On the ‘wrong side of history’: Northern Ireland and the role of gender in de/constructing the Irish border

Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom faces intensified scrutiny since Brexit. Two competing national projects - British unionism and Irish nationalism - dominate mainstream politics in Northern Ireland, traditionally constructing national identity through, respectively, Protestantism and Catholicism (Mitchell 2005). However, as the region becomes increasingly secularised and globalised, ‘other’ political questions focusing on the claims for social justice of women, people of colour and queer communities have moved from the periphery into mainstream politics. In this new era, ways of constructing Irishness and Britishness have changed. This research investigates the ways in which British unionism and Irish nationalism are repackaged in a political moment shaped by contestations of the once taken-for-granted liberal order, in which gender plays a key role. In this context, mobilisation for or against ‘woke’ liberal ideals such as women’s bodily autonomy, marriage equality and trans rights becomes a means by which to dispute or embrace not only the elite-level consensus on liberalism, but also the constitutional future of Northern Ireland.