Gender And Power In Irish History

This collection of articles poses the question: What can gender history add to the traditional narrative of Irish history? How can it help us to understand the ways in which power operated in and flowed through Irish society? It is premised on the assumption that men and women are actors in the creation of their society, influenced by the ideology of the period, but also challenging and resisting the assumptions and beliefs of their era. The articles included in this collection are far-ranging and thematically diverse, united by the common theme of gender. While women play a dominant role in its pages, it makes visible the power and presence of men. Sometimes implicit, sometimes explicit, the history written on these pages is a history of the ways in which women and men constructed, negotiated and made visible the roles, ideas and representations that governed their particular society. In so doing, it provides an alternative reading to the traditional narrative of Irish history. This book focuses mainly on the modern period and includes two articles from outside of Ireland which provides a comparative focus. It also includes a theoretical introductory section on the nature of gender history from three leading Irish historians.

This volume examines Irish women's many and varied political and public roles from the 18th century through to the 20th century. Throughout such an analysis, many of the articles raise questions about the traditional historical assumption that women were passive agents in the political narrative. From philanthropic work in the 1770s to campaigning against de Valera's constitution in 1937, Irish women have a long history of public action. This book challenges historians to open up definitions of state, nation, citizenship and power which have been central to the debate on Irish history.

Drawing on a variety of disciplinary and theoretical approaches, this impressive collection of essays makes an innovative contribution to current, and often contentious, debate within Irish studies.

At the turn of the twentieth century women played a key role in debates about the nature of the Irish nation. Examining women's participation in nationalist and rural reform groups, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of Irish identity in the prelude to revolution and how it was shaped by women.

This edited collection presents a selection of essays on the history of Irish masculinities. Beginning with representations of masculinity in eighteenth-century drama, economics, and satire, and concluding with work on the politics of masculinity post Good-Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, the collection advances the importance of masculinities in our understanding of Irish history and historiography. Using a variety of approaches, including literary and legal theory as well as cultural, political and local histories, this collection illuminates the differing forms, roles, and representations of Irish masculinities. Themes include the politicisation of Irishmen in both the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland; muscular manliness in the Irish Diaspora; Orangewomen and political agency; the disruptive possibility of the rural bachelor; and aspirational constructions of boyhood. Several essays explore how masculinity is constructed and performed by women, thus emphasizing the necessity of differentiating masculinity from maleness. These essays demonstrate the value of gender and masculinities for historical research and the transformative potential of these concepts in how we envision Ireland’s past, present, and future.

Presented in a comprehensive and accessible manner, this work examines how these women radically altered the public perception of women's role on society. Their achievements included persuading Trinity College, Dublin to admit women to the exam system, the establishment of the Ladies' Land League, the foundation of the outdoor system of child rearing as well as the setting up of a network of city poor schools. They were also responsible for initiating changes in the legislation under which Irish women were subject to the authority of their husbands for exposing problems like wife abuse, and for abolishing the degrading practices associated with female emigrant trade towards the end of the nineteenth century.

The first general survey of the history of women in early modern Ireland. Based on an impressive range of source material, it presents the results of original research into women’s lives and experiences in Ireland from 1500 to 1800. This was a time of considerable change in Ireland as English colonisation, religious reform and urbanisation transformed society on the island. Gaelic society based on dynastic lordships and Brehon Law gave way to an anglicised and centralised form of government and an English legal system.

This book is a collection of new research relating to Irish women's history. It is presented in sections on the themes of work, religion, political participation and gendered representations. These themes cover a wide diversity of female experience and are written in a clear, concise style to make them accessible to both the academic and popular reader. The book represents the largest time scale in Irish women's history to date, ranging from the 6th to 20th centuries. Contributors are from Ireland, the UK, the US, Australia and Russia and represent both academic and independent research. Contributors include well-known academics from the fields of women's history/ women's studies as well as scholars who are at the beginning of their careers.