An IRA volunteer on her active service in West Belfast in the 1970s
This provocative photo of what looks to be a female volunteer of the Irish Republican Army taken was taken in 1972, just a few years after the beginning of “The Troubles,” a civl war that tore Northern Ireland apart and turned what had once been a peaceful place into a war zone.
What’s strange about this photo is that the Provisional IRA was male-only, and women only participated in the auxiliary unit of the military that provided weapons transportation, communications, and other various forms of support.
Irish photographer Colman Doyle says that he doesn’t remember much about the photo (he’s in his 80s as of 2020), but he noted that he snapped the shot while coming back from the North Belfast neighborhood of Ardoyne, a republican stronghold. He says that as he walked back to the city he “came across this young lady [who] fired two shots, I think… then she just vanished.”
