Keeping up Appearances: The Containment of Irish Women in the Scramble for a Post-Independence National Identity
Keywords:
Mother and Baby Homes, Magdalene Laundries, Post-Independence Ireland, History of Women in Ireland, Feminine Silence, Mass Incarceration, Irish National Identity, Catholic Church Policy, State and Church in Ireland, Abortion in IrelandAbstract
The surge in the institutionalisation of Irish women in Mother and
Baby Homes and Magdalene Laundries following the achievement of Independence should not be viewed simply as a case of unchecked Catholic influence over governance. Nor should it be conceptualised as thoughtless deferral of power from the State to the Church. Instead, this mass incarceration should be seen as a conscious and intentional choice made by the free-state political elite who sought to cling to a conservative national identity in order to retrospectively legitimize the fight for independence. A clear story emerges, evidenced by the mass-repatriation of fleeing pregnant Irish women to Britain and the censorship of publications uncovering female ‘sexual deviance’, in which political objectives derived from post- colonial instability were favoured over the personhood and autonomy of Irish women.
References
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