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O'Donnell, Katherine
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O'Donnell, Katherine
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O'Donnell, Katherine
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- PublicationAcademics Becoming Activists: Reflections on Some Ethical Issues of the Justice for Magdalenes CampaignMagdalene institutions in Ireland date from the (mid-)eighteenth century, and until the late nineteenth century their history parallels that of asylums for poor and destitute women found all over Europe, run by religious orders or lay-managed philantrophic concerns seeking to provide needy women with refuge. Magdalene asylums often provided training and references of good character for these women so that after their rehabilitation they could go into service and earn a living. The Magdalenes were run according to Protestant or Catholic ethos: most Christian denominations took the life of Mary Magdalene as their inspiration. Christian traditions hold that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute who did penance for her sinful ways by washing the feet of Jesus and drying his feet with her hair. Jesus forgave Mary Magdalene her sins and she became one of his most prominent followers. The rationale for these institutions was that even the prostitute, that most scandalous and sinful of women, could be forgiven for her sins if she was sufficiently remorseful and did penance for her sins. The Christian concept of penance involves actions of humility and labour—the more humble and more onerous the labour, the greater Divine grace and forgiveness might be bestowed. Many Christian traditions have focused on controlling the reproductive and sexual bodies of women on the assumption that female sexuality is replete with causing ‘occasions of sin.’ The nominally celibate, exclusively male Roman Catholic clergy long monitored and admonished monitoring Catholic women’s reproduction and sexuality, promoting a cultural view that women (like their Biblical foremother Eve) tempt men into sexual sin.
Scopus© Citations 6 149 - PublicationAisling Ghear - A Terrible Beauty: The Gaelic Background to Burke's EnquiryAisling Gheár - A Terrible Beauty was a poetic cliche in the Gaelic tradition by the time that Burke was composing his treatise on the Sublime and Beautiful. This article briefly summarises the Gaelic political and cultural background to Burke's life and details how the genre of politcal poetry known as the Aisling Gheár might be seen to have influenced Burke's Enquiry. The article is particularly interested in Burke's focus on the effects of the Sublime and Beautiful on the psyche of the listener and the witness, and it draws on recently developing field of Cognitive Science’s exploration of Affect to discuss this aspect of Burke's work.
Scopus© Citations 1 122 - PublicationInstitutional abuse in Ireland: Lessons from Magdalene survivors and legal professionalsThe girls and women who were incarcerated in Ireland’s Magdalene institutions found themselves under lock and key due largely to perceptions that they were at risk of violating or had violated moral rather than legal codes. Their treatment was considerably worse than the treatment of those imprisoned under the Irish criminal justice system. Addressing the manifold injustices that they suffered is still an on-going issue for groups such as Justice for Magdalenes Research and survivors themselves, and this chapter offers an introduction to the legal rights and difficulties faced by former Magdalenes and other survivors of institutional abuse seeking justice. In particular, the chapter discusses the findings of a 24-month European research project in which the authors were involved, entitled SASCA (Support to Adult Survivors of Child Abuse in institutional settings).
90 - PublicationThe Theological Basis for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist PositionsThis essay argues that Irish lesbian feminism has been largely anti-theocratic and post/colonial in its perspective and has therefore remained opposed to current UK Trans-exclusionary Radical Feminist (terf) activism, which has received much media attention. We examine how the Radical Lesbian Feminist, Mary Daly engaged with the theology of St Thomas Aquinas to provide crucial conceptual underpinning of terf perspectives. We see how Daly’s rigid adherence to her metaphysical concepts designed to refute Aquinas meant that she was unwilling to engage with evolving feminist theory on gender, and unable to respond to feminist critical race theory. As Irish lesbian feminism has remained conscious of its post/colonial legacy, it is characterized by a political practice of building alliances, coalitions and by an intersectional thinking that is critical of claims to supremacy and hierarchy. Irish lesbian feminism has also been generally engaged in an oppositional politics to theocratic rule. This essay argues that an intersectional post/colonial lesbian feminist politics and an anti-theocratic perspective that is critical of categories such as the pure and impure (the real and the fake; the true and the dissembling) means that Irish lesbian feminist culture has not proved amenable to terf activism which rests on the version of Radical Feminism espoused in the work of Mary Daly.
409 - PublicationAffect and the history of women, gender and masculinityThis article begins with looking at the disciplines of literary studies and history to discuss how they are distinct yet share a certain overlapping ground. Literary studies’ focus on the subject matter of affect and historians’ focus on verifying facts are rudimentary distinctions between the fields but despite the differences in method and perspective between these disciplines, the boundaries of feminist history and feminist literary studies have intersected to create a shared territory for the field of the history of women, in which the examination of affect is a crucial focus. Romantic passion between women still remains a problematic topic for women’s history but is a fertile area of study in gender history. The article looks at the relatively recent academic endeavour of historicising masculinity, and on the new work, which focuses on understanding the expression and status of emotion in male bonding. The argument is made that these historians of masculinity follow in the footsteps of feminist historical studies of affect and feminist gender history. The essay closes with thought on how this focus on historicising affect, specifically love, commitment, friendship and desire for intimacy has reverberations in contemporary society.
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