Irish Bluesky, any tips on 20thC female memoirs/autobiographies? Don't really care who the person is, I'm just mining them for info on family holidays. I've been looking at ones that cover lives from c.1920-1980 and I swear they're all by men! Where are the Irish women's memoirs?! #speirgorm - ThreadSky

acidrains.bsky.social • 47 days ago

Irish Bluesky, any tips on 20thC female memoirs/autobiographies? Don't really care who the person is, I'm just mining them for info on family holidays. I've been looking at ones that cover lives from c.1920-1980 and I swear they're all by men! Where are the Irish women's memoirs?! #speirgorm

Comments

thecelticist.bsky.social•47 days ago

Nuala O Faolain, Are You Somebody? It's a brilliant memoir.

acidrains.bsky.social•47 days ago

It is, and I believe the only one by a woman that I have so far. Sadly not a lot of use with regards to family holidays, so all the more need for others if folks know of them!

thecelticist.bsky.social•47 days ago

Ah, I missed the "family holidays" part of your post. Clair Wills' recent book Missing Persons has some stuff on family holidays in Ireland (from the UK) in the mid/late 20th century, if that's relevant.

acidrains.bsky.social•47 days ago

Ooh yes, I have that somewhere in my 'to read' pile so that will be good, thank you!

thecelticist.bsky.social•47 days ago

I'm wondering also whether Maeve Brennan has anything in her The Long-Winded Lady. There are autobiographical bits and pieces in there, but I can't remember if there's anything about holidays.

erikahanna.bsky.social•47 days ago

I thought of Ethel Mannin and Elizabeth Rivers, but no holidays in those I think! Anything in Edna O’Brien, Mother Ireland?

acidrains.bsky.social•47 days ago

I'll look, thank you that's a good suggestion!

isdoighliom.bsky.social•47 days ago

What about Kate O’Brien’s _My Ireland_?

isdoighliom.bsky.social•47 days ago

She has a great scene in _The Land of Spices_ depicting a seaside holiday in Clare, the one where the English suffragette shows up.

clodaghtait.bsky.social•40 days ago

Olivia Manning has a travelogue about Ireland, The Dreaming Shore. Not so much family holidays as giving an account of the places people holidayed! Anne Gregory, Me and Nu.

margareteward.bsky.social•47 days ago

Ask @clodaghfinn.bsky.social

pnamblath.bsky.social•47 days ago

Kathleen Clarke-Revolutionary Woman by Helen Litton

patanny.bsky.social•47 days ago

Everybody Matters by Mary Robinson is a good start!

clarniugin.bsky.social•47 days ago

Kate O'Brien "In My Ireland".

dervala.bsky.social•40 days ago

Maeve Binchy’s first novel, Light A Penny Candle, was autobiographical on her childhood holidays in Ballybunion, and evocative.

(I’m friends with her 93-year-old first cousin, who spent those summers with her.)

acidrains.bsky.social•40 days ago

Thank you! I didn’t know about that and it’s just the thing 👍

dervala.bsky.social•40 days ago

I can’t wait for your research. What a great topic!

n16breda.bsky.social•47 days ago

Maybe worth taking a look at Alice Taylor's books? I think she wrote more reminiscence books after the massive success of "To School Through the Fields" on the late 80s

cjamcmahon.bsky.social•47 days ago

I was just about to post this! https://obrien.ie/to-school-through-the-fields

orlaegan1.bsky.social•47 days ago

DIARY OF AN ACTIVIST - Irish social activism graphic memoir
https://www.diaryofanactivist.com

acidrains.bsky.social•47 days ago

thank you!

niamhroisin.bsky.social•47 days ago

Máire Cruise O Brien, The same age as the state?

feargaltc.bsky.social•47 days ago

acidrains.bsky.social•47 days ago

Thank you!

feargaltc.bsky.social•47 days ago

I knew little nothing about her ( my mother loved her) but really enjoyed it.

hilarylennon.bsky.social•40 days ago

Might be difficult with memoirs by women from poor bkgrounds, but Peig does mention visitors to the island; Elaine Crowley's might be similar. Angelica Huston details her Irish childhood in her memoir. Letters by 20thC Irish female writers would be a great resource too, but most are in the archives.

acidrains.bsky.social•40 days ago

Thank you! Memoirs are definitely a useful shortcut because I’ve realised a huge % of them do talk about childhood holidays. It’s just the notable gender imbalance of those memoirs that is galling. People did make some v useful suggestions in this thread tho - peig is an interesting suggestion too!

hilarylennon.bsky.social•40 days ago

No problem! If memory serves, Peig did visit her own family on the mainland sometimes, which might have been a holiday of sorts. Women going into hospital to give birth back then were usually there for two weeks, and some of them def considered that a 'holiday'. Interesting topic!

cethanleahy.com•47 days ago

Figure of Eight By Patricia Cockburn! Lived in Cork and grandmother of Olivia Wilde

limerickslife.com•47 days ago

Moira Verschoyle (1903-1985) autobiography - 'So Long to Wait: an Irish Childhood'. If I remember correctly she talks about trips to Kilkee

acidrains.bsky.social•47 days ago

Thank you! I'd never come across that one, I'll check it out

tlodge60.bsky.social•47 days ago

There’s a lovely book by Alannah Heather, “Errislannan, scenes from a painter’s life”.
The Heathers were minor Protestant gentry who lived in Errislannan Manor just south of Clifden, Connemara from the 1790s to the 1960s. It’s mainly Alannah’s memoire but with bits of family history from diaries
etc

pfmcdevitt.bsky.social•47 days ago

Missing Persons: or, My Grandmother's Secrets by Claire Wills

drtinamorin.bsky.social•47 days ago

I wonder if Bowen's Seven Winters or Bowen's Court would be of any use?

derekbrauders.bsky.social•47 days ago

Not sure if it's quite what you are seeking, but Dervla Murphy and her travel memoirs (is that the right word?). Later with her daughter. Brilliant reading material.

joenoonan.bsky.social•47 days ago

aoifeb.bsky.social•47 days ago

If you check out 'Look! It's a woman writer', lots of those authors wrote memoirs. All born mid 20th century so it's a good sample of that generation.

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