This article examines the way in which Irish American women teachers used education as a platform to extend the reach of their social and cultural capital, enabling them to subvert patriarchal and imperialist ideologies and, embracing subjectivity, assume key leadership roles in a range of associations fundamental to organised feminism. Drawing on…

This article examines the perspectives of 14 primary school teachers subjected to a marriage ban in Ireland between 1932 and 1958. This oral history study provides a unique platform to examine the construction and articulation of these women's historical memories. Interrogating their perspectives on the marriage ban provides an important window…

Historically, patriarchy has been as dominant in education in Ireland as elsewhere. In the Irish context, it was promoted through the male-dominated Catholic Church, which controlled either directly or indirectly the vast majority of education institutions in the country. This dominant hegemony was most powerful during the period…