predominantly from the working class and more
likely to identify as British; they are Protestant by religion and actively support
and work toward retaining their status as part of the United Kingdom.
7. Some of the 3000 parades that occur during the summer months in the North of
Ireland take place in highly contested areas in other words, areas where
Catholics protest the decision of the Parades Commission to allow Protestant
Orangemen to march through their neighborhoods. Two of the most contested
marches on Monument Road are scheduled for July 12th and August 12th. July
12th is the annual Protestant celebration commemorating the victory over King
James II in 1689. August 12th is another major celebration for the Apprentice
Boys, an organization of Protestant men who gather to march in commemoration
of the day when 13 Apprentice Boys closed the gates of Derry keeping King James
and his forces from taking over the city.
8. It has been my experience that Freires (1970) discourse on power, critical dia-
logue, and the idea of conscientizacao significant contributions to PAR are pos-
sibilities with/for all people, including members of dominant groups. In earlier
research, I engaged in a PAR process that was not about liberating the marginal-
ized but about prying open self- and collective criticism among those who occupy
the center. My work with middle- and upper-middle-class white females in the US
challenged them and us to think about what life is like on the margins and how
we, as the dominant racial group in the US, can alter existing inequitable struc-
tures that perpetuate racism and various forms of social suffering. Engaging in a
PAR project with a dominant group generated a particular set of questions and
challenges that are different than ones that characterize PAR projects with mar-
ginalized groups. I believe that those questions and challenges must be rigorously
addressed so that the PAR process is not used to the advantage of the oppressor at
the expense of the oppressed.
9. Ignacio Martn-Bar was a Salvadoran social psychologist who was assassinated
in El Salvador on November 16, 1989.
10. The Troubles is a euphemistic term referring to the conflict/struggle/war in the
North of Ireland that began with the British invasion of Ireland and the partition
of Ireland in 1921 into 26 free counties in the South and six British-governed
counties in the North. The launch of the recent Troubles occurred in 1968 when
the drive for civil rights came to the fore in the North of Ireland. Over the next 30
years, over 3500 people were killed in the Troubles. Since the signing of the Good
Friday Peace Agreement in 1998, an uneasy peace has prevailed.
11. In an effort to dismantle the Irish Republican Army, the British government insti-
tuted internment without trial in August, 1971. Although aimed at suspected
members of the IRA, hundreds of local men, many of them teenagers, were
arrested and held in prison camps.
12. In 1994, both the IRA and the loyalists announced a ceasefire. The IRA cease-fire
ended in 1996 with a bombing in England. The ceasefire was reinstated in 1997.
The British government has suggested that a group of loyalist paramilitaries broke
their ceasefire in 2001.
13. RUC refers to the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the British governments predomi-
nantly Protestant police force in the North of Ireland. Under the guidelines of the
Good Friday Agreement, the new Police Service of Northern Ireland came into
being in November, 2001. The objective for the new police force is to have equal
representation of Catholics and Protestants.
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AL I CE MCI NTYRE is an associate professor and Director of the Elementary Education
Program at Hellenic College. She has written about the use of participatory action
research (PAR) in relationship to racial location of white teachers and their teaching
practices Making Meaning of Whiteness: Exploring Racial Identity with White Teachers
(1997, SUNY Press) and as an approach to collaborating with urban youth in the
development of action/intervention community-school programs aimed at individual
and collective well-being Inner-City Kids: Adolescents Confront Life and Violence in
an Urban Community (2000, NYU Press). She is currently engaged in an ongoing
PAR project with women in Belfast, the North of Ireland, exploring the meaning of
identity, violence, and community in the contexts of struggle and possibility.
Address: Director of Elementary Education, Hellenic College, 50 Goddard Avenue,
Brookline, MA 02445, USA. [email: amcintyre@hchc.edu]

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