The first full-length study to explore the impact of the Great War on the lives of women in Ireland. Fionnuala Walsh examines women's mobilisation for the war effort, and the impact of the war on their employment opportunities, family and domestic life, social morality and politicisation.
This book assessed the impact of conflict on women in 20th century Ireland, and how women responded to and influenced these conflicts. Their roles ranged from combatants, pioneers and workers, victims and survivors, prisoners, poets, playwrights and artists. Drawing on original research from a range of international scholars, this book considers women and war through a myriad of themes- militarism, morality, political activism and motherhood- through the lens of a variety of sources. Whatever their socio-economic or political background, a common thread of engagement links Irish women in wartime as they challenged and changed societies subsumed by hostilities.
Studies of Irish nationalism have been primarily historical in scope and overwhelmingly male in content. Too often, the ‘shadow of the gunman’ has dominated. Little recognition has been given to the part women have played, yet over the centuries they have undertaken a variety of roles – as combatants, prisoners, writers and politicians. In this exciting new book the full range of women’s contribution to the Irish nationalist movement is explored by writers whose interests range from the historical and sociological to the literary and cultural. From the little known contribution of women to the earliest nationalist uprisings of the 1600s and 1700s, to their active participation in the republican campaigns of the twentieth century, different chapters consider the changing contexts of female militancy and the challenge this has posed to masculine images and structures. Using a wide range of sources, including textual analysis, archives and documents, newspapers and autobiographies, interviews and action research, individual writers examine sensitive and highly complex debates around women’s role in situations of conflict. At the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship, this is a major contribution to wider feminist debates about the gendering of nationalism, raising questions about the extent to which women’s rights, demands and concerns can ever be fully accommodated within nationalist movements.
Based on interviews with over thirty Irish women, this book covers their experiences during the Second World War years and how the war impacted on them in terms of their public and private roles. Themes such as class and income, employment, health, and housing are covered, arising from the women's recollections and international research into women and war. The women, from a variety of family and social backgrounds, mainly lived and worked in Belfast and Dublin between 1939 and 1945, but some of them went to Britain to take up war work. The women's own stories are compared with contemporary observations from a number of sources, including the Mass-Observation diary of Belfast woman, Moya Woodside. Other comparisons are made with newspaper commentaries and the files of government and other public bodies responsible for shaping social policy. The book shows that despite the many restrictions that the interviewees faced, in terms of access to education, employment opportunities, and to equal treatment in a number of spheres, most of them overcame the obstacles in their way, some of which were considerable. Although the research demonstrated that in economic, political, and social terms the war did not make any significant impact on Irish women, the evidence of the individuals who contributed their memories showed that it offered them opportunities to 'spread their wings', as one of the women described her activities. The book also compares the position of Irish women with their contemporaries in other western countries. While there has been a lot of research on the topic of women and war in other countries, no comparable work has yet been carried out here. Ã?Â?Ã?Â?
"Constance Markievicz had some advice for women activists: 'Leave your jewels in the bank, and buy a revolver.' Most of the women who became involved in the fight for Ireland's freedom did not have jewels to swap for guns, but the change in their circumstances and lives would be just as radical. Setting aside their roles as dutiful daughters, wives, and mothers, they became dispatch carriers, gunrunners, spies. Guns in hand, they fought alongside their male comrades in arms, displaying a courage and resolution that astonished and sometimes offended public opinion of the time." "What they were doing was considered 'unladylike and disreputable' - a notion that explains why their stories became hidden histories; in many cases families were unaware that their great-aunts and grannies had prison records." "But the evidence is there in their prison diaries and autograph books, in the graffiti that remain on the walls of Kilmainham Gaol, and in the archive lists of women prisoners of 1916, the War of Independence, and the Civil War. From this wealth of material and interviews with survivors, Sinead McCoole has produced a portrait of the girls and women whose indomitable spirit overcame hunger strikes, harsh prison conditions, and the tragedy of huge personal loss."--BOOK JACKET.
For Hundreds of Years. . .In Ireland and the New World. . . Irish Women Have Made a Difference From ancient times to the present, Irish women have made their mark in times of peace and war, in Ireland and America. With their accomplishments largely ignored by the history books, these extraordinary women have fought for equality, struggled for independence, and met the challenge of nation building. Courageous, passionate, creative, able to stand tall on the battlefield--and in the kitchen--their stories will inspire brave women everywhere, for the daughters of Maeve have achieved remarkable feats against incredible odds. Meet women such as-- Brigid . . . saint and patroness of Ireland Grace O'Malley . . . pirate queen of Connacht Queen Maeve . . . ancient warrior Clara Dillon Darrow . . . suffragist Mother Jones . . . union leader Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy . . . U.S. first lady Sinead O'Connor . . . singer Mary Robinson . . . president of Ireland Maureen O'Hara . . . actress Sandra Day O'Connor . . . Supreme Court justice Maud Gonne . . . Irish revolutionary This indispensable reference will move, instruct, and empower readers to reach for their dreams as they stand on the shoulders of great Irish women. 50 Fascinating Profiles Gina Sigillito has studied Irish history, art, literature, and politics at the Irish Arts Centre, Ireland House at New York University, and Trinity College, Dublin. She has served as a guest host and producer on the Irish radio program Radio Free Éireann and has traveled extensively throughout Ireland. She is co-author of The Wisdom of the Celts, also available from Citadel Press.
Just under 200,000 Irishmen took part in the American Civil War, making it one of the most significant conflicts in Irish history. Hundreds of thousands more were affected away from the battlefield, both in the US and in Ireland itself. The Irish contribution, however, is often only viewed through the lens of famous units such as the Irish Brigade, but the real story is much more complex and fascinating. From the Tipperary man who was the first man to die in the war, to the Corkman who was the last General mortally wounded in action; from the flag bearer who saved his regimental colours at the cost of his arms, to the Roscommon man who led the hunt for Abraham Lincoln's assassin, what emerges in this book is a catalogue of gallantry, sacrifice and bravery.
Winner of the PEN Oakland–Josephine Miles Award “A stunning portrayal of a tragedy endured and survived by women.” —David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass “Readers expecting hoop-skirted ladies soothing fevered soldiers’ brows will not find them here...Explodes the fiction that men fight wars while women idle on the sidelines.” —Washington Post The idea that women are outside of war is a powerful myth, one that shaped the Civil War and still determines how we write about it today. Through three dramatic stories that span the war, Stephanie McCurry invites us to see America’s bloodiest conflict for what it was: not just a brothers’ war but a women’s war. When Union soldiers faced the unexpected threat of female partisans, saboteurs, and spies, long held assumptions about the innocence of enemy women were suddenly thrown into question. McCurry shows how the case of Clara Judd, imprisoned for treason, transformed the writing of Lieber’s Code, leading to lasting changes in the laws of war. Black women’s fight for freedom had no place in the Union military’s emancipation plans. Facing a massive problem of governance as former slaves fled to their ranks, officers reclassified black women as “soldiers’ wives”—placing new obstacles on their path to freedom. Finally, McCurry offers a new perspective on the epic human drama of Reconstruction through the story of one slaveholding woman, whose losses went well beyond the material to intimate matters of family, love, and belonging, mixing grief with rage and recasting white supremacy in new, still relevant terms. “As McCurry points out in this gem of a book, many historians who view the American Civil War as a ‘people’s war’ nevertheless neglect the actions of half the people.” —James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom “In this brilliant exposition of the politics of the seemingly personal, McCurry illuminates previously unrecognized dimensions of the war’s elemental impact.” —Drew Gilpin Faust, author of This Republic of Suffering
This volume brings together new research whilst re-evaluating older assumptions about the immediate and continuing impact of World War I on Ireland. It explores some lesser-known aspects of Ireland’s war years as well as including studies of more traditional areas. Individual articles cover military, social, cultural, political, and economic aspects of the Great War, as well as reflecting on continuity and change within Irish historiography. In doing so, they analyze how the experience and memory of the War have contributed to identity formation and the legitimization of political violence.
This is the first book-length study of the impact of the Great War on women's everyday lives in Ireland, focussing on the years of the war and its immediate aftermath. Fionnuala Walsh demonstrates how Irish women threw themselves into the war effort, mobilising in various different forms, such as nursing wounded soldiers, preparing hospital supplies and parcels of comforts, undertaking auxiliary military roles in port areas or behind the lines, and producing weapons of war. However, the war's impact was also felt beyond direct mobilisation, affecting women's household management, family relations, standard of living, and work conditions and opportunities. Drawing on extensive research in archives in Ireland and Britain, Walsh brings women's wartime experience out of the historical shadow and examines welfare and domestic life, bereavement, social morality, employment, war service, politicisation, and demobilisation to challenge ideas of emancipation and reflect upon the significant impact of the Great War on Irish society.