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Women, the Nationalist Struggle and the Irish Free State

Women, the Nationalist Struggle and the Irish Free State. International Perspectives on Gender Week 17. Structure of lecture. Introduction and Historical Overview The Devotional Revolution The Great Famine Political and Cultural Nationalism Easter Rising and War of Independence

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Women, the Nationalist Struggle and the Irish Free State

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  1. Women, the Nationalist Struggle and the Irish Free State International Perspectives on Gender Week 17

  2. Structure of lecture • Introduction and Historical Overview • The Devotional Revolution • The Great Famine • Political and Cultural Nationalism • Easter Rising and War of Independence • Women and Irish Nationalism • Post-Independence Conservatism • Regulating Irish Womanhood • Conclusions

  3. Historical Overview • 1900:Ireland still a British colony (since 12thcentury)

  4. Historical Overview • 1916: Republican separatists staged ‘Easter Uprising’ – failed but seeds of independence sown • 1921: War of independence between Britain and Ireland • 1921: Truce declared and limited independence achieved for 26 of the 32 counties of Ireland • Partition: six-county state of Northern Ireland remained under Britain; twenty-six counties became independent as the Irish Free State • Irish Free State heavily influenced by Catholicism. Not a Catholic state (dis-established in 1869) but church had great influence

  5. The Devotional Revolution • Protestantism never took hold in Ireland, faith was haphazard mix of Christian and pagan beliefs • Informal way religion was practiced invoked by Britain as marker of Irish ‘backwardness’ • Devotional Revolution: Catholicism became means of re-defining Irish identity: as civilized, different to British, superior to British. Also coming together after Great Famine • More rigid form of Catholicism – many new churches, increase in church going, more entering the church • Association of Ireland and Catholicism is a 19th century invention • By 20th century to be Irish was to be Catholic, and to be Catholic was to resist British imperialism

  6. In areas shaded maroon, 100% of population depended on (inadequate) food rations during Great Famine These areas saw greatest deaths, and out-migration

  7. Celebrates cheap English bread and supposed recovery of the Irish potato crop The loaf is saying, ‘Well! old Fellow I'm delighted to see you looking so well– Why they said you had the Aphis Vastator’ The potato responds, ‘all humbug Sir never was better in my life thank Heaven’ Punch cartoon, 1847 ‘Famine Denial’

  8. Population in 1841: 8.2 million Population in 1851: 6.6 million Population in 1901: 4.5 million Year population recovered to 1841level: 1964

  9. Political and Cultural Nationalism • Nationalist struggle represented legally by Irish Parliamentary Party in House of Commons, seeking home rule • Militant nationalists wanted complete independence from Britain - represented by the Fenians and the Irish Republican Brotherhood • Cultural nationalism – revival of Irish language, the arts, literature Punch Cartoon 1881 (John Tenniel) Clash of ‘good’ (Britannia) and ‘evil’ (Irish stone-throwing anarchist)

  10. Gender, Catholicism & Nationalism • More women than men embraced Catholicism. Numbers joining religious orders up by 800% • Virgin Mary as model for Irish women: idealised notion of a de-sexualised Irish womanhood

  11. Gender, Catholicism & Nationalism • Women’s support for constitutional nationalism limited as didn’t have the vote • Women excluded from Fenians & Irish Republican Brotherhood • Women organised themselves - Irish Women’s Centenary Union formed 1897 to celebrate 1708 rising • InghinidhenahEireann(Daughters of Ireland) formed 1900 • Staunch in cultural nationalism, symbolically and materially • Women also involved in counter-movement, Unionism • And in other labour and suffrage movements • 18 suffrage societies by 1918, incl. Irish Women’s Franchise League • Tensions between feminism and nationalism

  12. Maud Gonne, 1856-1953, Irish Revolutionary and founder of Daughters of Ireland, 1900 Women of Ireland Monthly Magazine of Daughters Of Ireland

  13. The Easter Rising • 1914: home rule passed in the Commons, awaiting royal assent, postponed by 1st world war • 1916: Irish Republican Brotherhood organisedrebellion for Easter • Declaration of a Republic hailed both Irishmen and Irishwomen as citizens, guaranteed equal rights and opportunity

  14. Eamon De Valera: told women to go home - it ‘wasn’t their place’ • Leaders surrendered within a week and brutally dealt with (many hanged), increasing support for them

  15. ‘Here, after Easter week 1916, the following leaders were executed:…’

  16. The War of Independence • 1918 general election: Sinn Fein win landslide under De Valera and set up illegal government, the Dail • 1919-1921: War of Independence against Britain, guerrilla war • 1921: Anglo-Irish Treaty signed based on Partition. Accepted by DeValera’sgovt but opposed by him Eamon De Valera The Dail

  17. Partition Majority Protestant counties in the north-east remain part of UK Majority Catholic counties allowed to break away, but as a Crown Dominion, not the Republic declared in 1916

  18. Civil War • A bloody, guerrilla war, June 1922- May 1923 • Fought between pro- and anti-Treaty nationalists • Anti-Treaty Republicans wanted full independence as oneIrish Republic, undivided • Pro-Treaty Nationalists, inc. Michael Collins, were pragmatists • Collins shot dead in 1922 ambush • De Valera (anti-Treaty, IRA) resumed constitutional politics in 1926, forming FiannaFáil

  19. Women and Irish Nationalism • Women were members of CumannamBan (women’s unit of Irish Volunteers) and Irish Citizen Army • Countess Markievicz was a commanding officer, sentenced to death after Rising, commuted because a woman. In 1918 General Election she became first woman MP elected to House of Commons – never sat • As well as fighting directly women were: supporters of the military campaign; working for release of political prisoners, better conditions; involved in gun-running; creating safe-houses (on both sides) • War of Independence and Civil War were fought in towns and cities, not distant trenches

  20. Mrs Erskine Childers and Mary Spring Rice bringing German Arms to Howth, near Dublin, 1916

  21. Post-Independence Conservatism • Irish women excluded from nation building • Tradition prevailed because: • many radical thinkers had died • physical, economic, psychological impact of two wars created conservatism within Irish politics • new government sought to prove themselves by restoring a conservative Catholic order • Catholicism legitimated the new state • Open association of Catholicism and the State De Valera’s first Cabinet

  22. Catholicism and the Law • Catholic moral code enshrined in law, eg • 1929 Censorship of Publication Act banned pornography • 1935 Criminal Law Amendment Act made it an offence to sell or import contraception • Similar religious fervour in North around Protestantism • 1925: two mutually antagonistic states, both religiously orthodox and patriarchal

  23. Regulating Irish Womanhood • Catholic Irishness meant women as homemakers • Family established as basic unit of nation • 1937 Constitution set out DeValera’s ideology on womanhood • Article 41.1 (i) The State recognises the family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society, and as a moral institution possessing inalienable and imprescriptible rights, antecedent and superior to all positive law. (ii) The State, therefore, guarantees to protect the Family in its constitution and authority, as the necessary basis of social order and as indispensable to the welfare of the Nation and the State. • Article 41.2 goes on: (i) The State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved. (ii) The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.

  24. Women Exit the Public Sphere • 1925 Act restricted women’s access to upper civil service • 1927 Juries Bill exempted women from jury service • Marriage bar in many occupations • 1935 Conditions of Employment Act restricted number or proportion of women in certain industries, or banning them • New Catholic order was displayed on women’s bodies and lives • DeValera’s ideal version of Irish womanhood: passive, meek, pure, good, sacrificial, demure and deferential • 1930-1960: women’s participation in paid-labour force decreased • Agriculture and domestic service in decline and few new jobs for women in manufacturing • Women in paid work earned only 57% of men’s average wages • Irish economy stagnated and high unemployment in 1950s especially reinforced idea that jobs were only for men

  25. Marriage or Destitution • Little practical help offered to women as mothers and homemakers by state: in 1956 over 50% of households had no electricity in 1961 more than 75% had no piped water • women not entitled to welfare payments and vulnerable if marriage broke down • Non-contributory widows’ pensions introduced in 1936, but deserted wives only qualified in 1976 • Statutory family allowance introduced in 1944 but didn’t cover all children until 1963 • ‘Fallen’ women were incarcerated – Magdalene laundries/asylums

  26. To school bare-foot in the 1950s Cooking over an open fire Cutting Turf for fuel

  27. Why Many Women Cooperated • Such conservative constructions of Irish womanhood did meet opposition • Women organised politically and were members of both houses of the Oireachtas (Parliament) • Many women voted with their feet, emigrating • But no outward rejection of the new state and the roles it prescribed for women. Why? economic survival was the main priority Catholic legislation represented views of majority • Women supported Church because it gave them importance • Provided a space in which women’s lives of service and love had meaning • 1959: DeValera stood down as leader of Fianna Fail to become President of Ireland • Sean Lemass took his place, a moderniser

  28. Conclusions • Irish women were active in struggle for independence from British rule but denied role in post-independence nation-building • Easter Rising did recognise women as full citizens, but failed and state that eventually emerged did not • Catholic Conservatism and tradition defined the Irish Free State • Irish Catholicism was entwined with Irish nationalism from 19th century onwards • Irish womanhood was scripted by church and state: to be wives and mothers only • Women’s labour force participation rate declined • Women outside marriage faced destitution and stigma

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