You Can't Be What You Can't See

This chapter presents the policy, practice, and societal contexts of initial teacher education in Ireland as a backdrop to the TOBAR programme. Primary teaching in Ireland is a high status and high demand profession, yet the teaching body is predominately white, female, and Catholic. In recent years, in response to changes in Irish society, and in initial teacher education and higher education policy, new initiatives have been introduced to diversify the teaching body. In the second section of this chapter, the authors present an overview of one such initiative: the TOBAR programme. The TOBAR programme supports Irish travellers to participate in initial teacher education programmes. Drawing on a series on interviews with students on the TOBAR programme, the authors report that the programme is having a positive impact on the students but that many challenges and barriers still exist.

The Church Ascendant, 1831–1967

In the latter half of the eighteenth and early decades of the nineteenth century the priests’ leadership role in Ireland increased, aided by the relaxation of the Penal Laws and the eventual granting of Catholic Emancipation throughout the United Kingdom in 1829. Concurrently, a new generation of reforming bishops shook off the approach of caution of their predecessors towards government and became increasingly assertive about Catholic interests, including in education. That assertiveness is central in the considerations of this chapter. Developments in relation to the role of the Catholic Church (the Church) in Irish society from the decades prior to the Great Famine of 1845–48 are outlined. Relations between the Church and the State on education from the establishment of the Irish National School System in 1831 to the advent of national independence in 1922 are then examined. In the third section the activity of ‘the triumphalist Church in Ireland’ for the period from 1922 to the introduction of ‘free second-level education’ in 1967 is detailed.

Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards

A pluralist, outward-looking approach to Catholic education in Ireland now characterizes some of the latest changes at the level of governance and curriculum. Regarding piety, the first of the two main themes addressed throughout this book, change is also evident. In particular, the manner in which it is promoted and practised in the Catholic secondary schools now is more benignant, personal, ecumenical, and inclusive of those of other faiths than it was in the past. Regarding the second theme considered throughout, namely, the role of the Church historically in favouring at secondary school level those privileged in Irish society socially and economically, the situation is that while expansion of education provision has raised national standards of education, it has not led to the kind of reduction in relative social class inequalities that many believed it could or would. Thus, while so much has changed in relation to second-level schooling in the country from the end of the period 1922–1967 and the move away from the theocratic State, the Church in Ireland still continues to be enmeshed in social reproduction through the position it continues to hold within the nation’s secondary school sector.

Productive Bodies, Docile Women and Violence

Drawing on the Government of Ireland Collaborative Research Project, ‘Magdalene Institutions: Recording an Archival and Oral History’, this paper explores the nature of women’s experiences in Ireland’s Magdalene laundries though the lens of forced work. I argue that the perceived nature of the work done by the women—productive, respectable, ‘women’s work’—significantly impacted on how the abusive nature of the laundries has been considered by official bodies and wider Irish society. This paper focuses on work done in these institutions and how it was viewed, using interviews from survivors and those who visited the laundries. By exploring the links between work and respectability, productivity and morality, with particular attention to the ways this plays out upon the bodies of women, this article argues for an understanding of this work as a violent and disciplinary process, designed to produce the desired Irish Catholic female body: docile and productive, penitential and obedient.

(Post)Dramatic Strategies: Performing Difference in Pat Kinevane’s Solo Theatre

Pat Kinevane's solo performances focus on identities constituted on the margins of contemporary Irish society. Fusing the comic with the tragic, improvisation with carefully planned execution, and entertainment with serious cultural critique, these performative works range freely through diverse theatrical styles to represent Irish characters marginalized by their communities. Utilizing Hans-Thies Lehmann's ideas in Postdramatic Theatre (2006), this essay demonstrates how Kinevane's theatre inscribes but also contests some of the modalities of postdramatic discourse, creating a platform through which hegemonic political frameworks are challenged and identities are presented outside the established social norm. Through a performative analysis of the constructional, formal, and stylistic techniques, I argue that Kinevane's combined use of dramatic and postdramatic strategies can be seen as an essential part of his attempts to create consciousness raising and promote critical thinking among audiences.

Human Rights and Gender

What explains the disconnect between two images of the Irish state: the champion for gender human rights in matters of foreign affairs, and laggard on these rights internally? Is there a disconnect, or are these two sides of the same coin? Hailed internationally for its progressive promotion of the women, peace and security framework, policymaking at the national level reinforces multidimensional experiences of inequality for those most powerless in Irish society. A more nuanced, intersectional understanding of human rights and equality is central to understanding this ambivalent approach of the Irish state. This chapter explores the roots of Ireland’s position on gender rights and assesses Ireland’s role as champion for gendered human rights in the international sphere. Reviewing existing contrasts and contradictions, it provides a discussion of reasons and possible remedies for addressing these, and an explanation of what this may indicate about the Irish polity and its global self-perception.

Republicanism and Public Affairs

Although Irish republicanism is often elided with separatist nationalism, broader republican ideals of freedom, self-government, and the common good have also been prominent in Irish political discourse. This chapter examines the relationship of Irish republican thinking with the wider historical republican tradition and its contemporary expressions, and it assesses the impact of those ideals in Irish politics. In the state’s first century national freedom coexisted with extensive relationships of domination. Self-government was constrained within narrow institutional forms. The common good was defined in communitarian and authoritarian terms, and was often obscured by sectional interests. Extensive social and political changes that have taken place more recently have been in a mainly liberal direction, with less emphasis on republican ideals. Yet republican ideals have a continuing relevance for the wider concerns faced by contemporary Irish society.

Review of Ireland’s First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on People Affected by Eating Disorders: ‘Behind Every Screen There Was a Family Supporting a Person with an Eating Disorder’

Irish society went into one of the most stringent lockdowns in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and barring a few weeks, remains highly restricted at time of writing. This has produced a wide range of challenges for those affected by eating disorders, as well as treatment services and Bodywhys, The Eating Disorders Association of Ireland. Current research indicates that COVID-19 has impacted across three key areas—the experience of those with an eating disorder, the experience of service provision, and the impact on the family situation. Drawing on monitoring and evaluation data gathered by Bodywhys, this paper details the challenges faced by those affected by eating disorders in Ireland and how the organisation responded to these challenges, providing support in various forms to people with eating disorders and their families.

Naming my world: Finding my voice

This is a personal account of a sociological career over four decades, influenced by developments in Irish society and sociology. I focus on the growth of a feminist sociology, the stigmatisation of unmarried mothers, concealed stories and the changing treatment of ‘voice’ in sociological research.