The Pre-Famine Irish, At Home and Abroad

American Conference for Irish Studies San Jose, California 7-10 June 2023

10 June 2023

Session 10: The Pre-Famine Irish, At Home and Abroad

1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m

MLK Library, 2nd Floor, Room 213, San Jose State University

Was There a Golden Age of Women in Gaelic Ireland Prior to the Seventeenth Century?

Early twentieth century writers were keen to prove not only that Ireland could be independent, but that Gaelic Ireland had thrived prior to British rule. Out of this belief was born “the popular assumption that women had more freedom under Gaelic law,” as written in “An Agenda for Women’s History in Ireland 1500-1800.” Authors Margaret MacCurtain, Mary O’Dowd, and Maria Luddy challenge this assumption and ask: “Was there a golden age of women in Gaelic Ireland prior to the seventeenth century?” This paper addresses what has been alluded to in the thirty years of publications since “An Agenda for Women’s History in Ireland” was written by examining family law under Gaelic or Brehon Law alongside the English Common Law practiced in the Pale around Dublin, Ireland. This paper looks at women in records from Court of Chancery, and uses a female lens to examine property law, inheritance, bride price, and fosterage as well as how women under both institutions gained or lost security through marriage. No primary sources exist from Irish women in the sixteenth century, so this paper strives to find the voices of both groups of women and help answer whether they enjoyed more freedom beyond the Pale.

Fellow panelists:

Chair: Ely Janis, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

The First Irish Diaspora in the Age of the Bourbon Reforms: Hiberno-Spaniards, Political Economy, and Slavery

Michael Bailey, Boston College

Before the Famine: Irish Diaspora and the United Irishmen, 1795-1812

Muiris MacGhiollabhuí, Purdue University