Gender Ghosts in McGarry and O’Leary and Representations of the Conflict in Northern Ireland Marysia Zalewski University of Aberdeen This article focuses on how ideas about gender function in academic analyses of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Part of the reason for doing this is to explore the paradox afflicting contempo- rary feminism, namely that in the midst of apparent success feminism still seems largely irrele- vant to matters of political significance. A second reason involves a demonstration of the political value of poststructural feminism. To achieve these aims, I first consider the use and political aims of poststructuralist analyses, partly through an analysis of the use of poetry in social scientific analyses. The main site used to demonstrate the functions of gender and the political possibilities of poststructural feminism is John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary’s book Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images. The sub-title of this book refers to a Robert Graves’ poem, ‘In Broken Images’, a poem the authors use to explain their desire to ‘break images’ when explaining the conflict in Northern Ireland. I next reflect on and illustrate how ideas about gender function by focusing primarily on Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images. The final section re-considers the paradox of contemporary feminism, suggesting that feminism’s own methodologies contribute towards its persistent marginalisation. To study gender relations today is to work in the shadow of paradox. (Weston, 2002, p. 1) Texts come before us as the always-already-read; we apprehend them through sedimented layers of previous interpretations. (Jameson, 2001, p. 101) This article focuses on how ideas about gender function in academic analyses of the conflict in Northern Ireland. 1 The reason for doing this is two-fold. First, con- temporary feminism is alleged to be in a state of confusion and paradox. While partially seen as successful, especially in its role as part of the liberal governance of western societies, feminism simultaneously appears to be still largely irrelevant to matters of central political significance, such as the historical conflict in North- ern Ireland and its contemporary legacy. Feminist scholars have produced much insightful work on the conflict, yet feminist work and knowledge about gender are generally understood to have a minimal or tangential role in understandings of, or explications about, the conflict. This is evidenced in much of the public and media discussions about the conflict, and in the range of academic texts that find their way onto teaching syllabi about the conflict. I want to engage this paradox of feminist success/irrelevance in this article. POLITICAL STUDIES: 2005 VOL 53, 201–221 © Political Studies Association, 2005. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA