5 2 March 2016
CULTURE
Their
daughters’
fathers
Men have obscured
women in the arts
by Deirdre Mulrooney
Lucia Joyce dancing at Bullier Ball
Paris, May 1929
March 2016 5 3
W
aybackin2004,Iwroteanarticle
forThe Sunday Business Post,
entitled‘PlayBoys,butfewPlay
Women’ highlighting chronic
genderimbalanceinIrishThea-
tre,ontheoccasionof‘AbbeyOneHundred’,a
virtuallyall-maleprogrammecelebratingthe
centenarytheAbbeyTheatre,(apartfromone
children’splaybyPaulaMeehan,andashared
runforMarinaCarr’s‘PortiaCoughlan’atthe
PeacockTheatre).Thatwasbeforethedawnof
socialmedia,andmyarticle,alonevoiceina
seaofunquestionedmisogyny,wasreceived
withresoundingsilence.
Unfortunately, ‘his’ story has a habit of
repeatingitself,andmorethanadecadelater,
on October 28th, 2015 the Abbey Theatre
proudlyannounced‘WakingtheNation’,its–
surprise, surprise – virtually all-male 1916
commemorationprogramme(apartfromalone
monologuebyAliWhiteentitled“Me,Mollser”,
jutting out of the programme like Elizabeth
O’Farrell’sincongruouslittlefeetbehindPatrick
Pearse’siconic1916surrenderphotograph).
NearlyasbadwastheplayingofO'Farrellin
bothJordan's'MichaelCollins'andtherecent
'Rebellion'seriesonRTEbymen.Thistime,
however,Twitter and Facebook ignited with
rage at the outrageous gender imbalance,
bringing an exciting counter-movement into
being,withitsownhashtag#WakingtheFemi-
nists,abbreviated,wonderfully,to#WTF.
Wastingnotimeonthisoccasion,Mná na
hEireann, had a “storming of the Bastille”
momentattheAbbey Theatreon November
12th,2015,whenover30femaletheatreprofes-
sionalstooktoournationaltheatre’sstage,and
the 450-seater auditorium over-owed with
womendemandinganendtothisunacceptable
genderimbalance,forever.AcontriteFiachMac
Conaghail,directoroftheAbbeyTheatre,satin
theauditoriumandlistened.Aftereachofthe
30+ women on stage had had their say,he
stoodup,lookedup,andadmitted:“Iwasn't
thinkingaboutgenderbalance.Ididnotlook
up.Ifailedtocheckmyprivilege.AndIregret
that".
Iftheatreholdsupamirrortosociety,this
recurringgenderimbalanceattheAbbeyThea-
treisindeedaperfectreectionofIrishsociety,
andthenatureofIrishcultural‘His’story–so
far.Weneedlooknofurtherthantotheiconic
1916surrenderphotographofPatrickPearsefor
conrmationofthis,withitsdodgysilhouette
of self-effacing inner city nurse Elizabeth
O’Farrellwhobravedsniperstodeliverthesur-
render order throughout Dublin’s rebel
garrisons,onlytobeairbrushedoutoftheof-
cialsurrenderpictureaspublishedbyThe Daily
Sketch.IwasdelightedtohearartistJakiIrvine
speakofElizabethO’Farrellandher2013book
aboutthefearlessnurse,'DaysofSurrender'
(asyetunreviewedinIreland),fromtheAbbey
stageinitsTheatreofChangesymposiumin
January. Irvine is going on to set Elizabeth
O’Farrelltomusic,alongwithherotherfemale
1916 colleagues in her installation “If the
GroundShouldOpen”,attheIrishMuseumof
ModernArtinSeptember.
LikeElizabethO’Farrellwhomayindeed,as
some claim, have deliberately taken a self-
effacing step back when that 1916 Patrick
Pearse surrender photograph was taken,
makingiteasyforherlittlefeetandlargecoat
skirtstobeairbrushedoutofourCúchulain-
style national mythology, Lady Gregory
(co-founder of the Abbey Theatre) did not
activelyseekrecognitionforco-authoringher
iconic1902play‘CathleenNiHoulihan’withWB
Yeatseither.Similarly,afewdecadeslaterthe
self-effacingbutfascinatingGeorgeYeatschan-
nelledamyriadofvoicesto–yes–CO-AUTHOR
'AVision'(1937),withherhusbandWBYeats,
butisrarelyacknowledgedashavingdoneso.
LikeElizabethO’Farrell,theformidableGeorge
Yeats(aboutwhomIammakingtherstever
radiodocumentary,entitled‘Georgie’sVision’,
fundedbyBAISoundandVision,forbroadcast
onRTELyricFMinAutumn2016),tookastep
back,andwentsofarastosay“thank-youfor
leavingmeout”.But-#WTF-isthisshyness
reasonenoughfortherestofustofacilitate,
and hence perpetuate, the inaccurate
‘I wasn't thinking about
gender balance. I did
not look up. I failed to
check my privilege. And
I regret that’ – Fiach
MacConghail
Fiach Mac Conghail, director of the Abbey Theatre
5 4 March 2016
CULTURE
masculinisationof,anderasureofwomenfrom
Irishculturalhistory?
Anotherimportantgureeclipsedbymenis
LuciaJoycewhocouldbeIreland’sanswerto
Camille Claudel, the well-regarded French
sculptorwhospent30yearsinanasylum(also
Rodin’sloverandeldersistertopoet,Claude
Caudel).Luciacouldnothavebeenmorediffer-
entfromhermother,Nora,whoseentireraison
d’êtrewasherman,JamesJoyce.Aswellashis
lover,cook,maid,andmothertohischildren,
NorawasalsoJamesJoyce’smuse,mostobvi-
ouslyinspiringMollyBloom.EvenintheJoyces’
modernistmilieu,itwasalrightforawomanto
beamuse,butnotanartistherself,andcer-
tainlynotanartistofthebody(thoughinhis
masterpiece,'Ulysses',JamesJoycewrotethe
epicofthebody).Amodernyoungwomanin
1920sParis,Luciaexpectedherowncareerand
identity,thoughshehadgrownupinweirdly
closequarterswithherunconventionalfamily,
and very muchin the shadow of her father.
Whensheprotested“c’est moi qui est l’artiste”,
alas,nobodylistenedtoher.
Tragically, Lucia Joyce(1907 – 1982), was
neverallowedtofullherdreamofbeingapro-
fessionalmoderndancer,despitehertraining
withgreatsEmileJacques-Dalcroze(founderof
Eurhythmics); Raymond Duncan (brother of
Isadora,whohimselflivedlikeamodern-day
UlyssesinhisPariscommune“AkademiaRay-
mond Duncan”); Margaret Morris
(grand-daughterofWilliamMorrisandfounder
of www.margaretmorrismovement.com);
despiteherseasonsdancingwith“Les Six de
Rythme et Couleur”,anddespitereviewslike
thisoneintheParisTimes:"LuciaJoyceisher
father’sdaughter.ShehasJamesJoyce’senthu-
siasm, energy, and a not-yet-determined
amountofhisgenius…Whenshereachesher
fullcapacityforrhythmicdancing,JamesJoyce
mayyetbeknownashisdaughter’sfather”.
Insteadofbeinggiventhespacetorealiseher
‘fullcapacity’,Lucia,whogrewupimmersedin
iconoclastic counter culture and the avant-
garde, found herself consigned to mental
institutions–forlife.Interestingly,afterher
father’sdeathin1941,herfamilynevervisited
heragain.Theydidhowevermanagetodestroy
herwritings,whicharethoughttohavecon-
sisted of diariesand an unpublished novel.
Lucialivedoutthelatterhalfofherlifeburied
awayinaNorthamptonasylum.
Nowthatwearehere,in2016,isitnothigh
timetoenquireastowhyLucia’sassertionthat
sheherselfwasequally"theartist",hasnever
beentakenseriously?Why,apartfromCarol
LoebShloss’scontroversial2003book'Lucia
Joyce, to Dance in the Wake', is Lucia only
knownofinrelationtoherfather,herone-time
boyfriend Samuel Beckett (for example in
MichaelHastings’2004play,‘Calico’),andher
supposedmentalillness?Inlightofwhathas
emergedabouttheprogrammingattheAbbey
theatre,coulditbereasonabletoassumethis
perceptionmightbeamistake,thatitmightin
retrospect,bedowntoLuciaJoyce’sgender?
SofarthenascentIrish#WakingtheFeminists
movementhasspreadtoNewYork,andInter-
nationalWomen’sDay(March8th),willseethe
2ndDublin#WTFeventtakeplaceatLiberty
Hall.ActressesKateO’Toole,andMerylStreep,
amongotherinternationalstars,havelenttheir
voicestothecampaignforequalityforwomen
inIrishtheatre.Buttheramicationsaremuch
fartherreachingthanthat.Watchthisexciting
newspaceopenup,anditsmomentum,fuelled
bythenewenergyofsocialmedia,effecting
improvementsingenderbalancethroughout
society.WhynotlooktoJustinTrudeau’s50/50
genderbalancedcabinetinCanadaforinspira-
tion,andseewhatimprovementsthatapproach
couldbringrightacrossIrishsociety.Dowe
needareasonwhy?AsTrudeauhimselfputit,
“becauseit’s2016”.
Deirdre Mulrooney is giving a talk on #Waking-
theFeminists at the 4th Belgrade-Irish Festival
at Kultar Centar Belgrade, on March 19th. Her
documentary “Journey to YU (in the footsteps
of Rebecca West)” is being screened at the 1st
Sarajevo-Irish Festival on March 17th, and the
radio version “Journey to YU” is being broad-
cast on RTE Lyric FM on March 11th at 7pm.
Deirdre’s TG4 Splanc! documentary “Damhsa
na hEigeandala”/ “Dance Emergency”, about
1940s Irish-German Modern Dance pioneer
Erina Brady made its North American premiere
on opening night of the 44th Lincoln Center
Dance on Camera Festival last month.
www.deirdremulrooney.com
This sequence shows the original photograph (left) of the moment Padraig Pearse surrendered to General Lowe. Beside Pearse (obscured) is
Nurse O'Farrell. In the second photograph the expressions of the British soldiers' faces were changed - and by the third picture Nurse O'Farrell
was eliminated from the scene.
Images Courtesy: National Museum of Ireland, Decorative Arts & History / Kilmainham Gaol
In 2016, it is time to ask
why Lucia’s assertion that
she herself, not James
Joyce, was “the artist”,
has never been taken
seriously
Portrait of George Yeats by Edmund Dulac

Loading

© 2015 Village Magazine

Back to Top