Reading the Irish Woman: Studies in Cultural Encounter and Exchange, 1714–1960
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Reading the Irish Woman: Studies in Cultural Encounter and Exchange, 1714–1960 Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 1 15/07/2013 12:33:33 Reappraisals in Irish History Editors Enda Delaney (University of Edinburgh) Maria Luddy (University of Warwick) Reappraisals in Irish History offers new insights into Irish history, society and culture from 1750. Recognising the many methodologies that make up historical research, the series presents innovative and interdisciplinary work that is conceptual and interpretative, and expands and challenges the common understandings of the Irish past. It showcases new and exciting scholarship on subjects such as the history of gender, power, class, the body, landscape, memory and social and cultural change. It also reflects the diversity of Irish historical writing, since it includes titles that are empirically sophisticated together with conceptually driven synoptic studies. 1. Jonathan Jeffrey Wright, The ‘Natural Leaders’ and their World: Politics, Culture and Society in Belfast, c.1801–1832 Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 2 15/07/2013 12:33:33 Reading the Irish Woman Studies in Cultural Encounter and Exchange, 1714–1960 GerArdiNE MEANEY, MARY O’Dowd AND BerNAdeTTE WHelAN liVerPool UNIVersiTY Press Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 3 15/07/2013 12:33:33 reading the irish woman First published 2013 by Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool L69 7ZU Copyright © 2013 Gerardine Meaney, Mary O’Dowd and Bernadette Whelan The rights of Gerardine Meaney, Mary O’Dowd and Bernadette Whelan to be identified as the authors of this book have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data A British Library CIP record is available ISBN 978-1-84631-892-4 Typeset by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 4 15/07/2013 12:33:33 Contents Contents Abbreviations vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 The Enlightenment 1 The Enlightenment and Reading, 1714–1820 13 2 Educating Women, Patriotism and Public Life, 1770–1845 54 Emigration 3 The Emigrant Encounters the ‘New World’, c.1851–1960 87 4 Women and the ‘American Way’, 1900–60 130 Modernism 5 Producers and Consumers of Popular Culture, 1900–60 179 6 Sexual and Aesthetic Dissidences: Women and the Gate Theatre, 1929–60 196 Conclusion 218 Bibliography 221 Index 256 Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 5 15/07/2013 12:33:33 For Margaret MacCurtain, historian, pioneering scholar of Irish women’s studies and friend Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 6 15/07/2013 12:33:33 Abbreviations Abbreviations AFSR American Foreign Service Inspection Report AIHS American Irish Historical Society AMP The Arnold Marsh Papers, TCD AOHP American Oral History Project 2007–8 BTSP Breaking the Silence Project, University College Cork D/FA Department of Foreign Affairs D/J Department of Justice DIB Dictionary of Irish Biography (Cambridge University Press, http://dib.cambridge.org) ESP Eason and Son Ltd Papers ESTC English Short Title Catalogue (http://bl.estc.uk) GAA Gaelic Athletic Association IRCHSS Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Science LAI Library Association of Ireland MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer NAI National Archives of Ireland NARA National Archives and Records Administration, United States of America NFC National Folklore Collection, Ireland NLI National Library of Ireland ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, http://www.oxforddnb.com/) PRONI Public Record Office of Northern Ireland QUB Queen’s University Belfast RIA Royal Irish Academy S/D General Records of the Department of State, United States of America TCD Trinity College Dublin TCDMARL Manuscripts and Research Archives Library, TCD TLAI The Library Association of Ireland Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 7 15/07/2013 12:33:33 VIII reAdiNG THE irisH womAN TLS Tipperary Local Studies TNA The National Archives, UK UCC University College Cork UCD University College Dublin UL University of Limerick WIDA Women’s Industrial Development Association Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 8 15/07/2013 12:33:33 Acknowledgements Acknowledgements his book had its origins in a project funded by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS). The Tauthors also gratefully acknowledge support received from the School of History and Anthropology, Queen’s University of Belfast (QUB), the Department of History, University of Limerick (UL), the Department of English and the Humanities Institute, University College Dublin (UCD). We have benefitted enormously from the contributions of participants in seminars and workshops funded by the IRCHSS project in UCD, UL and QUB as well as from the feedback received at national and interna- tional conferences. We also learned a great deal from engagement with Dr Catherine O’Connor and Dr Susan Cahill, the postdoctoral fellows employed on the project. The oral testimony for the study derives from a number of oral history projects including the UL Oral History Project, 2001 supported by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science Research Fund and the American Oral History Project, 2007–8 funded by the IRCHSS. The projects were co-ordinated by Dr Catherine O’Connor and thanks go also to Margaret Hogan and Tony Hogan as well as the interviewees. Leanne Calvert assisted with research and copyediting and Gráinne O’Donovan constructed the project’s website.1 Special acknowledgement should be given to Dr Noreen Giffney for her invaluable editorial assistance and advice. We would also like to thank the anonymous readers for their useful guidance and suggestions. The archivists and librarians in the following institutions provided invaluable help: the National Library of Ireland, the National Archives of Ireland, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the National Archives, UK, the National Library, Scotland, QUB library, UCD library, UL library and Special Collections, the Delargy Centre for Irish Folklore, 1 http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Faculties/Arts,_Humanities_%26_Social_Sciences/ Inventing. Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 9 15/07/2013 12:33:33 X reAdiNG THE irisH womAN UCD, the Department of Early Printed Books and Special Collections, Trinity College, Dublin, the Manuscripts and Archives Research Library, Trinity College, Dublin, the archive of the Presentation Sisters, George’s Hill, Dublin, the Ursuline Order Archive, Blackrock, Cork, Dublin Diocesan Library and Tipperary Libraries Local Studies and Archives, Thurles. Dr Piaras MacÉinrí, University College, Cork (UCC) facilitated access to the ‘Breaking the Silence: Staying at Home in an Emigration Society’ online archive in the Irish Centre for Migration Studies, UCC. The authors also drew on the database produced by the Women in Modern Irish Culture Project funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.2 Others who assisted the authors include Dr John Bergin, Ken Bergin, Dr Enda Delaney, Tony Farmar, Siobhan Fitzpatrick, Mary Guinan-Dermody, Sister Karen Kent, Dr Rolf Loeber, Dr John Logan, Professor Maria Luddy, Valerie Norton, Dr Clare O’Halloran, Dr Rosemary Raughter, Dr Lisa Townsend and Tim Watt. The authors are especially grateful to Sue Barnes and Rachel Clarke at Carnegie Book Production and Alison Welsby, Editorial Director at Liverpool University Press for their support and guidance. 2 http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/irishwomenwriters/. Meaney, Reading the Irish Woman.indd 10 15/07/2013 12:33:33 Introduction Introduction n 1700 few Irish women were literate. Most lived in a rural environment, rarely encountered a book or a play or ventured much beyond their own Idomestic space. By 1960 literacy was universal, all Irish women attended primary school, had access to a variety of books, magazines, newspapers and other forms of popular media and the wider world was now part of their everyday life. This study seeks to examine the cultural encounters and exchanges inherent in this transformation. It analyses reading and popular and consumer culture as sites of negotiation of gender roles. This is not an exhaustive treatment of the theme but focuses on three key points of cultural encounter: the Enlightenment, emigration and modernism. The writings and intellectual discourse generated by the Enlightenment made it one of the most influential forces shaping western society. It set the agenda for scientific, political and social thought for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The migration of peoples to North America was another important historical marker in the development of the modern world. Emigration altered and shaped American society as well as the lives of those who remained behind. By the twentieth century, aesthetic modernism suspicious of Enlightenment rationalism and determined to produce new cultural forms developed in a complex relationship with the forces of industrialisation, urbanisation and social transformation. This study analyses the impact of these forces in western culture on changing roles and perceptions of Irish women from 1700 to 1960. It examines the processes of cultural influence and exchange, looking at long-term alterations in behaviour and attitudes.