Furies and Die-Hards: Women in Rebellion and War

3 units

Furies and Die-Hards: Women in Rebellion and War juxtaposes contemporary social science perspectives on women and war with the history and testimonies of Irish women during the Irish revolutionary period (1898-1922), the Irish Civil War (1922-1923), and the Free State. Under English rule from the 12th-century Norman invasions to the establishment of the Irish Free State and the partition of Northern Ireland in 1922, Ireland presents a compelling historical laboratory to deliberate on the relationship between gender and political conflict. Intentionally transdisciplinary, the course draws from across disciplinary discourses and highlights perspectives across race, gender, class, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality. Topics include political organizing, nationalism, rebellion, radicalization, militarism, terrorism, pacifism, and peacebuilding. Rooted in Cynthia Enloe's enduring question of Where are the women? and drawing on sociologist Louise Ryan's landmark essay by the same name, we inquire how and why Irish nationalist women, who were integral to building the revolutionary movement, became Furies and Die-hards in the eyes of their compatriots when the Free State was established (Bishop Doorley, 1925; President Cosgrave, 1923). Taking advantage of the plethora of archival resources now available through the Irish Decade of Centenaries program, the course incorporates the voices of Irish women through their diaries, military records, letters, interviews, speeches, newspapers, and memoirs.