Loading...
Kathleen Clarke: Connecting the Competing Definitions of Women's Identity in Irish Nationalism
Reilly, Kathleen Reilly, Kathleen
Reilly, Kathleen
Reilly, Kathleen
Title
Kathleen Clarke: Connecting the Competing Definitions of Women's Identity in Irish Nationalism
Date
2014-05-17
Subject
Kathleen Clarke
Ireland
Irish
nationalism
nationalist
woman
women
identity
independence
Ireland
Irish
nationalism
nationalist
woman
women
identity
independence
Material type
Collections
Files
Loading...
Reilly__Kathleen.pdf
Adobe PDF, 219 KB
Abstract
The modern nationalist movement (1916-1936) presented a contradiction for Irish women. On the one hand, they were being called to perform their responsibilities as citizens by extending their patriotism outside the home and taking a more active role in the fate of their country. On the other, Irish nationalism relied heavily on tradition; women were generally seen as the keepers of that tradition. Nationalist women struggled to respond to the competing responsibilities of their traditional domestic role and the emerging roles as citizens in a new nation. This paper examines Kathleen Clarke as a case study in how nationalist Irishwomen balanced their responsibilities as citizens in the new nation with their traditional roles as wives and mothers. Kathleen Clarke was the wife of one of the executed leaders of the Easter Rising and the sister of another. She was very involved in the nationalist movement and in Irish politics. After the Rising, she was left as a single mother of three small boys while also managing a fund for the dependents of imprisoned rebels. She eventually became a senator and then the first female Lord Mayor of Dublin. In her struggles to balance responsibilities in both the domestic and public spheres of her life, Kathleen Clarke embodied the ways that the new nation simultaneously created and restricted personal, cultural and political opportunities for women in Ireland after independence.
Duration
Location
Advisor
Sponsor
Course
Department
History
Degree
Bachelor of Arts (BA)