Women and Alcohol During the First World War in Ireland

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article considers the portrayal of Irish women and alcohol during the First World War in the nationalist press. It argues that press polemic castigated women for drinking because it conflicted with conservative beliefs about women's roles, which dictated that women should remain in the home and be primarily concerned with motherhood. The press was especially critical of drunken soldiers' wives because of fears that their inebriety might result in promiscuity, and of female shebeen keepers because they blurred the lines between domestic and public spaces. This article argues that women who in their everyday lives consumed alcohol or ran shebeens challenged traditional norms of domesticity and femininity. It also re-examines press polemic about separation women and suggests that this was not consistently or entirely negative.