Women's Roles in 1930's Ireland

In 1930s Ireland Housewives Immigration The typical Irish women had a traditional role of caring for small livestock e.g the poultry, pigs and calves. She would also attend to the vegetable garden and to the growing of fruit. Usually there was no running water or electricity, sanitation was poor and there were few modern conveniences.

Due to De Valera's strict Catholic presidency there was also pressure placed by Catholic teaching on the role of the mother.

The reality of how many women were 'stay at home' domestic wives and mothers is seen by the most popular female magazines of the time 'Model Housekeeping' (first appeared in 1927) and 'Everyday Housekeeping' which survived until well into the nineteen sixties Employment Most women only went to primary school with only a small % having a higher education = already limited.

Very few women had careers outside the home and if they did they were nearly always paid less than men for the same work. Instead most rural women stayed at home yet they had a very important role selling eggs, knitting, packing fish etc to make extra money in difficult times.

In 1932 the Fianna Fáil (De Valera) government imposed a public service marriage ban whereby women civil servants and national school teachers would lose their jobs on marriage.

The government also sought to protect male employment when new opportunities for women and men were opening up in manufacturing in the 1930s. The Conditions of Employment Act (1935) gave the Minister for Industry and Commerce the right to limit the number of women working in any industry. Therefore the government played a huge role in limiting employment for women at the time. The intention of restricting employment for women was especially harsh on the very many women who were single at the time. The marriage rate in Ireland was particularly low, and in 1926 about a quarter of women in the age-group 45-54 had never been married.
Taking all the circumstances into account, many women voted with their feet and left the country. The proportion of women emigrating in the years 1926-36 was the highest so far, with an average of 1,298 females emigrating for every 1,000 males.
'The rate of emigration, especially for single women, remained high during the 1930s and 1940s, with England the main destination' (Agnes and Rose) Birth Rates De Valera, an open advocate of domesticity and also a devout Catholic, was in power for the 1930's. His obsession with moral issues, especially in relation to sexuality, was heightened by the religious fervour of the time. As a result it reinforced the traditional view that a woman's place was in the home,also an act of 1935 prohibited the importation or sale of contraceptives. The most rigorous censorship laws in western Europe complete the picture.

Ireland had such a strong Catholic foundation, heavy emphasis was layed on both the Virgin Mary and Mother Ireland as representatives of the female Irish population.This resulted in women occupying a unique position in Irish society; women have been recognised, not as subjects with their own identity, but have instead “been reduced to symbols of the nation”.

Context of Ireland

• Situated within the 1930s Irish Republic
• Focuses on the difficulties facing women struggling to realise themselves in a society whose revolution produced not greater opportunities but a codification of secular and religious paternalism
• Presents an awareness of the past as connected to the present.
• Women had unequal rights to men- legislative paternalism
• Women were only usually seen as being and mother and/or a wife
• Only in 1936 the Public Dance Hall Act had been passed before dancing was frowned upon by the church
• Alliance between church and state produced legislation and cultural expectations particularly oppressive to women
• The play is set mainly in the Munday rural Western kitchen stereotypical locale of of Irish plays
• Kate assumes authority on the basis of her income and dismisses the value of unpaid household work
• Presents a sympathetic domestic story of women, emphasising its significance for both private and public life
• The opening tableau provides a visual emphasis on gender differences: the sisters "drab" clothing contrasts with the "magnificent" uniform of father Jack and with he "splendid" plumage of Gerry's hat.
• Visually the women are fully recognisable in the naturalistic kitchen setting
• The men are visitors from other, exotic world
• Radio arrives just as Ireland severs ties with Britain
• Church-state focus on focus on sexual behaviour and religious Orthodox
• Arrival of the industrial industry- opening of the glove factory
• Employment possibilities for women were limited
• Women were paid less than men
• Sisters are isolated mentally and physically
• New Irish free- even just seemingly innocent traditional celti activities came to be frowned upon by an increasingly conservative state and church

The use of the Characters

• Friel gives specific stage directions for the characters e.g. [Jack shuffles about]
• All have their own distinctive tone of voice but collectively through expression and accent they have a Donegal sound.
• Distinguishes from Jack who barely has an Irish accent left
• The sisters have dignity but their sense of fun, appetite for life and sexuality have been muted by their circumstances- they no longer have any expectations.
• The Muday's sisters' suppressed sexual and political energies break out in frenzied dance that engages audience
• They live out their lives in mean circumstances
• Humour, mutual support and refusal to break allow this play to fulfil what Friel had early identified as the function of a dramatist: to make us 'recognise that even in confusion and disillusion, strength and courage can exist, and that out of them can come a redemption of the human spirit'

 

 

The theme of Change

• The acquisition of the radio represents a turning point for the family as well as in rural Irish culture History
• The radio was a newfangled technology that brings mass produced popular culture into the home
• The entry of this variety of music unleashes repressed urges in the five women
• Represents the industrial revolution which essentially costs Agnes and Rose their lives
• Kate notices this change
• '...suddenly you realise that hair cracks are appearing everywhere; that control is slipping away...whole thing is so fragile it can't be held together much longer. Its all about to collapse.'
• Pagan practises arise in the Munday home
• Radio was a new experience for Ireland
• Radio brings new voices ideas and music into their lives

 

The theme of Religion

Religion

• The play is set during the festival of Lughnasa- a local Pagan harvest
• Jack was the community's source of pride as Ballybeg's 'own leper priest'
• Father Jack has gone 'native' he has come to embrace and accept the traditional rituals for the Ryangan villagers
• Kate classifies it as his 'own destinctive search'
• Jacks rituals link to the Pagan Lughnasa festival
• Father Jack brings back a wealth of experiences with non-Christian ceremonies and rituals including native dances
• Kate thinks that the radio has 'killed all Christian conversation'
• Kate is a strict Roman Catholic- resists progress
• All characters are shocked by Uncle Jacks new beliefs but all ignore it apart from Kate who tries to convert him back
• Father Jack is a symbol of Paganism
• Family is seen as shameful because of Jacks conversion as well as Michael being a love child
• Festival of Lughnasa- reckless and madness associating with he devil
• Gerry doesn't consider any religious tradition- has two families
• Michael is a symbol of hope and progress within the family
• The radio comes to symbolise the threat to paganism to the Irish Catholic values- a central concern of the play
• Homecoming of Jack brings with it alien and challenging behaviour
• Friel- 'Dancing at Lughnasa is about the necessity for paganism not as disrupting Christianity but as disrupting civility.'
• 'Ever since Father Jack came home he [head priest] can hardly look me in the eye'

Overview of Lughnasa

• Dancing at Lughnasa opens with a monologue from Michael as an adult, he introduces his nostalgic memories of the summer of 1936, when he was seven years old being brought up by his four Aunts and his mother (the five Munday sisters) in rural Ireland and have acquired their first radio.
• The sisters older brother Father Jack, has just returned from twenty-five years spent as a missionary in a leper colony in Uganda.
• Michael was born out of wedlock to Chris and Gerry Evans, who deserted them and only returns every couple of years t see them.
• The radio which breaks down more than it works, unleashes unarticulated emotions in the five women, who spontaneously break into song and dance, with or without its aid.
• By the end of the year, Michael explains in another monologue Agnes and Rose have left the family to find work and never return and Father Jack has died.

Character Analysis: Kate

Kate

• Only one who had proper job
• Mother figure
• Reputation as 'The Gander' 
• Eldest and the breadwinner- supports the family
• Lost her job because of Father Jack turning into a pagan
• Most resistant to changes
• Critical of the 'pagan' singing and dancing
• Strict Catholic, upholds the faith
• Others jokingly mock her '"Do you want to make a pagan of yourself?"'
• Spoils Michael, although she is the most disgraced by the fact Chris had a love child
• Secret crush on Austen Morgan- does not like to admit it
• Loses her temper easily especially with Rose [sudden anger]
• Sisters ignore her when they're talking about going to the dance
• Gives in sometimes 'Oh God Agnes, what do you think?'
• Quickly changes her mind when she sees Rose make a fool of herself
• Proud of religion and family
• Sensitive although tries to be strong
• Was 'inconsolable' for months after Jack died
• Thoroughly disapproves of Gerry yet she tolerates him for Chris' sake
• Lets loose occasionally, lets lose the most when she does
• In charge although Maggie takes charge of her/for her sometimes
• Associates with Maggie the most
• Fiercely protective of her loved ones
• Sensitive-suppressed her emotions through her sense of priority and duty
• Tormented and worried as the prospects of a scandal within the family
• Fears for the future, losing her job, losing family's livelihood.

Key Quotes

A very proper woman

Sinful to christian an inanimate object with any kind of name, not to talk of a pagan god.

Snatched if from me before I could study it in any detail Each new revelation startled- shocked- stunned poor Aunt Kate But for months Kate was inconsolable

Maggie: 

As long as Kate's not around, "Do you want to make a pagan of yourself?"

Agnes: 

Kate forgets nothing
Rose: [Rose grimaces behind Kate's back]

Kate: 

[...kisses the crown of his head]

[Pretend horror]

God bless us, those are sacrificing! 

[sudden anger] For God's sake. Rose, shut up I am going to learn

You're far too pale
You'd think it was heaven she was talking about
You're not serious, Agnes-are you?
How can we?
Oh God Agnes, what do you think?
Are we?
Maybe we're mad-are we mad?
[At this Kate panics]
We're going nowhere!
Just look at yourselves!
Mature women, dancing?
Laughing at us?
[Very angry almost shouting]
Dozens of people were asking for you
[Sharply] you've offered that cheap wisdom already, Rose.

['Oh, Christina!' but her protest is drowned
Watching the scene with unease, with alarm, suddenly leaps to her feet, flinging her head back
Kate dances alone, totally concentrated, totally private
Controlled and frantic
Kate makes no sound
Then Kate notices-and stops]

No welcome for that creature
You are looking beautiful and what you're going to do is this.
[Kate now takes her in her arms]
[Firm again]
God forgive you!
The animal!
He's leading her astray again Maggie.
And look at her the fool! [pause]... They're such a beautiful couple
Those aul pagan songs!... She's right: I am a righteous bitch, aren't I?
Suddenly you realise that hair cracks are appearing everywhere; that control is slipping away...so fragile it can't be held together much longer. It's all about to collapse Maggie.
[She now cries, Maggie puts her arm around her]
What worries me most of all is Rose
I must put my trust in God

[Stands still watching him]
So you'll soon begin saying Mass again? repeated
[Kate and Maggie stare at each other in concern, in alarm]
Hes changed Maggie...completely changed
He's not our Jack at all, and its what hes changed into that frightens me
Stop sniveling , Agnes!
I want to know where you've been Rose
What has happened to this house, Mother of God, will we be able to lift our heads ever again...?
Killed all Christian conversation in this country