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Cover of Irish Feminisms, 1810-1930

Irish Feminisms, 1810-1930

Edited by Mary S. Pierse

  • Published: 14 Dec 2009
  • DOI: 10.4324/9780415475297
  • Set ISBN: 9780415475297

Set Contents

In the Real World


This volume considers several aspects of lived female experience as depicted by Irish women and men of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. In novel, play and short story, and from artist’s sketchbook to language lessons and newspaper articles, the diverse sources reveal dynamics of acceptance, frustration and collusion with societal norms of the era. Suffrage, economic and social concerns, and especially violence against women, are never far from the subject or the subtext; respectable institutional façades are pulled back to expose the double standards of religious teaching and moral practice; prejudice and snobbery are prevalent. A woman’s praise of a fellow writer provides a perfect example of Victorian expectations and conventions; Unionist and Nationalist women are equally active in their respective campaigns; one of the new Poor Law Guardians reveals the inner workings of the previously male-dominated boards. The latitude taken by writers does not increase exponentially over time, but when authors take greater liberties than custom would approve, their insights are particularly valuable. The distance between the worlds of George Egerton and Pádraic Ó Conaire is elided in their insights into human psychology, and in their common concern for the status of woman, particularly in marriage. The tones vary from assuaging or bland to searingly bitter, the personalities and styles are equally disparate. With total assurance, the coping skills of the modern woman are made evident in the understated and matter-of-fact exchanges of an Irish-language conversation lesson. The real world emerges off the pages and the total picture, with its very disparate aspects, is all too sadly credible.

Volume Contents

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    Front Matter
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    Introduction to Volume IV By Mary S. Pierse
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    131
    ‘[Mary Barry: Age and “Daughterhood”]’, The Freeholder, April 26, 1831 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By Anon
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    132
    ‘Choosing a Wife’, Irish Lyrical Poems, USA: P. M. Haverty, 1868, pp. 94–5 [By kind permission of the Allen Library, Dublin] By Mrs. O’Donovan Rossa
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    133
    Extracts from ‘Flitters, Tatters, and the Counsellor’, in Cabinet of Irish Literature, vol. 4, ed. T. P. O’Connor, M.A., London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dublin: Blackie and Son, Old Bailey, 1880, pp. 297–300 (First published as Flitters, Tatters, and the Counsellor: Three Waifs from the Dublin Streets, London, Dublin and Edinburgh: Simpkin, Marshall; Hodges, Foster & Figgis; John Menzies, 1879. Then published by Macmillan in 1881.) By May Leafen Hartley
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    134
    Extract from ‘Introduction’, Mary Aikenhead: Her Life, her Work and her Friends: Giving a History of the Foundation of the Congregation of the Irish Sisters of Charity, Dublin: M. H. Gill, 1879, pp. 60–7 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By Sarah Atkinson
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    135
    ‘Loyalty’, Speech at Mrs Russell’s, June 22, 1888 [By kind permission of Special Collections, Boole Library, University College Cork] By Anna M. Haslam
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    136
    ‘A Psychological Moment at Three Periods’, Discords, London: John Lane and Boston: Roberts Bros, 1894, pp. 1–66 By George Egerton
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    137
    ‘Virgin Soil’, Discords, London: John Lane and Boston: Roberts Bros, 1894, pp. 145–62 By George Egerton
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    138
    ‘Skaters’, taken from her sketch book, 1894–95 [By kind permission of the Allen Library, Dublin] By Constance De Markievicz
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    139
    ‘Memoir’, in Sarah Atkinson, Essays, Dublin: M. H. Gill, 1895 [By kind permission of Special Collections, Boole Library, University College Cork] By Rosa M. (Rosa Mulholland) Gilbert
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    140
    ‘In Hermit’s Garb’, Fancies! in passing, Cork: Purcell & Co., 1897, pp. 14–15 [By kind permission of Special Collections, Boole Library, University College Cork] By Charles E. Thurston
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    141
    ‘Men’s Mistakes’, Fancies! in passing, Cork: Purcell & Co., 1897, p. 17 [By kind permission of Special Collections, Boole Library, University College Cork] CHARLES E. THURSTON By Charles E. Thurston
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    142
    ‘Put to the Rack’, “The Woman at the Window” and Other Stories (Nóra Mharcuis Bhig & Scéalta Eile) (1909), trans. Eamonn O’Neill, Dublin: Talbot Press, 1931 [Copyright © Brendan Kennelly, 1989. Reprinted by kind permission of Mercier Press Ltd., Cork, and of Cork City Libraries] By Padraic Ó Conaire
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    143
    ‘The Magnanimous Lover’, Four One-Act Plays, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 2nd edn, 1928 (1st edn, 1912) [By kind permission of The Society of Authors as the Literary Representative of the Estate of St. John Ervine] By St John G. Ervine
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    144
    ‘The Citizen at the Abbey’, Review of The Magnanimous Lover, The Irish Citizen, February 13, 1915 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By M. K. C.
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    145
    ‘In the Courts’, The Irish Citizen, April 3, 1915 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By M. E. Duggan
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    146
    ‘Co-operative Housekeeping’, The Irish Citizen, October 16, 1915 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By L.A.M. Priestley McCracken
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    147
    ‘The Girl Mother and Kindred Problems’, The Irish Citizen, September 4, 1915, p. 87 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By M. E. Duggan
  • Extracts from The Amazing Philanthropists: Being Extracts from the Letters of Lester Martin, P. L. G., London: Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd, 1916 [By kind permission of Cork City Libraries] By Susanne R. Day
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      Preface
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      Letter No. 3
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      Letter No. 4
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      Letter No. 6
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      Letter No. 8
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      Letter No. 12
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      Letter No. 19
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      Letter No. 22
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      Letter No. 35
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    149
    ‘Wife-Beating’, The Irish Citizen, September 1919, p. 27 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland By L.A.M. Priestley McCracken
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    150
    ‘Wife Beating’, The Irish Citizen, December 1919, p. 52 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By M. E. D.
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    151
    ‘To the Women of All Countries’, The Irish Citizen, December 1919 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland]
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    152
    ‘Irish Lesson VII’ & ‘letter’, Irish at Home/Gaedhilg sa mBaile, Dublin: Educational Company, 2nd edn, 1922, pp. 50–5 (First published by Maunsel & Roberts, Dublin, 1921.) By Máire Ní Cheallacháin
  • Callaghan, Dublin: Martin Lester, Ltd, 1921 [Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland] By F. (Rosamund Jacob) Winthrop
    • Part I
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        Chapter I
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        Chapter II
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        Chapter III
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        Chapter IV
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        Chapter V
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        Chapter VI
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        Chapter VII
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        Chapter VIII
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        Chapter IX
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        Chapter X
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        Chapter XI
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        Chapter XII
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        Chapter XIII
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        Chapter XIV
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        Chapter XV
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        Chapter XVI
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        Chapter XVII
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        Chapter XVIII
    • Part II
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        Chapter I
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        Chapter II
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        Chapter III
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        Chapter IV
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        Chapter V
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        Chapter VI
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        Chapter VII
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        Chapter VIII
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        Chapter IX
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        Chapter X
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        Chapter XI
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        Chapter XII
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        Chapter XIII
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        Chapter XIV
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        Chapter XV
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        Chapter XVI
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        Chapter XVII
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        Chapter XVIII
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    Back Matter