Sport, Gender and Masculinity in an evolving Northern Ireland

As part of a specific focus upon masculinity during this chapter, there exists a wider analysis concerning the relationship between sport, gender and identity in Northern Ireland that requires detailed, indeed initial, consideration for the reader. This is because during a period of intense inter-ethnic violence, as was the case in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1994 and sporadically out with these years, men and women performed, for the most part, quite different socio-political roles, amid a wider struggle over that country’s contested sovereignty waged between Britain and those who would prefer to see a united, sovereign and independent Ireland. Nowadays, in a post-conflict setting, the fall-out from these behavioural patterns has proved significant, meaning that an examination of men and the activities of males require contextualising against the practices of women, female roles and responsibilities.