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URI [dataset] UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES History Representations of Gender in the Irish Nationalist Daily Newspapers, c.1912-1923 by Holly Dunbar Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October_2016 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT Gendered discourse and Irish nationalism during the revolutionary period evolved as part of the same historical dynamic. Press polemic about gender norms in revolutionary Ireland influenced Irish nationalism, just as Irish nationalism affected the ideals of masculinity and femininity disseminated by the nationalist daily newspapers. This thesis considers in particular the nationalist dailies with the highest circulation in Ireland, the Freeman’s Journal and the Irish Independent. Gender ideals were central to debates in the nationalist dailies, from the militarism that engulfed Ireland between 1912 and 1923, to discussions about home life, families and welfare provision, but has not been sufficiently explored in previous scholarly work. Gendered press discussions are explored through four parts, ‘Morality and Modernity’, ‘Marriage’, ‘Singleness’ and ‘Gendering Defiance’. Gender in the Irish revolutionary period existed as an imagined construct, yet it had a real effect on press debates, individual lives and government policy. As gender was constructed the gendered narrative about men and women, their roles, and appropriate behaviour for each sex was not always consistent. There was a discursive tension between portrayals of women as powerful moral agents and women as weak, fragile or needing to be policed. Equally, men were described as protective, strong and soldierly, but this did not fit with the reality of many men’s lives. Debates in the press drew attention to men who depended on state welfare or who lived outside the ‘ideal’ of marriage. FACULTY OF HUMANITIES History Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER IN THE IRISH NATIONALIST DAILY NEWSPAPERS, C.1912- 1923 Holly Teresa Dunbar Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... i List of Tables ................................................................................................................iiii List of Figures .............................................................................................................. iv DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ....................................................................................ix Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... xix Introduction ........................................................................................................ 13 Chapter 1: Morality and Modernity 1.2.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................41 1.2.2 Growing Concerns over Alcohol Consumption......................................................45 1.2.3 Alcohol and Separation Women............................................................................59 1.2.4 Gender and Alcohol After the First World War.....................................................69 1.2.5 Conclusion.............................................................................................................75 1.3 Modernity: Tobacco Consumption during the Revolutionary Period......................78 1.3.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................78 1.3.2 Male Homosocial Culture and Tobacco.................................................................79 1.3.3 'A smoking woman should be sent to a reformatory': Women and Smoking After the First World War...............................................................................................93 1.3.4 Conclusion.............................................................................................................99 Chapter 2: Marriage 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 101 2.2 Ideal Marriage........................................................................................................103 2.3 Unhappy Marriage..................................................................................................122 2.4 Mixed Marriage......................................................................................................139 2.5 Modern Marriage...................................................................................................151 Chapter 3: Singleness 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 170 3.2 Widowhood ............................................................................................................. 171 3.2.1 Working-Class Widows........................................................................................171 3.2.2 Separation Allowances and Mothers' Pensions...................................................183 i 3.2.3 The Troubles and Widowhood: Pensions and Compensation.............................202 3.3 Bachelors and Spinsters..........................................................................................213 3.3.1 Introduction.........................................................................................................213 3.3.2 Bachelor Tenants and Rural District Councils......................................................216 3.3.3 The Image of the Selfish Bachelor and the Sorrowful Spinster...........................227 3.3.4 'Bachelor Tax' and Recruiting Bachelors.............................................................233 3.3.5 'Bachelor men' and 'bachelor girls'......................................................................239 3.3.6 Conclusion...........................................................................................................246 Chapter 4: Gendering Defiance: From the Irish Volunteer Force to the Irish Civil War 4.1Error! Bookmark not defined.............................................................................................................249 4.2 Reclaiming Irish Masculinity: The Formation of the Irish Volunteer Force.............251 4.3 Discipline: The Irish Volunteers and the Irish Parliamentary Party........................263 4.4 Hurley Sticks Become Weapons.............................................................................271 4.5 The Irish Language as a Tool of the Revolutionaries..............................................277 4.6 The Irish Volunteers: Discipline and Law................................................................282 4.7 The Truce and the Irish Civil War............................................................................286 4.8 Conclusion..............................................................................................................289 Conclusion............ ................................................................................................. ....292 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 302 ii List of Tables ‘Morality and Modernity’ Table I: Number of People in Ireland Committed for Drunkenness 1913-1916..................44 ‘Marriage’ Table I: Maintenance Orders from Married Women in Dublin Metropolitan Police District 1910-1914.........................................................................................................................124 iii List of Figures ‘Morality and Modernity’ Figure I: Men and Women Committed for Drunkenness in Ireland, 1913-1916……………...45 Figure II: ‘Drunkards Can Be Secretly Saved’, Irish Independent, 5 Mar. 1912....................47 Figure III: People Tried for Unlicensed Sale of Liquor by Province, 1910, 1915 and 1916...............56 Figure IV: Illicit Sale of Alcohol Charges Brought Against Men and Women in the Dublin Metropolitan Police District.............................................................................................................57 Figure V: ‘Which the Worst Evil?’ Irish Independent, 25 Nov. 1918................................................67 Figure VI: ‘Private Chairman’, Irish Independent, 17 Nov. 1916..........................................84 Figure VII: ‘Private Chairman’, Irish Independent, 27 Oct. 1916..........................................85 Figure VIII: ‘Private Chairman’, Irish