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