Troubles Women: A Creative Exploration of Experience of Being a Woman in the Provisional IRA

Abstract

What was it like being a woman in the Irish Republican Army? Drawing on her practice-led creative writing doctoral research Tracey Iceton attempts to answer this question. Including extracts from Iceton’s PhD novel, Herself Alone in Orange Rain, this paper illustrates how her creative practice explores and represents the lived experiences of IRA women. A survey of Troubles fiction reveals how the genre stereotypes portrayals of IRA women and their experiences, misrepresenting the reality. Alongside this literary review, Iceton presents factual accounts of female IRA volunteers and outlines, in author commentaries, how her creative writing practice draws on these accounts to ensure her novel offers a more accurate fictional portrayal of female IRA volunteers and their experiences of active service.