Depictions of Femininity in Irish Revolutionary Art Pearl Joslyn
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Gender and Memory: Depictions of This paper compares depictions of the mythological personification of Ireland, Femininity in Irish Revolutionary 1 Kathleen ni Houlihan, with the true stories Art of female active combatants to investigate Pearl Joslyn where collective memory of the Easter Senior, History and Global Studies Rising diverged from the truth. By presenting these examples against the The popular narrative of the 1916 backdrop of traditional gender roles in the Easter Rising, which marked the start of the era of Irish state-building, this paper hopes Irish Revolution, reflected highly gendered to contribute to the study of gender in views of masculine and feminine roles in revolutionary Irish history. Additionally, this armed rebellion. In the gendered paper offers a critique of the over-reliance environment of British-ruled Ireland at the on romanticized versions of the past that end of the Victorian Era, women were derive from fiction in collective memory. frequently pushed out of active combat This paper will shed light on the women of roles. Instead, women were expected to aid the revolution, whose vita role in Irish the young men of Ireland, who were history is often overlooked. frequently sent to their deaths, a trope not uncommon in the history of revolution and When Lady Augusta Gregory and William Butler Yeats wrote Cathleen ni warfare. These gender roles were reflected Houlihan in 1901, they did not expect it to in the Irish arts during the years surrounding the 1916 Easter Rising. Depictions of become a rallying cry for revolution. The masculinity and femininity in Irish play, however, became a sort of call to arms Nationalist art often portrayed women as among young nationalists who saw a vision helpless victims of British oppression, who of renewal in the play’s conclusion. The needed young men to give their lives to play’s influence on society horrified Yeats protect their honor. The arts played a critical and Gregory, who feared that the outcome of role in Irish nationalism and codified the a violent revolution would not only be disastrous for Ireland, but also forthem as common perception of the role women 2 played in 1916 as passive and marginal. The members of the British aristocracy. For adoption of this vision into the collective Yeats and Gregory, there was something consciousness undermined the active role romantic in their vision of Irish rebirth, but women played in the Easter Rising and 1 subsequent war for independence, A number of spellings of the name Kathleen ni Houlihan exist. For the purposes of this paper, the effectively rewriting the history of women common spelling of Kathleen ni Houlihan is used. who took up arms against the British and All other spellings are retained from the use of the served as active combatants. authors. 2 William Butler Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory, Cathleen ni Houlihan, in Collaborative One-Act Plays, 1901-1903, Ed. James Pethica (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006), XXXV-XXXVI. both saw it as more of a symbolic and young men of Ireland are forced to take on gradual rebirth than a sudden one brought on violent roles to protect her youth, beauty, by revolution. In fact, Yeats saw the play in and purity. quite a different light, viewing the groom’s Cathleen ni Houlihan was based on abandonment of his bride as symbolic of Yeats’ earlier poem “Kathleen the Daughter “the perpetual struggle of the cause of of Hoolihan and Hanrahan the Red.” The Ireland and every other ideal cause against poem, in contrast to the play, presents private hopes and dreams, against all that we 3 Kathleen ni Houlihan as the object of the mean when we say the world.” While Yeats protagonist’s desire, rather than the and Gregory may not have intended to spur distraction from love that she is presented as nationalists to action, their play helped 6 in the play. The evolution of the use of awaken a movement. Cathleen ni Houlihan Kathleen ni Houlihan from the poem to the provided a highly gendered image of play is perhaps due to Lady Gregory’s revolution, wherein young men had to give influence, or the need for higher stakes and their lives to restore youth and beauty to the greater conflict in a stage play than in a elderly and helpless Ireland. In fact, when short poem. Regardless of the motivation for the young protagonist, Michael Gillane, asks the evolution, Kathleen ni Houlihan still Cathleen ni Houlihan what she wants from serves the same purpose as the his family she responds “If anyone would personification of Ireland, the object of love. give me help he must give me himself, he As such, she is used in both works to must give me all.” After Cathleen ni disguise nationalist sympathies under the Houlihan tells Michael that she wants him to 7 guise of romance. Yeats was somewhat give his life for her, he forgets everything self-conscious of being overtly nationalistic, from his old life, including his fiancé and 4 surely for personal reasons, but also for the parents. The play ends with Michael’s sake of his writing. He worried that more brother, when asked if he had seen the “Old frank allusions to nationalism weakened the Woman” Cathleen ni Houlihan, responding structure of a work. This is evidenced in “I did not; but I saw a young girl, and she 5 William Dall Hefernan’s poem about had the walk of a queen.” Despite the Kathleen ni Houlihan, which is much more passive role she takes in sending men to 8 overtly political and less romantic. By their deaths, their martyrdom is shown as presenting a highly romanticized version of bringing renewal to Cathleen ni Houlihan, this story, Yeats was able to avoid and thus to Ireland. This play depicts an accusations of nationalism by instead extremely gendered and rigid power structure. Cathleen ni Houlihan exhibits little agency over her own life, while the 6 Phillip L. Marcus, Yeats and Artistic Power (New 3 Yeats and Gregory, XXXVII. York: NYU, 1992), 56. 4 Yeats and Gregory, Cathleen ni Houlihan, 92-95. 7 Marcus, Artistic Power, 56. 5 Yeats and Gregory, Cathleen ni Houlihan, 95. 8 Marcus, Artistic Power, 56-57. 10 presenting his work as carrying on the Nor was there fear in his mind. legacy of Irish myth through romanticism. In the poem, Kathleen ni Houlihan again A more overtly nationalist work, the takes on a passive role, with no action by her poem “Roger Casement” by Eva being depicted while the central figure of the Gore-Booth again presents a male martyr poem gives his life for her honor. who gave his life “For the sake of God and Gore-Booth’s refutation of Casement’s 9 Kathleen ni Houlighaun.” This poem, sexuality is especially interesting, given her written by Gore-Booth to her sister own queerness. Most viewed accusations Constance Markievicz following the 1916 against Casement as deliberate acts of Easter Rising, presents a particularly character assassination aimed at destroying interesting study because of the his legacy, and Gore-Booth was clearly no circumstances surrounding Roger exception. Casement’s death. Casement was born to a The painting “Eire” by Beatrice Protestant family, but was raised Catholic. Elvery, also known as Lady Glenavy, again After trips to the Congo Free State and the depicts the figure of Kathleen ni Houlihan as Putumayo region of the Amazon to the personification of Ireland. In the investigate atrocities being carried out under painting, Kathleen ni Houlihan sits in a imperialism, Casement become strongly traditional cloak in front of a Celtic cross. anti-imperialist. Following these Holding the infant Ireland in her lap, with experiences, Casement returned to Ireland saints behind her and the bodies of martyrs where he worked to gain German support at her feet, Kathleen ni Houlihan resembles for the Rising. After being caught, he was 11 the Virgin Mary. The painting plays on the executed for high treason by the British trope of the Virgin Mary as a bringer of government. Casement’s trial and renewal through the birth of Jesus, but again subsequent execution have remained a shows the figure of Kathleen ni Houlihan as controversial subject because of the a passive actor in the struggle for Irish accusations of homosexuality brought independence. Like Yeats and Gregory’s against him in his trial. In the poem, Cathleen ni Houlihan, this painting also Gore-Booth addresses and refutes these inspired feeling of martyrdom amongst allegations, saying: young Irishmen, much to the shock of the I dream of the hatred of men, artist. In fact, Lady Glenavy was inspired by Yeats and Lady Gregory’s writings to create Their lies against him who knew nothing of 12 the painting. The painting was hung at St. lying, 10 Gore-Booth, 130. 11 Beatrice Elvery, Éire, 1907, Pearse Museum, Dublin. 9 Eva Gore-Booth, “Roger Casement” in Prison 12 Ann Matthews, Renegades: Irish Republican Letters of Countess Markievicz, Ed. Esther Roper Women 1900-1922 (Cork, Ireland: Mercier Press, (New York: Krauss Reprint Company, 1970), 130. 2010), 26. Enda’s College, and upon meeting a student O’Faoláin’s 1934 biography of the from the school, Lady Glenavy was Countess, which Esther Roper published her horrified to learn that the painting had Prison Letters of Countess Markievicz in driven the young man to be willing to lay response to. Roper’s book was an attempt to down his life for Ireland. Like Yeats and shed light on the deep personal sacrifices Gregory, Lady Glenavy had thought her Markievicz made for the Rising, and to 16 work to be of little interest to Irish prove her significance in the revolution.