Comparing Stories of Motherhood in a Deeply Divided Society: Intergenerational and Intergroup Contrast

The purpose of this chapter is to compare and contrast the four groups of narratives about motherhood experiences: wartime motherhood, ‘post-conflict’ motherhood, motherhood narrated by women from Republican and Loyalist areas. This chapter comprises two parts. First, it focuses on comparing motherhood during and after ‘the Troubles’. By contrasting the stories of motherhood during and after ‘the Troubles’ and situating them in the sociological debates on late modernity and risk, I explain why many mothers considered it was easier for them to manage risks in times of ‘the Troubles’ than in the peace process. Second, it will consider key intergroup differences in the narratives of mothers from Republican and Loyalist areas, although overall they shared similar experiences of the past and visions for their children’s and grandchildren’s future. The chapter highlights that those intergroup differences are explained not so much by the inherent qualities of mothers in the two groups, but rather by some disparities in the social conditions they were situated, and the divergent socio-historical paths taken by the two political communities in the course of the conflict and the peace process. Third, the chapter will elaborate on the sociological concept of mundane reasoning (Pollner, Mundane reason: Reality in everyday and sociological discourse, Cambridge University Press, 1987). I argue that ordinary people’s mundane reasoning processes reproduce both legacies of conflict and future-oriented visions that sustain social peace processes.