Bin Lid Brigades and Mummy's Little Helpers: An Oral History Investigation of Communal Networks amongst the Women of West Belfast between 1970 - 1985

西贝尔法斯特是北爱尔兰研究最多的地区之一。在文学作品中，西贝尔法斯特被认为是一个“成文的神话”，在1970-1985年的暴力高峰时期，它是北爱尔兰最破败、最贫困的城市社区之一。然而，对于这一时期居住在该地区的社区的日常现实，以及冲突之外的事件如何影响其居民，几乎没有系统的研究。通过分散冲突，我的研究将分析诸如获得医疗保健、贫困、儿童保育和家庭虐待等因素如何影响妇女的日常生活，以及为什么社区意识在这一暴力加剧的时期至关重要。只有通过一项雄心勃勃的跨学科研究，用面向社区的口述历史方法分析社会空间历史、性别历史和城市地理的融合，西贝尔法斯特的新图景才能出现。关键的是，我的项目旨在摆脱将共和党天主教社区和他们的保皇派新教同行分开的二元分类研究。事实上，西贝尔法斯特已被归入一个规范的“共和”身份。我打算通过比较这些社区的日常经历，以及对民族主义的忠诚是否会影响女性进入社区网络，来挑战这一观点。历史是这个项目的理想方法，因为它直接以女性的声音为中心。这种捕捉参与者语言的能力将使我深入了解他们的个人经历，以及西贝尔法斯特独特的文化空间如何影响他们的语言和记忆。我打算对来自天主教和新教社区的参与者进行20-25次访谈。考虑到我的项目的时间安排，这是一个合适的面试次数，允许有足够的时间进行仔细的招聘、转录和跟进。口述历史在北爱尔兰被广泛使用。2014年的斯托蒙特之家协议建立了一个国家口述历史档案馆，“为分享与麻烦有关的叙述提供了一个中心场所”。2015年的《新起点协定》和2020年的《新十年新办法》文件批准了这一点。然而，我的项目打算保持独立于官方遗产项目，更喜欢与基层社区网络合作，如Duchas口述历史档案和通过记忆治愈。这一决定是由于西贝尔法斯特的某些社区长期以来对官方叙述的不信任，他们担心官方叙述“受到政治影响”或“重写历史”。目前在西贝尔法斯特的口述历史项目只关注天主教共和党的声音。这就造成了一个关于新教保皇派在西贝尔法斯特经历的知识鸿沟。我致力于跨社区的地方参与，旨在弥补这一空白。我将通过我与福尔斯妇女中心、福尔斯社区中心、尚基尔妇女中心、通过记忆治愈和过去的片段项目的工作来招募参与者参加我的采访。我打算在一系列访问中与这些小组举行多次项目信息活动，讨论我的研究需要什么，并在其完成后举行一系列项目发现活动。社区活动将是至关重要的，以确保参与者在我的项目中感到中心，并创造一个空间，参与者可以提出问题，贡献和建议。我的研究将成为最近由福尔斯和尚基尔妇女中心领导的良好关系资源运动的一部分。这次演讲将努力加强运动的跨社区议程，重点是减轻新教和天主教社区女性的困难。

Research Proposal West Belfast is one of the most researched areas of Northern Ireland. Within the literature West Belfast has assumed a "codified mythology" as one of Northern Ireland's most blighted and deprived urban communities during the peak years of violence, 1970-1985. However, there has been little systematic research into the quotidian realities of the communities who lived in this area during this period, and how events outside of the conflict affected its inhabitants. By decentring the conflict, my study will analyse how factors such as access to healthcare, poverty, childcare and domestic abuse shaped women's daily lives and why a sense of community was critical in this period of heightened violence. It is only through an ambitious interdisciplinary study, that analyses this convergence of socio-spatial history, gender history and urban geography with a community-facing oral history methodology, that a new picture of West Belfast can emerge. Critically, my project aims to move away from the compartmentalised research of the binaries that have separated the Republican Catholic communities and their Loyalist Protestant counterparts. Indeed, West Belfast has been subsumed under a normative "Republican" identity. I intend to challenge this by comparing everyday experiences across these communities, and whether ethno-nationalist loyalties affected women's access to communal networks. MethodologyOral history is the ideal methodology for this project as it directly centres women's voices. This ability to capture the language of my participants will give an insight into both their individual experiences and how the unique cultural space of West Belfast affected their language and memory. I intend to conduct between 20-25 interviews with participants drawn equally from the Catholic and Protestant communities. This is a suitable number of interviews given my project's timescale, allowing adequate time for careful recruitment, transcription and follow-ups.Oral history has been widely used in Northern Ireland. The 2014 Stormont House Agreement established a national Oral History Archive to "provide a central place to share narratives related to the Troubles". This was ratified by the later Fresh Start Agreement, 2015, and the 2020, New Decade, New Approach document. However, my project intends to remain independent of official legacy projects preferring to work with grass-roots community networks such as the Duchas Oral History Archive and Healing Through Remembering. This decision was made due to long-standing distrust from certain communities in West Belfast towards official narratives, which are feared as being "politically swayed" or "re-writing history". Current oral history projects in West Belfast only concern Catholic Republican voices. This has created a knowledge gap regarding Protestant Loyalist experiences in West Belfast. My commitment to cross-community local engagement seeks to rectify this lacuna.Impact I will recruit participants for my interviews through my work with the Falls Women's Centre, Falls Community Centre, Shankill Women's Centre, Healing Through Remembering, and Pieces of the Past project. I intend to hold multiple Project Information Events with these groups over a series of visits to discuss what my research entails and following its completion a series of Project Findings Events. Community events will be crucial to ensure participants feel centred in my project, and to create a space in which participants can voice questions, contributions and advice. My research will form part of a presentation to the recent Good Relations Resource Campaign headed by the Falls and Shankill's Women's Centres. This presentation will seek to reinforce the campaign's cross-community agenda which focuses on alleviating female hardship across both Protestant and Catholic communities.