“the lonesome sounds of Ireland”:

POST-COLONIAL IRISH IDENTITY IN EDNA O’BRIEN’S THE

COUNTRY GIRLS TRILOGY

MA Thesis in Literary Studies: Literature, Culture and Society

Graduate School of Humanities

Universiteit van Amsterdam

Sophie van Dorst

11037962

Supervisor: Dr Rudolph Glitz

25 June 2020

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Declaration of Academic Integrity

I hereby confirm that I have read the UvA Regulations on Plagiarism. This thesis is my own work and the sources that have contributed to the thesis are fully cited.

25 June 2020 van Dorst 2

Abstract

The British colonisation of Ireland, with its cultural suppression and dominating government, has started off a divided and conflicted relationship with Irish identity. This divided relationship remained after the Irish Republic incorporated the Catholic values and traditions into its Constitution. This thesis analyses Edna O’Brien’s Country Girls Trilogy (1964-1986), following the lives of Caithleen Brady and Baba Brennan in their individual realisation of what the Irish identity entails. Moreover, this thesis argues that Caithleen and Baba’s individual realisations of the Irish identity, and what role the Catholic religion plays in this identity, reveal the divide between the rural and city interpretations of the post-colonial Irish identity.

Furthermore, this thesis considers the consequences of cultural repression, the power of language, and the struggles of the split diasporic entity, using post-colonial theory to show that the colonial can be used analyse the post-colonial.

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Contents

Introduction.………………………………….…………………………………………...... 4-9

Chapter 1: The Country Girls…………………………………………………….………10-23

Chapter 1.1: The Rural Town.………………………………………...……….…10-13

Chapter 1.2: Dublin……………………………………...………………………..13-17

Chapter 1.3: The Nation……………………………………………………..……17-23

Chapter 2: The Lonely Girl……………………………………………………………….24-39

Chapter 2.1: Catholicism…………………………….……………………...……24-30

Chapter 2.2: The Letters and Aftermath……………………………….…………30-35

Chapter 2.3: Exile to England…………………………………………………….35-39

Chapter 3: Girls in Their Married Bliss and the Epilogue………………………...……...40-54

Chapter 3.1: Married Life……………………………………………….………..40-45

Chapter 3.2: The Aftermath of the Separation……..………….……………….…45-49

Chapter 3.3: The Epilogue………………………………………………..………49-52

Chapter 3.4: Caithleen’s End……………………………………………..………52-54

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..……55-58

Works Cited………………………………………………………………………………59-62

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Introduction

James Joyce, William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney. These are names of well-known Irish writers who have riveted and captivated readers from all over the world. Since the 1960s and onwards, Edna O’Brien can be seen as part of this group of famous writers. Her novels are well-known for challenging how we look at Irish sexuality and femininity. O’Brien’s The

Country Girls Trilogy (1964-1986) is a work that challenges the restrictive norms of Catholic

Irish society. She openly speaks about abortion, abuse, religion, depression – topics that had continually been suppressed by the Irish government whose decisions were often guided by the

Christian religion and values. When O’Brien published The Country Girls in 1964 and reflected on these controversial topics, the Irish censorship board banned the trilogy. The ban led to a slander of O’Brien’s work, whereas The Country Girls was included in book burnings to publicly destroy and criticise her work. In this day and age, the trilogy is characterised by how it challenges the beliefs and stereotypes of 1960s Ireland and rebels against the traditions of the Catholic Republic of Ireland. The trilogy follows the Irish Caithleen Brady and Baba

Brennan in their lives from country girls in rural Ireland, to aspiring city girls in Dublin, and eventually married women in London. This thesis argues that Caithleen’s Catholic interpretation of the Irish identity, and Baba’s rejection of the Church and the traditional Irish identity, symbolises the divide between Catholic rural Ireland and modern city Ireland, illustrating that the cultural suppression of colonial Ireland and the traditional and limiting

Catholic values of the Irish Republic have problematised, limited, and divided the Irish identity.

This reading of The Country Girls Trilogy shows the negative consequences of the colonial rule and the governing of the traditional Irish Republic on the Irish identities of Caithleen and

Baba. Moreover, this thesis illustrates how Ireland continues to deal with the colonial trauma of its ancestors, since the traditional government of the Irish Republic led to an oppressive atmosphere often made emigration necessary. In the trilogy, Caithleen and Baba recognize that van Dorst 5 they need to move away from Ireland to escape the oppressive and limiting values of the Irish

Catholic government.

The post-colonial theory of Bill Ashcroft, Helen Tiffin and Garreth Griffiths is used to analyse the influence of the colonial period on the post-colonial Irish identity. Here, the collected anthology The Post-Colonial Studies Reader (2006) and The Empire Writes Back

(2002) are used to look at how the trilogy reflects on cultural suppression, the power of language, and the split diasporic entity. Academics such as Jamaica Kincaid, Salman Rushdie and Edward Said illustrate that Caithleen and Baba’s perception of the Irish identity intertwines with both the British colonial oppression and the post-colonial Irish government. Here, the trilogy illustrates that the cultural suppression of the colonial British government, and the Irish

Republic’s limiting constitution, have problematised the Irish identity for Caithleen and Baba.

The Country Girls Trilogy has recently resurfaced after it was published as a trilogy in

1986. The “Dublin: One City, One Book” initiative picked the trilogy in 2019, re-introducing it to the Irish reader. By discussing themes such as abortion and religion, the trilogy illustrates the rebellion against the Catholic values that have been central to Irish society since the proclamation of the Irish Republic. Furthermore, the trilogy also portrays the significance of emigration in Irish society and Irish identity. In the history books, Irish mass emigration is often “represented as, and often was, involuntary exile: a heartbreaking saga of families destroyed, children lost, and a country drained of its most precious resource – its people”

(Cullingford 60). Here, the Great Famine and economic depressions of the 1950’s led to episodes of mass emigration. However, while emigration was often involuntary, many of the

Irish had also willingly chosen to emigrate for better economic possibilities. The popularity of

Irish emigration was present when the trilogy was published in the 20th century and is still evident in 21st century Ireland, especially with the Irish youth. Here, a study by the National

Youth Council of Ireland in 2012 stated that “45% of the Irish population have either van Dorst 6 considered emigration or had a close family member emigrate in the past 2 years. 1 in 10 has experienced both” (McAleer 13). When asked about the motivating factors to emigrate, “the vast majority of respondents stated that they would emigrate primarily because of the lack of employment opportunities at home or in the expectation that they would have better work prospects abroad” (McAleer 13). This research shows that emigration has remained a popular phenomenon, while the necessity to emigrate and leave the motherland continues to challenge the Irish identity. This confrontation with emigration in terms of the Irish identity is a prominent theme in The Country Girls Trilogy as well. Caithleen and Baba see it as necessary to emigrate to England and escape the limitations and restrictions of Ireland. For Caithleen, however, her emigration leads to a constant recollection and fragmentation of her memories of

Ireland.

The long suppression of Irish culture during colonial rule has led to a divided perception of the Irish identity. The country folk, who had lived in the small towns of Ireland and often only had to deal with the British when their surroundings were anglicised, stood oppositional to the city folk who were more integrated with the British and their policies. At that point in time, the British would visit the rural towns of Ireland to anglicise the names of the streets and lakes. Well known Irish theatre-writers like Brian Friel wanted to illustrate the importance of language in Ireland. Here, Friel’s Translations (1980) portrays a small rural town called Baile

Beag, which the British changed to Ballybeg. Friel shows how the English came to these little rural villages and changed the Irish names, dismissing Irish culture and language. Here, Friel’s play illustrates how colonial rule, and the suppression of the Irish language, has problematised the Irish identity. The Country Girls Trilogy similarly reflects on how language is used to dominate the other and, specifically, how language makes Caithleen and Baba question the

Irish identity. van Dorst 7

However, while the British were able to anglicise the Irish language, they were unable to suppress the Catholic religion. For long, religion has played an important role in Irish society and the Irish identity, especially during colonial times. As Timothy J. White claims, the Irish never stopped rebelling against the wishes of the British regarding religion, as Timothy J.

White claims:

The Irish who had long identified with the Catholic Church and practiced Catholicism resisted the British effort to create a national Church of Ireland that would correspond to the established Church in England. The Irish clung to their religious beliefs and practices not only because of their faith but also because it became a symbol of their identity and a means of political resistance to British imperial policy. Ultimately, Irish Catholicism emerged stronger and more connected to national identity because of British imperialism and the Irish effort to resist it. (White 2) As White shows, Catholicism and its values continued to play an important role in the Irish

Constitution and society. The refusal of the proposed National Church of Ireland made the

Catholic Church a more prominent and essential symbol in the Irish national identity. In the trilogy, the influence of religion on identity is a prominent theme, since Caithleen and Baba have a different perception of what role religion plays in their Irish identity. Moreover, the discussions between Caithleen’s father and her new boyfriend Eugene Gaillard similarly reflect on the influence of the Catholic religion on the rural and the city Irish identity.

Since Edna O’Brien identifies herself as a feminist writer, The Country Girls Trilogy is often analysed in terms of feminist theory and female subjects. O’Brien herself wrote about her personal experience in Ireland in her memoir Mother Ireland (1976), and in the article

“Irish Heroines Don’t Have To Be Good Anymore” (1986) she voiced her opinion about the changes she wished for female protagonists in Irish literature. This focus on the female character can accordingly be seen in texts that are referenced in this thesis. Here, examples are

Julia C. Obert, who writes about “Mothers and others in Edna O’Brien’s The Country Girls

Trilogy” (2012) and Ann Owens Weekes who writes about “Figuring the Mother in van Dorst 8

Contemporary Irish Fiction” (2000). This thesis will not entirely dismiss these feminist readings, except that it will focus more on the fragments concerning the Irish identity and

(post)colonial Ireland. This analysis will predominantly relate to the research that was done by

Mariá Amor Barros-del Río, who wrote about “Translocational Irish Identities in Edna

O’Brien’s memoir Country Girl” (2012). Barros-del Río initially differs from this analysis since she focusses on O’Brien’s memoir, while this thesis will focus on The Country Girls

Trilogy. Similar to this thesis’ claim, she argues that there is a connection between the Irish sense of identity and the feelings of displacement in both oppressive Ireland and abroad.

Moreover, Barros-del Río similarly claims that “the exiled is trapped between the longing for the beautiful Irish landscapes and the fear for its oppressive atmosphere” (Barros-del Río,

“Translocational Irish identities” 1504), as is claimed in chapter two and three of this thesis.

Furthermore, this thesis also corresponds to Heather Ingman’s article “Edna O’Brien Stretching the Nation’s Boundaries” (2002), where she similarly shows that the Irish identity is troubled because of the limitations and suppression of colonial and post-colonial Ireland. Ingman’s article differs from this thesis since she continues with a reading of O’Brien’s other works, using Julia Kristeva’s and Judith Butler’s feminist theory, while this thesis specifically focusses on post-colonial theory and the Country Girls Trilogy.

Chapter one of this thesis analyses the first novel of the trilogy, The Country Girls. This chapter argues that Baba and Caithleen’s Irish identities are both shaped differently by religion.

While Caithleen sees the Catholic religion as part of her Irish identity, Baba rebels against the rules and values of the Church. Furthermore, the chapter shows how Caithleen and Baba initially have different expectations by moving to Dublin, while also both wishing to change their identities from country girls to city girls. Moreover, the British suppression of Irish culture during the colonial period has led to a conflicted Irish identity, as is apparent with Caithleen and her constant questioning of this identity. Lastly, the chapter illustrates that the use of the van Dorst 9 nationalist figure of Mother Ireland and the Catholic Irish Constitution limited Caithleen and

Baba to the home. The limitations of Ireland eventually lead to the girls questioning their Irish identities.

Chapter two analyses the second novel of the trilogy, The Lonely Girl. This chapter argues that Caithleen’s relationship with Eugene Gaillard illustrates the difference between the rural and city interpretation of the Irish identity. Here, Eugene’s refined education and Caithleen’s rural Catholic upbringing problematise their relationship, as Eugene feels like he is permitted to constantly criticizes her language, habits and religion. Moreover, Eugene’s dismissal of

Caithleen’s language corresponds to power of language in colonial time, when language was used to dominate the colonised. Lastly, Caithleen and Baba’s move to London illustrates that both women prefer the economic possibilities of England over the motherland. However, for

Caithleen, this emigration leads to fragmentation of her memories of Ireland, dismissing the trauma of her past.

Chapter three analyses Girls in Their Married Bliss and the final epilogue. This chapter argues that Caithleen’s perception of marriage and the family are based on the Catholic religion, while also showing that her traumatic past has led to a romanticised perception of relationships. Eugene’s frequent critique of her Irish identity and country girl habits has led to a failed marriage and Caithleen’s problematic Irish identity. Furthermore, the chapter illustrates how Baba blames Caithleen’s hardships on the Catholic Church and the problematic Irish morals. Moreover, the chapter shows how Caithleen and Baba differ in their wish to reminisce about Ireland: Baba wants to forget Ireland and move on, while Caithleen idealises her memories of the past. Here, Caithleen’s character shows the dualism of a diasporic entity, living with the memories of two countries at the same time.

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Chapter 1: The Country Girls

Chapter 1.1: The Rural Town

The Country Girls Trilogy tells the story of Caithleen Brady and follows her life from a country girl to a modern metropolitan woman in London. The trilogy is often considered as a bildungsroman since we read about Caithleen as she grows up and goes through her rites of passages. This first chapter illustrates the factors of Caithleen’s youth that influence her Irish identity. Here, the death of her mother and the difficult relationship with her father play a significant part. Furthermore, this chapter shows that Caithleen’s Catholic upbringing and time at the convent shape her views on religion. Moreover, the Constitution and figure of Mother

Ireland emphasise the Irish woman in the home and, indirectly, lead to Caithleen questioning her Irish identity. This limited and distorted Irish identity is apparent with Baba and Caithleen, who both try to escape the narrowmindedness of their rural village by moving to Dublin.

Relocating to the city is also their way to change from a country girl to a city girl.

The Country Girls introduces the reader to the rural Irish village where Caithleen Brady grows up. Her life as an Irish girl is mostly situated at their dilapidated farm. Caithleen’s mother and Hickey, the help, take care of the farm, while her father is mostly absent from their life.

The violent Mr Brady uses the meagre income from the farm to support his alcohol addiction.

Moreover, he only appears at the farm to acquire money and refuses to pay the bills, leaving

Caithleen’s mother with the hardships of raising a child and taking care of the farm.

Unfortunately, Mrs Brady drowns during a boat-trip with a possible suitor, Tom O’Brien, who could have been her way out of the marriage with Mr Brady. The experience traumatises

Caithleen since she does not have a good relationship with her father. After the loss of her mother, the parents of her friend Bridget ‘Baba’ Brennan take her in. The relationship between the rebellious Baba and conflicted Caithleen is a central part of the story since the girls continue to follow each other to Dublin and London and keep in contact as they get older. van Dorst 11

The first few chapters of The Country Girls introduce Caithleen to the hard world around her. Here, the relationship between Caithleen and her father is important, since her upbringing shapes her as a character, and influences her decisions and aspirations. Mr Brady is a traditional man who has a strong connection to Ireland and the Catholic religion. His beliefs play a big part in the formation of Caithleen’s identity. Mr Brady wants Caithleen to be the ideal Catholic Irish girl that focusses on the family and the home. However, since the rural

Irish villagers frequently had to deal with the coloniser anglicising their surroundings, they were often more fixated on Irish identity and how the colonial past damaged it. This fixation can, for instance, be seen in one of the first chapters, when Mrs Brady’s friend Jack wonders about the hidden identities of many of the people around them:

“You know many Irish people are royalty and unaware of it. There are kings and queens walking down the roads of Ireland, riding bicycles, imbibing tea, plowing the humble earth, totally unaware of their great heredity. Your mother, now, has the ways and the walk of a queen.” I sighed. Jack’s infatuation with the English language bored me. (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 17) Jack illustrates the need for recognising one’s true identity, but also frustration with the often- simplified identity of the Irish as farmers or country folk. By connecting the rural to the royal,

Jack gives a different status to these common agricultural activities, as if they could all be a royal. As the fragment shows, the Irish stereotype was often that many of the Irish were

“plowing the humble earth”, living in these small villages while “walking down the roads of

Ireland”. Caithleen immediately relates Jack’s need for recognising “great heredity” to an infatuation with the English language. In Caithleen’s mind, being royal or of great heredity does not seem very probable, as she immediately attaches this idea of royalty to the English language. For her, royalty is often English, and thus the English language is probably a part of being royal. The fragment additionally shows the divide between young and old. Whereas Jack is concerned with the past and the Irish identity, Caithleen appears uninterested about this van Dorst 12 supposed secret status. She sees it more as an irrelevant infatuation with the past. The divide what the Irish identity entails is, as Hawk Chang claims, based on the colonial history of Ireland and the antitheses it created in Irish society: “For centuries, people in Ireland have been beset by antitheses such as British/Irish, Protestant/Catholic and colonialism/de-colonization due to

Ireland’s special relations with England. As a consequence, a tenacious Irish identity distinct from non-Irish identity has been formulated” (Chang 69). As Chang shows, the Irish identity is heavily influenced by colonialism, since British imperial culture was perceived as the standard in Ireland for centuries. By wondering about Irish royalty, Jack acknowledges that the

Irish identity has to be questioned. The search for the Irish identity becomes more important for Caithleen and Baba when they get older and their move to Dublin liberates them from the restrictive rural town. This change of location makes it possible for the girls to question the

Irish identity and reflect on what it means to be Irish.

The first way that Caithleen and Baba escape their lives in the small country town is by going to a Catholic convent school. The girls’ parents perceive education at this convent as a suitable opportunity as they have raised their children with the values and rules of the Catholic

Church. While Caithleen wins a scholarship to go to the convent, Baba’s wealthier parents pay for their daughter’s tuition. At the convent, the girls have to deal with strict rules and punishments from the nuns. They are taught how to worship and what they can and cannot do as ‘good’ Christians. If the girls disagree with the nun’s guidance, they are disciplined by beatings with a strap. For three years, Caithleen and Baba stay and study at the convent.

However, when the girls get the option to go outside for their Christmas break, Caithleen realises that “[i]t was nice to feel the cold air. The convent was a prison” (E. O’Brien, The

Country Girls Trilogy 109). This comment is the first time that Caithleen voices her unhappiness with life at the Catholic institution. Before this revelation, Caithleen had been polite to the nuns and tried to please them continuously. However, when Baba points out her van Dorst 13 behaviour, Caithleen realises that she might have dismissed the demeaning actions of the nuns:

“‘It’s not so bad for you, winning statues and playing up to nuns. You give me the sick anyhow, jumping up to open and close the damn door for nuns as if they had cerebral palsy and couldn’t do it themselves.’ It was true, I did play up to the nuns, and I hated her for noticing it” (E.

O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 127). For Caithleen, who has been counting on the rebellious Baba for most of her life, Baba’s comment decides that she has to follow the decision to leave the convent. By writing an offensive rhyme for a priest, the girls get expelled from the convent. Caithleen and Baba’s escape from the convent makes them passionate about leaving their dominating hometown behind. Consequently, even though the experience in the convent is quite short, it does show the nature of the connection that the girls have with religion. Here, while the religious nuns and their rules make Baba sick, Caithleen sees her experience in the convent as somewhat helpful. In the end, their experience in the convent shapes their views on religion and what role it plays in the Irish identity.

Thus, this section illustrates that Caithleen’s traumatic past moulds her Irish identity.

Moreover, the section shows that religion shapes the identities of Caithleen and Baba. Here,

Caithleen perceives the Catholic religion as part of her Irish identity, showing respect for the values of the nuns and wishing to appease them. Baba, however, immediately rejects the

Catholic religion and shows her distaste for its significance in the Irish identity.

Chapter 1.2: Dublin

Caithleen and Baba’s move to Dublin illustrates the first step in their individual understandings of the Irish identity. After the girls get expelled from the convent, Caithleen is excited to leave her country life and move to the big city. Baba initiates their move, claiming that Caithleen should join her. For Caithleen, her old village reminds her of the death of her mother and her drunken father. Returning to her old home after the long stay at the convent shows her that she van Dorst 14 will have the same life as her mother if she decides to stay. Reminded of this life, moving to the big city appears to be no difficult decision. When Caithleen and Baba leave, Caithleen describes her village unapologetically: “I was not sorry to be leaving the old village. It was dead and tired and old and crumbling and falling down. The shops needed paint and there seemed to be fewer geraniums in the upstairs windows than there had been when I was a child”

(E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 153). The village is described as “old” and left behind, emphasising the “crumbling” remainders of departed inhabitants and abandoned buildings. Her words illustrate a place with no opportunities and future, and Caithleen is not apologetic for leaving the village and her father. For her, moving to Dublin seems like her way out of having to taking care of the farm with her father – a way out of the life that her mother tried to escape.

When the girls arrive in the city, Caithleen describes how it is different from their rural town: “We got in to Dublin just before six. It was still bright, and we carried our bags across the platform, stopping for a minute to let others pass by. We had never seen so many people in our lives” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 156). Caithleen and Baba are not used to the bright lights of the city and the countless people surrounding them. Dublin is not abandoned and neglected but developed and full of life. Still, the girls do have different underlying reasons for moving to Dublin. Here, Elizabeth Weston states that Caithleen’s reasons for leaving are mostly induced by romantic impulse: “Dublin represents the possibility of escape from the oppressiveness of her childhood and of satisfying her romantic impulse to feel swept up into something larger than herself. To leave for Dublin with Baba is to enter into ‘that phase of our lives as the giddy country girls brazening the big city’” (Weston 93). For Caithleen, moving away is a personal and life-changing decision that makes it possible to escape the oppression of her past. Baba perceives their move to Dublin as an exciting change that will give her a life full of glamour and excitement, saying to Caithleen: “We want to live. Drink gin. Squeeze into the front of big cars and drive up outside big hotels. We want to go places” (E. O’Brien, The van Dorst 15

Country Girls Trilogy 183). Baba’s words illustrate her attraction to the economic possibilities and glamorous life she hopes to have. However, as Kersti Tarien Powell claims, for both of the girls the move to Dublin shows their desperate wish “to try to disassociate themselves from their ‘country’ background” (Powell 92). This background is, however, hard to escape, since the city folk immediately reinforce their identity as country girls. For instance, when Caithleen and Baba arrive in Dublin and meet their landlady, Joanna. Joanne immediately ridicules their identity: “‘Mein Gott Almighty, save us! Country girls have big huge appetite,’ she said, raising her hands in the air” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 159). Here, both Baba and

Caithleen are instantly characterised by their life outside of the city and reminded of the identity they wish to escape. By claiming that Baba and Caithleen have huge appetites, Joanna immediately differentiates the girls from the city folk. Her comment reinforces the girls’ need to fit the sophisticated identity of the city and denounce their current Irish identities.

After the girls have arrived in Dublin, the novel starts to make a connection between literature and Irish identity. Here it is, for instance, shown that Caithleen is extremely fond of

James Joyce and his well-known Dubliners (1914). Her adoration for the novel is shown when

Caithleen and Baba are in a room with rich men from Dublin. As Caithleen is speaking to one of her suitors, she immediately mentions Dubliners. Baba is annoyed with Caithleen always mentioning the novel, saying: “Will you, for Chrissake, stop asking fellas if they’ve read James

Joyce’s Dubliners? They’re not interested. They’re out for a night. Eat and drink all you can and leave James Joyce to blow his own trumpet” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 190).

Even though Baba is frustrated with Caithleen’s fixation on Joyce, one could see the connection between Joyce and The Country Girls. Joyce is a prominent part of the Irish identity, known for his celebrated contributions to the Irish literary tradition and reflections on the Irish identity.

For Caithleen, Joyce’s Dubliners reflects a life in the city that offers opportunities and fascinating stories. The novel illustrates the experiences of different Irish characters who live van Dorst 16 in Dublin and have different expectations of their life and future. For example, Dubliners tells the story of a child that has to deal with death, girls who have to get married, or a man that has to reflect on the Irish revolution. Similar to The Country Girls, emigration was an important topic that is mentioned a few times in Dubliners. For example, in the chapter called “Eveline”.

Here, Eveline has the opportunity to leave her abusive Irish father behind and move to the

United States with her lover Frank. Frank offers to take her away from her father and save her from a future in Ireland. However, in the end, Eveline is unable to leave her motherland and her father behind. “Eveline” compares to The Country Girls, since Caithleen and Eveline both hope that men save them from a future in Ireland with their abusive fathers and are considering the benefits of leaving the motherland. Moreover, “A Little Cloud” compares the lives of the

Irish that stay in Ireland and the ones that leave and build their fortune abroad. The short story compares the lives of Little Chandler and Ignatius Gallaher, who unexpectedly meet in Dublin.

Little Chandler stayed in Dublin and started a family, while Ignatius moved to London where he prospered. “A Little Cloud” illustrates the jealousy and regrets of not emigrating, and the economic possibilities one could have if they left Ireland. Similar to Ignatius Gallaher, Joyce and O’Brien left Ireland. Joyce moved to Europe, where he wrote about Ireland and criticised the customs and traditions he left behind. Similarly, O’Brien “went into Joycean exile in

England” (Cahalan 56), where she completed The Country Girls Trilogy and continued to criticise Ireland and the negative consequences of the Catholic religion. Both writers felt the need to move away from Ireland, even though they kept writing about Ireland and Irish culture.

Lastly, Baba’s comment in the fragment, saying that the men are not interested in Joyce, expresses a disinterest with Irish culture and heritage. The comment shows that, while

Caithleen questions her Irishness and cultural heritage, Baba is annoyed about being reminded of her Irishness and having to discover it. The latter wants to enjoy the company of the rich van Dorst 17 men that talk about the glitz and glamour of the city, preferring not to acknowledge the difficult themes that James Joyce addresses in Dubliners.

Thus, Baba and Caithleen both wish to leave their country girl identities behind, while they do have personal reasons to move to the city. Here, Baba craves to have a glamorous life in the city, focussing on the economic possibilities Dublin will offer her. She is uninterested in uncovering her Irish identity, wanting to ignore the discussions Caithleen desires to have about

Joyce. In contrast, Caithleen is interested in her Irish heritage and culture, wanting to discuss

James Joyce. Here, she hopes to ignite discussions about the challenging themes that Joyce addresses in Dubliners. Consequently, this section shows that Caithleen and Baba initially show a different interest in the Irish identity.

Chapter 1.3: The Nation

Caithleen’s relationship with Mr Gentlemen is important for her recognition of the Irish identity. When she is only 14 years old, Caithleen becomes infatuated with the much older man whom she has known since she was a little girl. The married French Mr Gentleman is a mysterious figure in Caithleen’s rural town. He worked as a solicitor in Dublin and returned to the rural town once in a while. Moreover, Mr Gentleman is not his actual name, since the villagers decided to call him that: “Mr. Gentleman was a beautiful man who lived in the white house on the hill … He was French, and his real name was Mr. de Maurier, but no one could pronounce it properly, and anyhow, he was such a distinguished man with his gray hair and his satin waistcoats that the local people christened him Mr. Gentleman” (E. O’Brien, The Country

Girls Trilogy, 15-16). The young Caithleen is fascinated with Mr Gentleman, who reflects glamour from the big city. Eventually, after Caithleen often tries to meet with him, the older man secretly courts her. Problematically, the connection between him and Caithleen is based on youth and trauma, as she has spent her adolescent years dealing with the trauma of losing van Dorst 18 her mother. After Caithleen and Baba move to Dublin, the relationship becomes more serious.

For the older man, her move to the big city means that she can have a relationship, even though he still chooses to hide it from others. Caithleen’s relationship with Mr Gentleman brings up the memories of her life in the rural village, the one that she wishes to escape. This reminiscing of her old life can, for example, be perceived when they meet during their time in Dublin, and he calls out her name. Mr Gentleman’s voice connects Caithleen to her Irishness: “He looked at me for a long time. That look of his which was half sexual, half mystic; and then he said my name very gently. (‘Caithleen.’) I could hear the bulrushes sighing when he said my name that way, and I could hear the curlew, too, and all the lonesome sounds of Ireland” (E. O’Brien,

The Country Girls Trilogy 208). The sounds that Mr Gentleman makes, and how he calls out her traditional Irish name, remind Caithleen of the Irish nature and culture of her past. By referring to the “lonesome sounds of Ireland,” Caithleen also remembers the loneliness of her hometown that she wanted to escape from, especially after her mother had died. Her Irish name reflects the sounds of Ireland, the “bulrushes” and the “curlew”, and seems to offer her comfort, even though the old rural town has left her with traumatic memories.

Moreover, Mr Gentleman is part of her memories of the past that she has left behind by moving to Dublin with Baba. Elizabeth Weston claims that relationships like the one with Mr

Gentleman are part of the trauma of losing her mother, saying: “Caithleen’s story is melancholic in that she does not—or cannot—fully examine her childhood trauma or break her attachment to her mother, leading to a lifelong pattern of remaining locked in her childhood pain” (Weston 92). Throughout the trilogy, Caithleen continues to feel this desire to escape her childhood trauma. Here, the trauma of losing her mother at an early age influences Caithleen’s move to Dublin, and eventually leaving her Irish family behind and moving to England altogether. As Caithleen says at the beginning of the novel, the intimate connection that she had with her mother is important to her. She describes it lovingly, saying: “I went over and put van Dorst 19 my arms around her neck and kissed her. She was the best mama in the world. I told her so, and she held me very close for a minute as if she would never let me go. I was everything in the world to her, everything” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 7). When Caithleen loses the relationship with her mother, whose unhappiness she wishes to avoid in her own life, it becomes easier to separate herself from her hometown. Caithleen still idealises the nature and surroundings of the rural town she shared with her mother but wants to escape the life that left her family imprisoned. Mrs Brady is a stereotypical example of a dependent woman in 1960s

Ireland, as Heather Ingman claims in her article about Edna O’Brien:

In the novel, mirroring real life, Mrs Brady’s powerlessness stems not only from a reluctance on the part of the authorities to enquire too closely into what was happening in families but also from her economic dependence on her husband, a dependence which is the inevitable result of her country’s construction of gender roles forbidding women a presence outside the home. (Ingman 255) The powerlessness that Ingman describes, and the economic independence Caithleen’s mother is looking for by leaving her husband, reflects the traditional gender roles the Irish Republic preferred. Caithleen’s mother was part of a large group of women who were living in rural Irish towns. Many of them were economically dependent and forced to adhere to the Irish gender roles of the Irish Republic. These traditional gender roles were especially noticeable after

Ireland became independent from England and was able to write its own Constitution. Ingman describes the role of women in the new Constitution:

The Constitution underlined, in Article 41.2, women’s domestic identity as bearers of children and keepers of the home. In this role, women were expected to ensure the stability of the state, the preservation of the family and the upholding of Catholic values. During the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s when Edna O’Brien was growing up and embarking on her career as a writer, the situation of women in Ireland remained largely unchanged. They were confined to the home, restricted in their professional lives, and forbidden access to contraception, abortion and divorce. (Ingman 254) van Dorst 20

What Ingman describes here applies to The Country Girls as well, since confinement and restriction in the home are part of the reason that Caithleen’s mother wants to leave her husband. Mrs Brady wants to find a better place for her and her daughter, where she is not confined to the house and unable to make her own decisions. Remembering her mother’s inability to escape makes Caithleen continuously struggle with the limitations of post-colonial

Ireland. She tries to find her own identity in an Ireland that was suppressed and confined by the English colonisers, and now emphasised its traditional values more than ever before.

The suppression and confinement of the Irish Republic lead to characters that have a disfigured Irish identity. This identity initially was shaped by Irish folklore, the Irish language,

Irish literature and drama – and these were all put aside during colonial times. Colonised

Ireland focussed on British culture, and Irish culture was dismissed. The suppression of Irish culture especially noticeable in Dublin since it was the main British settlement in Ireland.

Names such as Victoria Street, Wellington Road, and Waterloo Road still prioritise the British culture over the Irish one. Another example of British culture was the red mailbox, a copy of the red British variant. After Ireland became independent, all of the red mailboxes in Ireland were painted green. These two examples illustrate how Irish culture was denied and replaced, but also emphasise the importance of culture as a device in the colonial period. Nicholas B.

Dirks speaks about how “[c]ulture can be seen both as a historically constituted domain of significant concepts and practices and as a regime in which power achieves its ultimate apotheosis” (Dirks 59). In relation to Ireland, Dirks portrays how the British used the suppression of culture as the ultimate way to achieve power over the Irish. He states that the coloniser is known to use culture and tradition to create opposition and achieve power, saying:

“… they displaced many of the disruptions and excesses of rule into institutions and cultures that were labeled as tradition. Colonialism came to be seen as ascendant and necessary precisely through the construction of the colonial world, with its naturalized oppositions van Dorst 21 between us and them, science and barbarity, modern and traditional” (Dirks 60). After colonial rule ended, Ireland had to get used to the possibility of making their own decisions in terms of culture and tradition, as the English had repressed theirs for centuries. The Irish decided to emphasise traditional culture in its government, focussing on the Catholic values and principles. For characters such as Mrs Brady and Caithleen, the rules in the new Constitution were seen as restrictive, since it made the decisions for women with only the traditional

Catholic ideals in mind.

The figure of Mother Ireland has had an immense impact on Irish identity and culture.

Mother Ireland represented the rebellion of the Irish toward the suppression of Irish culture and was used to express the need to change from the country that it had been during British rule.

As Maria Amor Barros-del Rio claims, the figure of Mother Ireland was initially a feminine icon:

Among others, the patriarchal ideological construction of the Free State of Ireland has been pointed to as a determining factor. The feminine icons of Mother Church and Mother Ireland (or Erin) had been gaining ground since the nineteenth century for nationalistic purposes, and from the first decades of the twentieth century, women were ‘actively interpellated as national subjects through identification with territory, soil, land and landscape’ (Gray 1999, 205). (Barros-del Rio, “Translocational Irish Identities” 1498) As this citation claims, the figure of Mother Ireland was eventually used for nationalist purposes. The figure emphasised the Church and adoration for Ireland and the Irish identity.

Mother Ireland resurfaced after the colonial period when the Irish population wanted to rediscover their suppressed and ignored Irish identity. However, the nationalistic icon eventually limited the female population as national subjects who had to mirror the importance of the family. In relation to female characters in The Country Girls, Julia C. Obert connects the figure of Mother Ireland to Mrs Brady, claiming: van Dorst 22

Indeed, O’Brien takes these domestic demands to their ‘logical’ end point in The Country Girls: when Caithleen’s mother leaves the home one afternoon with Tom O’Brien, a potential suitor, she is later found drowned. The Mother Ireland myth, O’Brien suggests, turns lived maternity into a kind of imprisonment, with death as the punishment for attempted jail-break. (Obert 285) As Obert states here, for the mother of Caithleen, the figure led to a feeling of imprisonment since it pressured her to be an unflawed matriarch. However, for many of the Irish, the figure of Mother Ireland was a positive and nationalist symbol, emphasising the Church and adoration for Ireland and the Irish identity. This adoration was especially noticeable after the declaration of the Irish Republic. Around that time, well-known Irish nationalists like William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory joined the so-called Irish Revival. This Revival wanted to rediscover the

Irish identity by emphasising the Irish traditions and language in literature and theatre. As claimed by Chang, these revivalists tried “hard to channel nationalism into the construction of artistic perfection and to kindle Irish people’s awareness of Irish-ness as opposed to the encroaching British imperial culture” (Chang 69). Ingman acknowledges the return of nationalism to Ireland in connection to Mother Ireland:

Fixed construct of gender have been central to Irish nationalism. On a symbolic level, going back to eighteenth-century Gaelic poetry, Ireland was constructed as a woman victimised by the colonising English male. She was Hibernia, Mother Ireland, the Poor Old Woman, the Shan Van Vocht, Cathleen ni Houlihan, the Dark Rosaleen – images taken up a century later by Anglo-Irish poets. (Ingman 253) The figure of Mother Ireland was, thus, used in many different plays and stories. Here, writers and poets used different concepts that all reflected the same figure. Mother Ireland was also shaped like a “woman victimised by the colonizing English male” (Ingman 253), connecting colonial rule to the helplessness of women. The figure is important for the analysis of The

Country Girls Trilogy since it is part of the Irish literary tradition and reflects on Irish independence. Furthermore, the figure is also part of the life of Edna O’Brien, who called her memoir Mother Ireland. In the memoir, she writes about her love for Ireland and describes the van Dorst 23 experiences that eventually led to her exile. After explaining all of the hardships she had to go through in Ireland, O’Brien explains the connection she still has to her motherland:

It is true that a country encapsulates our childhood and those lanes, byres, fields, flowers, insects, suns, moons and stars are forever re-occurring and tantalising me with a possibility of a golden key which would lead beyond birth to the roots of one’s lineage. Irish? In truth I would not want to be anything else. It is a state of mind as well as an actual country. It is being at odds with other nationalities, having quite different philosophy about pleasure, about punishment, about life, and about death. At least it does not leave one pusillanimous. (E. O’Brien, Mother Ireland 144) This citation from Mother Ireland illustrates this endless love for the motherland and the Irish identity, as O’Brien claims that her Irishness continued to be part of her after her exile. Being

Irish is explained as a “state of mind” (E. O’Brien, Mother Ireland 144) wherein identity is connected to this constant struggle and discussion about traditions, religion, and beliefs. The constant struggle with the Irish identity is similarly seen with Caithleen, who in the trilogy continuously reflects on her Irish heritage and past.

Consequently, this chapter showed that the Catholic religion plays an essential role in

Caithleen and Baba’s Irish identities. Even though both girls were raised with the values of the

Catholic Church, they both perceive religion differently in the Irish identity. Here, while Baba rebels against the rules of the convent and nuns, Caithleen often approves of the Irish Catholic values and traditions. Furthermore, the Republic of Ireland, Constitution, and the Figure of

Mother Ireland restricted women to the home, and this is what Caithleen and Baba want to escape from. By moving to Dublin, the girls hope to leave their country girl identities behind.

van Dorst 24

Chapter 2: The Lonely Girl

Chapter 2.1 Catholicism

This second chapter analyses how Caithleen and Baba’s move to Dublin continues to change and challenge their views on relationships and marriage. By having an affair with the married

Eugene Gaillard, Caithleen challenges her countries’ Catholic ideals. Moreover, the discussion that Eugene has with Mr Brady about their affair illustrates the difference between the rural and city perceptions of the Irish identity. Caithleen’s Irish identity is also constantly challenged by Eugene since he criticises her language, habits, and religion. This critique leads to Caithleen doubting her Irish identity and trying to fit Eugene’s ideal. The chapter additionally illustrates how Caithleen and Baba’s move to England is their way of acquiring better economic opportunities, while they also desire to escape the limitation of Ireland. Lastly, this chapter shows how, for Caithleen, the move to England leads to fragmentation of her memories of

Ireland.

The second novel of the trilogy starts with a lonely Caithleen who has been left behind by Mr Gentleman. She lives in an apartment with Baba while she discovers life in the city as an independent woman. By going to Dublin, Caithleen tried to leave the country life and a possible future with her father behind. However, Caithleen’s new relationship with the older and married film director Eugene Gaillard eventually reinstates Mr Brady in her life. At first, their relationship is a secret, since Eugene is still married to his wife. His American wife Laura and his child live in the United States, far away from Ireland, while Eugene lives in a big home outside of Dublin, The fact that Eugene is still married and has a child makes the relationship problematic to the old-fashioned individuals around them. For Christians like Mr Brady, a relationship outside of marriage is unacceptable. By continuing to date the married film director, Caithleen challenges the traditional Catholic rules and traditions. van Dorst 25

Eugene and Caithleen have distinct perceptions of the Irish identity, since Eugene had a completely different upbringing. He lived in Dublin for most of his life, where he was raised solely by his mother. Most importantly, Eugene is brought up without religion. He is critical of the Church and claims that Catholics are “the most opinionated people on earth – their self- mania, he said, frightened him” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 256). Eugene’s views about religion are quite different from Caithleen’s. For her, religion is part of her upbringing and plays an essential part in the life and future she sees for herself. In their relationship,

Eugene tolerates Caithleen’s beliefs, often only critically commenting on the Catholic Church.

He refuses to participate in Caithleen’s traditions, as can be seen when Caithleen decides to go to Mass. Here, while Eugene stays in front of the church “sitting on the low mossy wall opposite the chapel gate” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 416), Caithleen goes to the service alone. After she exits the church, Eugene immediately remarks that: “… when you’re in there, you become a convent girl again” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 417). Caithleen immediately answers his teasing remark, saying that: “‘I wouldn’t get married,’ I said rashly,

‘unless I got married in a church’” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 419). Caithleen emphasises that, in her marriage, she will remain loyal to her Catholic beliefs, even though her future husband disagrees.

At first, Caithleen’s views on religion are similar to her father’s, even though his are more traditional and dogmatic. His Catholic beliefs are the reasons why he involves himself in

Caithleen’s relationship with Eugene. The Catholic faith has been a constant in Irish society, even during British rule. After the Republic of Ireland was proclaimed, the new government decided to make the Catholic religion part of its Constitution. The values in this new

Constitution intertwined with Catholic beliefs, where Article 41.2 underlined “women’s domestic identity as bearers of children and keepers of the home. In this role, women were expected to ensure the stability of the state, the preservation of the family and the upholding of van Dorst 26

Catholic values” (Ingman 254). Mr Brady raised Caithleen with these values and saw them as fundamental in the decisions his daughter would need to make as an adult.

As Mariá Amor Barros-del Rio claims, while for many of the Irish citizens the Catholic beliefs coincided with their love for Ireland, this conservative nationalism did restrict the female population:

… The Country Girls Trilogy was developed within the framework of strong Catholic and conservative nationalism, reinforced by a protectionist economic policy that from an ideological point of view exerted strong pressures on the female population, and in particular on mothers as the pillars and safeguards of Irish traditions. (Barros-del Río, “Thematic Transgressions and Formal Innovations” 21) Barros-del Río highlights the importance of Irish traditions in the lives of Irish women.

Additionally, she illustrates how O’Brien trilogy reflects on this part of the Irish identity. The characters of Caithleen and Baba exemplify conflicted women who try to find their way around these traditions. Here, Baba differs from Caithleen since she is continuously challenging the

Catholic ideal and is “scornful of the Church’s hypocritical position on contraception and its emphasis on motherhood as the essence of womanhood, specifically Irish motherhood” (Byron

475). Caithleen finds it difficult to challenge the Irish ideals she was raised by and that her father praises. It is, however, because of these Irish ideals that Caithleen and Baba become confined in what they expect of their future. As Derek Hand states, O’Brien’s trilogy illustrates that “[t]he real problem for Kate and Baba is not just that their world only offers limited roles for women but also that their access to a range of images of rebellion and possibility is also limited” (Hand 241). The girl’s limited way of rebelling against the traditional Irish identity eventually plays an essential role in their decision to move to England.

Caithleen’s relationship with Eugene Gaillard is the first way that she rebels against the traditional Irish identity and beliefs. Unfortunately, while Caithleen continually tries to please him, he is critical of her identity, wanting to change it. Her language and rural habits are essential in this transformation. When they start dating, Eugene states that he will call Caithleen van Dorst 27 by a more proper name, immediately dismissing the most prominent signifier of her Irish identity, saying: “We met three evenings a week after that. In between he wrote me postcards, and as time went on he wrote letters. He called me Kate, as he said that Caithleen was too

‘Kilkartan’ for his liking – whatever that meant” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 258).

By Anglicising her name, Eugene erases the Irish language from her identity. To him, the name

Kate seems less Irish, less country girl, and more modern. Elizabeth Weston addresses the change of Caithleen’s name, saying that: “…[it] destabilizes Kate’s sense of cultural as well as personal identity. Being shamed for her rural Irish origins and having her identity managed for her reenacts the powerlessness of childhood; her personal difficulties and the constraints of her cultural context cannot be viewed as separate from one another” (Weston 97). Weston shows that Caithleen’s Irish name is part of her personal and cultural identity. By changing her name,

Eugene dominates her identity. The new name makes Caithleen question her identity as an Irish woman, wondering if it is shameful to have a common Irish name.

Moreover, Eugene refuses to take Caithleen into society because of her country girl habits. Because he was raised in higher circles, Eugene perceives Caithleen’s manners as unrefined. Her manners embarrass him and make him hesitant to bring Caithleen along on business trips to London. The couple’s conversations often feature Eugene’s dismissal of her unsophisticated ways, whereas he, for example, once questions her way of eating an orange:

“You swallow them (orange pits),” he repeated, raising his eyes to the cracked ceiling. “How am I ever going to take you into society?” “I’ll be very polite,” I said, sure that he would invite me to London, but he didn’t. (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 300) As shown in this citation, for Eugene, something as small as swallowing orange pits illustrates an unrefined woman. In the rest of the novel, Eugene continues to criticise the habits that remind him of Caithleen’s rural past. Here, his dismissal of her unrefined ways drives a wedge between Caithleen and her Irish identity, since he makes her insecure and ashamed about her van Dorst 28

Irishness. By confessing that he is hesitant to take Caithleen into society, Eugene acknowledges that he hides her and the relationship from others. Later in the novel, he also confesses his dissatisfaction with her proficiency of the English language, saying to his friends: “‘I’m teaching Kate how to speak English before I take her into society,’ and ‘Run upstairs on your peasant legs’” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 425). By claiming that Caithleen’s language makes her a “peasant”, Eugene diminishes and Others her in the process. When analysing these fragments, one could claim that Eugene’s actions show the refusal of her Irish identity since her habits, language, and name are deeply rooted in her Irish identity.

For the analysis of the Irish identity, it is essential to consider the connection between language and the colonial, especially since language is a fundamental part of culture that shapes identity. Bill Ashcroft et al. state that language plays a significant role in colonial oppression, saying: “One of the main features of imperial oppression is control over language. The imperial education system installs a ‘standard’ version of the metropolitan language as the norm and marginalizes all ‘variants’ as impurities” (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 7). The difference between the norm of English that Eugene speaks and the variant that Caithleen speaks shows this marginalisation. Eugene’s English is the standard, while Caithleen’s English is the impure variant. When looking at Ireland in particular, Margaret Hallissy claims that language has been a constant subject for discussion: “Language in Ireland, like land ownership, is a contentious issue, pitting the language of the natives against that of the conquerors, and exacerbating tensions between the two groups. In an effort to maintain their cultural identity, the Irish long resisted the suppression of their language” (Hallissy 2-3). As Hallissy shows, language is part of the Irish identity, and with the British suppressing the Gaelic language during their rule, there remained tension between the Irish and British.

In post-colonial literature, writers often reflect on language and having to speak the language of the coloniser. For instance, Jamaica Kincaid, who reflects on language in her novel van Dorst 29 about colonial rule in Antigua. The island of Antigua was once a colony of the British, used as a dockyard for the West Indies Corporation. In A Small Place, Kincaid emphasises the consequences of the colonial period:

For isn’t it odd that the only language I have in which to speak of this crime is the language of the criminal who committed the crime? And what can that really mean? For the language of the criminal can contain only the goodness of the criminal’s deed. The language of the criminal can explain and express the deed only from the criminal’s point of view. (Kincaid 31-32) As Kincaid claims, being obligated to speak the language of the coloniser is significant in post- colonial trauma since it is the language of the coloniser who committed crimes against the colonised. The obligation to speak the language of the coloniser is therefore problematic for one’s culture and identity. In Ireland specifically, the Irish were unable to speak their Gaelic language for centuries. This inability has led to a traumatised Irish identity, showing the power that language has. In The Lonely Girls, Eugene shows this power as well, as he feels superior over Caithleen when he is Othering her because of her language. Here, he frequently tells

Caithleen that her English proficiency is not on his level and that it is below the standard. David

Cairns and Shaun Richard state that the coloniser often demands subordination through language, creating a divide between the language variants of the coloniser and colonised, saying: “The process of describing the colonized [in Ireland] and inscribing them in the discourse as second-order citizens in comparison with the colonizers the colonized attempted to convince the colonized themselves of their irremovable deficiencies and the consequent naturalness and permanence of their subordination” (Cairns & Richards 134). By claiming that that Caithleen’s name and English variant make her a second-order citizen, Eugene is dominating Caithleen’s identity. His domination through language compares to colonial rule, when language became “the medium through which a hierarchal structure of power is perpetuated” (Ashcroft et al., The Empire Writes Back 7). In the relationship between Eugene van Dorst 30 and Caithleen, language brings power to Eugene, and by critiquing her language, he shapes and discredits her Irish identity.

This section argues that, while Caithleen’s new relationship with Eugene Gaillard makes her question her religion and beliefs, it also portrays that their different views and upbringing are a challenge for her Irish identity. Here, Eugene wishes to mould Caithleen into his ideal woman by criticising her language, habits, and religion. Furthermore, by constantly disapproving of her Irish identity, Eugene makes Caithleen confused and conflicted about who she is and how she has to act. Lastly, Eugene also demands subordination by denying to publicly show their relationship until she fits his ideal, continually moulding her Irish identity to fit his preference.

2.2 The Letters and Aftermath

An anonymous letter from a critical spectator eventually informs Mr Brady about Caithleen and Eugene’s affair, leading to trouble in their relationship. The affair is problematic for Mr

Brady since Eugene is not the ideal Irish Catholic man he had in mind for his daughter. He perceives their relationship as sinful, seeing as his daughter is sleeping with a married man outside of marriage. The first letter that Caithleen receives, and dismisses, orders her to stop seeing Eugene:

Are you aware that this man is evil and has lived with numerous women and then walked out on them. If you cease to disregard this information I shall have to secure your parents’ address and inform them. A friend (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 312) Caithleen is not discouraged by the first letter but is shown that there are people in her environment that are under the impression that they should warn her, and that they have the right to do so. Even though Caithleen is shaken by the anonymous letter, seeing as someone knows about their affair, she ignores it. But, the harassment continues and, eventually, van Dorst 31

Caithleen’s father receives a letter as well. His letter acknowledges Eugene’s lack of religion, wife and child, and therefore his infidelity:

Dear Mr Brady, It is high time you knew about your daughter and the company she keeps. For over two months she’s having to do with a married man, who is not living with his wife. He is well known in this city as a dangerous type. No one knows where he gets his money and he has no religion. He shipped his wife to America, and the house is a blind to get young girls out there and dope them. Your daughter goes there alone. I hope I am not too late in warning you, as I would not like to see a nice Catholic Irish girl ruined by a dirty foreigner. A friend (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 314) The letter illustrates frustration and hostility over Eugene’s lifestyle, claiming that her affair with a “dirty foreigner” will ruin a “nice Catholic Irish girl”. Mr Brady disregards the relationship as well since it dismisses the Catholic religion and its standards. He wants his daughter to marry an Irish Catholic man that lives up to Catholic standards, and Eugene is the opposite of this standard – he is married, has a child, and is not a Catholic. Mr Brady uses the anonymous letter to take Caithleen back to her hometown against her will. When he has picked her up in Dublin, and she questions her father’s reasons to take her home, he tells her not to worry, claiming that “you’ll meet a nice boy yet, one of your own kind” (E. O’Brien, The

Country Girls Trilogy 321). Caithleen realises that she refuses to leave Eugene and will not marry according to her father’s standards, saying: “I did not tell him this but I now knew that

I would never marry one of my own kind” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 321). By rejecting her father’s wish to marry his ideal Irish man, she challenges the Irish identity that is wished of her.

The “one of your own kind” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 321) is a striking saying of Mr Brady. It is problematic, since one could wonder what it means to be part of this kind. Mr Brady has a preference for his kind, the Irish Catholic, and acknowledges that there is another kind that is unaccepted. He is Othering people that do not fit his ideal, and thereby van Dorst 32 questions the Irish identity. It is a way of categorising people in his country, more fit to the colonial times than the modern times that Mr Brady is living in. By taking Caithleen home, Mr

Brady hopes to get her to connect to her kind and her heritage. However, as George O’Brien claims about the rural home, Caithleen’s past experiences could suggest “a rupture between land and people which makes the rural environment a habitat where nature seems incompatible with nurture, thereby complicating the traditional cultural and ideological status of the land as site and source of Irish authenticity” (G. O’Brien, The Irish Novel 1). Caithleen does not see her rural town as a place of nurture since her father mostly ignored and dismissed her because of his alcohol addiction. Her mother is her prime example of someone who suffered from the abuse of her father, and who wanted to escape the rural environment of Caithleen’s past. This neglect and trauma from Caithleen’s past do not make her rural hometown an ideal place of heritage that still attracts her. The rural town also reminds Caithleen of the life that she will have if she stays with her father. This possible future makes Caithleen realise that she will not adhere to her father’s ideals, saying: “I was determined to go back to Eugene, Eternal

Damnation or not… I was going away again, going away forever. (E. O’Brien, The Country

Girls Trilogy 324). By saying that she will welcome “Eternal Damnation”, Caithleen shows that she knowingly challenges the Catholic values, since marrying a divorced man, who already has a family, would suggest that divorce and relationships outside of marriage should be accepted. Caithleen knows that her father will never accept her relationship with Eugene and that she has lost her ability to live in the conservative rural town of her youth. It is after these realisations that Caithleen decides to secretly leave the place of her past.

After she has returned to Dublin, her father shows up at Eugene’s house with two friends from Caithleen’s hometown. The three men plan to take Caithleen back to the isolated town by dragging her away from Eugene, by force if they have to. While she hides under the bed, the men have a conversation with Eugene. This whole conversation is significant because van Dorst 33 it shows the Othering that we have seen in the last paragraph. Additionally, the discussion also highlights the trauma of colonialism and the consequences of it on the Irish identity. As is shown in other fragments from the trilogy, religion seems to be the main topic of the conversation:

“Are you a Catholic?” the Ferret asked, in a policeman’s voice. “I’m not a Catholic,” Eugene answered. “D’you go to Mass?” my father asked. “But, my dear man-” Eugene began. “There’s no ‘my dear man.’ Cut it out. Do you go to Mass or don’t you? D’you eat meat on Fridays?” “God help Ireland,” Eugene said, and I imagined him throwing his hands up in his costumary gesture of impatience. “None of that blasphemy,” cousin Andy shouted, making a noise as he struck his fist into his palm. (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 377-378) Eugene criticises the men’s adoration for the Catholic religion and the rituals connected to it, astounded by their aggressive attitude. Eugene’s rejection of the Irish values angers cousin

Andy, as he sees Eugene’s attitude as a dismissal of the rural perception of the Irish identity.

Eugene’s refusal of the Irish Catholic heritage also frightens Jack Holland, who was once a friend of Caithleen’s mother. Jack agrees with Mr Brady and Andy’s fears, saying: “‘The tragic history of our fair land,’ Jack Holland exclaimed. ‘Alien power sapped our will to resist’” (E.

O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 379). Here, Jack Holland relates Irish history to the foreigner making the decisions, and the Irish’s inability to resist these decisions. By putting these two groups oppositional of each other, O’Brien portrays the clash between the religious country folk and modern city people. Margaret Hallissy acknowledges how Irish writing frequently illustrates the differences between the city and the countryside, saying:

The countryside, particularly the remote areas in the west, is perceived as less contaminated by contact with the modern world, more traditional in values. The city is seen as the locus of worldly values, but also of accomplishment of all sorts: educational, economic, artistic. City folk see themselves as sophisticated, worldly-wise, van Dorst 34

Europeanized and/or Americanized, open to change and to cultural diversity. Urbanites scorn the “culchies,” rural people, who scorn the urbanites in turn. (Hallissy 1-2) Mr Brady and his friends all see the countryside as their “fair land” (E. O’Brien, The Country

Girls Trilogy 379), while Eugene ridicules the values the rural folk grew up with. The men are seemingly Othering each other, complaining about how the other lives and what they believe.

Moreover, the men Other each other about their appearance. Here, Andy claims that Eugene looks like a foreigner, while Eugene rebukes his statement: “‘Not at all,’ Eugene said pleasantly. ‘Not at all as foreign as your tiny, blue, Germanic eyes, my friend’” (E. O’Brien,

The Country Girls Trilogy 379). Both characters claim that the other does not look Irish, that their appearance does not identify them as Irish, and thereby isolate one another. This Othering is, once again, a way of challenging and criticising the Irish identity.

When the discussion is almost over, Mr Brady claims that he will still take Caithleen back to her rural town. Eugene refuses to let him take Caithleen with him, saying: “‘She’s over twenty-one, you can’t force her,’ Eugene said, ‘not even in Ireland’” (E. O’Brien, The Country

Girls Trilogy 381). Mr Brady’s friend Andy responds to Eugene, saying: “Can’t we? We won our fight for freedom. It’s our country now” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 381).

Andy’s words illustrate the resentment the Irish feel about their colonial past and this need to acknowledge that Ireland is theirs and that they can make their own decisions. To them, the fight for independence has given the Irish the right to decide how the younger generations should live. Ireland is “their country” now, where the British are unable to reject their customs and decisions. Here, the discussion shows this continuation of “Irish association of Britain with colonial oppression” (Cullingford 69), as the anglicised and opinionated Eugene reminds Mr

Brady and his friends of the British coloniser.

Eventually, when Caithleen refuses to go to her father, and he returns once more with a pastor in tow, his last words reflect his disbelief with Eugene: “‘You think you’re very important,’ [he] said, ‘but this is our country, and you can’t come along here and destroy people van Dorst 35 who’ve lived here for generations…’” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 415). Eugene’s refusal of Irish traditions angers Mr Brady, claiming that Eugene’s actions illustrate destruction of the country that is finally theirs, and therefore destroy his people. Caithleen is expected to be faithful to her roots, however, as George O’Brien claims, “the kind of background to which

Caithleen is presumed to be loyal is effectively a synecdoche of pre-1960s Ireland: patriotic in an aggressively nationalist way, religious in a perfunctorily observant way, moral in a bombastically tyrannical way” (G. O’Brien, “The Aesthetics of Exile” 41). The trauma of losing her mother, and the possibility of having to live with an abusive father, is what eventually leads to Caithleen’s dismissal of her father’s values. Despite his wishes, she continues her relationship with Eugene.

Thus, this section showed how Caithleen’s relationship with Eugene changes and influences her Irish identity. The discussion between the men illustrates how Eugene, Mr

Brady, and his friends challenge each other's identities. Here, while Mr Brady and his friends claim that the ideal Irish identity is intertwined with the Catholic religion, the sophisticated

Eugene mocks the old-fashioned rural men and their Catholic values.

2.3 Exile to England

Baba and Caithleen both see England as a place of opportunities, to escape the lives that they would continue to have in Ireland. This section shows how Caithleen and Baba’s exile to

England is a consequence of the limitations of the Irish Republic, as England offers the girls economic opportunities and freedom to make their own decisions.

Baba is first introduced to the opportunities in England when she chooses to have an abortion. Until 2018, abortion was illegal in Ireland, and women had to secretly go to England to have the procedure done. The Eighth Amendment of the Irish Constitution had prohibited abortion as the government argued that the unborn foetus had the same value as the mother. van Dorst 36

With Baba’s abortion, Caithleen is the first person that recommends her to go to England. Here, both girls contradict the traditional beliefs and rules that the Church required of them, especially since the Irish Catholic Church would not accept an abortion. Baba sees the freedom and opportunities England offers and is determined to emigrate.

Baba’s wish to emigrate mirrors the motivation of many Irish women in the twentieth century. As José Carregal-Romero shows, emigration was quite common for young Irish women, saying: “Emigration was a very common phenomenon in the lives of young women

… As has been noticed, women’s emigration was primarily the consequence of unemployment and the low marriage rate in the Republic, since ‘as soon as young Irish women realised that there was ‘no husband and no job at home’’, they departed in greater numbers” (Carregal-

Romero 130). As is stated here, the unemployment and low marriage rate in the Republic led to mass emigration of Irish women who preferred England’s better opportunities. England’s bigger population also meant that there would be more opportunities to marry and start a family, knowing that an unmarried Irish woman in Catholic Ireland did not have many possibilities. The United Kingdom, therefore, offered a better future for single women and possibilities to earn money without initially needing to rely on marriage.

Eventually, the limitations of Ireland and the dismissal of her relationship with Eugene lead to Caithleen’s decision to emigrate. As Ingman claims: “[Caithleen] chooses flight to

England, the Other, defined by her father’s cronies as a pagan place in contrast with Catholic

Ireland” (Ingman 256), thereby rejecting her father’s values for the last time. Unfortunately, the relationship with Eugene has become complicated after the discussion with her father and his friends. When Eugene asks Caithleen about her plans, she comments with doubt:

“I might go to London.” “Do you want to go?” “No.” “Then why are you going?” van Dorst 37

“What else can I do?” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 392) Caithleen’s words show that she sees no other way than leaving the limitations and restrictions of Ireland. Baba still wants to leave Ireland since she continued to see the restrictions that her future might have, saying that she wants to leave “this curse of a country…” (E. O’Brien, The

Country Girls Trilogy 446). After Eugene eventually decides to break up with Caithleen, she chooses to follow Baba to England, hoping to find a new prosperous life for herself. It seems that Dublin did not offer the opportunities Caithleen and Baba hoped for. In terms of their freedom as women, Norman Vance claims that Dublin “encountered [sexual liberation] sooner than the countryside … [but] attractively wicked London was not too far away, a place of liberty and license as well as of economic opportunity” (Vance 168). For Caithleen and Baba, there are more possibilities abroad, which is a problem frequently analysed in Irish literature.

Here, chapter one of this thesis previously mentioned how James Joyce focussed on migration in “Eveline” and “A Little Cloud” from his well-known Dubliners. In contemporary literature,

Irish writer Colm Toibín similarly concentrates on Irish migration in Brooklyn (2009). The novel focusses on 20th century Irish immigration to New York City, missing the home, and having to build a new life in a different country. Consequently, these emigration stories by Irish writers such as James Joyce, Colm Toibín, and Edna O’Brien all emphasise how emigration and exile are part of the Irish identity, while they also portray the difficulties and possibilities of emigration.

The last chapter of The Lonely Girl focusses on Caithleen’s life in England. She now works in a delicatessen shop in Bayswater and studies English at London University. Having

Caithleen study English, the language that she was often criticised for, seems striking. Here,

Caithleen’s education may be O’Brien’s way of portraying how Caithleen wishes to accept the part of her identity she was often insecure about – her variant of the language of the Other.

Furthermore, studying the English language also means that Caithleen will become an expert on the topic of English culture, dismissing her Irish culture and Gaelic language. van Dorst 38

However, even though Caithleen is now living in England and studying a different culture, she is still remembering her life in Ireland and relationship with Eugene:

It is hot summer, and I miss the fields and the soft breeze, and I sometimes think of a brown mountain stream with willows and broom pods hanging over it; and I think of the day I went fishing there with him, and he wore big boots and waded upstream. At unguarded moments, in the last Tube, or drying my face by sticking my head out the window (we aren’t allowed in the garden), I ask myself why I ever left him, why I didn’t cling on tight, the way the barnacles cling to the rock. (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 479) Caithleen idealises her memories of Ireland, romanticising Irish nature and perceiving it as a part of her Irish identity. She reminisces about the Irish landscape, disregarding that it was the solitude and limitation of rural Ireland she desired to escape. Here, Caithleen’s recollections idealise her past in Ireland, making her forget the traumatic and restrictive events that led to her exile. In his “Imaginary Homelands”, Salman Rushdie addresses the idealisation of memories of the motherland, claiming that: “the shards of memory acquired greater status, greater resonance, because they were remains; fragmentation made trivial things seem like symbols, and the mundane acquired numinous qualities” (Rushdie 429). Caithleen’s memories of Ireland, of nature and her village, acquire this greater status since they are the remains of parts of her Irish identity she has left behind. The fragmentation of her memories of Ireland is what makes Caithleen question her identity more and more in the last novel.

Consequently, this chapter argues that the girls’ different expectations of relationships and the future are intertwined with their interpretations of the Irish identity. While Caithleen wants the ideal marriage and family, as the Irish government prefers, Baba solely aspires to have a wealthy and glamorous life. Moreover, Eugene’s critique and mocking of Caithleen’s language, habits, and name make her confront her Irish identity and wonder what it means to be Irish. Furthermore, the discussion between Mr Brady, his friends, and Eugene emphasises the different ways that the rural and the city people see the Irish identity. Here, Mr Brady sees van Dorst 39 the Catholic religion as part of the Irish identity, while Eugene ridicules its significance. Lastly,

Caithleen and Baba’s emigration illustrates that both of them are aware of the opportunities in

England and know that Ireland will limit them in their hopes and dreams. By moving, Baba prefers to leave her Irish identity behind, while Caithleen idealises her memories of Ireland and remains intertwined with the motherland.

van Dorst 40

Chapter 3: Girls in Their Married Bliss and the Epilogue

Chapter 3.1: Married life

This final chapter analyses the aftermath of Baba and Caithleen’s move to England, their marriages, and their adult lives. Here, while Baba accepts how her life has turned out, with a marriage based on economic possibilities, Caithleen does not have the loving marriage she always wanted. Caithleen and Baba’s relationships show that they had different expectations of marriage. Here, Baba did not care if love was involved, while Caithleen, romanticised her future marriage and wished for a loving relationship her parents did not have. Moreover, for

Caithleen, moving to Ireland and raising an English son makes her idealise and romanticise her memories of her motherland. It is with her son that she recognises that her kin will not have the Irish identity and will never be able to understand her Irish culture and traditions. It is in another country that Caithleen recognises the adoration she has for the homeland, despite the trauma associated with Ireland.

In Girls in Their Married Bliss, there is a different structure than in the other two novels.

In the first two, we only read Caithleen’s narrative. In this third novel, many of the chapters are narrated by Baba, while Caithleen’s chapters are narrated in in the third person. The reader is now able to read how Baba experiences Ireland and her friend Caithleen. The new structure makes it possible to retract from Caithleen, illustrating what the people other than Caithleen think and do. This change in narrative additionally illustrates how Baba’s view about marriage and religion oppose Caithleen’s. Here, James M. Cahalan states that Baba exemplifies a more feminist narrative, differing from her friend: “O’Brien becomes increasingly critical of Kate’s plight, choosing in Girls in Their Married Bliss and the epilogue to switch the narrator to Baba, who is a much tougher feminist alternative to Caithleen/Kate throughout the trilogy” (Cahalan

61). Edna O’Brien herself also explains that Caithleen and Baba have different expectations of marriage, saying: “Kate was looking for love. Baba was looking for money. Kate was timid, van Dorst 41 yearning and elegiac. Baba took up the cudgel against life and married an Irish builder who was as likely to clout her as to do anything else” (E. O’Brien, “Why Heroines Don’t Have To

Be Good Anymore” 13). By looking for economic stability, Baba has married a rich Irish builder whom she has met at an Irish gathering in London. Ironically, Baba was specifically looking for an Irish man to marry, someone who would understand her culture and background.

This Irish requirement seems surprising since Baba often disregards her Irish heritage and identity. However, as Eileen Morgan claims, Baba’s decision “to marry an affluent building contractor whom she finds physically repulsive confirms that in her eyes, marriage at best offers women an opportunity to secure their material well-being” (Morgan 463). Caithleen’s opinion of marriage differs from Baba’s, since her “unrealistic expectations continually set her up for disappointment” (Morgan 463). Here, Baba explains that Caithleen did eventually marry

Eugene, continuing their troubling relationship. After their breakup in The Lonely Girl, Eugene visited Caithleen in London, and the couple reconnected. Baba explains that they now lived in a valley in the countryside of England and had a son whom they called Cash. By solely reading the title of this third novel, one could expect Girls in Their Married Bliss. However, this title appears to be misleading, since Baba and Caithleen are both unhappy.

Here, the girls are not satisfied with their marriages, as the first sentence of the novel immediately points out: “Not long ago Kate Brady and I were having a few gloomy gin fizzes up London, bemoaning the fact that nothing would ever improve, that we’d die the way we were – enough to eat, married, dissatisfied” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 483). Baba illustrates that their lives in England are not as exciting and glamorous as they had expected.

As María Amor Barros-del-Rio claims, moving to England did not mean that their lives would immediately be better:

However, the geographic distance of England is not sufficient to permit the success of the Bildungsroman, as both protagonists discover that their lives in London would continue to be marked by the Irish education and culture from which they came, and van Dorst 42

their disappointing destinies were still tied to essentially patriarchal norms that remain inalterable in all societies. (Barros-del Río, “Thematic Transgressions and Formal Innovations” 79-80) The marking of Irish education and culture are especially noticeable in Caithleen’s life. At first,

Caithleen portrays a happy marriage, living in an isolated house with Eugene and their child.

She claims to have the family that her Irish education would have taught her to idealise. Even when Baba openly questions how own her life has turned out, Caithleen tries to keep up the idea of a happy marriage and family. Here, Caithleen desires to portray the family Irish education and culture would have required of her.

In the chapters that are narrated by Baba, we learn about her new glamorous life in

London, while we also hear a bit about her past. When they were younger, Caithleen admired the family that Baba had and was quite jealous of her friends’ seemingly steady and loving family. However, Baba explains that her family, and particularly her mother, wished to portray the ideal Irish identity. They presented a happy family, even though there were many difficulties in their marriage. Baba also speaks about her relationship with her mother and how she used language, the Irish culture, to keep the loose Baba in check. Here, language specifically seemed to be her punishment, since Baba remembers how her mother used it to discipline her, saying: “I even confided in my mother. I hardly ever talked to my mother about anything, because when I was four I had scarlet fever and she sent me away to a Gaeltacth to learn Irish” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 489). Baba despises that she had to learn about this part of the Irish culture, preferring to reject her mother’s idea of the Irish identity.

Her Irish identity also appears to be less important to her than to Caithleen since she is often rejecting Irish traditions and rules. In the trilogy, Baba often goes against the grain: having an abortion in London, dating many different men, criticising religion, refusing to learn about the

Irish language. She is the opposite of her friend Caithleen, who frequently feels the need to portray the ideal Irish identity. van Dorst 43

Eugene’s unending ridiculing and critiquing of Caithleen’s Irish identity creates an unhappy marriage. Here, while Caithleen has continuously sought for love to save her from a limiting future in the countryside, the relationship with the demanding and dominating Eugene eventually made her unhappy. By having this character that looks for a fairy-tale marriage to escape reality, Elizabeth A. Chase notices that “[t]he Trilogy’s Caithleen Brady is not only a satire of the woman-as-nation trope, but also a critique of the romantic heroines of the Brontë sisters, Jane Austen, and others” (Chase 93). Female characters in classical English literature, the literature that Caithleen herself studies at the university in London, similarly see marriage as a way out. They are often looking for a life filled with love and children, a romanticisation of relationships like that of Mr Darcy and Lizzy Bennet in Pride and Prejudice or Jane and

Edward Rochester in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Here, Jane and Lizzy Bennet are both saved from their old lives and given a family and wealth instead. In a way, the trilogy criticises these romantic heroines, since they lead to yearning for a romanticised and unrealistic relationship.

When Caithleen’s failed marriage does not fit her romantic ideal, she finds another man to escape from it. After Eugene suspects her affair, and decides to search through his wife’s properties, he finds letters from Caithleen’s lover and files for divorce. Similar to the anonymous letters in The Country Girls, Caithleen’s future is changed by letters that tell the truth about her dishonourable actions. In this case, the letters from Caithleen’s lover are the pieces of evidence that Eugene needs to put a stop to their marriage, again deciding her future.

Heather Ingman claims that the failure of their relationship emphasises Caithleen’s continuous rejection:

It is Eugene now who keeps trying to pull Kate back into the ‘simple’ identity of Irish country girl which is the image he has constructed for her. Needing her to be this, Eugene rejects her when she turns out to be more complicated. For not conforming to a stable category of womanhood, Kate has been rejected three times – by her country, by her family, and now by her husband. (Ingman 256) van Dorst 44

Ingman addresses Eugene’s image of Caithleen, and what he wishes of her. Even in The Lonely

Girl often acknowledges her as an Irish country girl whose language, name, and habits he wants to change. It seems that by continually having Caithleen doubt her identity and changing the

“image he has constructed for her” (Ingman 256), Eugene makes their marriage unbearable.

As Ingman claims in the citation mentioned above, Caithleen’s country has dismissed her ambitions and choices, her father has rejected her relationship and decisions, and her husband has now put her aside when she stopped fitting the identity of innocent Irish girl he favoured.

Here, even after Caithleen begs Eugene to take her back, he finds another way of diminishing her identity, saying: “You won’t [be better]. It’s your nature to lie, like your lying, lackeying ancestors” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 513). Eugene is connecting her identity to that of her ancestors, referring to her rural past. The comment is Eugene’s last way of diminishing her, just like he does in The Lonely Girl with her identity as a country girl.

Eugene’s words show that he has not changed his opinion about her Irish identity, exposing that, to him, Caithleen will never be anything other than a country girl with unrefined habits.

Ironically, the man that Caithleen has had a relationship with is Irish, once again speaking Gaelic just like Mr Gentleman in The Country Girls. In the first book, Mr Gentleman says her Irish name, and it reminds her of “the bulrushes sighing [and] … all the lonesome sounds of Ireland” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy). Just like young Caithleen did in

The Country Girls, her new lovers’ language and the pronunciation of the Irish language excite her, saying: “He beat his lined forehead again, curled and uncurled his square-tipped fingers, searched for her hand, swore at the gods, and called her ‘Milis,’ which is the Gaelic word for sweet” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 504). Similar to the situation with Mr

Gentleman, the Irish language and Gaelic sounds make her remember the comfort of the homeland. van Dorst 45

Consequently, this section shows that Caithleen’s life is tainted by the romanticised future and relationship she wished for herself. Since Eugene constantly dismisses her Irish identity and wants to change and dominate her, their relationship becomes unbearable and this eventually leads to Caithleen’s affair.

Chapter 3.2: The Aftermath of the Separation The aftermath of Caithleen and Eugene’s relationship is the last straw that leads to her depression. When Eugene decides that their marriage cannot be saved, Caithleen initially decides to take custody of Cash. After Eugene figures out that she took Cash, he is convinced that their son is not safe with her. He labels Caithleen as mentally unstable and uses her psychological situation to keep Cash away from her. Here, even though the married couple has separated, Eugene continues to dismiss and criticise Caithleen.

Despite Caithleen’s unhappiness of losing Cash, Baba helps her to find an apartment.

Baba wants Caithleen to become independent from Eugene and to find her own way as a single mom. As Kristine Byron states, Baba is more of a feminist advocate in comparison to Caithleen since she “is scornful of the Church’s hypocritical position on contraception and its emphasis on motherhood as the essence of womanhood, specifically Irish motherhood, which comes with a lot of cultural baggage” (Byron 457). Because of her infuriation with the Church and their position on these controversial subjects, she finds it important to help Caithleen become independent from Eugene. Caithleen, however, desired to be the matriarch Irish politicians praised, longing for a prosperous family and stable marriage. She has become constrained and unhappy by needing to portray this ideal Irish identity.

Baba continues to voice her annoyance with the Church when she is with her husband’s friends. Here, she mentally compares the English Church to that of the Irish and reflects on the morals of both sides. In the pub, her friends speak about “crime … and unmarried mothers and the morals of England” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 559). Baba, then, thinks: “As van Dorst 46 if the morals of Ireland were any better” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 559). She compares the deeds of two countries that have been in conflict because of the past. Here, Baba does not only reflect on England’s morals, but also on the morals of Ireland. She acknowledges that both sides have problematic standards.

When Baba sees Eugene’s actions towards Caithleen, dismissing her and identifying her as mentally unstable, Baba blames her friends’ hardships to religion. Even in the convent in The Country Girls, Baba remained distant from the Catholic religion since she did not agree with their standards and rules. In the last part of this third novel, she shows her anger with religion more and more, critiquing religion and her country, saying: “Oh, God, who does not exist, you hate women, otherwise you’d have made them different. And Jesus, who snubbed your mother, you hate them more” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 603). Baba blames her hardships, and that of Irish women, on God and this all-knowing entity that people claim exists. Through Baba, as Byron claims, O’Brien exposes “the ways in which feminine gender roles are constructed, offering a radical critique of a capitalist patriarchy that is specifically

Irish and Catholic” (Byron 448). Baba acknowledges how Caithleen is tainted by the gender roles Ireland constructed, restricted by the religion that was claimed to be part of the Irish identity.

After Caithleen is rejected by Eugene for the last time, and Eugene has taken Cash abroad, she starts questioning her Irish identity as well. Caithleen realises that the stereotypes she has continuously tried to adhere to are nearly impossible. Additionally, she realises that her mother’s long wish to portray the Catholic ideal has led to own her demise. Here, Caithleen sees her mother as part of the problem, saying: “[Caithleen] could not bear to be seen crying by someone who wouldn’t for that duration enfold her, the way hills enfold a valley. Hills brought a sudden thought of her mother and she felt the first flash of dislike she had ever experienced for that dead, overworked woman” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 607). van Dorst 47

By identifying her mother as a “dead, overworked woman” Caithleen illustrates her anger with her mother’s long acceptance of the ideals of the Catholic Church. Ann Owens Weekes illustrates that Caithleen’s mother was in “domestic confinement and [had a] lack of socio- economic opportunities” (Weekes 109) and therefore wanted to “save her daughter from the brutalizing life she herself has endured” (Weekes 109). However, to escape this same domestic confinement, Caithleen has constantly looked for a better life – striving for someone to save her. The failure of her own marriage shows Caithleen that her mother’s long acceptance of her

“brutalizing life” (Weekes 109) has influenced her own problematic idealisation and romanticisation of relationships.

Furthermore, Caithleen continuously connects Ireland’s nature to her experiences in life. Her two lovers both remind her of Ireland in a positive way, while her mother’s experiences remind her of nature’s destruction. It is also nature that retells the stories of her childhood, for instance when Caithleen says: “Ah, childhood, Kate thought; the rain, the grass, the lake of pee over the loose stones, the palm of her hand green from a sweating penny that the Protestant woman had given her. Childhood, when one was at the mercy of everything but did not know it” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 610). It is her childhood that reminds

Caithleen of the unknowingness of the hardships she would have in the future. Cash is unknowing of her past and the country of her youth and this saddens Caithleen: “She’d brought one red candle as a celebration and put it in a scooped-out turnip on the mantelpiece… He’d never seen the place where she was born. He knew nothing of the weeping, cut-stone house where all her troubles began” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 615). As an emigrant,

Caithleen’s Irish culture and identity are not passed on to her son. The Irish identity is also often stereotyped in England, as a man once asks Caithleen jokingly: “Are you an Irish nurse, are an Irish barmaid, or an Irish whore?” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 625). This man’s words illustrate that the English often only know the stereotypes of Irish people and van Dorst 48 culture. Her son will probably solely know these stereotypes, unaware of Irish traditions, folklore, or language. For Caithleen, immigrating to England meant that she would leave her culture and traumatic past behind in Ireland, but it also meant that her son would probably never see Ireland and know about his mother’s culture. It is the loss of culture that saddens

Caithleen.

One could relate Caithleen’s split identity, that is divided between Ireland and England, to Bill Ashcroft et al.’s claims about the diasporic entity. Diaspora are identified as the scattering of a group of people throughout the world from one geographic location. This dispersion eventually leads to a splitting in the sense of a home (Ashcroft et al., “Diaspora”

425), since the diasporic subjects look in two directions – “towards a historical cultural identity on one hand, and the society of relocation on the other” (Ashcroft et al., “Diaspora” 425). These diasporic entities constantly need to establish “their sense of identity and cultural affiliation, their sense of home, their sense of subject position, against the background of a ‘majoritarian’ rule” (Ashcroft et al., “Diaspora” 426). When looking at The Country Girls Trilogy, Caithleen can be acknowledged as a diasporic entity that continually questions her split identity. Her relocation to England has compromised her sense of identity, since she is now divided between her memories of Ireland and new life in England. Throughout the second and third novel,

Caithleen questions the Irish society that she has lived in, but also has to deal with the majoritarian rule of England and its differing culture. The citations where Caithleen reminisces about Ireland also show that there is an ungoing relation between her future and her past, remembering her “historical cultural identity” (Ashcroft et al., “Diaspora” 425) and desiring to share the memories of her past with her son. Caithleen’s reminiscing of the homeland seems to be problematic for her Irish identity since it reminds her that her son will never know and understand a large part of her as an individual. Moreover, even though Caithleen has been traumatised regularly by the newly liberated Irish Republic, with its rules and restrictions, it van Dorst 49 still appears to fascinate her. This ongoing fascination with the homeland, despite the memories of traumatic events in this homeland, coincides with Edward Said’s claims. He states that, for an emigrant, “habits of life, expression or activity in the new environment inevitably occur against the memory of these things in another environment”, which then leads to “both the new and the old environments are vivid, actual, occurring together contrapuntally” (Said 442).

Caithleen’s memories of the past also continue to influence her perception of the world around her, leading to an identity that is a mix of the old and the new.

This section shows that Baba blames Caithleen’s hardships and complicated Irish identity on the power of the Catholic Church in Ireland. For her, the blame should be put on

England and Ireland, since both of them have problematic morals. Moreover, as Ashcroft et al. illustrate, Caithleen’s reminiscing about Ireland and its nature show a diasporic entity that is divided between the homeland and the new home. For Caithleen, the constant idealisation of

Irish memories creates a split Irish identity.

Chapter 3.3: The Epilogue

In the epilogue, Baba continues to reflect on the Irish identity and the importance of the

Catholic religion. It was written 20 years later than Girls in Their Married Bliss, but after these many years, O’Brien claimed that the story was still unfinished. She argued that Caithleen and

Baba had not dealt with their wrongdoings:

The characters remained with me as ghosts, but without the catharsis of death. I had never finished their story, I had left them suspended, thinking perhaps that they could stay young indefinitely or that their mistakes might be cancelled out or they would achieve that much touted fallacy – a rebirth. (O’Brien, “Why Irish Heroines Don’t Have To Be Good Anymore” 13). The epilogue gives closure to the reader, finalising the girls’ story and making Caithleen and

Baba deal with the mistakes that they have made. Caithleen’s infidelity and the dismissal of van Dorst 50 her depression, Baba’s unhealthy marriage, Eugene’s escape with their son – all of these things had not been dealt with yet. Until then, their lives had been suspended.

Baba explains how Caithleen remained depressed and dissatisfied with her life in

England. Here, Caithleen, for instance, hurt herself in public by cutting her wrists at a metro station. It was her problematic way of showing that she was unhappy and needed help. Baba saw Caithleen’s cry for help as an example of how Caithleen romanticised her life since

Caithleen continued to hope “that someone might come to her rescue, a male Florence

Nightingale might kneel and bandage and swoop her off to a life of certainty and bliss” (E.

O’Brien, The Country Trilogy 651). Caithleen’s relationship with Cash is part of her loneliness as well. Even though Caithleen was given custody of Cash after a lengthy trial, Cash left his mother to study abroad. Caithleen did not have other children since, at the end of Girls in Their

Married Bliss, she let herself be sterilised. As Caithleen claims, this sterilisation “eliminated the risk of making the same mistake again” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 648). Her words show that, after her failed relationship with Eugene, and the suffering she felt because

Cash was taken from her, she condemned being a mother. Since Caithleen had no other children, and her only child left her, she is alone in her depression and loneliness.

Baba remains unhappy with the Catholic religion as part of the Irish identity, as she has seen Caithleen’s continuous struggle due to of the values and wishes of the Church. Moreover,

Baba is critical of the Catholic necessity to have children, saying: “The Pope is all for bevies of children within wedlock, more children to fill the slums and the buses and smash telephone kiosks, because of course it’s usually the ones in the slums that breed so profusely, part of their routine, like a fry-up” (E. O’Brien, The Country Trilogy 666). With her words, Baba is critical of the Christian prohibition on abortion and birth control. Baba also perceives the Catholic religion as the cause of Caithleen’s unhappiness. While her own marriage has not been what she wished for, she was always aware of the standards and demands her country asked of her. van Dorst 51

Baba saw her marriage as an opportunity to have a better life and was not looking for happiness or love. Caithleen, however, continually did the latter, and this made her miserable. Baba also acknowledges that her own marriage is based on caretaking, since her husband Frank had a stroke and never recovered. In their relationship, she continuously has to look after him and his needs, wherein Girls in Their Married Bliss it was the other way around. Baba and her husband use thus each other, and this seems to work in their marriage.

Baba and Frank’s marriage is also based on the nostalgia of Ireland and the past. As

Baba explains, Frank often claims that they will return to the homeland in the future, saying:

“Most nights when he got splificated he’d put his arms around me and say we’d go home one day, home to Innisfree. It was a prospect I dreaded. Said we’d build a house in the Burren, nightmare place, all limestone with a few gentians in the spring that people rave over” (E.

O’Brien, The Country Trilogy 671). As was claimed in the second chapter, emigrants often reminisce about the place that they have left behind, as Salman Rushdie claims that “the shards of memory [acquire] greater status, greater resonance, because they were remains” (Rushdie

429). Here, Frank’s memories of the homeland and the possibility of living in the Irish countryside scare Baba. Her husband has this need to return to Ireland, and reconnect with his

Irish identity, while Baba dreads to return to the place that did not offer her any opportunities and restricted her future. Sinéad Moynihan claims that this concept of exile and return to the homeland is often revisited in O’Brien’s work:

In O’Brien’s oeuvre, imaginative returns (to her own work or that of other writers) and actual returns are always multiple. The representation of the writerly journey (the blue road) that takes the protagonist away from or back to home/Ireland (the blue room) is insistently revisited and renegotiated, to the extent that the perils and promises of both exile and return are maintained in a state of productive suspension. (Moynihan 202) With Baba and Caithleen, we can see this constant questioning of returning to the homeland.

However, while Caithleen is more reminiscent of her past and memories of Ireland, Baba wants van Dorst 52 to forget about her life in Ireland. With these two characters, who have oppositional sentiments about the homeland, O’Brien questions the fragmented memories of the emigrant.

Consequently, the character of Baba is an example of the diasporic entity that wishes to leave her Irish identity behind, and who wants to continue her life in the new country without wishing to ever go back. She does not idealise her memories of Ireland, whereas Caithleen continues to show fragmentation of her memories of the past. Furthermore, Baba reminisces about Caithleen’s hardships and blames the Church for her friend’s need to change herself and her Irish identity to what was wanted of her.

Chapter 3.4: Caithleen’s End

Caithleen’s death shows how she never stopped struggling with the Irish identity. Baba explains that, after Cash had left to study abroad, Caithleen tried to learn how to swim, probably to overcome the trauma of her mother’s death. Unfortunately, just like her mother, Caithleen drowns. Baba is still unsure of Caithleen’s death, saying: “Death is death, whether it’s by accident or design. She was taking swimming lessons … she got carried away and went in there after dark and took the plunge. … Probably realized that she had missed the boat, bid adieu to the aureole of womanhood and all that” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 669). Baba does not know whether Caithleen’s death was an accident, or if she chose to swim in the dark on purpose. However, as Eileen Morgan explains, her death does seem to underline “women's complicity in their perpetuation, [since] O'Brien has Kate die in the same way her mother did; only whereas Mrs Brady drowned with a lover on a lake in scenic Western Ireland, Kate died alone, in the swimming pool of an oppressive health farm” (Morgan 464). Caithleen’s death is a repetition of the past and eventually portrays a continuation of her mother’s fate. Whereas

Mrs Brady’s possible suitor could have made it possible to escape from her life with Mr Brady, she drowns when trying to do so. Caithleen wanted to forget her mother’s trauma by learning van Dorst 53 to thread the water, conquering what killed her mother, but dies trying. Morgan compares the location of their deaths – by staying in Ireland, Caithleen’s mother dies in the scenery of Irish nature, while Caithleen herself perishes in the swimming pool of a farm in England. One could claim that this is the most striking aspect, but in the end, the location is not the primary detail

– it is mostly the manner that matters. By constantly remembering the trauma of her mother, and wishing to escape her countries limitations, the water is eventually the end of both

Caithleen and her mother’s life. In the end, Mrs Brady and Caithleen have both been unable to obtain the life that they wanted, continuing to struggle with their traumatic Irish identity until they died.

After Caithleen’s passing, Baba is reminded of the fact that she has to take her friend’s son back to Ireland for the funeral. The return to the homeland Caithleen wished for is, therefore, granted in more devastating circumstances. For Caithleen, it would have been thrilling to bring her son to Ireland, having him encounter her culture and the Irish nature she desired so often. Instead, Baba is hesitant to go back to Ireland, since she never desired to return:

Her son and I will have to take her ashes there and scatter them between the bogs and the bog lakes and the murmuring waters and every other fucking but of depressingness that oozes from every hectometre and every furlong of the place and that imbued her with the old Dido desperado predilections. I hope she rises up nightly like the banshee and does battle with her progenitors. (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 668) Baba’s words show how they had different reasons for escaping Ireland. For Caithleen, it was a search for love and a family – something that she did not have. The trauma of losing her mother and having to live with her father and his judgement is what eventually makes her leave

Ireland with Baba. England was an opportunity to change her life and to find the love that we see with the heroines in the English literature that Caithleen would have studied. Baba, however, does not see Ireland like Caithleen does – she sees it as a place of “depressingness”.

For her, moving away from Ireland was a way to obtain economic stability and to escape the van Dorst 54 limitations of Ireland. She wanted the glitz and glamour of Dublin first, and when this was not satisfactory, she sought for it in London. Baba sees Ireland as part of the reason that Caithleen was conflicted about her identity and how she had to act. She perceives the people around

Caithleen as the accomplices in her friends’ death, who prescribed Caithleen who to be and how to act. Lastly, by speaking about rising “nightly like the banshee”, Baba connects the Irish story of the banshee to Caithleen’s story. The banshee was believed to be a screaming woman with long hair, shrieking in the night when someone would die. Baba is angry with the people that have ruined Caithleen’s life, like Eugene and her father, and hopes that Caithleen will haunt them and announce their deaths. Here, Baba wishes endless punishment for the people that have criticised, diminished, and limited her friend.

Thus, this chapter shows that the Catholic religion has influenced the Irish identity of both Caithleen and Baba. Caithleen’s ideas about relationships and marriage are based on the

Catholic values and standards, while her traumatising past has also led to her romanticisation of relationships. Moreover, Baba blames Caithleen’s hardships and the limitation of Irish women on the Catholic Church and questionable Irish morals. Here, the hardships and limitations of Ireland make Baba reluctant to go back to Ireland, while Caithleen reminisces about the homeland and idealises her memories of the past. Caithleen is split between Ireland and England, symbolising the hardships of the diasporic entity. Lastly, Caithleen’s death illustrates that she continued to try to overcome the trauma of her past and challenge the Irish identity her mother wanted to escape.

van Dorst 55

Conclusion

This thesis argues that Caithleen’s Catholic interpretation of the Irish identity, and Baba’s rejection of the Church and the traditional Irish identity, symbolises the divide between

Catholic rural Ireland and modern city Ireland, illustrating that the cultural suppression of colonial Ireland and the traditional and limiting Catholic values of the Irish Republic have problematised, limited, and divided the Irish identity. Caithleen’s conflicted relationship with identity is specifically noticeable with her fragmentation of the memories of the homeland, and

Baba’s with her constant rebellion against the Catholic religion.

The first chapter illustrates how religion has shaped the Irish identities of Caithleen and

Baba. Caithleen acknowledges the Catholic religion as part of her Irish identity, while Baba immediately refuses to adhere to the Catholic values and does not perceive the Catholic Church as essential in the Irish identity. Moreover, by moving to Dublin, Caithleen hoped to escape the “lonesome sounds of Ireland” (E. O’Brien, The Country Girls Trilogy 208) which symbolised the loneliness and limiting rural life she would have with her father. Caithleen wants to escape the trauma of her past and romanticises the idea of a loving family and marriage. Her friend Baba, however, aims to have better economic possibilities and a spouse that can provide for a luxurious life. The girls compare in that both of them wish to become a city girl, leaving their country girl identity behind. Moreover, the suppression of Irish culture during the colonial time has led to a conflicted Irish identity, as can be seen with Caithleen and

Baba who are unsure about what it means to be Irish. The use of the figure of Mother Ireland portrays how post-colonial Ireland restricted Caithleen and Baba in their possibilities and expectations for the future. Here, the restricting values of the Catholic religion that were incorporated in the Irish Constitution led to a focus on the maternal, confining Irish women like Caithleen and Baba to the home. By moving away, Caithleen and Baba reject the Irish identity that is wished of them by the Irish Republic. van Dorst 56

Chapter two illustrates how Caithleen’s relationship with Eugene Gaillard makes her question her religion and Catholic beliefs, while it also shows how their personal upbringing differentiates their idea of the Irish identity. Additionally, Eugene’s refined upbringing makes him want to shape Caithleen into his ideal women, critiquing her country girl habits and ways.

To shape Caithleen into this woman, Eugene constantly criticises her language, habits, and religion, whereby he dismisses and ridicules her Irish identity. Eugene’s critique of Caithleen’s language makes her subordinate to him as well, similar to the colonial techniques used by the

English to assert their power. Moreover, the discussion between Mr Brady, his friends, and

Eugene illustrates how the country - and city folk are divided on what the Irish identity entails.

Here, Mr Brady and his friends fixate on the Catholic ideals, seeing religion as part of the Irish identity, while Eugene ridicules and challenges the rural men’s old-fashioned perceptions of the Irish identity. The discussion shows the constant divide between the city and rural perception of the Irish identity, shown by the Othering from both sides. Furthermore, Caithleen and Baba’s move to London illustrates how they both see the economic possibilities that are available in England and concur that they will not prosper in Ireland. Caithleen’s decision to study English illustrates that she wishes to challenge her Irish identity by studying and mastering the language and culture of the Other. However, her move to England makes her reminiscent of Ireland and her relationship with Eugene. As Salman Rushdie’s theory illustrates, Caithleen’s emigration leads to fragmentation of her memories of the past.

Chapter three argues that Caithleen’s perceptions of marriage and the family are tainted by her traumatic past and the Catholic religion. Eugene’s constant critique and dismissal of her

Irish identity have also led to a problematic relationship between him and Caithleen. Here,

Eugene has continued to see Caithleen as a country girl, while she constantly craved to adjust her Irish identity to fit his expectations. In the beginning of their relationship, Eugene wishes of her to be more of a city girl, more English and modern. Then, after they get married, Eugene van Dorst 57 desires her to she become the standard Irish caretaker. In a way, he re-introduces her to the stereotypical role of a woman in traditional Ireland. When Eugene learns about Caithleen’s infidelity, he dismisses her and immediately wishes to ban her from Cash’s life. For Caithleen, the dismissal of their marriage, and having to let go of the ideal family and relationship she wished for, leads to an ongoing quest to discover who she is and how she can still find happiness. Moreover, by constantly reminiscing about Ireland and idealising memories of the past, Caithleen dismisses the traumatic events that have led to her emigration. She recalls Irish nature and traditions and connects her memories of the motherland to her son, realising that he will never know about Ireland and its culture. Here, while Caithleen has left Ireland behind to escape the trauma and stereotypes, she has also lost a part of her identity. Part of her is in

Ireland, and part of her is in England with new traditions and a cultural background that her son will be knowledgeable of instead. Caithleen’s reminiscing is a prominent example of the diasporic entity since her old and new environments are vivid and occurring together (Said

442).

The epilogue illustrates the struggles of exile and the possibility of homecoming. Even though Caithleen has eventually gotten the custody of her son, her trauma continues to follow her. Caithleen continues to look for someone to rescue her, just like her mother did. When

Caithleen drowns, she has not escaped her mother’s faith and let go of her past – it has been too traumatic for her. For Baba, Caithleen’s suffering intertwines with the Church and its, in her opinion, problematic stereotypes. Baba herself was unrelentingly critical of the Catholic faith and rejected its standards, while Caithleen tried to please and agree with the wishes of the

Irish Catholic government. Moreover, whereas Caithleen keeps on remembering Ireland and her Irish identity, Baba wishes to escape from it. She does not reminisce about Ireland and remains reluctant to return to the homeland with Caithleen’s son for his mother’s funeral. van Dorst 58

Consequently, Caithleen and Baba reflect differently on the complicated Irish identity.

Caithleen is scarred by her traumatic past and the dominant values of the Catholic Church, which eventually leads to her constant questioning of who she is and how she has to act. Does she want to be a traditional Irish country girl or a modern city wife that has a loving husband and a family? The people around Caithleen constantly challenge her Irish identity and want her to change. Even after emigrating from Ireland, she continues to have this problematic relationship with her Irish identity. Here, Caithleen often recalls her memories of Ireland that remain a big part of her. Baba, however, does not agree with the identity the Catholic religion requires of Irish women. She questions the Irish identity, the culture that she knows, and the stereotypes that are expected of her. Baba also accepts that marriage can be more of an economic agreement and therefore does not desire perfection as Caithleen does. Still, both characters show the consequences of a colonised Ireland whose culture and wishes were repressed for centuries. This newly independent Ireland felt the need to emphasise its Catholic identity, and by doing so, repressed women such as Caithleen, Baba and Mrs Brady. The government decided how Irish women should act and what they should be, dismissing their aspirations or ambitions. One could state that the suppression and limitation of the Irish identity started in the colonial period, with the oppression of culture and language, and continued long after Ireland proclaimed itself the Republic of Ireland.

van Dorst 59

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