by K Persinger
Abstract
Although many accounts of the Irish nationalist movement during the early twentieth century are male-centric, women were key organizers and activists. In 1900, Maud Gonne organized a prominent organization for female nationalists, Inghinidhe na hÉireann (Daughters of Ireland), which operated until its 1914 merger with Cumann na mBan (The Irishwomen’s Council). Irish women were central to the overall efforts of the Irish nationalist movement and the achievement of an independent Irish state in 1923, organizing to raise money, promote the use of the Irish language and appreciation of Irish traditions and customs, and foster a national identity. Nationalist propaganda, such as William Butler Yeats’s one-act play Cathleen ni Houlihan, which mobilized the symbol of the free Irish state as a woman in need of liberation through nationalist devotion, also helped to mobilize Irish nationalists. Through a feminist historical perspective, this paper seeks to excavate the entanglement of respectability, gender and nationalism in the Irish nationalist movement. Through this it explores the construction of normative gender relationships under colonial rule in Ireland and the way in which women both mobilized and resisted these gender roles in pursuit of expanded rights for women and independence for the Irish state.