ABSTRACT
Writings on Irish identity range widely over many subjects, offering subtle interpretations of the mentalities of elites in Ireland and of the relations of Gaelic Irish, Old English and New English men. The analysis of the nuances of men’s confessional allegiances and practice has proceeded apace.1 But it is striking how rarely gender features in these discussions or in the host of writings by people discovering their Irish roots.2 This lack of engagement with gender issues was noted in 1997 when a collection of essays produced under the auspices of the American Conference for Irish Studies justified its concentration on gender and sexuality ‘rather than on a more traditionally accredited theme or area of Irish studies’. In the intervening ten years little has changed.3 The kind of work done by Patricia Crawford to integrate gender into the wider study of early modern English history has no real parallel in early modern Irish history except in the publications of Margaret MacCurtain and Mary O’Dowd.4 This chapter is a brief excursion into that project. By looking at the religious, national and linguistic communities of which women were a part, it considers some of the ways in which taking gender into account may influence our
view of historical developments in early modern Ireland and, in particular, with the ways in which this may inflect differently our understanding of identity.
