Digital Commons Network^™

Bloody Sunday: Death & Press, Joseph Gaffney

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project is a historical paper on Bloody Sunday, a day of violence in Dublin during the Irish War for Independence on November 21, 1920, analyzing primary and secondary sources centered on the subject to answer specific historiographical research questions. The primary objective of this research project is to understand the immediate social and political ramifications of Bloody Sunday in Ireland and England as reflected in the spread of information via the written press. The goal of the written analysis will be to answer a series of historical research questions. How were both the IRA’s killings and the subsequent reprisal …

Gothic Girlhood And Resistance: Confronting Ireland’S Neoliberal Containment Culture In Tana French’S The Secret Place, Mollie Kervick

Critical Inquiries Into Irish Studies

The Secret Place (2014) exposes a persistent Western cultural impulse to contain the emotions of teenage girls when they demonstrate control over their lives. In the Irish context, the dismissal of teenage girls is resonant of a containment culture in which controlling women’s bodies and minds has been essential to upholding heteropatriarchal ideals. Resistance to the novel’s unresolved supernatural elements by readers and critics and the lack of sustained academic scholarship also point to an unsettling complacency with the neoliberal impulse to contain female emotion and lived experience in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.

What It Was & What I Know: Attempts At Family History, Katherine Reardon

Honors College

Family stories and family histories are contingent on how they are remembered. As these stories are passed down, the ways that they are remembered can change, with the truthful aspects of these stories disappearing over time. As a result, many family stories are not necessarily truthful, but this does not discount their value. The aim of this project is to explore these ideas while also answering the following question: to what extent are family stories bound by the ‘truth’? In order to answer this question, I have explored my own family stories that I know may not be true and …

From The Dark Margins To The Spotlight: The Evolution Of Gastronomy And Food Studies In Ireland, Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

Books/Book Chapters

For many years, food was seen as too quotidian and belonging to the domestic sphere, and therefore to women, which excluded it from any serious study or consideration in academia. This chapter tracks the evolution of gastronomy and food studies in Ireland. It charts the development of gastronomy as a cultural field, originally in France, to its emergence as an academic discipline with a particular Irish inflection. It details the progress that food history and culinary education have made in Ireland, suggesting that a new liberal / vocational model of culinary education, which commenced in 1999, has helped transform the …

The Partition Of Ireland: Anglo-Irish Relations As Reflected In A Political Idea, Cian G. Mceneaney

Honors Program Theses and Projects

After years of postponement, and at the time of writing, Britain is set to leave the European Union on December 31, 2020, after complications mainly due to the new-age “Irish Question:'' how to handle the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the south?

The Poetry Of History: Irish National Imagination Through Mythology And Materiality, Ryan Fay

English Honors Theses

The thesis culminates in the twentieth century and yet it begins with the Ulster Cycle, a period of Irish mythological history that occurred around the first century common era. Indeed, since the time frame was before the arrival of the Gaels, Normans, or Christianity, the extent of this mythology’s relevance today is whatever extent it is conceptualized as “Irish.” As such, the first chapter locks onto an aspect that could feasibly transcend time and resonate with modern Irish society: gender. Of course, the epistemological dynamics of gender^[1] in the first-century common era are vastly different than the twentieth century …

Ulster, Georgia, And The Civil War: Stories Of Variation, William Loveless

Honors Theses

Ulster, Georgia, and The Civil War: Stories of Variation explores the lives of 13 men from Northern Ireland who immigrated to the American South and fought for the Confederacy. The author pursues the stories of each man’s life in order to have a more thorough understanding of what life looked like for Irish/Ulster immigrants in the South during the 19^th century. By looking at the lives of the men in Ulster, their first experiences in the United States, their experiences in the Civil War, and their lives following the war, the author identifies more variation than consistent trends.

Volunteer Women: Militarized Femininity In The 1916 Easter Rising, Sasha Conaway

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Women were an integral part to the Easter Rising, yet until recently, their contributions have been forgotten. Those who have been remembered are often women who bucked conservative Irish society’s notions of femininity and chose to actively participate in combat, which has led to a skewed narrative that favors their contributions over the contributions of other women. Historians and scholars favor these narratives because they are empowering and act as clear foils to the heroic narratives of the male leaders in the Easter Rising. In reality, however, most of the women who joined Cumann na mBan or worked for the …

History, Security, And Peace: A Comparison Of Sectarian Conflicts In Northern Ireland And The Middle East, Ahmed I. Hamed, Noah Chamberlain Spicer

Student Symposium

“The Troubles,” a violent conflict that began in Northern Ireland in 1968 and lasted until the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, saw high levels of violence and terrorism on both sides--Protestants and Catholics--of the socio-political conflict. While major issues of violence were addressed by the Good Friday Agreement, many key ontological issues remain very much alive and active, resulting in “peace walls” which separate Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods in Northern Ireland. The impediments to peace stem not just from these issues of violence, but also from the minimal attention paid to ontological security in peace negotiations: the security of oneself, …

The Survival Of Irish Gaelic In The Gaeltacht Of County Galway, 1880-1920, Eileen Hogan

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

In the 1850s in post-famine Ireland, the Irish-Gaelic language was neglected in favor of English which equipped speakers to be members of the United Kingdom. But, the agrarian society of the County Galway Gaeltacht (designated Irish-speaking region) remained a stronghold of the Irish language despite British imperialists. The Survival of Irish-Gaelic addresses the survival of the native language in the Galway Gaeltacht. While my work has identified several reasons for the survival in this one specific region, this thesis focuses upon interrelated explanations. First, the Catholic schools in the Gaeltacht continued to teach in Irish despite the attempts of the …

[Mis-]Managing Fisheries On The West Coast Of Ireland In The Nineteenth Century, John B. Roney

History Faculty Publications

This study focuses on the cultural heritage of artisan coastal fishing in the west of Ireland in the 19th century. The town and port of Dingle, County Kerry, offers an important case study on the progress of local development and changing British policies. While there was clearly an abundance of fish, the poverty and the lack of capital for improvements in ports, vessels, gear, education, and transportation, left the fishing industry underdeveloped until well after the 1890s. In addition, a growing rift developed between the traditional farmer-fishermen and the new middle-class capitalist companies. After several royal commissions examined the fishing …

A Terrible Beauty Is Born! Cultivating Critical Consciousness Using Trauma As Visual Metadata In Yeats’S Poetry Of Resistance, “Easter, 1916”, Anita August

English Faculty Publications

The aim of this chapter is to examine William Butler Yeats’s use of trauma as visual metadata during the Easter Rebellion in 1916 to raise critical consciousness for future rebellions in Ireland. Previous examinations of Yeats’s “Easter, 1916” focus almost exclusively on the call for rebellion. This appeal however overlooks Yeats’s challenge to preserve the spirit of resistance by focalizing on the unseen liberation within him and Ireland that remained despite the failed rebellion. With 2016 marking 100 years of “Easter, 1916,” as the most popular of Yeats’s political poems, the rhetorical appeal in this chapter will take a cognitive …

Designing Narrative Artefacts, Jennifer Dempsey

Masters

This thesis documents an investigation that explored the use of narrative and material culture to present aspects of women’s lives from eighteenth-century Cork city to a twenty-first century museum audience. There were two objectives of this research. The first was to create a catalogue of elements from material culture through which these women’s lives would be revealed. The second was to use narrative to make this information accessible and engaging.

This research is linked with Nano Nagle Place, a heritage centre in Cork city that opened in 2017. The centre documents the life of Nano Nagle, an eighteenth-century philanthropist who, …

Immigrant And Irish Identities In Hand In The Fire And Hamilton's Writing Between 2003 And 2014, Dervila Cooke

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Immigrant and Irish Identities in Hand in the Fire and Hamilton's Writing between 2003 and 2014" Dervila Cooke discusses the intertwining of Irish and immigrant identities. Cooke examines the connection between openness to memory and embracing migrant identities in Hamilton's writing both in the 2010 novel and as a whole. The empathetic and inclusive character of Helen in Hand in the Fire is analyzed in contrast to characters who have repressed memory including the Serbian Vid. Helen's ties to elsewhere, her openness to new influence, and her willingness to engage with traumatic elements of the past (Irish …

The Power Of A Secret: Secret Societies And The Easter Rising, Sierra M. Harlan

Senior Theses

The Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.) and the Irish Volunteer Force (I.V.F.) altered Irish Nationalist tactics from Parliamentary supported Home Rule to a republican movement for Irish Independence. The actions of these secret societies between 1900 and 1916, during the Irish Revolutionary period,[1] are the reason that Ireland gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1922. The change from political negotiations by the ineffective Irish Parliamentary Party to the republican movement would never have happened without the Easter Rising of 1916. The centennial anniversary of this Easter Rising makes The Power of a Secret: Ireland’s Secret Societies and the Easter …

British Intelligence Operations During The Anglo-Irish War, Elliott N. Reid

All Master's Theses

This study examines the performance of the British authorities’ intelligence operations against those of the Irish Republican Army during the years 1919-1921. It is a reassessment of previous perceptions on the British as well as an examination of the British administration and its policies that adversely affected the success of their campaign against Irish nationalists. Upon its conclusion, this study will show that British law enforcement and the military were in fact more successful in combating Irish nationalists than previously believed.

Henry Viii And The Irish Political Nation: An Assessment Of Tudor Imperial Kingship In 16th Century Ireland, Emily Schwartz

Honors Theses

Ireland in the 16th century was by far the most self-governed domain under the authority of King Henry VIII. Within Ireland there were two distinct groups of people, the Gaelic Irish and the Anglo-Irish, whose cultural differences divided the island into two distinct political nations. The majority of Ireland was dominated by Gaelic Irish lordships. Gaelic Irish lords recognized the English king as their overlord, but followed Gaelic customs and laws within their lordships. The small sphere of English influence in Ireland was reduced even more by the political hegemony of the Anglo-Irish magnates. The most powerful magnate, the 9th …

The Irish Ordnance Survey's Six Inches To One Mile Map Of Ireland: Anglicization And Otherness, Reese C. Hentges

History Undergraduate Theses

By examining the power maps and language have over a nation this research reveals a correlation between the creation of the 1846 Six Inches to One Mile Maps of Ireland and the decline of the Gaelic language at the expense of the English language. By examining Irish Ordnance Survey maps, Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, and other documents from the Irish Ordnance Survey while the Six Inches to One Mile Maps of Ireland this thesis demonstrates that the Six Inches to One Mile Maps of Ireland was a tool of imperialism used by Great Britain to culturally assimilate Ireland by …

"There Were Streets": Urban Renewal And The Early Troubles In London/Derry, Northern Ireland, Margo Shea

Margo Shea

Mother Jones: Ireland To North America To Ireland, Elliot Gorn

History: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Although we don't hear her name so often anymore, Mother Jones was one of the great figures of the early twentieth century. She and her family were refugees from the Famine, and I want to argue here that her early life in Ireland, Canada, and the United States molded her, made her the great crusader for social justice and tribune of the working class that she became as an old woman. "Freedoms just another word for nothing left to lose," Kris Kristofferson has written, words that well describe the life of Mother Jones.

The Call Of The Sidhe: Poetic And Mythological Influences In Ireland's Struggle For Freedom, Anna Wakeling

Honors Theses

The mythology of Ireland is millennia old, birthing a poetic tradition that has endured with the nation. This presentation explores how important Ireland's mythological heritage has been to its people, sustaining their fighting spirit during foreign invasions, political instability, and conflicts with England. The work if William Butler Yeats, in particular, embodies the struggles between the Protestant Ascendancy and the native Irish; Christianity and paganism; the Gaelic poetic tradition and newer English literature; and the push for peaceful independence negotiation versus the radical revolutionary movements inspired by ancient heroes. His life and poetry serve as a lens that brings the …

Irish Travellers And The Transformative Nature Of Media Representation, Aisling Kearns

Honors Theses

The Travellers, a nomadic group of people indigenous to Ireland, have long been marginalized in Irish society as a result of discrimination. The Travellers themselves have had a history of working to keep themselves separate from the settled Irish, essentially maintaining their own ethnic identity. Traveller culture has undergone a number of changes since the 1960s, a period of increasing urbanization and economic transformation in Ireland. With the changes in both Traveller culture and Irish society as a whole, there has been a corresponding shift to a more positive relationship between the media (newspapers, documentaries, and commercial films and television) …

A Contested Policy: Irish And American Perspectives On Eire's Neutrality, Leah Egofske

All Theses

Although the Irish Free State had close relations and connections to the United Kingdom from its inception in 1922, Eire pursued a policy of neutrality throughout the Second World War. Although the majority of the Irish population supported neutrality, it attracted much criticism in Britain and America. The aim of this study is to explore Irish men and women's experience with neutrality alongside how American newspapers as well as American war correspondents based in Britain addressed and viewed Ireland's neutrality. In many ways, the Irish benefited from the policy of neutrality and the small nation was united on a level …

The Emigrant Of An Gorta Mór: The Emigration Experience Of Cornelius Delaney During Ireland's Great Famine Of 1845-1850, Sarah Nelson

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

‘The Emigrant of An Gorta Mόr,’ describes the emigration experience of my ancestor, Cornelius Delaney, during Ireland’s Great Famine of 1845-1850. The Great Famine, known in Gaelic as ‘An Gorta Mόr’ (the Great Hunger), began in 1845, when the fungus Phytophthora infestans infected the potato crop in Ireland. During the years of the Famine, Ireland lost nearly half of its population to starvation, disease and emigration. In the format of an annotated, historical fiction piece, ‘The Emigrant of An Gorta Mόr,’ presents the experience of Cornelius and the Delaney family during the Famine in Ireland and Cornelius’s experience in emigrating …

Historical Accuracy And The Ira Over 70 Years Of Cinema, Eric Scott Elliott

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine how the Irish Republican Army has been represented in theatrical cinema since the 1930s. The goal is to demonstrate the necessity for historical accuracy in movies produced for public entertainment, which often neglect historical facts and circumstances in portraying an organization as controversial and complex as the IRA. This has been done by examining five movies produced for wide-distribution and comparing each to the detailed historical record. Upon analysis of these movies, it becomes clear that the films which are the most historically relevant are also the most powerful cinematic productions, both …

The Tri-River Region : The Geographic Key To Lasting Change In Ireland, Eugene Ryan Fitzpatrick

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This research aims to identify the geographic area between the Nore, Barrow, and Suir rivers as the primary gateway for significant permanent changes to the Irish cultural landscape between the fourth and sixteenth centuries. This has been done by examining the successive waves of invasion which have swept over the island, and noting the high frequency with which many pivotal events have occurred in the region. Christianity, the Vikings, continental Church reforms, the Norman invasion, and many subsequent repercussions by English administrators, entered into Ireland through this area first. Upon examination, it becomes clear that Ireland possess a geographic corridor …

Tripartism In Ireland, Jon Foster

Jon Foster

Over the past few years, the term “PIIGS” has become synonymous with economic concerns and fears of collapse. The acronym, which currently refers to the European countries of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain: was originally just ‘PIGS’ , used to group the similar economies of Southern Europe when considering them for acceptance into the European Monetary Union. Nevertheless, as a result of the global financial crisis, this term soon came to identify economically weak and overly indebted nations. However, unlike Italy, Greece, and Portugal, who had before the crisis demonstrated relatively slow growth, modest unemployment, and a propensity to …

Thieves Apostates And Bloody Viragos: Female Irish Catholic Rebels In The Irish Rebellion Of 1641., Edwin Marshall Galloway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the roles played by Irish Catholic women in the Irish Rebellion of 1641. The primary goal is to examine the factors that determined the nature of those roles. To achieve this end, I used the information contained in the 1641 depositions, a collection of sworn statements given by the victims of the rebellion. The depositions are valuable in two ways. First, eyewitness testimony contained therein is generally reliable, and can be used to construct an accurate narrative of the rebellion. Second, less reliable hearsay evidence is crucial to understanding the fears of …

Leaders Of '98: Murphy And Mccracken A Comparison Of The 1798 Rebellion In Wexford And Antrim, David Carton

Graduate Theses

This study examines the relationship between the Irish nationalist risings in Wexford and Antrim in 1798. The Antrim Rising was a largely ideological movement that was influenced by the beliefs of the United Irishmen; in contrast, the Wexford Rising was a reactionary movement that was influenced by the leadership of Fr. John Murphy of Boolavogue. An analysis of the differences and similarities of these two leaders serves as the primary mode of analysis. McCracken restructured the United Irishmen in Belfast into a secret revolutionary society, as Murphy mobilized rebel forces in Wexford and inspired a military uprising. This thesis seeks …

Voice, Listening And Social Justice: A Multimediated Engagement With New Immigrant Communities And Publics In Ireland, Alan Grossman

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.