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Abstract

This article presents candid lessons learned by an ‘outsider’ conducting qualitative research in Northern Ireland over a 15-month period. Former combatant women (N = 14) with the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) were interviewed using a critical ethnography framework. The findings include a description of difficulties in conducting such research in the areas of accessing hard-to-reach samples, building trust and credibility over time, having a main gatekeeper, maintaining an apolitical position, modeling non-judgmental attitudes, and at all costs safeguarding confidentiality. These lessons resonated with the core tenets of social work practice which enabled and facilitated the conduct of this study.

Keywords

Conflict ethnography female combatants fieldwork qualitative methods social work practice war

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Social work practitioners in post-conflict Northern Ireland: Lessons from a critical ethnography

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