Soft and Seamless? Gender, Race and Everyday Life on the UK-Irish Border

Though the border on the island of Ireland has always been a site of contestation, it is popularly constructed as an ‘invisible’ or ‘soft’ border, a discourse readily observable in the wake of Brexit. The signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 and subsequent ‘demilitarisation’ of state border infrastructure from 2004 onwards gave way to a set of prevailing narratives that suggest the ending of traditional forms of border control and surveillance synonymous with the Troubles erased the border as a significant factor in the lives of those who cross it, are policed by it or live in its shadow. This paper uses an intersectional framework to contest the dominant view of the UK-Irish border as ‘invisible’, ‘soft’ or seamless. Drawing on interviews with over 25 women living in border communities on the island of Ireland, we explore women’s embodied experiences of the UK/Irish border and the ways in which it has served to restrict mobility and police women’s daily life. Using an arts-based ‘walking methods’ approach, our research examines women’s relationship with and navigation of the border during the Troubles and since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement. By centring the experiences of women, including racialised/and migrant women, we gain a perspective of the border and border life that has yet to be meaningfully considered in UK/Irish border studies, and one that disrupts what we consider to be an androcentric and ethnocentric view of the border.