Since the early 70s, the IRA admitted women to join their organisation. Marian (17) and Dolours (21) Price were the first of fifty to take the oath of the IRA, thus binding themselves to an underground life. Their choices in life were similar to that of all members of the IRA: prison or death.
Most of the former female IRA fighters, who still live in Ireland or Northern Ireland, have resumed a private life and do not wish to talk about their past. Others hold offices in the Sinn Fein party and therefore only give general and coloured declarations which suit the policy of the Sinn Fein party. Occasionally, they even suppress the reasons for their imprisonment. As a result of the peace agreement in 1998, all of them were released from prison ahead of schedule. The journalist Marianne Quoirin illustrates the role of the women in the IRA through the Price Sisters. Furthermore, she reports on female leaders such as Countess Markiewicz and Maura Drumm, and other exceptional women of the IRA such as Mairead Farrell. Marianne Quoirin depicts a remarkable chapter of female emancipation and the contemporary history of Europe: What persuaded these women to put their lives on the line? Why did they leave their families and friends to kill soldiers and policemen?
For the first time, former women of the IRA speak frankly about their motives. They reveal their reasons for being willing to murder someone because of political convictions – and their permanent fear of death.

Marianne Quoirin

, born in 1944 in East Prussia, studied Law in Cologne, Germany. Working as an editorial journalist in the U.S. from 1966 onwards, she reported on the conflict in Northern Ireland. From 1982 until 2009, she worked as senior reporter for the Kölner Stadtanzeiger where she was concerned with law and home policy. Marianne Quoirin was awarded the Theodor-Wolff-Preis, the Presse preis der Deutschen Aidsstiftung, the Pressepreis des Deutschen Anwaltsvereins and many more.