Recent expansion in feminist peace research has shed light on women’s particular experiences of armed conflict and its aftermath, which have historically tended to be written out of history. This book aims to make new contributions to the literature through sociological research that foregrounds motherhood during and after ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland.
Everyday Life Peacebuilding and Family: Motherhood During and After 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland is Mitchell Institute alumna Dr Yumi Omori’s first book, which she developed from her Doctoral research undertaken at Mitchell Institute from 2019 to 2024.
In this volume, Omori discusses how womens lives as mothers are implicated in violent conflict and social peace processes. Through qualitative research resting on individual and focus group interviews with 55 mothers who had lived through ‘the Troubles’, the book examines the gendered nature of coping with conflict and its aftermath in peace processes. Drawing on the idea of everyday life peacebuilding, it discusses how the family is located in the processes of social transformation in conflict-affected societies, and illuminates that mothers play central yet largely unnoticed roles in maintaining and restoring sociability in a conflict-affected society. The book illustrates that mothers have been hidden and underappreciated ‘everyday peacebuilders’, as well as hidden and trivialised victims of the conflict.
Purchase the book here.
Yumi Omori, Everyday Life Peacebuilding and Family: Motherhood During and After 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland, (Springer Nature, 2024)