In what ways do Northern Irish poets engage issues of Gender?

Abstract

This essay explores the complex relationship between feminism, gender politics, and Nationalist literature in Northern Ireland. Although early Nationalist movements sought to view men and women as equal, the relationship between these ideologies became complicated over the course of the 20th century. William Butler Yeats' play, Cathleen Ni Houlihan, illustrates how Nationalism's association with femininity and womanhood can be regressive, and contributes to social expectations of female passivity and purity in Ireland. This essay examines the influences of Cathleen Ni Houlihan as a symbol of Ireland on the depictions and expectations of women in Northern Irish poetry. Specifically, it focuses on the problematic portrayal of Cathleen Ni Houlihan in Seamus Heaney's poetry and its influence on subsequent interpretations of gender in later generations of Northern Irish poets. In particular, the ways in which the poets Paul Muldoon and Medbh McGuckian build upon and reject Heaney's earlier use of Cathleen Ni Houlihan to negatively portray women.