Ireland in Proximity Ireland in Proximity surveys and develops the expanding field of Irish Studies, reviewing existing debates within the discipline and providing new avenues for exploration. Drawing on a variety of disciplinary and theoretical approaches, this impressive collection of essays makes an innovative contribution to three areas of current, and often contentious, debate within Irish Studies. This accessible volume illustrates the diversity of thinking on Irish history, culture and identity. By invoking theoretical perspectives including psychoanalysis, cultural theories of space, postcoloniality and theories of gender and sexual difference, the collection offers fresh perspectives on established subjects and brings new and under-represented areas of critical concern to the fore. Chapter subjects include: sexuality and gender identities, the historiographical issues surrounding the Famine, the Irish diaspora and theories of space in relation to Ulster and beyond. David Alderson and Scott Brewster are both Lecturers in English at the University of Staffordshire. Fiona Becket is Lecturer in English at the University of Leeds. Virginia Crossman is Lecturer in History at the University of Staffordshire. Ireland in Proximity History, Gender, Space Edited by Scott Brewster, Virginia Crossman, Fiona Becket and David Alderson London and New York First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002. © 1999 Selection and editorial matter: Scott Brewster, Virginia Crossman, Fiona Becket and David Alderson. Individual chapters: their contributors. The right of the contributors to be identified as the authors of their respective contributions has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Irish proximities: history, gender, space/David Alderson…[et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Ireland—Civilization. 2. Ireland—History. I. Alderson, David, 1968– DA925.I744 1999 941.5—dc21 99–30780 ISBN 0-415-18958-6 (pbk) 0-415-18957-8 (hbk) ISBN 0-203-00561-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-20966-4 (Glassbook Format) Contents Notes on contributors vii Foreword xi SHAUN RICHARDS Acknowledgements xvi Introduction 1 THE EDITORS PART I History 7 1 Introduction 9 VIRGINIA CROSSMAN 2 Nationalism and revisionism: ambiviolences and dissensus 12 WILLY MALEY 3 ‘The Whole People of Ireland’: patriotism, national identity and nationalism in eighteenth-century Ireland 28 PATRICK MCNALLY 4 Re-writing the Famine: witnessing in crisis 42 SCOTT BREWSTER AND VIRGINIA CROSSMAN vi Contents PART II Gender 59 5 Introduction 61 DAVID ALDERSON AND FIONA BECKET 6 Wild(e) Ireland 64 ÉIBHEAR WALSHE 7 A theatrical matrilineage?: problems of the familial in the drama of Teresa Deevy and Marina Carr 80 FIONA BECKET 8 Gender, citizenship and the state in Ireland, 1922–1990 94 CAITRÍONA BEAUMONT 9 Gender, nation, excess: reading Hush-a-Bye Baby 109 RICHARD KIRKLAND PART III Space 123 10 Introduction 125 SCOTT BREWSTER 11 M/otherlands: literature, gender, diasporic identity 129 AIDAN ARROWSMITH 12 Citizens of its hiding place: gender and urban space in Irish women’s poetry 145 ELISABETH MAHONEY 13 Mapping carceral space: territorialisation, resistance and control in Northern Ireland’s women’s prisons 157 MARY CORCORAN 14 Listening to the silences: defining the language and the place of a new Ireland 173 DAN BARON COHEN Index 189 Notes on contributors David Alderson is Lecturer in English at Staffordshire University. He is author of Mansex Fine: Religion, Manliness and Imperialism in Nineteenth-Century British Culture (Manchester University Press, 1998). His other publications include ‘Momentary Pleasures: Wilde and English Virtue’, in Sex, Nation and Dissent, ed. Éibhear Walshe (Cork University Press, 1997) and ‘An Anatomy of the British Polity: Alton Locke and Christian Manliness’, in Victorian Identities, ed. Ruth Robbins and Julian Wolfreys (Macmillan, 1996). Aidan Arrowsmith is Lecturer in English at Staffordshire University. His publications include ‘Debating Diasporic Identity’, in Irish Studies Review 7:2, a special edition on Ireland and postcolonialism, ed. C.Graham and W.Maley (forthcoming 1999), ‘Inside/Out’, in Dislocations: Comparing Postcolonial Literatures, ed. A.Bery and P.Murray (Macmillan, forthcoming 1999); ‘Plastic Paddy: Second Generation Irish-English Writing’, in Irish Studies Review (forthcoming 1999). Dan Baron Cohen is Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Community Education at the University of Glamorgan. He was involved as a co-ordinator and scriptwriter with Derry Frontline: Culture and Education (1988–94). Caitríona Beaumont is Lecturer in History at South Bank University. She is a graduate of the National University of Ireland and of Warwick University. Her dissertation explored the role of non-feminist women’s groups in the campaign for women’s rights. She has recently published a number of essays and articles on Irish women’s history, and is currently working on the history of women’s organisations in Ireland and Britain during the period 1920–69. Fiona Becket is Lecturer in English at the University of Leeds. She is author of D.H.Lawrence: The Thinker as Poet (Macmillan, 1997), and has published articles in Etudes Lawrenciennes and the D.H.Lawrence Review. She is also contributing to the Cambridge Companion to D.H.Lawrence, and is currently completing a volume on D.H.Lawrence in a new series from Routledge. She has research interests in Irish Modernism, particularly Joyce and Beckett. viii Notes on contributors Scott Brewster is Lecturer in English at Staffordshire University. He is co- editor of Inhuman Reflections: Thinking the Limits of the Human (Manchester University Press, forthcoming 1999) and author of Crossing Borders: Northern Irish Poetry (Sheffield Academic Press, 1999). He has also published articles on Bram Stoker, Elizabeth Bowen, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Derek Mahon and Seamus Heaney. Mary Corcoran is a Lecturer in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies, Liverpool John Moores University. She recently co-convened an interdisciplinary conference on social and cultural surveillance. Her PhD thesis traces the connections between the body, gender, power and the state in Northern Ireland’s political prisons. Virginia Crossman is Lecturer in History at Staffordshire University. Her publications include Politics, Law and Order in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Gill and Macmillan, 1996) and Local Government in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Institute of Irish Studies, 1994). She has also published a number of articles on other aspects of nineteenth-century Irish history. She was a Junior Research Fellow at the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen’s University, Belfast, 1989– 1991 and a Research Assistant to the Opposition Spokesperson for Northern Ireland from 1982 to 1985. Richard Kirkland is Lecturer in English at Keele University, Staffordshire. He is the author of Literature and Culture in Northern Ireland since 1965: Moments of Danger (Longman, 1996), co-editor with Colin Graham of Ireland and Cultural Theory: The Mechanics of Authenticity (Macmillan, 1999), and he has published widely on Northern Irish writing and culture. Before coming to Keele he held the post of teaching fellow in the School of English, Queen’s University, Belfast. Patrick McNally is Senior Lecturer in History at University College Worcester and author of Parties, Patriots and Undertakers: Parliamentary Politics in Early Hanoverian Ireland (Four Courts Press, 1997). Elisabeth Mahoney is an arts journalist and critic. After five years as Lecturer in English at the University of Aberdeen (working on feminist theory, contemporary women’s writing and photography) she left to write, think and travel. Previous publications include articles on Angela Carter, feminism and postmodernism, and the city in recent American film. Willy Maley is Reader in English Literature at the University of Glasgow, and author of A Spenser Chronology (Macmillan, 1994), Salvaging Spenser: Colonialism, Culture and Identity (Macmillan, 1997), and co-editor, with Brendan Bradshaw and Andrew Hadfield, of Representing Ireland: Literature and the Origins of Conflict, 1534–1660 (Cambridge University Press, 1993), Notes on contributors ix with Bart Moore-Gilbert and Gareth Stanton, of Postcolonial Criticism (Longman, 1997), and with Andrew Hadfield, of A View of the Present State of Ireland: From the First Published Edition (Blackwell, 1997). Shaun Richards is Head of Literature at Staffordshire University. He has published extensively in Irish Studies, particularly on twentieth-century Irish drama, and is co-author (with David Cairns) of Writing Ireland: Nationalism, Colonialism and Culture (Manchester University Press, 1988). He is currently working on a monograph entitled The Dramas of Modern Ireland: An Infinite Rehearsal (Macmillan, forthcoming). He was one of the founder members of the British Association for Irish Studies (and its first Treasurer) and contributed to the development of an MA in Irish Studies in collaboration with the University of Keele. Éibhear Walshe is Lecturer in English at University College Cork. His publications include an edited collection of essays, Sex, Nation and Dissent (Cork University Press, 1997).