Description
Throughout the Troubles (1968-1998) in Northern Ireland, women served in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), and later, following the Good Friday Agreement, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), being out on the ‘front line’ day and night. This presence of policewomen defied traditional societal expectations and threatened male dominance of the ‘front line’, such that their participation has been written out of the mainstream conflict histories, compounded by enduring political sensitivities mean that former policemen and women continue to maintain low profile. This study examines the oral archive of the Royal Ulster Constabulary George Cross Foundation mapping the oral testimonies of over 30 former policewomen to compare women’s ‘front line’ experiences across the different geographical areas they operated in to produce a visual representation of regional variation. The findings challenge generalisations that assume homogeneity of servicewomen’s experiences, by exploring how their role and integration differed between rural and urban settings and uses this as a platform for considering how gendered power dynamics manifested differently across regional settings. Foregrounding the voices of policewomen demystifies the regional dimension to the conflict, destabilises state control over whose voices are valid narrators of war stories and challenges assumptions surrounding what it means to be a combatant. This timely intervention, provides a much-needed contribution of previously unheard voices to both the history of the Troubles and to Northern Irish history, given new attention following the centenary of the Irish War of Independence and the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
