Mapping the Continuum of Violence in Northern Ireland: From Political Legacies to Gender-based Violence

Moving a transitional society from conflict to one grounded in restorative justice has been central to Northern Ireland’s post-Good Friday Agreement agenda. Yet, 25 years on—and amid renewed efforts to consolidate a post-Brexit identity—the Executive continues to grapple with the enduring legacies of violence embedded in communities. Paramilitarism and its aftermath have entrenched frameworks of intimidation and control in both intimate and communal spaces, contributing to a discourse of gender-based violence (GBV) that is deeply shaped by the region’s history of political conflict. This paper argues that GBV in Northern Ireland cannot be addressed in isolation from its political roots. While recent policy frameworks such as Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) promise structural responses to gendered harm, they remain curiously detached from the legacy of political violence that has shaped the very contexts they seek to transform. By treating GBV as a discrete social issue, these frameworks risk overlooking the continuum of violence—where coercive control, paramilitary-style intimidation, and gendered insecurity persist in new forms. Drawing on policy analysis and community-based research, this paper maps the intersections of gender-based and political violence in Northern Ireland. It traces how conflict-related harms reconstitute themselves in gendered ways, and how masculinist cultures of control continue to shape post-conflict life. In doing so, it critiques the compartmentalization of violence in current policy and argues that transformative justice—understood as a structural, community-driven approach to redress—remains aspirational until it fully integrates the gendered consequences of political violence. While grounded in the Northern Irish context, this analysis offers broader insights for transitional societies seeking to build durable peace. Only by addressing the mutually reinforcing structures of political and gendered violence can post-conflict initiatives move beyond symbolic reconciliation toward genuine, positive peace.