Monday 7 March 2016

Kathleen Lynn: Outsider on the Inside.

Some Irish Mothers 1916 
Conor O' Grady

Research based on the lives of particular Irish women, 1874-2016

For the Group exhibition Kathleen Lynn: Outsider on the Inside
Linenhall Arts Centre Castlebar, 26 March - 24 April 2016

(Gallery installation and Four site specific public interventions)

The Convent

Before the Famine, sexual identity and gender roles were not controlled by the church in the same way they have become. After the famine the church began to take an ideological and practical hold on the lives of Ireland' population.

In 1800 there were 91 registered convents, in 1900 there were 368. By 1926 4.9% of women in employment were employed as nuns or lay sisters. Up until the 1970's Nuns accounted for the largest group of women workers, the convent provided a stable future and allowed for some kind of independence.

Entry into the convent and the status of a nun, frequently only, became an option for those who women who's families could afford to pay their entry. If you could not afford a dowry, then you entered the convent as a Lay Sister, which in effect made up the greater population within the convent. These women were servants to the dowry Nuns. This level of economic and female class disparity within society and the convent lasted well into the 1980's and its effects is still being documented today in recent political and economic changes.

Religious, especially Marian devotion and the building of Marian shrines exploded during this period, as did the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. The model of the virgin Mary had slowly become the only feasible role-model available to young Irish women, besides stereotypical depictions of femininity and Irishness. The alternative to this model: Devotee, Mother, Subservient. Was to, marry, become  "Fallen Woman", join a convent or emigrate.

They Are Sailing

One third of all emigrants to the United States from Europe during 1850-1950 were women. In Ireland over half of the emigrant population were women,

In 1920 of those aged 10 years and older 13,612 were men and 22,161 were women.

Overwhelmingly the men who left Ireland for England in this period left families and wives behind, which created a situation of lament and longing, marking their emigration in our collective consciousness. The women who emigrated in this period, left single and most did not return.  

Germaine greer has said, refering to the painting Guernica  by Picasso that the overwhelming image of the 20th century has been one of a weeping woman and a heroic man. In Ireland the overwhelming image of Ireland has been a working man and a be-shawled lamenting mother. 


Free State?

Women in the North of Ireland were somewhat excluded from the economic disparity and workforce exclusion, as they had the Linen industry which was a huge employer of the female workforce. 

Post-independence, ironically, Irish women were becoming more socially and sexually repressed, particularly in marriage. Divorce became illegal, contraception and sex outside of marriage were further tabooed.

The ideology of the Catholic Church took over all aspects of life; schools, hospitals and the home.

In 1935 because of the rise in unskilled employment in women and a sharp decrease in the amount of men being employed. Section 16 of the Conditions of Employment Act was signed by Sean Lemass, an act which effectively removed entire generations of Irish women from the workforce and confining them, their daughters and grand daughters after them to lives which would be centered around their families. 

This created a situation in which women' employment and quality of life was entirely dependent on a the men in their lives. Entire generations of Irish women were reared, educated and socialised to be wives and mothers. 

In 1937 the Constitution of Ireland gave a special place for the church and, an equally defined space for women. The church became the head of society and women were confined in law and ink, to the head of the home. Motherhood and womanhood became inextricably linked. 

Irish women could of course enjoy a life outside of the home, however only while waiting to be married. Once they married they assumed the gender roles of motherhood, no matter if they were employed or not. This became a convenient situation for a state who could not afford or were inclined to support a social service that would facilitate unmarried mothers.

No Sex Please We're Irish (Women)

Sex for Irish women has always been risky, especially outside of marriage, as contraception was not an option, sex became inexplicably linked to three things; Pregnancy, Marriage or Shame. Because of religious ideology and the hold the church had on the lives of Irish people, women in particular were always negotiating from a place of weakness in terms of sexual encounters, having to adhere to particular ideals of femininity and virginal naivety and in the majority of cases not having even basic education in sexual identity or the role of consent. Sex outside of marriage was socially the worst thing a woman could do, especially if a child was born.

Women were sent to Magdalene Laundries, reformatories and mother and baby homes, and other institutions for the slightest sexual infringement or utterance of sexual desire and were confined sometimes years for having committed the act of having sex outside of marriage while any children created from that act were uniformly removed from their care.

The ill treatment of these women lasted well after they had been returned to society, if they were returned at all, leaving mental and physical marks on their lives and creating a culture of shame around sexual desire in young women. The men involved for the most part were allowed to carry on with their lives away from confinement.

The threat of confinement or even social exclusion loomed within our collective consciousness  for generations, a sense of hereditary trauma, has formed the landscape in which young Irish women are allowed to behave, a trauma which still has implications for Irish women today.

                                                               Celtic Tigress

Between 1991 and 1996 women's employment grew enormously, almost equaling the growth over the previous 20 years.  The majority of women were employed  in particular sectors of employment, usually low paid. A Government and work environment which offered completely no support in terms of the motherhood they were expected to assume alongside employment. The entry of women, especially mothers, into the workforce has had a contradictory effect on their lives.

Being a working woman, especially a working mother was less paid and made more difficult, than it was for a single man or woman.

By the 2000's Ireland could no longer hold itself in nostalgic stagnation, for a country that never was. Slowly we joined the modern world and were competing at least, economically with other larger countries.

Socially however "new" Ireland is lacking, especially in the changes for Irish women. Gender roles within marriage and parenting have changed very little. Perceptions of women and the ways in which womanhood, motherhood and female sexuality is re-presented to Irish women has altered so little in the last decades. Sex, consent contraception and abortion issues are still overwhelmingly peppered with Catholic intervention. If the equality proposed in our proclamation is manifested as equality-feminism then, what has equivalence with their male counterparts actually yielded for Irish women?

Relation to 1916

The work displayed in the Linenhall is representative of the lack of effective change in relation to the gender roles placed on Irish women. Referring specifically to the inaction of the equality proposed within the 1916 Proclamation of Independence. For more detailed information on the visual aspects of the research for this work please click Here