What have anxieties about Irish men’s masculinity and their masculine strength got to do with how Irish national identity was constructed and created in the 19th and 20th century? And how did that history shape the lives of women in the post-independence Irish Free State of the 20th century?
I will admit, that when I began, many years ago, researching the social forces which had impacted women in recent Irish history, the role of something as ‘abstract’ as ideals of masculinity was not something I had ever thought about.
But once you start to see the broader psychological and social effects of Britain’s colonial ‘feminising’ of Irish men, and how that informed how Ireland sought to achieve its independence from Britain, so many things begin to fall into place. Not only in terms of what the ramifications of this would be for women in post-independence Ireland, but also why so many of the things we associate with ‘Irish identity’ today—from the Irish language, to Gaelic games, to mythical figures like Cú Chulainn and Fionn MacCumhail—originated in a desire to “reconnect to a lost Irish culture that was very male and very heroic.”
This is why I was delighted to have this opportunity to speak with Dr. Aidan Beatty here, who is an expert in that history.
There is so much in this conversation that will challenge, alter, or illuminate some aspect of modern Irish history you thought you knew. From Countess Markievicz urging women to “destroy the feminine part of themselves” to Patrick Pearse telling men that they are a “eunuch” if they don’t speak Irish, and why some of Aidan’s college students have likened this history to the ‘Andrew Tate Effect,’ this is most definitely not the history we got taught in school.
Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on it.
Belinda xx
P.S. Aidan references on several occasions how Irish men were depicted in the Punch Cartoons of the 19th and 20th century. You can access such images here in the Punch Archive
Dr. Aidan Beatty, is an historian and the author of Masculinity and Power in Irish Nationalism, 1884-1938 (which I highly, highly recommend reading)
Originally from Galway, he is based in the United States where he is a lecturer in the history department of Carnegie Mellon University, where he researches and teaches on quite a diverse array of topics from Irish, British and Jewish history, Capitalism, Socialism, Nationalism, and, of course masculinity. He’s currently editing a book that will be out next year on the history of the Irish far-right (will definitely want to chat with him again when this is out!)
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