Mac Curtain, Margaret, Ariadne’s thread, writing women into Irish
history, Arlen house publications, PO Box 222, Galway, Ireland, 2008. €
55.00, ISBN 978-1-903631-22-1 (Hardback), £25.00, ISBN 978-1903631-42-3 (Paperback) pp. 400.
Reviewed by Dr. Louise O’Reilly, NUI Maynooth, Co. Kildare, October
2010.
This collection of sixteen essays displays Margaret Mac Curtain’s outstanding
approach to research and writing Irish women’s history. Maureen Murphy gives a
detailed account of Mac Curtain’s most interesting career as ‘teacher, religious
sister, editor, human rights activist, educational reformer and media commentator’
in the foreword and provides the reader with an insight into what to expect in the
collection. (p. 13) Not surprisingly the essays reflect a wide range of themes
including education, politics and religion, which have influenced women’s lives in
Ireland.
The author offers an informative account of the role of Irish women throughout
the centuries, beginning with an early essay first published in 1963, on the
question of higher education for women; the first theme of the collection. Focusing
on the role played by women, Mac Curtain points out the controversy was sparked
by ‘a Dublin-born nun’. (p.67) Women and politics in the twentieth century, the
second essay (1978) points to the need for more research into women born in the
late nineteenth century. These women were to experience firsthand the major
changes in early twentieth-century Ireland, namely revolution and the making of
the Free State. Both these essays describe how the position of Irish women in
education and politics were closely linked to religion. In the latter case, the Irish
Parliamentary party leader, John Redmond declared ‘that he was against votes for
women as it would increase the power of the clergy.’(p. 87).
Religious themes can be found throughout the collection, the 1987 essay ‘Moving
statues and Irish women’ refers to a modern day phenomena, while Mac Curtain’s
2002 essay discusses the religious reformation and its impact on Irish women.
However, her examination of women religious in the twentieth century is most
interesting, focusing on the religious archive and its importance to the history of
women religious but also the importance of the ‘need to hear the voices of women
religious, the self which is no longer annalist but the subject of the testimony.’ (p.
275)
Throughout the collection Mac Curtain introduces the reader to Irish women in
every context as religious, politicians, wives and saints; all are an integral part of
Ireland’s history. The methods used by Mac Curtain in her research into these Irish
women stand out in the essays. Mac Curtain refers to her ‘opportunity to interview
survivors of the Easter Rising’ which was to give her an ‘enduring interest in oral
history’. (p. 82) In addition, poetry, memoirs and art are sources which Mac
Curtain used in various essays. In ‘Reflections on Walter Osborn’s Study of nature’
Mac Curtain highlights her interest in using every source to record the history of
women. In her introduction, Mac Curtain’s study of the painting on the cover page
is also intense and she concludes that the artist Leo Whelan’s work ‘conveys the
solitary existence of the woman in the kitchen in the years when the new Free
State and a partitioned Ireland faced an uncertain future.’ (p. 41). Mac Curtain
displays how interdisciplinary analysis can be used to understand the history of
Irish women throughout the centuries.
In conclusion, Ariadne’s thread, writing women into Irish history is an outstanding
collection of essays, spanning Mac Curtain’s career but more importantly
highlighting her expertise in women’s history in Ireland. In the course of this
career, she took on the challenge of searching and creating new methods to open
up research into Irish women’s history. The results of this challenge is fully
displayed within this volume, which is an important work for all those interested in
researching and writing women into history.