Gender and Sexuality in Modern Ireland

This collection of essays focuses on issues of gender and sexuality in Irish history, biography, language, literature and drama. The book's concern with gender and sexuality makes possible a series of interweaving narratives that create an understanding of what it means to be Irish.

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This collection of essays focuses on issues of gender and sexuality in Irish history, biography, language, literature and drama. While the contributors employ a variety of methodological and critical perspectives, they share the conviction that the gendering of Ireland - not only of the nation, but of actual Irish men and women - is a construction of culture and ideology and not simply one of nature. The essays address such topics as: the recent divorce referendum; homoerotic desire in the Irish literary renaissance, and in recent drama and film; Irish women's history; intersections of gender with nationalism and feminism; contemporary Irish poetry; the significance of gender in emigration from Ireland to the United States; and the political importance of the work of Irish religious women in the first half of the century. The book's concern with gender and sexuality makes possible a series of interweaving narratives that create an understanding of what it means to be Irish. Contributors include: Guinn Batten, Angela Bourke, Carol Coulter, Elizabeth Cullingford, Mary Daly, Adrian Frazier, Dillon Johnston, Margaret MacCurtain, Lucy McDiarmid, Maureen Murphy, Antoinette Quinn, Catherine Shannon and Margaret Ward.