The Good Friday Agreements in Northern Ireland marked the end of a thirty year period of violence known as the Troubles. The shift from the bullet to the ballot box was a complicated rhetorical move, particularly for the Republican faction, who had a communal identity predicated upon a public memory of 800 years of opposition to British rule. This public memory, articulated in both verbal and material narratives, was used to justify the war. Both the Leader(ship) and the People articulate these narratives, while being simultaneously articulated by them. In the Northern Irish case, the Leader for a majority of the Republican People has been the Sinn Féin Leader(ship). Their authority is predicated upon an authenticity derived from memories of their embodied masculine performances. Sinn Féin's authority is currently being questioned by dissidents. Their dissonance points to contradictions in the gender performance of the Sinn Féin Leader(ship). In so doing, these dissidents contest the foundation of Sinn Féin's power, particularly in the communities that most earnestly demand the continuity of the nuanced communal gender roles that Sinn Féin supported during the Troubles
