Youse are so brave

‘Youse are so brave’ is a feminist retelling of women’s military history as ‘front-line’ combatants in Northern Ireland, decades before the British Army’s lifting of the ban on women in ground close combat. It showcases the ‘front-line’ stories of women veterans of the Troubles in their own words. By making visible servicewomen’s stories, the film disrupts the popular history of linear progression, fosters a reimagining of the nature of the warfare being enacted on the ground and highlights how servicewomen’s bodies have been used as a tool of control by the military. Exposing these marginalised voices gives the contemporary servicewoman a longer heritage on which to establish her place in the Armed Forces amidst the toxic cultures and behaviours that persist; it provides the military institution with a means of rediscovering lost learning across past campaigns and challenges who is deemed a valid narrator of ‘front-line’ stories.