Ireland and the Maternal Body

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

10 June 2023

Session 9: "Ireland and the Maternal Body"

10:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m

MLK Library, 2nd Floor, Room 219, San Jose State University

Motherhood and the Great Hunger

For mothers in nineteenth century Ireland, the physical pain of starvation during the Great Hunger coexisted alongside pregnancy, labor and delivery, and often the profound agony of child loss. Drawings of mothers from this time, such as "Bridget O'Donnel and Her Children" from The Illustrated London News (1849), show passive victims of the famine. However, as women have become more centered in the recent historiography of An Gorta Mór,records of mothers fighting for their families and their communities while facing impossible odds have emerged. Irish women persisted through physical trauma to advocate for political and structural change, as well as ensuring the next generation’s continued survival. This paper will examine the daily lives and lasting societal impact of mothers from 1845 to 1852, looking at both written records and illustrations to give a more aggregate view of the story of Irish motherhood during the Famine.

Fellow panelists:

"She was Dead to Begin With”: Reading Maternal Mortality and Reproductive Justice in the National Tale

Matthew L. Reznicek, Creighton University

"Puppeting it Back to Life”: Corpses, and Motherhood in A Ghost in the Throat

Kate Costello-Sullivan, English Dept. Le Moyne College

Sinéad Gleeson’s Constellations and the Paradox of Maternity

Elizabeth Grubgeld, Oklahoma State University