Media Consumption and Dublin Working Class Cultural Identity
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Media Consumption and Dublin Working Class Cultural Identity / D. Me Guinness Ph.D. March 1999. Media Consumption and Dublin Working Class Cultural Identity Supervisor : Dr. Paschal Preston Dublin City University. School of Communication. A Thesis Submitted to Dublin City University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Des Me Guinness. M.A. March 1999. DECLARATION. I hereby certify that this material, which 1 now submit for assessment on the programme o f study leading to the reward o f Doctor o f Philosophy is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work o f others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text o f my work Signed. IytO ^ IDNo 93701535 Date DEDICATION. To my parents Desmond and Maura, who were always in ‘my comer’ with love and support. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My thesis supervisor Paschal Preston for his unstinting advice, critical feedback and support at all times throughout the research process Des Bonass, Annie Byrne, Noreen Byrne, Tom Byme, Alan Collinge, Farrel Corcoran, Peter Cowap, Francis Devine, Herbie Donnelly, Bill Doyle, Paddy Duffy, Terry Fagan, Tony Fahy, Arne Farrell, Pat Ferguson, Donal Fitzpatrick, Maureen Flavin, Jack Gannon, Luke Gibbons, John Graham, Jane Hanly, Nora Harkrn, Mairin Johnson, Jennifer Hunter, Peter Kearns, Martin King, Garry Lawless, George Lawlor PC, Joe Lee, Caroline McCamley, Eugene McCartan, Michael Me Govern, Ciara McKenna, John Martin, Martin Maguire, Bob Monks, Peter Murray, Matthew Murtagh, Sam Nolan, Ann O’Donoghoe, Barbara O’Connor, Frances O’Bnan, Bairbre O’ Fhloinn, Kevin Rockett, Ann Rossiter, Pete Smyth, Tom Stokes, John P Swift and Liam Wylie My fellow post-graduate colleagues in the School of Communications, Dublin City University . Eoin Devereux, Roddy Flynn, Aphra Kerr, Niambh Me Cole and Begona Alvarez O’Neill for their kindness and support Pam Galvin, Celine Jameson and Carolyn O’Rourke for their light heartedness and for putting up with me during my mental troughs. To students o f Contemporary Cultural Studies whom I lectured during my research period at Dublin City University They helped to keep my feet on the ground and were a source o f inspiration. Joe O’Hara, Damien Hickey, Helen Curtis and Martin Moloney for their timely assistance on the computer front A special thanks to those in Dublin City University library, whose helpfulness was invaluable And the library staffs o f British Film Institute, National Library, Labour History Museum Library, The Theatre Archive (Dublin City Hall) and the Folklore Department o f Ireland (University College Dublin) The information unit o f the National Women’s Council of Ireland. Finally I wish to acknowledge the fimding provided by the RTE Scholarship arrangement and the Irish American Partnership/EOLAS studentship scheme, without which none of my research would have been possible Thanks to all concerned TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. Chapter One W hats the Stoiy ? 1 1 1. Introduction 1 1.2 Concepts and Themes 2 13 Methodology 8 1 4 Beyond the ‘Absence’ of Social Class in Ireland 10 15 Chapter Summaries 15 Chapter Two The Big Picture: A review of Theoretical W ritings of Working Class Culture and Identity. 19 21 Introduction. 19 2 2 Culture, Cultural Nationalism and Religion 19 2.3 Theorising Working Class Culture 25 2 4 Class and the Formation of Cultural Identity 41 2.5. Ireland’s ‘Long Revolution’ 48 2 6 A Theoretical and Methodological Research 50 Framework 2 7 Conclusions 54 Chapter Three Tow ards Totality:An Inclusive Research M ethodology. 56 3 1 Introduction. 56 3 2 Oral History A Methodology for Collecting Memories 57 3 3. Television Audience Research. 65 3.4 Research Stages 71 3.5 Conclusions 75 Chapter Four W ork, H ousing and Leisure:Part O ne (1900-1960). 77 4 1 Introduction 77 4.2. Class Politics and the Labour Movement 77 4.3. Dublin Working Class Housing (1900-1960) 84 4.4. Dublin Music Halls. 86 4 5. Leisure among Working Class Dubliners 90 4.6. The Trade Union Movement & Cultural Activity 97 4.7 Conclusions 104 I Chapter Five Cinem a G oing and Dublin W orking Class Identity (1909-1959). 107 5.1. Introduction 107 5 2. The Dublin Working Class Audience for Cinema 109 53 Cinemas as Venues of Love & Romance 122 5 4 Dublin Cinemas Their Characteristics. 124 5.5. Getting in at all Costs. 127 56 Taste & Escapism. 130 5 7 The Meanings Derived from Television 133 5 8 Conclusions 140 Page No Chapter Six Work,Housing and Leisure:Part Two(1960-1990s). 144 6 1. Introduction. 144 6.2 Class Politics, Labour and Social Movements 146 6 3 From Inner to Outer Dublin 159 6 4. Forms o f Dublin Working Class Leisure 162 6.5. Trade Unions & Cultural Activity. 171 6.6. Conclusions. 177 Chapter Seven Watching Television (1960-I990s). 181 7 1. Introduction 181 7 2. Television and Working Class Representation. 184 7.3. Working Class Identity and the Viewing o f Television ‘Soaps’ 190 7 4 National Identity and the Viewing o f Television 198 ‘Soaps’ 7 5 Gender Identity and the Viewing o f Television 200 ‘Soaps’ 7 6. Television Sport “You don’t have to be There to be 201 There”. 7 7 Television Comedy. 206 7.8. Conclusions 214 Chapter Eight Videos & Computer Games. 219 8.1. Introduction 219 8.2. Recording from Television 223 8 3 Rented Videos 233 8 4 Computer Gaming 243 8 5 Conclusions 248 Chapter Nine Working Class Cultural Production 251 9 1. Introduction 251 9 2 ‘Community Arts’ and Dublin Working Class Culture. 252 9 3 Bread and Roses 261 9 4. An Overview of Marxist Aesthetics 265 9 5. Conclusions. 275 Chapter Ten Fin. 277 10.1 Introduction 277 10 2. Patterns o f Work, Housing, Politics and Leisure 277 10 3. Envisaging Socialist Feminism 284 104 Screen Encounters & Dublin Working Class Identity 287 10.5 The Politics of Representation 293 10 6. Storytime. 294 10 7 So, Finally 295 List of Tables : Page No. Table 5 1 Prices for Glassware Empties during the 1940s 130 Table 6 1 Dublin’s Changing Economic Base 1951 -1991 148 Table 6 2 Cinema Admissions in Ireland from 1950 -1993 170 Table 8 1 Videos 234 Table 8 2 Films 234 Page 1 Appendices. Appendix A Extract from Preface & Introduction to a Contribution 1-1 to the Critique of Political Economy bv Karl Marx Appendix B Extract from Dublin Made Me bv C S Andrews 1-1 Appendix C Extract from The Conditions o f Postmodermty bv 1-2 David Harvey(1987) Appendix D An Interview Schedule on Cinema Going 1-2 Appendix E Towards a Contemporary FHGM Understanding of the 1-11 Irish National Democratic Revolution Appendix F Family Biographical and Other Information 1-3 Bibliography. 1-28 ABSTRACT. The central research question o f this dissertation addresses the extent to which media consumption was, and continues to be, a factor in the formation of Dublin working class cultural identity That relationship is examined in terms of the consumption patterns, uses and meanings associated with and derived from the dominant forms of popular audio-visual media in two periods, particularly cinema going and television. The time-frames for this analysis is the 1920s-1950s and the 1960s to the early 1990s, respectively Within the context of this analysis the interplay between the class, gender and national identity of the Dublin working class will also be investigated I will also examine the wider economic, cultural, social and spatial factors that are significant to the formation o f a Dublin working class identity Part one undertakes a review of the relevant national and international research literature It focuses on the key issues of working class culture, identity and media consumption with particular reference to the marginalisation and exclusion experienced by the Irish working class As such the review lays the basis for the thesis’s theoretical perspective, which has at its core a problematising approach to the concept o f ‘totality’ Rather than approach the key questions o f the thesis and its sub headings with a restrictive notion o f the ‘cultural’, an understanding o f the concept o f ‘totality’ is adopted in order to critically explore the cultural, economic and ideological dimensions of those questions in their interconnectedness as pursued in Raymond Williams’s understanding of ‘culture’ as ‘a whole way of life’ Part One also outlines the manner in which the project is to be undertaken The selected methodology involves the use of original oral histories of cinema goers combined with the use of some secondary sources and television audience research The latter brings together existing television audience data with primary material gathered through ethnographic interviewing and time use diaries Part Two and Three o f this thesis critically explores the dynamic relationship between the Dublin working class audience and the two most popular audio-visual mediums of the 20th century. The research is motivated by the belief that the ‘cultural’ domain has been largely neglected in favour of a dominant research focus on organisational and political aspects o f the labour movement A key argument underlying this thesis is that the tendency to exclude the domestic sphere and to privilege particular fractions o f the working class is both limiting and fails to embrace the richness of the Dublin working class way of life The over-nding concern is that o f media consumption and its impact on the formation of working class cultural identity, but a consistent and related theme is that of artistic/cultural production in both pre and post 1960s Dublin By investigating the dialectical process that is media consumption, the on-going production and reproduction of key forms o f Dublin working class cultural expression is investigated and celebrated within this thesis CHAPTER ONE WHAT’S THE STORY? 1.1.