NATIONALISM, CATOLICISM, FEMINISM? GENDER DIMENSION OF THE NATIONAL STRUGGLE IN IRELAND OF THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20th CENTURY
The author analyzes the evolution of the national movement in Ireland in the first half of the 20th century through the prism of women's participation and gender equality issues. It is argued that the Irish nationalists' choice of patriarchal Catholic ideology has not been predetermined since the revival of Irish nationalism, and although the Catholic faith played a significant role in the anti-British activities of the Irish national movement, there were many Protestants among its activists, as well as women who shared feminist values and played an important role in organizing the political and military struggle of the Irish for independence. The article focuses on the various methods of women's participation in the Irish national movement, including the creation of separate women's organizations, and membership in key societies and groups, as well as participation in constructing barricades and in fighting during the Easter Rising. It was more difficult to take part in the specifically women's struggle to grant Irish women the right to vote, which was associated with the activities of London organizations, the Women's Socio-Political Union specifically. It is argued that it was the anti-British orientation of the Irish political struggle that made it impossible (or difficult) to associate Irish feminists with the goals of the women's movement in the United Kingdom, which led to the victory of the social doctrine of Catholics and the “enslavement” of Irish women after the Irish Free State was created. The article analyzes not only sources of personal origin, telling about the participation of Irish women in the national movement, but also official documents of the young Irish state, demonstrating the evolution of its ideology in social and gender issues towards a patriarchal approach to the role of women in society, the fight against which has become the task of feminists of the second wave starting in the 1970s.