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Stories of Women During The Troubles
by: Kara, Thy, Irene (TKI Coalition)
Uprising: Mairead Farrell
(1957 - 1988)
“Everyone tells me I’m a feminist. All I know is that I’m just as good as others…and that especially means men. I am definitely a socialist and I’m definitely a Republican.”
- Mairead Farrell
Armagh Gaol
During the troubles, Armagh Gaol was the only female prison in Northern Ireland, so the population of political prisoners grew exponentially. The prison was known for overcrowding and inhumane conditions as many women can recount traumas of abuse, violence, and dehumanizing treatments from the guards.
However, behind the prison walls, past the brutality, there also existed a comradery and a friendship between the women. The Republican women worked together to organize protests, displaying their strength, spirit, and resiliency.
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The drawing portrays an image of Farrell and her friends taken in the prison yard. From left to right: Eileen Morgan, Sinead Moore, Mairead Farrell, and Sile Darragh
Among these women was Mairéad Farrell: the first prisoner sent to Armagh after the abolishment of political status in 1976 - marking an attempt by the British government to shift the narrative of the troubles in Northern Ireland to further delegitimize and criminalize the IRA and others related to the Republican movement.
Farrell joined the Irish Republican Army at age 14, and on April 5th, 1976, she was captured by the police during a mission to bomb the Conway Hotel in Dunmurry.
During her trial, she refused to recognize the court because it was an institution of the British and was sentenced to fourteen years.
Being only 14 years old, what made Farrell join the IRA and take up arms?
My own family has a Republican background. But living on the Falls Road, I saw internment - I saw the British soldier - that in itself...you became aware...I have to do something. It just isn't right.
Falls Road is a majority Catholic / Nationalist area in Belfast with a history of tension and violence due to its proximity to Loyalist Shankill Road and the surveillance from the British army.
Farrell cited two incidents that most impacted her when living on Falls Road:
The Burning of Bombay Street (August 1969)
In an attack by the loyalist mob, explosive devices were thrown into homes on Bombay street, a predominantly Catholic area. Loyalists burned houses to the grounds, hundreds of Catholics had to flee, and people died - all while the police did nothing to intervene.
The Falls Road Curfew (July 1970)
In an effort to find weapons from the IRA, the British army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary began raiding houses in the Lower Falls. Stoning from locals was met with gunshots and CS gas. Many people were injured, and hundreds were arrested. The Falls Road Curfew marked the turning point in how the community viewed the involvement of the British army.
At Armagh, Farrell was the Officer Commanding of the female IRA members. She refused to wear the uniform and began a no-work protest. On February 7, 1980, after a violent attack by one of the guards, the "no-wash" or "dirty" protest began where the women would smear menstrual blood and feces on their cells.
She, along with Mary Doyle and Mairead Nugent, went on hunger strike to coincide with the men prisoners in 1980. They started on December 1 and lasted for nineteen days.
Farrell began taking more political approaches to the conflict, being the only female prisoner to stand as a candidate in the 1981 general election. After being released from prison, she enrolled at Queen's University to study political science and economics, strengthening her stance on socialism and social equality.
Farrell campaigned for issues she was passionate about, such as strip-searching for female prisoners and gender equality.
"I am oppressed as a woman, and I'm also oppressed as an Irish person. Everyone in this country is oppressed and yet we can only end our oppression as women if we end the oppression of our nation as a whole."
Mairead Farrell died on March 6, 1988, at age 31. After dropping out of university, she continued IRA activities. She was sent with other members to Gibraltar to plant a car bomb. However, the British army intercepted and shot Farrell, who was unarmed at the time, multiple times. In 1995, The European Court of Human Rights took the case and found that the Farrell, Sean Savage, and Daniel McCann had been unlawfully killed.
Mairead Farrell was a woman who never stopped fighting for what she believed in, whether behind a gun or a pen - behind the walls of a prison cell or a classroom. She encapsulated the strategy of armalite on one hand and ballot box on the other that many endorsed during the troubles.
References
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from https://www.acenturyofwomen.com/mairad-farrell/
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Admin, I. F. I. A. P. (2021, September 7). Mairéad Farrell: An unfinished conversation. IFI Archive
Player. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://ifiarchiveplayer.ie/mairead_farrell/
Benmadigan. (2018, December 9). "we broke Armagh, it never broke us" – irish republican women.
the mirror@wordpress.com. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/we-broke-armagh-it-never-broke-us-republican-
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bobbysandstrust. (2013, March 6). Comrades honoured. Bobby Sands Trust. Retrieved June 27,
2022, from https://www.bobbysandstrust.com/comrades-honoured/
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March, J. (2022, May 26). The Falls Road: It's history + what it's like in 2022. The Irish Road Trip.
Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.theirishroadtrip.com/falls-road-belfast/
Maume, P. (2009, October). Farrell, Mairead. Farrell, Mairead | Dictionary of Irish Biography.
Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.dib.ie/biography/farrell-mairead-a3011
McAdam, N. (2019, August 14). The burning of bombay street: 'the start of the combustible years'.
The Irish Times. Retrieved June 27, 2022, from https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/the-
burning-of-bombay-street-the-start-of-the-combustible-years-1.3986347
Walsh, A. (n.d.). The falls curfew: Reassessing the past. The History Press. Retrieved June 27, 2022,
from https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-falls-curfew-reassessing-the-past/