Tiocfaidh Ar la: Masculinity, memory and authority in contemporary Republican Belfast

The Good Friday Agreements in Northern Ireland marked the end of a thirty year period of violence known as the Troubles. The shift from "the bullet" to "the ballot box" was a complicated rhetorical move, particularly for the Republican faction, who had a communal identity predicated upon a public memory of 800 years of opposition to British rule. This public memory, articulated in both verbal and material narratives, was used to justify the war. Both the Leader(ship) and the People articulate these narratives, while being simultaneously articulated by them.;In the Northern Irish case, the Leader for a majority of the Republican People has been the Sinn Fein Leader(ship). Their authority is predicated upon an authenticity derived from memories of their embodied masculine performances. Sinn Fein's authority is currently being questioned by "dissidents." Their dissonance points to contradictions in the gender performance of the Sinn Fein Leader(ship). In so doing, these "dissidents" contest the foundation of Sinn Fein's power, particularly in the communities that most earnestly demand the continuity of the nuanced communal gender roles that Sinn Fein supported during the Troubles.