“Three women today joined the five-week-old hunger strike by prisoners in Northern Ireland demanding that the British Government grant them political status” (Borders)
The three, inmates of the women’s jail in the town of Armagh, are convicted terrorists, like the seven men who have been refusing all food since Oct. 27 at the Maze Prison near Belfast
The women at Armagh, though participating in the same protests as their male counterparts in H-Block, received a vastly different reaction to their efforts than the men.
“In terms of the prison regime they were deemed doubly guilty – not only had they broken the laws of the state but they had also gone against their feminine gender roles as defined by society” (Sharoni, 113)
“In the story the media coverage of Long Kesh contrasts with the lack of information about Armagh prison. The protagonist’s mother only knows how bad the situation is in Armagh because she can relate her daughter’s protest to the male prisoner’s no-wash protest. But Armagh women are not only ignored by the media, men also turn a blind eye to their protest; the other female prisoner in the story complains that her father “won’t even mention it”. A woman surrounded by her bodily waste and her menstrual blood was at odds with the traditionally gentle, passive, and maternal image expected of her gender” (del Pozo, 18)
Reactions towards the H-Block protests were polarized: people either saw them as terrorists or as martyrs, willing to dye for their country. The reactions towards the Armagh protests resembled more of a spectrum. Catholic responses tended towards viewing the women as helpless creatures who needed to be protected. Republican responses tended at first to view the women as having strayed from their domestic role, but ultimately supported them and produced social change. Feminists were split among their responses, and either lent their support in the name of women’s rights, but others refused due to the nationalist affiliations. Each group, in response to the same events produced vastly different reactions and rationale supporting them. Though the women received support from many of these factions, in each case it can easily be seen how complicated the support or lack of support is, with the main complicating factor being the pervasive traditional role of women in Ireland.
Catholic Responses Republican Responses Feminist Responses
