Painting the Irish West: Nationalism and the Representation of Women

Abstract

In the decades after 1921, both the church and the Irish State encouraged the idealization and glorification of the premodern Gaelic way of life. Nationalist ideals concerning cultural purity and preservation centered on the West of Ireland as a cultural region whose literal "physical landscape provided the greatest contrast to the landscape of Englishness." 1 This western focus reflected attempts by the revamped nation to revive the heritage of Gaelic culture throughout the country. In essence, cultural nationalists sought to construct a new essentially Irish identity that would revitalize the waning Gaelic language and traditions. 2 They desired to emulate and perpetuate a simpler, rural, "primitive" family-based way of life that was believed to exist in Ireland prior to England's colonial rule. 3 This conscious cultural construction of the West was dramatically different from the emphatically urban, Protestant culture that had prevailed under British colonial rule. 4