Gendering the Holy Cross School Dispute: Women and Nationalism in Northern Ireland Fidelma Ashe University of Ulster This article explores the Holy Cross school dispute in Northern Ireland from a feminist perspective. This ethnic quarrel produced a situation whereby women and young schoolgirls became the focal point of a sectarian protest from September 2001 to early 2002.Throughout the conflict, issues of gender were sidelined from the analysis of the dispute.The article attempts to remedy this omission by moving the category of gender to the forefront of the analysis. It examines the relationship between nationalist dis- courses of gender identity and representations of the nationalist women’s agency during the dispute. While exposing these dimensions of the conflict, the article also considers the impact of women’s ethno-nationalist agency on their role and positioning within nationalist cultures. It concludes that the Holy Cross conflict exposes the potentially disruptive aspects of women’s ethno-nationalist agency and highlights the political significance of that agency for nationalist cultures pursuing ideals of gender equality. The Holy Cross school conflict caught and held media attention because it sub- merged young schoolgirls in a theatre of sectarian hatred. Commentators noted that this particularly ‘ugly’ ethnic quarrel was indicative of a hardening of sec- tarian identities against the background of a faltering peace process (Breen, 2002). However,this focus on the antagonistic ethnic identities of those involved in the dispute and the moral indignation surrounding the involvement of children side- lined the gendered aspects of the event from analysis. The following article genders the analysis of this sectarian disagreement, focus- ing primarily on the role of the Irish nationalist women in the dispute. 1 Adopt- ing a radical constructionist framework (see Ashe, 1999), it examines how nationalist discourses of normative femininity acted as symbolic material in the antagonistic attempts of both ethnic groups to define the event.Against this back- ground, the article explores nationalist women’s ethno-nationalist agency during the conflict and considers its impact on women’s power,position and identities within nationalist cultures. It concludes by highlighting the importance of femi- nist explorations of women’s ethno-nationalist agency and its relationship to issues of gender equality.The discussion begins with an outline of the emergence of the dispute, explaining why women became involved, before moving on to the central analysis. POLITICAL STUDIES: 2006 VOL 54, 147–164 © 2006 The Author Journal compilation © 2006 Political Studies Association