Constructions of the Irish Child in the Independence Period, 1910-1940

Constructions of the Irish Child in the Independence Period, 1910-1940

Author: Ciara Boylan

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-09-21

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 3319928228

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This volume explores how Irish children were ‘constructed’ by various actors including the state, youth organisations, authors and publishers in the period before and after Ireland gained independence in 1922. It examines the broad variety of ways in which the Irish child was constructed through social and cultural activities like education, sport, youth organizations, and cultural production such as literature, toys, and clothes, covering themes ranging from gender, religion and social class, to the broader politics of identity, citizenship, and nation-building. A variety of ideals and ideologies, some of them conflicting, competed to inform how children were constructed by the adults who looked on them as embodying the future of the nation. Contributors ask fundamental questions about how children were constructed as part of the idealisation of the state before its formation, and the consolidation of the state after its foundation.


Discourses of Home and Homeland in Irish Children’s Fiction 1990-2012

Discourses of Home and Homeland in Irish Children’s Fiction 1990-2012

Author: Ciara Ní Bhroin

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-05-22

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 3030733955

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In the context of changing constructs of home and of childhood since the mid-twentieth century, this book examines discourses of home and homeland in Irish children’s fiction from 1990 to 2012, a time of dramatic change in Ireland spanning the rise and fall of the Celtic Tiger and of unprecedented growth in Irish children’s literature. Close readings of selected texts by five award-winning authors are linked to social, intellectual and political changes in the period covered and draw on postcolonial, feminist, cultural and children’s literature theory, highlighting the political and ideological dimensions of home and the value of children’s literature as a lens through which to view culture and society as well as an imaginative space where young people can engage with complex ideas relevant to their lives and the world in which they live. Examining the works of O. R. Melling, Kate Thompson, Eoin Colfer, Siobhán Parkinson and Siobhan Dowd, Ciara Ní Bhroin argues that Irish children’s literature changed at this time from being a vehicle that largely promoted hegemonic ideologies of home in post-independence Ireland to a site of resistance to complacent notions of home in Celtic Tiger Ireland.


The History of Physical Culture in Ireland

The History of Physical Culture in Ireland

Author: Conor Heffernan

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-01-24

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 3030637271

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This book is the first to deal with physical culture in an Irish context, covering educational, martial and recreational histories. Deemed by many to be a precursor to the modern interest in health and gym cultures, physical culture was a late nineteenth and early twentieth century interest in personal health which spanned national and transnational histories. It encompassed gymnasiums, homes, classrooms, depots and military barracks. Prior to this work, physical culture’s emergence in Ireland has not received thorough academic attention. Addressing issues of gender, childhood, nationalism, and commerce, this book is unique within an Irish context in studying an Irish manifestation of a global phenomenon. Tracing four decades of Irish history, the work also examines the influence of foreign fitness entrepreneurs in Ireland and contrasts them with their Irish counterparts.


Birth of an independent Ireland

Birth of an independent Ireland

Author: Elena Ogliari

Publisher: LED Edizioni Universitarie

Published: 2022-06-15T09:08:00+02:00

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 8855130684

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"Birth of an Independent Ireland" is a study of the rise of a distinctly Irish nationalist youth in the early twentieth century, which is analysed by focusing on how and to what extent the parallel advent of dedicated periodicals stimulated it. As Ireland moves through the centenary of commemoration of the War of Independence and the establishment of the Free State, it seems only right to direct our attention to the primary role played by the young in the revolutionary years between 1913 and 1923, when Irish boys and girls actively participated in the life of their country as agents of nation-building. In part, they had been taught how to do so. Although they were never mere recipients who passively absorbed pre-formed systems of values, the young had been mentored by nationalist groups and individuals to become active citizens and the builders of a free, independent Ireland. Multiple actors of nationalist sympathies impacted on their lives through social and cultural activities and cultural production ranging from historical works to popular periodical literature. Regarding the latter, a prominent part was played by Our Boys, Fianna, Young Ireland, and St. Enda’s – periodicals for juveniles that carried out a political and cultural programme by catering for both the delight and instruction of Ireland’s youth. They published creative literary work alongside political and critical commentary on pressing matters, as the imperative of these newly-formed papers was to bring their readers into the public space of politics, so that they would contribute to the nation-building process. Therefore, this volume explores how the periodicals constructed very specific images of Irish girlhood and boyhood that were designed to foster a sense of loyalty to Ireland and the nationalist cause, and how they popularised particular receptions of momentous events in Irish history, such as the First World War and the 1916 Easter Rising, so as to buttress their political agenda.


Farming in Modern Irish Literature

Farming in Modern Irish Literature

Author: Nicholas Grene

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 019886129X

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This innovative study analyzes the range of representation of farming in Irish literature in the period since independence/partition in 1922, as Ireland moved from a largely agricultural to a developed urban society. In many different forms including poetry, drama, fiction, and autobiography, writers have made literary capital by looking back at their rural backgrounds, even where those may be a generation back. The first five chapters examine some of the key themes: the impact of inheritance on family in the patriarchal system where there could only be one male heir; the struggles for survival in the poorest regions of the West of Ireland; the uses of childhood farming memories whether idyllic or traumatic; and the representation of communities, challenging the homogeneous idealizing images of the Literary Revival; the impact of modernization on successive generations into the twenty-first century. The final three chapters are devoted to three major writers in whose work farming is central: Patrick Kavanagh, the small farmer who had to find an individual voice to express his own unique experience; John McGahern in whose fiction the life of the farm is always posited as alternative to a rootless urban milieu; and Seamus Heaney who re-imagined his farming childhood in so many different modes throughout his career. Farming in Modern Irish Literature yields original insights into the literary iconography of rural Ireland and its interplay with social and cultural history, opening up fresh vistas on the achievements of Irish writers in different genres, styles, and historical eras.


A History of Rugby in Leinster

A History of Rugby in Leinster

Author: David Doolin

Publisher: Merrion Press

Published: 2023-11-02

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 1785374796

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Leinster is one of the most successful and influential Irish sporting teams of all time. The team boasts a dazzling roster of players, past and present, including Brian O’Driscoll, Johnny Sexton, Jamie Heaslip and current captain James Ryan. But there is so much more to rugby in Leinster, and, for the first time, this book compiles the rich history of the sport in the province, from its origins in the school and university teams, through the amateur years, with the growth of clubs throughout the province, to the dawn of the professional age and the many spectacular championships won by the province in the twenty-first century, when the national love for rugby kicked up a gear. Doolin celebrates all the breathless victories enjoyed by Leinster teams at every level, but it’s not just about the silverware. He looks at the challenges that rugby faced in surviving and growing province-wide since it was first played in Dublin in the nineteenth century. He also ruminates on the sport’s relationships with politics and class, which reflect the complexities of politics and identity in Ireland as a whole. A History of Rugby in Leinster is a vibrant celebration of sport-ing greatness and of Leinster’s enduring commitment to teamwork, integrity and community.


The New Publicness of Education

The New Publicness of Education

Author: Carl Anders Säfström

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-06-01

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1000886646

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This book explores democratic possibilities for education after the critique of the impact of neo-liberalism on educational policy and practice. Together, the authors investigate the contours of a ‘new publicness’ of education. This edited volume refers to well-established critiques that expose how neoliberal governance has normalised the privatisation of public life and undermined the public nature of education. Through historical reconstruction, theoretical exploration, and analyses of educational policies and practices, chapters take a novel approach by investigating democratic possibilities within and beyond the current neoliberal hegemony in education. Covering a range of educational settings – from early childhood education through to higher and professional education – chapters spotlight the Irish educational and political context, as well as exploring international implications. Ultimately, this book opens up new avenues for discussion around public education and its future, and will therefore be of great interest to researchers and students in the fields of educational theory, education politics, educational policy and democratic education.


Handbook of Contemporary Families

Handbook of Contemporary Families

Author: Marilyn Coleman

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 642

ISBN-13: 9780761927136

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The Handbook of Contemporary Families explores how families have changed in the last 30 years and speculates about future trends. Editors Marilyn Coleman and Lawrence H. Ganong, along with a multidisciplinary group of contributors, critique the approaches used to study relationships and families while suggesting modern approaches for the new millennium. The Handbook looks at how changes within the contemporary family have been reflected in family law, family education, and family therapy. The Handbook of Contemporary Families is an excellent resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, educators, and practitioners who study and work with families in several disciplines, including Family Science, Human Development and Family Studies, Sociology, Marriage & Family Therapy, and Social Work.


Dancing at the Southern Crossroads

Dancing at the Southern Crossroads

Author: Jeanette Mollenhauer

Publisher:

Published: 2022-09-30

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780646817064

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Dancing at the Southern Crossroads presents a cohesive narrative of the early practice of Irish step dance in Australia and is the first book on the topic to be written by an Australian. It presents a topical view of the choreographic practices and social significance of step dance in the Irish immigrant community in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and situates the practice of dance within the wider historical contexts in which Irish immigrants lived.This book includes biographies of the early practitioners which feature their dance careers and personal aspects of their lives. The development of competitions is a highlight, relating the moulding of the framework of rules and regulations to the socio-cultural context in which Irish Australians found themselves, as well as the concurrent developments in step dance taking place in Ireland. Each topic emphasises the role of the people who danced in past times and draws heavily on letters to newspapers which reveal those performers' intense passion for Irish step dance.The book makes a substantial contribution to the very sparse collection of works about immigrants and traditional dance styles that have been perpetuated in Australia following migration and re-settlement, which is a neglected area in Australian dance scholarship. Thus, the book underscores the highly variegated nature of the dance landscape in this nation Dancing at the Southern Crossroads traces the story of Irish step dance in Australia. It will be of interest to scholars of Irish migration, dance scholars and the current cohort of Australian Irish step dancers.


Erin's Heirs

Erin's Heirs

Author: Dennis Clark

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2014-07-11

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 0813150515

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"They will melt like snowflakes in the sun," said one observer of nineteenth-century Irish emigrants to America. Not only did they not melt, they formed one of the most extensive and persistent ethnic subcultures in American history. Dennis Clark now offers an insightful analysis of the social means this group has used to perpetuate its distinctiveness amid the complexity of American urban life. Basing his study on family stories, oral interviews, organizational records, census data, radio scripts, and the recollections of revolutionaries and intellectuals, Clark offers an absorbing panorama that shows how identity, organization, communication, and leadership have combined to create the Irish-American tradition. In his pages we see gifted storytellers, tough dockworkers, scribbling editors, and colorful actresses playing their roles in the Irish-American saga. As Clark shows, the Irish have defended and extended their self-image by cultivating their ethnic identity through transmission of family memories and by correcting community portrayals of themselves in the press and theatre. They have strengthened their ethnic ties by mutual association in the labor force and professions and in response to social problems. And they have created a network of communications ranging from 150 years of Irish newspapers to America's longest-running ethnic radio show and a circuit of university teaching about Irish literature and history. From this framework of subcultural activity has arisen a fascinating gallery of leadership that has expressed and symbolized the vitality of the Irish-American experience. Although Clark draws his primary material from Philadelphia, he relates it to other cities to show that even though Irish communities have differed they have shared common fundamentals of social development. His study constitutes a pathbreaking theoretical explanation of the dynamics of Irish-American life.