Motherhood in the Peace Process: Maternal Perceptions of Risks in the Shifting Political Landscape

This chapter begins the discussion of ‘post-conflict’ mothering and motherhood by exploring mothers’ perceptions and assessment of daily risks in a fragile peace and their practices to manage such risks. Through analysing the stories of ‘post-conflict’ motherhood and mothering, this chapter will consider the unacknowledged roles that ordinary mothers may play in reconstructing society in a ‘post-conflict’ society. This chapter comprises two parts. The first part considers how the formal ending of the conflict transformed the ‘normality’ in everyday life for families. This chapter argues that risk, uncertainty and disorder shape everyday lives for mothers despite the peacebuilding effort since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The latter half of this chapter will examine the agency of ‘post-conflict’ mothers, focusing on routinised mothering practices discussed by the respondents. It will discuss how mothers attempt to manage the perceived ‘post-conflict’ risks. I will elaborate on the actions that mothers engage in on a daily basis to mitigate risks, particularly those posed to their children and grandchildren with little or no experiences of a full-scale conflict. The chapter will illustrate how the paradoxically increased unruliness of everyday life complicates mothering roles in an ostensibly ‘peaceful’ society.