Wow....... like..... my words are dumbfounded! I honestly don't believe I've ever been conscious, aware, noticed or even thought about any of this.... I've always just taken everything as is and gotten on with it..... I never stopped to think about how women of Ireland have been molded in this way, segregated, fenced out, fenced in, manipulated and isolated in this way.... you kins of just accept the roles were as they were, because of the lives we led, but honestly never knew or had any association of how the famine and the the civil war, really cut us off at the knees.... wow... wow... wow
I’m so glad to have found your writing. I’ve lived in South Africa and Germany but have Irish parents and it’s very interesting to me, learning about Irish history and the concept of a “tight culture”, and how this has influenced women. My dad’s side of the family is from Belfast but my grandmother on my mum’s side is from Wicklow. I’ve realised that my mum often has an irrational, inadvertent fear of what people might think, and so did my grandmother. I believe this has influenced my social anxiety (among other things). It’s something I need to investigate further, but I’m curious about the influence tight cultures might have on social anxiety.
Welcome Christine. So delighted to have you here in this little corner of Substack. Thank you for your reflections on how Tight Culture has shown up in your life and echoed down the generations. I really do think there is something in that.... the connection between anxiety and Tight Culture. Because if you're raised with a constant sort of low level sense that if you screw up (ie break a social norm) in social situations you might get punished I think it would make you more vigilant and sensitive to other people and, therefore, more anxious. Then couple this with the fact that Tight Culture arise because a group has experienced threat, so there is this kind of imprint within the culture that things are not 'safe and secure' and that it you don't stick to the rules the world around you could just fall apart (it's an irrational fear but it's present, and unconscious in the body of many people of Ireland I feel)
This is so interesting, and much of it feeds into what I am studying in the Cailleach Project. Women were enormously active in the lead up to the 1916 Rising, and were promised equality. It must have been such a kick in the teeth to have that promise so easily reneged on. I find this such a fascinating period in Irish women's history, also the women of the 1641 Rebellion could do with further study, although its difficult because primary sources concern themselves mainly with men writing about the activities of other men. I'm looking forward to Part 3...
Thanks as always Ali for your enthusiasm and reflections. I've only recently just started reading more about the women of the 1640s myself, I have to say I'm quite blind to that whole Early Modern era in Ireland, but I'm slowly learning just how central it was in shaping and almost catalysing things that would later happen in Ireland. If there are any good texts or sources you've come across on the 1640s I'd be really interested to hear of them. Have been finding some good work by Mary O'Dowd and Gillian Kenny but I imagine it's the tip of the iceberg!
Wow....... like..... my words are dumbfounded! I honestly don't believe I've ever been conscious, aware, noticed or even thought about any of this.... I've always just taken everything as is and gotten on with it..... I never stopped to think about how women of Ireland have been molded in this way, segregated, fenced out, fenced in, manipulated and isolated in this way.... you kins of just accept the roles were as they were, because of the lives we led, but honestly never knew or had any association of how the famine and the the civil war, really cut us off at the knees.... wow... wow... wow
I’m so glad to have found your writing. I’ve lived in South Africa and Germany but have Irish parents and it’s very interesting to me, learning about Irish history and the concept of a “tight culture”, and how this has influenced women. My dad’s side of the family is from Belfast but my grandmother on my mum’s side is from Wicklow. I’ve realised that my mum often has an irrational, inadvertent fear of what people might think, and so did my grandmother. I believe this has influenced my social anxiety (among other things). It’s something I need to investigate further, but I’m curious about the influence tight cultures might have on social anxiety.
Welcome Christine. So delighted to have you here in this little corner of Substack. Thank you for your reflections on how Tight Culture has shown up in your life and echoed down the generations. I really do think there is something in that.... the connection between anxiety and Tight Culture. Because if you're raised with a constant sort of low level sense that if you screw up (ie break a social norm) in social situations you might get punished I think it would make you more vigilant and sensitive to other people and, therefore, more anxious. Then couple this with the fact that Tight Culture arise because a group has experienced threat, so there is this kind of imprint within the culture that things are not 'safe and secure' and that it you don't stick to the rules the world around you could just fall apart (it's an irrational fear but it's present, and unconscious in the body of many people of Ireland I feel)
This is so interesting, and much of it feeds into what I am studying in the Cailleach Project. Women were enormously active in the lead up to the 1916 Rising, and were promised equality. It must have been such a kick in the teeth to have that promise so easily reneged on. I find this such a fascinating period in Irish women's history, also the women of the 1641 Rebellion could do with further study, although its difficult because primary sources concern themselves mainly with men writing about the activities of other men. I'm looking forward to Part 3...
Thanks as always Ali for your enthusiasm and reflections. I've only recently just started reading more about the women of the 1640s myself, I have to say I'm quite blind to that whole Early Modern era in Ireland, but I'm slowly learning just how central it was in shaping and almost catalysing things that would later happen in Ireland. If there are any good texts or sources you've come across on the 1640s I'd be really interested to hear of them. Have been finding some good work by Mary O'Dowd and Gillian Kenny but I imagine it's the tip of the iceberg!
Anything by Mary O'Dowd is good! 💕