Mary M. and Sexual Violence:
Ordinary Voices
and the Irish Civil War

Comóradh á dhéanamh ag Mná100 ar imeachtaí Eanáir 1923 le linn Chogadh na gCarad in Éirinn le gearrscannán arna chur i láthair ag an Ollamh Lindsey Earner-Byrne. Sa scannán seo déanfaidh An tOllamh Lindsey Earner-Byrne, Ollamh le hInscne i gColáiste na hOllscoile, Corcaigh, iniúchadh ar fhoréigean i gcoinne ban le linn laethanta gruama Chogadh na gCarad in Éirinn. Sa ghearrscannán seo a cruthaíodh go speisialta don chomóradh céad bliain, díreoidh sí ar chuntas ó lámh duine a bhí ann ag an am – i bhfoirm litir ocht leathanach ó pheann mná darbh ainm Mary M., ar tháinig an tOllamh air i gCartlann Dheoise Bhaile Átha Cliath sna 1990í.

Trí leas a bhaint as focail Mary í féin, déanann Lindsey Earner-Byrne scrúdú sciliúil ar ábhar tochtmhar na litreach seo, ina dtugtar chun solais gur éigníodh Mary M. Ba mar thoradh ar an éigniú sin a tháinig mac Mary ar an saol. Ba mar gheall ar na himeachtaí sin a scríobh sí an litir seo chuig Ardeaspag Caitliceach Bhaile Átha Cliath, an Dr Edward Joseph Byrne, an bhliain dar gcionn, inar iarr sí an t-airgead a theastaigh uaithi chun a mac a thabhairt suas le huchtú, mar nach raibh uchtú oifigiúil i bhfeidhm in Éirinn go dtí na 1950í.

Níl an físeán seo oiriúnach do lucht féachana óg, agus moltar don lucht féachana a bhreithiúnas féin a úsáid

Is féidir an script ar fad agus na hacmhainní a théann leis a léamh anseo.

Ba mhaith le Mná100 agus an tOllamh Lindsey Earner-Byrne buíochas ar leith a ghabháil le hArdeaspag Bhaile Átha Cliath, Dermot Farrell agus le Cartlannaí Dheoise Bhaile Átha Cliath, Noelle Dowling, as an tacaíocht agus cead a thug siad.

Dúirt an tAire Martin:

Ba mhaith liom aitheantas a thabhairt do shaothar tábhachtach an Ollaimh Earner-Byrne agus na staraithe go léir, agus na caomhnóirí ábhair a chabhraíonn linn tuiscint níos iomláine a fháil ar shaol na ndaoine a mhair le linn na coinbhleachta seo – sibhialtaigh, chomh maith le ceannairí míleata agus polaiteoirí. Is ar an gcur chuige seo atá ár n-iniúchadh ar an tréimhse idir 1912 agus 1923 bunaithe.

Tugann An tOllamh Lindsey Earner-Byrne cuireadh don léitheoir rogha den obair ar an ábhar seo a athbhreithniú.

Tá borradh ag teacht faoin spéis atá ag daoine i stair na mban ó na 1970í, agus ó lár na 1990í ar aghaidh, thosaigh staraithe ag díriú ar thionchar foréigin mhíleata/réabhlóidigh ar mhná in Éirinn. Sa bhliain 1995, mar shampla, rinne Sarah Benton iniúchadh ar thionchar an mhíleataithe ar mhná in Éirinn idir na blianta 1913 agus 1923. I ndiaidh sin, sa bhliain 2000, foilsíodh anailís Louise Ryan ar fhoréigean gnéasach le linn Chogadh na Saoirse, 1919-1921.

Le linn na 2000í, tháinig sruth seasta alt acadúil amach ina ndearnadh tionchar agus ról foréigin inscne agus gnéasach a mheas. Mar sin féin, le linn Dheich mBliana na gCuimhneachán, bhí aird scolártha níos mó arís ag staraithe agus socheolaithe ar fhoréigean inscne agus gnéasach. Leis an ngearrscannán Mná100 ‘Mary M. and Sexual Violence: Ordinary Voices and the Irish Civil War’, féachtar le tairbhe a dhéanamh don bhailiúchán saothar seo atá ag dul i méid trí aird a dhíriú ar ghlór agus fíorthaithí mná amháin ar éigníodh í i mí Eanáir na bliana 1923.

Gheobhaidh tú thíos rogha ábhair léitheoireachta ar an topaic seo a eagraítear de réir fhorbairt staireagrafaíochta an cheantair:

Sarah Benton, ‘Women disarmed: The militarisation of politics in Ireland, 1913–1923,’ Feminist Review, 50 (1995), pp. 148–72.

Louise Ryan, ‘Drunken Tans: Representations of sex and violence in the Anglo-Irish War, 1919–1921’, Feminist Review, 66 (2000), pp. 73–92.

Robert Lynch, ‘Explaining the Altnaveigh Massacre’, Éire-Ireland, 45: 3-4 (2010), pp. 184–210.

Seán Keating, ‘Sexual crime in the Irish Free State 1922–23: Its nature, extent and reporting,’ Irish Studies Review, 20: 2 (May 2012), pp. 135–55.

Gemma Clark, Everyday Violence in the Irish Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2014), pp. 154-195.

Marie Coleman, ‘Violence against women during the Irish War of Independence, 1919–1921’ in Diarmaid Ferriter and Susannah Riordan (eds), Years of Turbulence: The Irish Revolution and its Aftermath (Dublin: UCD Press, 2015), pp. 137–56.

Lindsey Earner-Byrne, ‘The rape of Mary M.: A microhistory of sexual violence and moral redemption in 1920s Ireland’, Journal of the History of Sexuality, 21: 1 (2015), pp. 75–98.

Justin Dolan Stover, ‘Families, vulnerability and sexual violence during the Irish Revolution’, in Jennifer Evans and Ciara Meehan (eds), Perceptions of Pregnancy from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century, (London: Palgrave, 2017), pp. 57–75.

Linda Connolly, ‘Sexual violence in the Irish Revolution: An inconvenient truth’, History Ireland, 6: 27 (November–December 2019), pp. 34-38.

Andy Bielenberg,  ‘Female Fatalities in County Cork during the Irish War of Independence and the Case of Mrs Lindsay’ in Linda Connolly (ed.), Women and the Irish Revolution, (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2020), pp. 146-63.

Gemma Clark, ‘Violence against women in the Irish Civil War, 1922–3: Gender-based harm in global perspective’, Irish Historical Studies, 44: 165 (2020), pp. 75–90.

Marie Coleman, ‘Compensation claims and women’s experience of violence and loss in Revolutionary Ireland, 1921-23’ in Linda Connolly (ed.), Women and the Irish Revolution, (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2020), pp. 129-147.

Linda Connolly, ‘Hair taking: A weapon of war in Ireland’s War of Independence?’ RTE Brainstorm, February 2020, https://www.rte.ie/ brainstorm/2020/0212/1115001-how-forced-hair-cutting-was-used-as-a-weapon-of-war-in- ireland/ (accessed February 22, 2020)

Linda Connolly, ‘Towards a further understanding of the sexual and gender-based violence women experienced in the Irish Revolution’ in Linda Connolly (ed.), Women and the Irish Revolution, (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2020), pp. 103-128.

Linda Connolly, Sexual violence in the Irish Civil War: a forgotten war crime?, Women’s History Review, 30: 1 (2020), pp. 126-143.

Mary McAuliffe, ‘The Homefront as battlefront: Women, violence and the domestic space during war in Ireland, 1919–1921’ in Linda Connolly(ed.), Women and the Irish Revolution, (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 2020), pp. 164-82.

Susan Byrne, ‘Keeping Company with the enemy’: gender and sexual violence against women during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War, 1919-1923’, Women’s History Review, 30: 1 (2021), pp. 108-125.

Mary McAuliffe, ‘Gendered violence against women: The forcible hair cutting of the Cullen Sisters of Keenaghan, Co. Tyrone, 22 May 1922’ in D. Gannon and F. McGarry (eds), Ireland 1922 (Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 2022), pp. 136-140.

Ciara Breathnach, Eunan O’Halpin, ‘Sexual assault and fatal violence against women during the Irish War of Independence, 1919–1921: Kate Maher’s murder in context,’ Medical Humanities, 49 (2022), pp. 94-103.