women across history. For example, it could be argued that feminist
and nationalist figures as different as Maud Gonne and Bernadette
Devlin, were in some ways empowered by their involvement in
nationalist concerns which, by implication, called into question both
British and male hegemony. What can be criticized, as a framework
for discussion of the poets, is the way in which as it decolonized, the
nationalism of the emerging Irish Free State went only so far in
freeing the citizens within it as it stopped at granting equality to
women.
In their introduction to Gender and Colonialism (1995) the
editors note that although feminism and nationalism are thought of as
intrinsically opposed there is a problem with this as it seems to rule
out the possibility of an effective counter-hegemonic alliance. They
acknowledge how numerous anti-colonial movements ërepeat the
gender stereotyping of the imperialism that they seek to over turní. In
other words, between the categories of gender and colonialism there is
neither absolute equivalence nor absolute opposition.^5 The ëThird
Worldí feminists, Lata Mani, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Sara Suleri
and Gayatri Spivak, have drawn attention to how far white feminist
eurocentric discourses still tend to universalize, ignoring the cultural
specificity of women in ways that are symptomatic of imperialism.^6
This is a valuable argument for Irish feminists from a country that has
been positioned at the raw end of colonialism. It also draws attention
to how an affiliation to the Catholic Church may be an expression of
cultural specificity or national identity for some Irish women, whereas
for others, it is an indication of their oppression as women.
Moreover, one cannot ignore that the situation for Irish women in
the North of Ireland under British rule is no better since they may
become the double victims of both imperialism and patriarchy.
Bairbre De Br ̇n from Sinn Fein has argued in ëWomen and
Imperialism in Irelandí (1988) that in the Six Counties and in areas
where a majority of the people are opposed to British rule, some Irish
women experience oppression both as women and as members of a
5 Timothy Foley, Lionel Pilkington, Sean Ryder, Elizabeth Tilley, Gender and
Colonialism (Galway: University Press, 1995), pp.9ñ10.
6 Cf. ëTheorising Genderí, and ëTheorizing Post-Coloniality and Identityí,
Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, eds., Patrick Williams and Laura
Chrisman (London: Harvester, 1993).