Edna O'Brien: Stretching the Nation's Boundaries

Ingman, Heather

doi:10.1080/0967088022000040239

Cited by 36 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…These efforts on the part of the authorities to restrict women to the home culminated in de Valera’s 1937 Constitution founded on the family unit. (Ingman, 2002, p. 254; see also Beaumont, 1997; Luddy, 2001; Ryan, 1999; Valiulis and O’Dowd, 1997). These developments enable us to better comprehend structural factors and individual women's sense of ‘habitus’ during this period (Hilliard, 2003).…”

Section: The Foundation Of the New State And ‘Unmarried Mothers’mentioning

confidence: 98%

‘Unmarried Mothers’ in the Republic of Ireland

Garrett

2016

Journal of Social Work

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Summary During the summer of 2014 reports that a ‘septic tank grave’ containing ‘skeletons of 800 babies’ had been discovered on the site of a former home for ‘unmarried mothers’ in Tuam, County Galway appeared in the international press and social media. Doubts quickly began to surface around the assertion that the remains of children had, in fact, been ‘dumped’ in a ‘septic tank, but it is still important that responses to ‘unmarried mothers’ and their children are subject to contemporary scrutiny because substantial concerns clearly warrant investigation. In June 2014 the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, in the Irish coalition government, announced the setting up of an inquiry. Findings Acknowledging the significance of historical and archival research for social work, the article provides a more expansive contextual account than that featured in the media coverage. The main focus is on policy and practice in relation to ‘unmarried mothers’ in the early years of the state and the establishment of quasi-penal Mother and Baby Homes. The lack of legal child adoption also restricted the meaningful choices available to expectant, unwed women in Ireland. Many, known to social workers as P.F.I.s (‘pregnant from Ireland’), decided to flee to England to give birth and have children placed for adoption. Drawing on the annual reports of the Catholic Protection and Rescue Society of Ireland, it is revealed that these women often faced being ‘repatriated’ back to Ireland. Applications The discussion serves to emphasise the vital significance of social history in comprehending ways of working with ‘troublesome’ populations.

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Section: The Foundation Of the New State And ‘Unmarried Mothers’mentioning

confidence: 98%

‘Unmarried Mothers’ in the Republic of Ireland

Garrett

2016

Journal of Social Work

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“…• 77 […] The tale differs with the teller 38 ". This functions as a metafictional warning of sorts in which O'Brien obliquely stakes her claim to an alternative perspective on the contemporary Troubles, and rather than being a novel whose "lesson" is "that history should be laid to rest" 39 , House is more about accepting multiple versions of the past and accepting that perceptions can be erroneous. This is particularly obvious at the end when one of the Guards mistakes the attempts by Josie and McGreevy to chase wasps out of the room as a "lewd, disgusting 40 " sexual encounter.…”

Section: • Willful Bodiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“The right of the people of Ireland to the […] unfettered control of Irish destinies”: Edna O'Brien, Willful Subjects, and Counter-narratives of the Republic

McCann¹

2016

etudesirlandaises

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This article explores Edna O'Brien's more recent fiction and demonstrates how Ireland's most prolific writer continues to systematically expose the ways in which oppression and repression operate in contemporary Ireland. Using Sara Ahmed's work on "willful subjects", I aim to show how O'Brien enshrines willfulness within the very aesthetics of her texts and, in so doing, offers a counter-narrative of the Republic.

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O 'Brien, E dna

D’hoker¹

2010

The Encyclopedia of Twentieth‐Century Fiction

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As the author of 16 novels, six collections of short stories, a dozen plays, and several works of nonfiction, Edna O'Brien is one of the most prolific Irish writers. Yet, in spite of this steady flow of writing and her wide readership on both sides of the Atlantic, critical recognition has been slow in coming. Until the mid‐1990s critics relegated her work to the realm of “women's fiction” and analyzed it for what it revealed of the author's own life and love affairs. More recently, however, critical reinterpretation of her work has led to its recognition as an important testimony to sociopolitical realities in twentieth‐century Ireland and as a powerful representation of universal human desires and obsessions.

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Edna O'Brien: Stretching the Nation's Boundaries

Cited by 36 publications

References 1 publication

‘Unmarried Mothers’ in the Republic of Ireland

‘Unmarried Mothers’ in the Republic of Ireland

“The right of the people of Ireland to the […] unfettered control of Irish destinies”: Edna O'Brien, Willful Subjects, and Counter-narratives of the Republic

O 'Brien, E dna

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