By: Ashley Sanders
In the year of 1919, the Irish War of Independence had officially commenced. At this time in Ireland, the Irish Republican Army (more commonly known as the IRA) needed Britain out of their country and away from control. This guerrilla war lasted for two years, leaving many police force and army members on both sides to resign from duty or lose their lives. Finally, in December of 1921, a treaty was signed to grant the Irish Free State, which would consist of about eighty one percent of the entire island of Ireland. In the following years after the independence break, people voted on the Constitution of Ireland. The constitution, created in 1937, is still used today to outline the powers and rights that Irish people hold personally. Aside from giving the people rights, the constitution also states that they have full authority to govern themselves.
This, however, was not always the case. Even when these rights did become normality for the Irish, there were still hold backs— women did not always have the same rights men did. Although on pen and paper it could say so, they still had many stereotypes among them that ruled their life and halted the chances of both genders being equivalent. In fact, there have been two known societal roles Irish women have supposedly looked up to for centuries: “The image of the Virgin Mary was regarded as the ideal role model for women, while the image of the mother was considered to be the prototype of Irish women” (Then and Now: Memories of a Patriarchal Ireland in the Work of Marian Keyes 112). Yet after all the setbacks the woman gender has had throughout all of history, there are always revolutionary breakthroughs that give women justice. A huge lead into the equality of the woman gender in Ireland happened during the War of Independence. “The role of women in the war as supportive and maybe not as glamorous, but in many ways it was as dangerous as at the front lines,” Cork City chief archivist Brian McGee states, “It was dangerous and demanding work requiring the utmost intelligence, resourcefulness and courage.” Women are looked back upon and always recognised for their support. This may seem like an extreme statement, but for a long time in [world] history women were only known to be there for their help— cooking, clean- ing, child bearing, etc. Surely this can be viewed as that we are still doing our duties as women, but in the era of achieving independence in the Irish country, after all the fighting they had put up, women wanted more.
Molly Cunningham is a perfect example of a powerful woman in the early 1900s. Cunningham had applied for a military service pension during the Irish War of Independence and successfully received one. “She describes carrying dispatches, arranging for the recovery of bodies, moving arms, searching other women, and moving around the area in disguise,” said McGee, who professionalizes in collecting and analyzing documents throughout Ireland’s history. McGee can account for all of the Cunninghams’ documents relating to the Independence War, this including Molly’s mother, sisters, and cousins. “Ireland has always been considered to be a predominantly patriarchal society due to “it’s traditional stance on reproductive rights and the low participation of women in the labour force” (Ryan, 112). Molly Cunningham, specifically, was the epitome of a hardworking woman who broke the society norms to prove genders can be equal, especially in a time of such degrading brutality.
On September 1st of 2017, Maynooth University Social Science department held a conference commemorating woman during the Irish revolution times. The conference’s objective was to “bring together new research by leading scholars exploring how women both participated in the revolutionary activities in 1917-23 and were impacted by the climate of the existing terror and war” (Maynooth University, Feminism, Violence, Nationalism). Using evidence from this period of history, they examined women as activists, militants, and regular citizens at this time. The discussion brought up many of the unspoken truths during the war. Leader of the conference Professor Linda Connolly found that women were the main subject of sexual assault and violent intimidations at this time, and that many news reports through time since then have dulled statistics down to not look so bad. She states:
“Irish historiography presents the narrative of this period as predominantly about men and male militarism, with women presumed to have escaped the brutalities of war. In the period after the Rising 1917-1923, the impact of violence on women has been given only some preliminary attention. Sexualized violence against women in conflict situations assumes many forms; rape is often only one of the ways in which women are targeted. Hair shorning is part of 1 the continuum of gender based violence that was inflicted on women in this period. This needs to be reflected in Irish historical scholarship on the 1917-23 period” (Connolly, Maynooth University’s Feminism, Violence, Nationalism).
Connolly describes this as “Irish historical amnesia”— that we have forgotten some important and brutal details, and left it out of our history books. The idea of the conference was to uncover details that have not been displayed to the public on women during the revolution; to give women the justice and praise that they deserve. So, if we are to describe how women’s roles have changed in society since then, we can at Hair shorning is the act of violently intimidating a person, typically a woman, by shaving their 1head. least state that they are no longer being abused in such ways. Most women were not as lucky as Molly Cunningham was during this time of violence.
However, the society in Ireland still expects women to retain a role of being the perfect wife and mother. Because of the Church, all women are expected to marry just once and only get pregnant in that marriage. Anything laying outside of those expectations were considered sinful. Then and Now: Memories of a Patriarchal Ireland in the works of Marian Keyes was written in 2011 by the first ever woman professor in both Great Britain and Ireland, Mary Ryan. In this book, Ryan analyses the roles women play in the Irish society where men have the upper hand. The roles are, to be simplified a bit, marriage, household duties, family, and sex. “Ireland’s emphasis on women’s morality and home-making duties was thought to be so important that even the education which was provided to young girls reflected the duties they would be expected to perform” (Ryan, 112). “These ideals were encouraged in various other formats; even the Irish television and radio broadcasting company, RTÉ, was once advised “to defend traditional ideals of marriage and motherhood” (Ryan, 112).
Broadcasting company RTÉ has been the only television and radio studios in the country of Ireland since 1960. This means that being the only source of news, their objectives would line up with what society and what the broadcasters desired to see in the world— keeping in mind that all the anchors of the show, of course, would be men. Within the last sixty years, in many different ways, they had goals of advertising what the “correct way” to live as a woman would be. Because their audience is everyone in Ireland this not only gives the impression that women should be a certain way, but that men should expect nothing less from women in this way as well. This has been the main source of social media for the Irish for 58 years, so it can easily be inferred that news broadcasters heavily contribute to the cultural constructs. Luckily, RTÉ has a website of their archived articles. On one labeled Women in Irish Society, they introduce the topic of Irish women stereotypes, saying “In 1970s Ireland, women were still legally obliged to give up their jobs on marriage and accept lower rates of pay for doing the same work as men if they worked in the public service” (RTÉ, Woman and Society). Following this quote from RTÉ is a primary source documenting wage differences in genders, the document titled Radio Éireann Conditions of Service, and the archive containing this titled Unequal Pay and Marriage Bar. Two regulations on the document immediately stand out and astonish the reader: Men earn about 200 euros more than women, and women must resign from work if they are married. 2
As clear as the eye can see, women have been degraded many times in many ways through Irish history. Not necessarily were they treated inhumanely, aside from during the revolution, but were never given an equal chance to begin with. After figuring women had been through enough in history, I had assumed we had a better chance at equality in modern day. I decided to research when, in Irish history, did women begin receiving equal pay? To my surprise, we didn’t. The first article to come up was from The Irish Times, simply labeled Women in Ireland earn 13.9% less than men, says EU. This article came out on June 27th, 2018. When looking at Irish history, there is no way around the societal norms completely, even to this day. It would be thrilling to say that both genders are equal, but it would be untrue. Television, radios, media, schools, and even home life were always sure to be teaching women how to act and be perfect. The Irish Independence War gave the “If a man gets the job, he will be paid £650 – £850 per annum. If a woman gets it, she will be 2paid £500 – £700, a substantially less amount for doing the same work. No. 9 on the list is the marriage bar, making it compulsory for a female employee to resign when she married.” (RTÉ, Conditions of Service 1947).
Irish, specifically women, much hope to start over with new opportunities. Undoubtedly after the war, women were then considered with more equality than before due to their courage to take on new roles and aid their country in winning its independence, even after the brutality. Women have fought since then to get them to a justifiable place in society, but there is still no hard evidence that equality has reached Ireland.
Citations
Then and Now: MEMORIES OF A PATRIARCHAL IRELAND IN THE WORK OF MARIAN KEYES by Mary Ryan
“Electronic Irish Statute Book (EISB).” Irish Statute Book, http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/cons/en.https://www.rte.ie/archives/exhibitions/1666-women-and-society/459194-ra-
dio-ireann-conditions-of-service/
“Ireland in Modern Times.” Ask about Ireland, http://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/pri-
mary-students/subjects/history/history-the-full-story/ireland-in-modern-times/
“Women and the Irish Revolution 1917-23: Violence, Feminism, Nationalism.” Eventbrite Ireland Blog, http://www.eventbrite.ie/e/women-and-the-irish-revolution-1917-23-violence-
feminism-nationalism-tickets-34009093113#
Gleeson, Colin. “Women in Ireland Earn 13.9% Less than Men, Says EU.” The Irish Times, The Irish Times, 27 June 2018, http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/women-in-ireland-earn-13-9-less-than-men-says-eu-1.3544701.
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