Women in Early Modern Ireland
Richard B Gorrie (rgorrie@uoguelph.ca)
Sun, 22 Jan 1995 20:40:43 -0400
Dear list,
I'm wondering something about the role of women in early modern
Ireland... I seem to have isolated a woman mentioned in a piece of Irish
bardic poetry from the end of the 16th century as being Margaret Maguire
not the daughter of Shane O'Neill as I once thought, but as being the
daughter of the previous Maguire Seaan ( 1540-66 ) yet the poem she is
mentioned in as patroness is from the period where Cu Chonnacht (1566-89)
was the Maguire following his brother Seean's death...
Does anyone have any idea at all about what her role might be... or where
I could find information on her... I know that this is pretty well
pointless seeing as no one except for one or two historians has done work
on women in this period in Ireland and practically bo obe has used Bardic
poetry as a source... ( it seems to have been dismissed as worth anything
for various reasons... i can see the justification for it not being used
so much as a resource for political history - which is what all the
various early modern Irish historians seem to concentrate on - but in my
ignorance do not really see why it can't be used as a resource for social
history of that particular class.... )
Oh well, a shot in the dark, but i figured it might be worth something, I
have this vague tiny theory that they might be trying to marry her off by
praising her various qualities in the end of the poem ... but I really
don't know... do any of you?
yours pleadingly...
Jeanne Cruden <jcruden@GPU.SRV.UALBERTA.CA>
__-^-__-^-_-^-_-^-_
" Do you know how helpless you feel if you have a full cup of coffee in
your hand and you start to sneeze?" -Jean Kerr
Whey hey hey where on Earth is Stephen Rea...?