"Nun, Married, Old Maid": Kate O'Brien's Fiction, Women and Irish Catholicism

The settings of Kate O’Brien’s novels span late nineteenth early twentieth-century Ireland and are concerned with the lives of middle-class women. This thesis argues that O’Brien’s rendering of the interiority of the bourgeois family and the inner lives of middle-class women, reveals a site of the public discourse of Church and State. O’Brien’s representations of female characters are analysed through the framework of the Family, as well as the social, cultural and religious background of this period, focusing particularly on the influence of Catholicism on women’s roles as wives and mothers in Irish society. O’Brien provided a powerful dramatisation of the lives of women that were determined by the particular modes of femininity advocated by Irish society and Church teaching, as specified by Church writings, especially Papal encyclicals, on woman’s role in the family. Catholic Social Teaching edicts on women’s roles in the family were incorporated into the 1937 Irish Constitution, which in Article 41 especially, defined a woman’s role as that pertaining to “her life within the home” (Bunreacht na hÉireann, Article 41.2.1). Chapter One sets the historical and ideological context in which the “struggles” of the characters subsequently analysed takes place. Chapter Two looks at instances of struggle in O’Brien’s work for some mother characters, who exemplify State and Church discourses of ideal womanhood, and those around them, while Chapter Three explores the instances of protest in the lives of ideologically-bound wives. Chapter Four focuses on the struggles of single women who are precariously positioned with regard to the family. The common theme shared by O’Brien’s female characters is their negotiation of personal desires and energies within and without the structures of the family unit. By focusing on the individual experience, O’Brien questioned ideological perspectives of middle-class women’s homogenised acceptance of their prescribed roles in the family and in society, and made the seemingly private, public, a space for ideological analysis and debate

Know Thyself – where reappraisal must begin

Given that the Catholic Church worldview owes more to ancient Greek philosophy rather than scripture, it is rather surprising that one of the most famous phrases in philosophy, ‘know thyself’, has yet to be taken on board by the Vatican in the context of the child abuse scandals. The words, written on the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi by the Seven Sages of Greece, and espoused by Plato, who taught that the essence of knowledge is self-knowledge, suggest that when scandal occurs, looking to ‘thyself’ is where any reappraisal should begin. While notably active in the context of quashing the discussion about women in ministry, as well as any other issues that strike at the heart of teaching on sexuality, such as homosexuality, priestly celibacy and so on, the Vatican has shown a marked reluctance to address the issue of abuse adequately. It can be argued that this is because it is an issue that incorporates an investigation that must necessarily include Church thinking on celibacy and sexuality

Recall, Recognise, Re-Invent: The Value of Facilitating Writing Transfer in the Writing Centre Setting

The Writing Centre in Maynooth University, Ireland, is proud of its learner-centred approach (Biggs 1999, Lea et al. 2003). In the Centre we begin where students are, by asking them about their writing concerns. We also appreciate the need to recognise and build on their approaches to writing, their effective writing processes and their writing achievements. We see this under the broader heading of ‘writing transfer’. In this article, we outline our strategies to promote transfer and thinking about transfer with students before and after one-to-one appointments. In a small-scale research project we conducted, our research questions accentuated two potential principles of transfer, as noted in the Elon Statement on Writing Transfer, that ‘[s]uccessful writing transfer occurs when a writer can transform rhetorical knowledge and rhetorical awareness into performance … [when they] draw on previous knowledge and strategies … [and] … transform or repurpose that prior knowledge, if only slightly’, and that University programs can ‘teach for transfer’ (Perkins and Salomon 1988) through the use of enabling practices (Elon 2013: 4). Our work suggests that highlighting transfer in the writing centre context reinforces our learner-centred approach while also acknowledging the literacy archives with which our students present

The Maynooth University Guide to Setting Up a Writing Centre

This handbook is intended for use by colleagues either considering or charged with setting up a writing centre in a higher education institution. In its compilation we have drawn from our own experiences here in Maynooth University, from the work of colleagues in other Irish higher education institutions, from colleagues' experiences outside of Ireland, from the literature in the area and from the collective wisdom communicated through national and international professional networks about writing

'What Kate Did': Subversive Dissent in Kate O'Brien's 'The Ante-Room'

Abstract included in text

‘Irreconcilable differences? The fraught relationship between women and the Catholic Church in Ireland’

In the introduction to From Prosperity to Austerity, Eamon Maher and Eugene O'Brien write, in the context of attempts to voice caution during the Irish boom, that the consensus between government, the media and business interests held 'that anyone who opposed the current ideology was against progress, was rooted in the past, or was incapable of seeing the benefits to all of our exceptional prosperity' (2014: 5). The Catholic Church was in no position to voice its concern about these developments at the time, in the wake of the child abuse and Magdalene laundry revelations. Moreover, the response in the public forum to the litany of Church-related offences has been to reject the institutional Church and, consequently, impede the creation of a space for the evaluation of the cultural legacy of Irish Catholicism. As a result, attempting to explore aspects of the Catholic Church without falling into outright condemnation of the entire institution and of its members is deemed insular, 'against progress' and 'rooted in the past'. It can be argued that the public rejection of Catholic Church teaching is an attempt at individual reassertion and autonomy in the wake of discovering that the institution in which we placed our faith and trust has been found undeserving of that faith and trust. Yet to ignore the legacy of the Catholic Church in Ireland is to deny the most enduring and forceful facet in the shaping of Irish society

University Writing Centre Tutoring Handbook

This handbook is designed with two audiences in mind. The first of these is tutors working in the Maynooth University Writing Centre; the second is any writing centre director who may wish to produce or revitalise a handbook for writing centre tutors. With regards to the latter, we hope that this modest offering might prevent colleagues in other setting from having to start from scratch should they wish to develop a handbook for their tutors. The handbook has been compiled by existing Maynooth University Writing Centre staff and staff who have since moved on from the Writing Centre

University Writing Centre Tutoring Handbook

This handbook is designed with two audiences in mind. The first of these is tutors working in the Maynooth University Writing Centre; the second is any writing centre director who may wish to produce or revitalise a handbook for writing centre tutors. With regards to the latter, we hope that this modest offering might prevent colleagues in other setting from having to start from scratch should they wish to develop a handbook for their tutors. The handbook has been compiled by existing Maynooth University Writing Centre staff and staff who have since moved on from the Writing Centre

Peer Assessment as a Teaching and Learning Process: The Observations and Reflections of Three Facilitators on a First-Year Undergraduate Critical Skills Module

This article reflects on the experiences and observations of three facilitators as they facilitated first-year undergraduate students in a peer assessment exercise. The peer assessment exercise in question is an integral part of the new Critical Skills module developed by Maynooth University and the focus of this article is on the facilitators’ reflections of how this assessment approach succeeded in terms of intended and unintended learning outcomes. The learning outcomes are explored using four categories developed by Boud, Cohen and Sampson (1999) – Team-work and Collaboration; Critical Enquiry; Communication Skills and Learning to Learn. The article also includes reflections on certain challenges and concerns that arose and bear consideration when adopting peer assessment as a teaching and learning strategy

An Introduction to Tutoring in the Writing Centre

This booklet is one of a series commissioned by the All Ireland Society for Higher Education (AISHE) and the Irish Network for the Enhancement of Writing (INEW). It is intended as a first step for colleagues who are new to the idea of a writing centre in a higher education institute. The booklet is organised into two sections. Part 1 provides a brief overview, which answers some broad questions about tutoring in a writing centre. Part 2 presents four approaches to tutoring in writing centres