‘No Suggestion of Suffragettism’: the Blue Blouses in Ireland, 1933–1936
2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09612025.2014.906260
ISSN1747-583X
Autores Tópico(s)Irish and British Studies
ResumoAbstractIn July 1933 membership of the Irish fascist organisation, the Blueshirts, was officially opened to women for the first time. Within a year the Blue Blouses, as the women's auxiliary was colloquially called, became the largest women's political organisation in Ireland. This article examines the group as a vehicle for the politicisation of conservative pro-Treaty Irish women. The Blue Blouses willingly used parades, mass rallies, athletics, and a specific discourse of domesticity to articulate a strategy of political involvement that did not conflict with the patriarchal presumptions of inter-war Irish political culture. As such, this analysis is intended to augment the history of inter-war Irish women politics that to date has focused almost exclusively on feminist organisations. AcknowledgementI would like to thank the Social Studies and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Institute of Irish Studies at Queens University Belfast for financial support during the research for this article.Notes1 Southern Star (8 July 1934).2 Department of Justice, Circular to Divisional and District Commanders, 28 October 1933. National Archives of Ireland, 93/3/19.3 ‘The Minister may in respect of any form of industrial work … by order make regulations … prohibiting the employment of female workers to do such form of industrial work.’ http://acts.oireachtas.ie/en.act.1936.0002.3.html#sec16 (accessed 1 September 2012).4 http://www.constitution.ie/reports/ConstitutionofIreland.pdf (accessed 16 May 2011).5 Maryann Gialanella Valiulis (2009) Virtuous Mothers and Dutiful Wives: the politics of sexuality in the Irish Free State, in Maryann Gialanella Valiulis (Ed.) Gender and Power in Irish History (Dublin: Irish Academic Press), pp. 100–104.6 Rosemary Owen (2005) A Social History of Women in Ireland (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan), pp. 257–259.7 See in particular Maryann Valiulis (1995) Neither Feminist nor Flapper: the ecclesiastical construction of the ideal Irish woman, in Mary O'Dowd & Sabine Wichert (Eds) Chattel, Servant or Citizen: women's status in church, state, and society (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies); Maryann Gialanella Valiulis (1997) Engendering Citizenship: women's relationship to the state in Ireland and the United States in the post-suffrage period, in Maryann Gialanella Valiulis (Ed.) Women and Irish History (Dublin: Wolfhound Press); Caitriona Beaumont (1999) Gender, Citizenship and the State in Ireland, 1922–1990, in Scott Brewster, Virginia Crossman, Fiona Becket & David Alderson (Eds) Ireland in Proximity: history, gender and space (London: Routledge); Senia Paseta (2003) Women and Civil Society: feminist responses to the Irish constitution of 1937, in Jose Harris (Ed.) Civil Society in British History: ideas, identities, institutions (Oxford: Oxford University Press).8 Caitriona Beaumont (1997) Women and the Politics of Equality: the Irish women's movement, 1930–1943, in Valiulis (Ed.), Women and Irish History, pp. 175–177.9 Mary Daly (1995) Women in the Irish Free State, 1922–39: the interaction between economics and ideology, Journal of Women's History, 6/7, pp. 99–100.10 Beaumont, ‘Women and the Politics of Equality’, pp. 181–184.11 Margaret Ward (1983) Unmanageable Revolutionaries: women and Irish nationalism (London: Pluto Press), pp. 231–232, 242–245; Aideen Sheehan (1990) Cumann na mBan Policies and Activities, in David Fitzpatrick (Ed.) Revolution? Ireland 1917–1923 (Dublin: Trinity History Workshop), pp. 95–97; Cal McCarthy (2007) Cumann na mBan and the Irish Revolution (Cork: The Collins Press), pp. 1–4.12 Louise Ryan (2004) In the Line of Fire: representations of women and war (1919–1923) through the writings of republican men, in Louise Ryan & Margaret Ward (Eds) Irish Women and Nationalism: soldiers, new women and old hags (Dublin: Irish Academic Press), pp. 45–48.13 Alvin Jackson (1999) Ireland, 1798–1998: politics and war (Oxford: Blackwell), pp. 291–293.14 Anglo-Celt (25 August 1934).15 Ernest Blythe papers, League of Youth membership ledgers, March 1934 & April 1934. University College Dublin Archives, P24/671.16 Ward, Unmanageable Revolutionaries, pp. 205–207; Sheehan, ‘Cumann na mBan Policies and Activities’, pp. 95–97; Beaumont, ‘Women and the Politics of Equality’, pp. 181–184.17 Aileen Heverin (2000) The Irish Countrywomen's Association: a history, 1910–2000 (Dublin: Wolfhound Press), pp. 76–79.18 For instance, formed at roughly the same time, the women's section of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) composed around 25% of the total BUF membership. Julie Gottlieb (2001) Feminine Fascism: women in Britain's fascist movement 1923–1945 (London: I.B. Tauris), pp. 48–52.19 League of Youth membership ledger, n.d., in Mike Cronin's personal possession.20 Paul Bew, Ellen Hazelkorn & Henry Patterson (1989) The Dynamics of Irish Politics (London: Lawrence & Wishart), pp. 48–50; John Regan (1999) The Irish Counter-Revolution, 1921–1936: treatyite politics and settlement in independent Ireland (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan), pp. 324–325.21 Department of Justice, Report from the Carlow Superintendent to the Garda Commissioner, 7 March 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 8/2; Department of Justice, Report from the Killarney Superintendent to the Kerry Chief Superintendent, 10 September 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 2008/117/326.22 United Ireland (16 June, 27 October 1934).23 There is an expanding literature on women in shirted movements before the Second World War. Two of the most prominent academic works critical of the emancipatory potential of this form of female politicisation are: Victoria de Grazia (1992) How Fascism Ruled Women in Italy, 1922–1945 (Los Angeles: University of California Press), and Mary Vincent (2003) Spain, in Kevin Passmore (Ed.) Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, 1919–1945 (Manchester: Manchester University Press). An alternate perspective is offered by Percy Wilson (2003) Italy, in Passmore (Ed.), Women, Gender and Fascism in Europe, and Kathleen Richardson (2003) Women and Spanish Fascism: the women's section of the Falange, 1934–1959 (London: Routledge). For the BUF, Martin Durham (1998) Women and Fascism (London: Routledge) examines the leadership's views towards female members. The previously cited Gottlieb, Feminine Fascism broadens this perspective by incorporating oral accounts by former members.24 Susan Gal (2004) The Semiotics of the Public/Private Distinction, in Joan Scott & Debra Keates (Eds) Going Public: feminism and the shifting boundaries of the private sphere (Chicago: University of Illinois), pp. 263–269.25 Richard Mulcahy papers, League of Youth constitution, 14 September 1935. University College Dublin Archives, P7c/45.26 United Ireland (1 September 1934).27 Ernest Blythe papers, Heads of Policy and Resolutions for the Fine Gael Ard Fheis, February 1934. University College Dublin, P24/628.28 United Ireland (30 September, 25 November 1933).29 Several of the more notable and violent instances can be found in Irish Press (30 April 1934); Department of Justice, Garda Report of Outrage, 1 August 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 2008/117/96; Department of Justice, Inspector Report to the Commissioner, 10 August 1933. National Archives of Ireland, 2008/117/97; Department of Justice, Garda Report of Outrage, 22 August 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 2008/117/100; Department of Justice, Garda Report of Outrage, 4 June 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 2008/117/178.30 For instance, Blue Blouses defied police instructions to remove the blue shirt during demonstrations in Donegal in December 1933 and defended their right to wear the shirt during parliamentary sessions, Irish Independent (9 December 1933, 18 May 1934).31 George L. Mosse (1996) Fascist Aesthetics and Society: some considerations, Journal of Contemporary History, 31(2), pp. 248–250.32 Patrick F. McDevitt (1997) Muscular Catholicism: nationalism, masculinity and Gaelic team sports, 1884–1916, Gender and History, 9(2), p. 264.33 United Ireland (28 April 1934).34 The Munster Express (3 May 1935); Richard Mulcahy papers, Northern Star (September 1935). University College Dublin, P7c/45; United Ireland (15 June 1935); United Ireland (3 March, 9 June 1934); Blueshirt Athletic Programme, reprinted in Southern Star (19 May 1934).35 United Ireland (18 May 1935).36 Southern Star (9 June 1934); United Ireland (18 May 1935).37 Valiulis, ‘Neither Feminist nor Flapper’, pp. 174–175.38 The GAA still permitted women to participate in team sports such as camogie.39 Anglo-Celt (6 January 1934).40 Department of Justice, Report from the Limerick Chief Superintendent to the Garda Commissioner, 26 June 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 8/103; Southern Star (3 February 1934).41 Connaught Tribune (8 September 1934); United Ireland (8 September 1934).42 Department of Justice, Garda Report to Superintendent Bray, 25 August 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 8/66.43 Irish Independent (22 October 1934).44 Department of Justice, Report from Superintendent to Chief Superintendent Donegal, 5 October 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 8/55; United Irishman (17 November 1934).45 Department of Justice, Report from the Cork Chief Superintendent to the Garda Commissioner, 7 July 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 8/20; Irish Times (28 May 1934).46 United Ireland (9 June 1934).47 Department of Justice, Report from the Chief Superintendent Dublin Metropolitan Division to the Garda Commissioner, 30 April 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 2008/117/298.48 Department of Justice, Garda Report to the Garda Commissioner, 28 April 1934. National Archives of Ireland, 2008/117/301.49 Cork Examiner (22 June 1934).50 Irish Independent (30 April 1934); Munster Express (4 May 1934).51 Department of Justice, List of Outrages committed by the Blueshirt Organisation for July 1935. National Archives of Ireland, 2008/117/483; United Ireland, 20 July 1935.52 Department of Justice, Report from the Macroom Superintendent to the Garda Commissioner, 16 July 1935. National Archives of Ireland, 8/187.53 United Ireland (20 January 1934); Interview with Patrick Lindsay, Bealadangan, 23 May 1991; Interview with Andrew Forrest, Ballitore, 2 December 1991; Interview with Walter Terry, Aglish, 9 December 1991.54 Ipshita Chanda (2000) Feminist Theory in Perspective, in Henry Schwartz & Sangeeta Ray (Eds) A Companion to Postcolonial Studies (Malden, MA: Blackwell) pp. 498–501.55 Ernest Blythe papers, Address of Welcome from the Athlacca Ladies Branch to Mrs. Annie Blythe, 6 May 1934. University College Dublin Archives, P24/2244.56 Mary McAuliffe (2008) Senator Kathleen Browne, 1876–1943: patriot, politician and practical farmer (Roscrea: Roscrea Publications), pp. 106–108.57 The Nation (22 June, 13 July 1935).58 The Nation (29 June, 3 August 1935).59 The Nation (3 August 1935).60 United Ireland (25 August 1934).61 United Ireland (16 June 1934).62 United Ireland (19 January 1935).63 Caitriona Clear (2000) Women of the House: women's household work in Ireland, 1926–1961. Discourses, Experiences, Memories (Dublin, Irish Academic Press), p. 14.64 United Ireland (19 May 1934).65 United Ireland (19 January 1934).66 United Ireland (14 April 1934).67 United Ireland (14 April 1934).68 United Ireland (21 April 1934).69 United Ireland (15 December 1934).70 United Ireland (24 November 1934).
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