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corkcitylibraries · 3 years

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Betty Friedan and Second Wave Feminism in the USA and Ireland

by Deirdre Swain

The Cork City Reference Library holds a large collection of books about feminism, particularly Irish feminism. BorrowBox also possesses a range of eBooks on feminism that were published in the last 7 years. In this article, I will discuss Betty Friedan, a well-known American feminist who was born in February 1921, and the second-wave feminist movement in Ireland. I will then introduce a reading list of books on feminism which are available on BorrowBox. I will also provide a reading list of books on feminism which will be available in the Reference Library once it re-opens to the public.

Betty Friedan and Second Wave Feminism in the USA

The recent TV drama, Mrs. America depicts the struggle to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in the USA in the 1970s. The popularity of this TV series demonstrates a renewed interest in the women’s liberation movement and certain prominent and influential American feminists, namely Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm and Bella Abzug.

February 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Betty Friedan, one of these second wave feminists and author of the seminal feminist text, The Feminine Mystique. She was born Bettye Naomi Goldstein to a Jewish family in Peoria, Illinois on 4 February 1921. Her mother, Miriam Horwitz, was an unhappy housewife whose parents, Hungarian Jewish immigrants, did not allow her to go to university. Miriam encouraged Betty to do the opposite, and she strongly supported her daughter’s education. Betty went to university in Smith College, graduating in 1942. She then studied Psychology in the University of California, Berkeley, for a year. Thereafter, she worked as a journalist in New York, writing about the Jim Crow laws and anti-Semitism. Later, she worked as a women’s magazine writer. In 1949, she married Carl Friedman (later Friedan), and they had 3 children. They got divorced in 1969.

In 1957, Betty attended the 15th anniversary of her graduation from Smith College. At this reunion, she conducted a survey on her former fellow students (females) to explore the direction of their lives since graduation. She was perturbed by the amount of discontent among them. This revelation about the lives of her peers led to the writing of her book, The Feminine Mystique. This publication recounts the dilemma of suburban housewives, who are expected to spend all of their time on domestic duties and the rearing of children. They are overshadowed constantly by the thought, “Is this it?” They feel guilty for not being satisfied with their role, but they cannot deny the fact that they are unfulfilled. The “feminine mystique” of the book’s title is the societal assumption that household duties and motherhood alone will give women a sense of achievement. Friedan coined the phrase “the problem with no name” to describe women’s unhappiness with and inability to live up to this feminine mystique. She contended that women could have a successful career as well as a family.

The book sold three million copies and resonated with many suburban women because it showed them that they were not alone in their feelings of dissatisfaction. It was also strongly criticised for its homophobic language and for excluding Black and working class women. It spoke from a standpoint where every American housewife was white and middle class. Her solution to the problem of “the feminine mystique” (delegating housework) were also criticised for being inadequate and for failing to tackle the problem fully.

Friedan was aware of some of the shortcomings of The Feminine Mystique, and she wrote a second book to tackle some of the problems not resolved in the first one, including the double enslavement of working women who still had to do all the housework. The title of this book is The Second Stage. She also wrote numerous other books, including It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women’s Movement, which was published in 1976 and Beyond Gender: the New Politics of Family and Work, which was published in 1998.

Betty Friedan was a women’s activist and fought for reproductive rights, equal pay, equal representation and equality in hiring. She co-founded the National Organisation for Women (NOW) in 1966. In 1969, she launched the National Association for Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL Pro-Choice America). She co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) with Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and several other women in 1971. The NWPC is a US organisation which supports and trains women who seek elected and appointed offices in all levels of government. Betty was quick-tempered, and she tended to lash out at people, including other feminists such as Gloria Steinem, even though they had similar aspirations for women. She was also quite disparaging in her treatment of lesbian women, referring to them as “the lavender menace”.

Later in her life, Friedan became a Zionist and fought to expose Anti-Semitism in the women’s movement. She received the Eleanor Roosevelt Leadership Award in 1989 and was awarded honorary degrees by the State University of New York and Columbia University. She died on her birthday, 4 February, in Washington DC in 2006, aged 85.

What advances for women were taking place in Ireland during the time of Betty Friedan’s activism in the United States?

The Irish Women’s Liberation Movement

In the summer of 1970, five women met in Bewley’s café in Dublin and decided that it was time for some drastic changes in Irish women’s lives; time to fight for equal rights. That day, these women held what was to be the first meeting of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM) group, the first radical women’s liberation group in Ireland. Although the group lasted little more than seven months, its legacy changed women’s lives significantly and positively. As proof of the success of the IWLM, the two injustices that this group fought hardest against – the marriage bar, which was abolished in 1973, and the illegality of contraception – are unimaginable in today’s world.

Margaret Gaj owned the restaurant, Gaj’s, on Baggot Street, where the IWLM would meet every Monday night. Margaret Gaj was passionate about women’s rights. Her circle of friends included Sinn Féin official Máirín de Búrca, journalist Mary Maher, who was interested in socialist issues, Máirín Johnston, who was a member of the Communist Party and who was also active in the Labour Party and Dr. Moira Woods, who was in an organisation called Irish Voice on Vietnam, which protested against the war in Vietnam. These five women started the IWLM group that day in the summer of 1970 in Bewley’s café, but around a dozen women were actively involved in the founding of this women’s organisation, the majority of them journalists. Nell McCafferty and Mary Kenny, both journalists, were two prominent founders of the IWLM.

Chains or Change was the title of the IWLM charter. It was put together in the form of a booklet which detailed the goals and ideals that the IWLM strove for. There were 6 demands: equal pay; an end to the marriage bar that kept women from working after they got married; equal rights in law; justice for widows, deserted wives and “unmarried mothers”; equal education opportunities; and the legalisation of contraception. Neither abortion nor divorce were mentioned at all in Chains or Change. When the most basic civil rights for women were being fought for, abortion and divorce did not even arise because they were not considered to be a priority. The booklet was a milestone in the history of women’s rights in Ireland, because it was the first time that anyone had published a comprehensive list of the injustices that church, state and social code perpetuated against women.

Nell McCafferty

Nell McCafferty was born in Derry. She got her degree from Queen’s University in Belfast and trained as a teacher, but she could not get a job in Derry, because the Protestant schools knew she was Catholic, and the Catholic schools did not think she was a real Catholic but, rather, a communist. She moved to Dublin to work as a journalist for the Irish Times. Nell writes in her autobiography of an incident from when she first moved to Dublin; she wanted to buy a record player on hire purchase but was told that no woman could sign an agreement without the co-signature of a male guarantor. A male stranger signed for her because she did not know any men in Dublin. This man was unemployed, and her own earnings amounted to five times more than his welfare entitlements.

Nell was a founding member of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement (IWLM). In the IWLM, Nell was someone who could be depended upon to put forward forceful arguments that were backed up by accurate facts, and she could convey them both in writing and in person.

Nell’s journalism was objective, and she used it to bear witness to the struggles of the oppressed. She did not even have to give her opinion; her writing style and her description of what she observed in society were enough to expose hypocrisy and injustice without her having to comment on the issues herself. As well as being a feminist activist, Nell was also a civil rights activist on issues in Northern Ireland. When she started to work at the Irish Times, she joined the “women’s page” staff. Initially, she was fearful that this would involve writing about fashion, cooking and babies, but it actually enabled her to write on issues regarding women’s liberation and women’s rights.

The Contraceptive Train

In May 1971, the IWLM founders organised what became known as the “contraceptive train”, which was a protest against the fact that contraceptives were illegal in the Republic of Ireland. Nell McCafferty said that she had got the idea for the contraceptive train when she was in Northern Ireland at a civil rights march. The march went from North to South, and at the border, a student activist called Cyril Tallman held up a copy of Edna O’Brien’s novel Country Girls in one hand and a Durex condom in the other, saying that both were banned in the South. Nell was initially indignant about the condom, but the following year when the IWLM was talking about contraceptives, Nell got the idea of reversing the journey from Dublin to the North.

There was a ban on contraception in the Republic of Ireland, which was enshrined in the 1935 Criminal Law Act. This made the importation, distribution and sale of contraceptive devices a criminal offence. Advertising contraceptives was also illegal. The contraceptive pill was available in Ireland only on prescription, as a “menstrual cycle regulator”.

There were 47 founders and members of the IWLM on the contraceptive train on 22 May 1971, just enough to fill two carriages. However, when Nell McCafferty asked for a packet of contraceptive pills in a Belfast pharmacy, she was asked for a prescription, and the same happened when she asked for a coil, loop and Dutch cap. It turned out that the only contraceptives that were available in Belfast without prescription were condoms and spermicidal jelly. Nell was not happy with the prospect of taking a stand at Dublin customs with just condoms and spermicidal jelly, so it was decided that packets of aspirins would be bought, since they were similar enough in appearance to contraceptive pills that it was hoped they would pass for same! When the women arrived at customs in Dublin, the customs officers told them they were breaking the law, but let them through, because arresting them was not an option for them. The contraceptive train accomplished what it set out to do; the state refused to lift the ban on contraceptives, but it also failed to enforce it. The IWLM exposed this hypocrisy and proved that women would be free to import contraceptives from the North into the Republic from then on without any interference from law enforcement officials. Nell McCafferty made a statement at the train station, and two of the women went on the Late Late Show on TV to talk about the experience.

Mary Robinson failed in March and May of 1971 to get the Senate to add her Contraceptive Bill to its order paper. Despite Mary Robinson’s and the IWLM’s efforts to legalise contraceptives, it was not until 1979 that the government passed the Family Planning Act. This Act allowed solely married couples to get access to contraceptive devices other than the pill with a prescription. Family Planning clinics were already selling condoms, but the government was turning a blind eye to this because they were accepting “donations” in exchange for the condoms. In 1990, the Irish Family Planning Association was fined £500 for selling condoms in the Virgin Megastore in Dublin. Finally, in 1992, the government extended legislation to allow supermarkets and retail stores to sell condoms. The contraceptive train literally set the wheels in motion regarding the legalisation of contraceptives, but it took a long time before the law was changed for the benefit of women.

References

-Code, L., ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories. London: Routledge.

-Parry, M. (2010). ‘Betty Friedan: Feminist Icon and Founder of the National Organization for Women’, American Journal of Public Health, 100 (9), pp. 1584-1585.

-Shteir, R. (2021). ‘Why We Can’t Stop Talking about Betty Friedan’, New York Times, 3 February. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/03/us/betty-friedan-feminism-legacy.html (Accessed: 9 February 2021).

McCafferty, N. (2004). Nell: a Disorderly Woman. Dublin: Penguin Ireland.

Stopper, A. (2006). Mondays at Gaj’s: The Story of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement. Dublin: The Liffey Press.

Reading list of books on feminism

Available on BorrowBox:

-Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (published in 2017): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=HCU_469861&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

-Feminist Fight Club, by Jessica Bennett (published in 2016): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=PRU_398091&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

-Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (And Other Lies), by Scarlett Curtis (published in 2018): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=PRU_574840&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

-Give Birth Like a Feminist, by Milli Hill (published in 2019): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=HCU_655895&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

-We Should All Be Feminists, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (published in 2014): https://fe.bolindadigital.com/wldcs_bol_fo/b2i/productDetail.html?productId=HCP_402800&fromPage=1&b2bSite=4813

Available in the Reference Library, Grand Parade

-Code, L., ed. (2000). Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories. London: Routledge.

-McCafferty, N. (1984). The best of Nell: a selection of writings over fourteen years. Dublin: Attic Press.

- Stopper, A. (2006). Mondays at Gaj’s: The Story of the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement. Dublin: The Liffey Press.

-Pierse, Mary S. (ed.) (2010). Irish Feminisms, 1810-1930. Abingdon: Edition Synapse/Routledge (5 volumes).

-Owens, R. (2005). A social history of women in Ireland, 1870-1970. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.

-Connolly, L. and O’Toole, T. (2005). Documenting Irish Feminisms: the Second Wave. Dublin: The Woodfield Press.

-Connolly, L. (2002). The Irish women’s movement: from revolution to devolution. Dublin: Lilliput Press.

-Rose, C. (1975). The female experience: the story of the woman movement in Ireland. Galway: Arlen House.

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stairnaheireann · 2 years

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#OTD in 1916 – Irish prisoners interned at Frongoch are released.

Frongoch Internment Camp at Frongoch in Merionethshire, Wales was a makeshift place of imprisonment during the First World War. Until 1916, it housed German prisoners of war in an abandoned distillery and crude huts, but in the wake of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, the German prisoners were moved and it was used as a place of internment for approximately 1,800 Irish prisoners, among them such…

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#"Cork Free Press&039;#1916 Easter Rising #Arthur Griffith #DORA regulations #Dublin #Fongoch internment camp #Frank Gallagher #History of Ireland #Irish History #Merionethshire #Michael Collins #Ollscoil na Réabhlóide #Prime Minister David Lloyd George #Prime Minister Herbert Asquith #Sinn Féin University #University of Revolution #Wales #William O&039;Brien #Youtube

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warsofasoiaf · 4 years

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The Celtic Tiger - A Kaiserreich Ireland AAR Worldbuilding Appendix: Erin go Bragh!

Ireland, the great survivor of the Second Weltkrieg, confounded the world when they survived both the Black Monday crisis and an invasion by a coalition of Great Powers. Military and economic analysts across the world study the successes of Ireland in an attempt to replicate them in their own countries. The spirit of Ireland is found nowhere else, and the different techniques they have attempted in order to solve the problems that plagued them create a unique political climate, cultural climate, and military.

Politics

Ireland is a federal multi-party parliamentary democratic republic with a bicameral legislative branch named the Oireachtas. The lower house is called the Dail, and holds most of the political power, while the upper house is named the Seanad. Ireland offers universal suffrage to all citizens of adult age, who are permitted to participate in elections at both the federal and provincial levels. The Irish head of state is the President and carries significant executive power. A Prime Minister, called the Taoiseach, is nominated by the President and submitted for approval by the Dail. Since Michael Collins left office, his final act as President was to issue an executive decree that states that the President and Taoiseach must be separate people, to split the power between them and prevent one man from enacting sole executive power as he had during the early years of Irish independence. The President is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and has traditionally been held by a former member of the military, but as Collins held the position for so long and the political elite of Ireland were veterans of the IRA and the Irish Independence War, this is not an established rule or social construct but rather a de facto state of affairs.

Ireland has four regional parliaments in the four historical provinces of Ireland, Connacht, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. These regional parliaments possess significant powers on intra-provincial affairs, including police powers, while the Federal parliament carries out powers on inter-provincial affairs such as commerce along with national matters of concern such as foreign policy, treaty ratification, and declarations of war. The regional parliaments hold elections in offset years, and send members to the upper house of Seanad, which acts as an advisory body to the Oireachtas and has little political power on its own.

Ireland has many political parties, but elections typically revolve around five political groups. The largest party is Fine Gael, holding itself as the “Party of Collins,” a party that favors high defense spending, a neutral foreign policy, and high levels of public-private partnership. The National Center Party, led by Frank McDermott, is a frequent ally of Fine Gael on defense spending but advocates a pro-Entente foreign policy and is more conservative on social issues. Seán Lemass is the leader of the Cumann Poblachta na hÉireann, which frequently allies with Fine Gael on economic issues but advocates for stronger democratic principles and reduced size of government. The chief point of contention between Fine Gael and Cumann Poblachta na hÉireann is in regards to Mitteleuropan membership, the former supports the Mitteleuropan reform and the strengthening of the Dublin SEZ, the latter wishes Ireland to leave Mitteleuropa and enact strong bilateral trade agreements with the Imperial Economic Development Council of the Entente and the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Fianna Fáil is the largest and most significant of the opposition parties, led by Eamon de Valera. Fianna Fáil champions itself as the loyal opposition and is a haven for politicians dissatisfied with Fine Gael. Fianna Fáil champions a center-left position on social issues and advocates a pro-German and pro-Reichspakt foreign policy and more economic protectionism. The outlawed Irish Labour Party joined Sinn Féin, a social democrat party. Officially led by Cathal Brugha, Sinn Féin largely looks to its younger members for leadership and Brugha is largely a ceremonial head of the party to provide political clout and legitimacy; an arrangement that Brugha is not fond of. This two-headedness has often been blamed for Sinn Féin’s poor showing at the polls, though other political observers find that lingering anti-syndicalist sympathies have been a larger stimulus for partisan antipathy toward Sinn Féin.

Foreign Policy

Ireland is known as the “Great Neutral” and is not aligned with the three Great Power blocs of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, Entente, and Reichspakt. Ireland maintains healthy trade relationships and embassies with all three alliances, and has established diplomatic and trade relationships with the Somalia-led ALDI, the African League for Democratic Independence. High-level diplomatic summits are frequently conducted in Dublin with Ireland as a mediator, owing to Michael Collins’s conduct during the Halifax Conference. This foreign policy idea is meant to avoid Irish involvement in trade wars or border disputes, as the Irish economy benefits significantly from open trading with the various Great Power blocs.

Of all countries, Ireland’s closest ally is the United States, and the American-Irish Special Relationship means that the two countries frequently cooperate in areas of mutual defense, intelligence sharing, and favorable trade treaties. This relationship is young but has proven to be exceptionally strong, borne out of Irish support for the United States in the Second American Civil War and the Dídean refugee initiative. Travel between the two countries is strong which leads to a thriving tourism sector, and America fulfills a significant amount of Irish demand for steel, tungsten, and aluminum.

Ireland is one of the six nuclear powers, along with the Kaiserreich, France, Great Britain, Japan, and the United States. While the Irish nuclear program is not as large as the German or British program, the Irish do maintain a nuclear deterrent. The Irish nuclear policy, dubbed “The Atomic Lance,” calls for bombing of large cities and military bases with strategic bombers in an overwhelming first strike. This policy was considered to create the highest likelihood of deterrent value as well as being the most cost-efficient method of defense. Ireland maintains that its nuclear weapons are only used for defensive purposes but refuses to sign any accord swearing that they will only be used if nuclear weapons were used by another party. Ireland maintains a nuclear facility in a classified facility in Leinster, enriching uranium for its small nuclear weapons program as well as providing nuclear engineering capability for nuclear power generation.

Economy

The Federal Republic of Ireland is a highly-developed knowledge economy. In the wake of the Black Monday stock market collapse, Ireland embarked on a series of reforms that have transformed it into a highly effective and efficient economy. It is considered an attractive place to do business, with high levels of access both in the Mitteleuropan economic bloc and without. Foreign investment is common, and countries see Ireland as a gateway between Europe and North America. While Ireland is not formally a member of the Imperial Economic Development Council, the Ulster Parliament typically sends a representative to occupy an observer seat with the IEDC to conduct trade and development deals with the Entente. This action has caused significant stress in Germany and the Mitteleuropan Economic Council, but the French Republic has endorsed the action and Germany is unwilling to fight an economic war with France and Ireland.

The Atlantic Trade Commission, an independent body of Irish and American economists and trade experts, had been established in the wake of the Lend-Lease Program. After the conclusion of the war, the body took on a renewed strength coordinating trade between the two nations. This bilateral economic relationship is one of Ireland’s strongest ties with the United States, and serves as a model for other bilateral trade agreements made following the end of the Second Weltkrieg.

Dublin occupies a unique position in the economic world due to the development of the Dublin Special Economic Zone. The Open For Business Initiative took advantage of ambiguously-worded clauses within Mitteleuropa regarding domestic subsidiary partnerships. This provision, which Germany had used for its benefit in German monopolies in the capitals of southern and eastern Europe to generate lucrative profits while exempting itself from taxes, had been exploited by Ireland to open similar business constructs in 1937. Following this, Deutsche Bank, Barclay’s, JP Morgan, and the Yokohama Specie Bank invested heavily in Irish industry, hoping to reap the reward of Ireland’s position caused by the collapse of the United Kingdom. As a result, Ireland is considered one of the financial capitals of the world despite having a smaller GDP than the great powers, and its neutral status makes it a valuable intermediary, allowing Ireland a healthy profit as a middleman.

Ireland boasts a modern railway network with both overland and subterranean railway routes. The TransÉireann Transit Network is considered by engineers to be an effective mass transit system. Primarily used in freight shipping, the TTN allows for the rapid transit of goods across the country. Irish businesses have developed the Díreach model of inventory management, known as just-in-time inventory in the United States. This process involves running light inventory stockpiling and using goods as they come in, increasing efficiency and reducing warehousing costs. This process does require accurate demand forecasting, but also reliability in transit and delivery, and the TTN is able to service those requirements to the benefit of Irish operations managers.

The agricultural sector of Ireland has undergone a series of modernization reforms. Cattle and related industries such as beef and dairy form a cornerstone of primary sector economic activity in the western and center sections of the country with abundant land devoted to pasturage. Ireland is also a significant exporter of salmon, trout, and saltwater cod. Farms primarily grow root vegetables and grains, including barley, potatoes, turnips, and wheat, and measures by Seán Lemass have resulted in a small but thriving sugar beet industry. The agricultural sector have undergone significant mechanization efforts since the IEAA efforts led by Patrick Hogan, and farming output has increased massively as a result. Under the slogan “Never Another Hunger,” the Ministry of Agriculture has looked to ensure Irish food security and labors extensively on research and equipment acquisition to achieve that end.

Assisting in the development of the rural sector, Ireland founded the Rural Renovations and Maintenance Board to better organize the mechanization rollout and to provide training on servicing the new farm equipment. After the beginning of the Union campaign of strategic and terror bombing, the RRMB had been expanded to the construction sector to coordinate improvements to damaged buildings and infrastructure, as the RRMB’s recordkeeping systems were already equipped to catalogue damage and required repairs, dispatching workcrews to trouble spots, and ensuring proper transport of requisite materials. The RRMB regularly inspects and surveys regions and administers an independent examination board, which in practice also acts as an effective secondary auditing arm to prevent contract fraud for work on government roadways.

The scars of the Union’s terror bombing campaigns have been seared into the minds of the Irish population. Construction crews have implemented new guidelines for buildings deemed to be critical infrastructure, including all military factories. These new techniques call for reinforced roofing and buildings to be built partially underground so as to protect them from bombardment from the sky. Borrowing insights from Japanese architects used in earthquake protection, Ireland now employs a variety of construction techniques to make their buildings more robust. All buildings are built with air raid shelters, and with the advent of nuclear weapons, these shelters are being retrofitted to act as fallout shelters to protect Irish civilians in the new Atomic Age.

Ireland has a small mining and quarrying sector, producing lead and limestone. The notable exception is zinc mining, where Ireland has an abundance of mines located throughout the island. The zinc deposits contribute significantly to Ireland’s development of its electronics industry and the development of Irish radar stations. The zinc needed to manufacture aerial detection systems has been credited as one of the factors that led to the successful defense of Ireland in 1939, as Ireland was able to manufacture radar stations without the need to import raw materials across the Atlantic during the Union of Britain’s naval blockade.

Ireland’s industrial sector has blossomed under steady growth and successful trade. Belfast’s steel mills are highly efficient, allowing low-cost steel to prop up expansion of both civilian and military construction. Dublin boasts a small aluminum manufacturing center, allowing for the creation of aircraft to light-weight metal frames. Owing to the lack of natural rubber, Irish and American chemists developed a process to develop synthetic monomers that could be successfully polymerized into a rubber that could service as truck tires. In Connacht, Irish engineers developed a plant that combined coal with hydrogen gas to develop synthetic fuel, solving the resource crisis that plagued Ireland during 1938 far more efficiently than the coal liquefaction process that had been championed in the Kaiserreich.

The most productive and lucrative sector in Ireland has been electronics and computing. The first digital computing machine was created in Ireland in 1938 under top secret conditions. It was a terrifying monolith, built using thousands of vacuum tubes. This model would later be used to design improved digital computing machines and cryptanalytic code-breakers under the direction of Richard James Hayes of the G-2 military intelligence service. Hayes designed the Fionn, named after the giant from Irish mythology, to assist in the breaking of the Union cyphers. The insights gleaned from the construction of this computer greatly assisted Irish electronic development, and Ireland currently leads the world in the design of electronic systems like guidance systems and automated temperature regulators for hazardous material containment.

Ireland avoids investing in highly specialized production lines, owing to a lack of geographical space. Irish engineering prides flexibility and refit capability as key components of industrial doctrine, allowing for quick restructuring of industrial layouts and rapid installation of mechanical components to change factory lines to new materials quickly. This has allowed Ireland to respond quickly to changing markets and new inventions, allowing for Irish companies to remain agile on the world market and adapt new techniques into their manufacturing process quickly and effectively.

This flexible process also has enhanced worker safety throughout the Federal Republic of Ireland. The Ministry of Labour regularly conducts surprise inspections, and occupational health and safety rating is among the highest in Mitteleuropa. Ministry inspectors have a reputation for scrupulous ethics and meticulous attention to detail, and legislation mandating anonymizing workplace safety concerns and outlawing reprisal acts is universal across all sectors of employment. These acts were borne out of political compromise with the Belfast Shipwright and Marine Workers Association following the labor disputes in Ulster, and have given Irish workplaces a sterling reputation.

Ireland, as an island nation, has a robust naval engineering sector, and the largest company within Ireland is the venerable Harland and Wolff. While infamous for building the Titanic, the shipyards in Belfast have built everything from civilian fishing ships, massive freighters, and warships for the an tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh. The company boasts a massive naval facility, revitalized early in 1936 as an early attempt to shake off the failure of Black Monday. Harland and Wolff engineers have been hired as consultants from London to Vladivostok, and ships bearing the Harland and Wolff logo have sailed every sea and waterway on the planet.

Belfast also boasts a specialized shipyard for large vessel construction. Smaller facilities dot the island, but Belfast’s shipyards are considered to be one of the most highly-advanced facilities for vessels of significant tonnage.

The Irish aviation sector is led by the Short Brothers PLC, the oldest private aviation manufacturer in the world. Fleeing the collapse of the United Kingdom in 1925, the company received substantial investment from the Michael Collins government and headquartered itself in Belfast. The Short Training Area, located outside of Derry, saw some of the first test flights of jet and rocket engines in the world, continuing the Short tradition of aviation pioneering.

The need for Ireland to rapidly modernize its technology had led to the formation of the Éireann Scientific Innovation Council, a body predominantly made up of Irish scientists with consulting chairs with scientists from friendly foreign nations. Well-funded by the Irish government as well as Irish businessmen and private investors, ESIC has become a highly respected academic foundation. ESIC researchers regularly speak at academic conferences, and ESIC has sponsored academic coordination with the Reichspakt’s Kaiser Wilhelm Society and the Entente’s Imperial Scientific Advisory Council, particularly in the fields of medicine and mathematics.

The Special Relationship with the United States is present within ESIC. Many of the largest donors for ESIC’s projects are wealthy Irish-Americans, both those who remained within the United States with the outbreak of the Second American Civil War and those that left to seek refuge in Ireland under the Dídean refugee program. Irish-American owned businesses are among the most frequent partners and sponsors of research initiatives within Ireland. The impact on Irish academia and research has been noticeable, with one of the most significant areas of Irish-American partnership being in the areas of nuclear and particle physics.

Ireland has an efficient tax structure that strives to eliminate waste and corruption. The tax rate in Ireland is slightly lower than in other developed countries, but there are fewer exemptions. Ireland’s low poverty rate contributes to a larger tax base overall, which has kept Ireland in the black and avoided the devaluation of currency that had plagued countries suffering from the effects of Black Monday.

Culture

Starting in 1937, Ireland has relatively relaxed immigration policies in an attempt to shore up their manpower shortage in its industrial sector. Most migrants settle in Dublin or Belfast, and small neighborhood enclaves have sprouted within Dublin that provide emigrants and foreign laborers with a sense of community, including restaurants and shops that import goods that remind migrants of their home countries. Ireland is not as popular a destination as the United States or Argentina due to space, but migration continues even as world tension reduces following the successful conclusion of the Second Weltkrieg.

Ireland has three national languages: English, Gaelic, and Scots-Irish. The Irish government promotes the use of Gaeilge through primary schooling and low-to-no cost adult education programs, and bilinguality is the norm rather than the exception. The use of Gaeilge has caused a second Celtic revival movement, with traditional Irish sports, artwork, and literature being immensely popular. Modern interpretations of Insular Irish fashion and designs, including adaptations of the four great cycles of Irish mythology. The most popular of these include the Hollywood epics Brian Boru, King of Ireland with Clark Gable and the tragedy Frenzy of Suibhne starring Gary Cooper. Scots-Irish, raised to the status of officially-recognized dialect as a means to solve the Ulster crisis, is primarily only spoken in the Ulster province, on official government business, or by Ulster heritage groups in the other three provinces. English is common, and is often used as the lingua franca for international affairs such as business or diplomacy.

Roughly two-thirds of Irish people are Roman Catholic, but the Federal Republic of Ireland is officially a secular state, not establishing a state religion and guaranteeing freedom of religion in the Irish Constitution. Notable other religions include the Anglican Church and Presbyterianism, both of which have a strong presence in Ulster Province, and Neo-Druidism, a modern revival movement of the ancient Celtic religion which enjoys a small presence in Ireland and Scotland, and is attempting to formally be recognized in the French Republic within Brittany as a fully-licensed religion permitted to operate its own labor union.

Women’s rights have been enshrined in the Irish Constitution thanks to the efforts of the Cumann na mBan in the Irish War of Independence. Ireland had largely been a socially conservative nation, but the Collins government had enacted several significant reforms out of genuine support for the liberation movement and practical considerations in the Internationale War. By encouraging women to join the workforce, Ireland was able to maintain industrial production and avoid a labor shortfall during the era of mass conscription for the Armed Forces. The Irish Republican Army had frequently worked with the Cumann na mBan, and that relationship translated into the establishment of the Women’s Auxillary divisions, opening the military up to women for support and administrative roles. The one exception to the general prohibition on women in combat is found in the An tAerchór, where women are permitted to serve in piloting roles throughout the IRAF.

Ireland also employs an extensive youth scouting program which teaches a variety of skills relating to outdoorsmanship and even support roles as paramilitaries. Both boys and girls scouting programs teach team-building, leadership, and the basics of military service, which has strengthened the cultural cohesion of Irish society and acts as a junior ROTC and military outreach program.

Military

The an tArm was the first modern professional army to fully mechanize. The idea to fully commit to a mobile force had been the brainchild of the veterans of the Irish War of Independence to merge the tactical speed of the War of Independence with the professional equipment and discipline of a modern army. Irish military doctrine stressed rapid response and deployment, following the model of the Irish flying columns, using specially designed combat vehicles instead of improvised fighting platforms. Rory O’Connor developed an integrated signal corps to coordinate between units at the divisional level, and supported the rollout of field engineering corps for every division to improve their ability to take fortified structures.

Irish infantry doctrine is characterized by the use of the IV-series of half-tracked infantry fighting vehicles. Frequently nicknamed the “Ivy” due to its initials and green coloration, the IV is a true infantry fighting platform. The IV is typically equipped with a 12.7mm heavy machine gun, but can be equipped with a 37mm autocannon if greater firepower is needed. The IV can act both as infantry fighting vehicle or as an armored personnel carrier, and serves to provide Irish ground forces with exceptional speed, used to exploit breakthroughs and wreak havoc in the enemy’s operational depth. The Cór Meicnithe, or Mechanized Corps, provides heavy firepower in the use of the IV-FA, nicknamed the “iffa,” the Feithicil Airtléire is a half-tracked variant that carries a 105mm howitzer capable of providing significant fire support to the infantry in the field. Scout companies utilize the six-wheeled Taiscéalaíochta vehicle, an armored car with a 2cm light cannon capable of firing both high-explosive and armor-piercing composite rigid rounds to give scout companies the capability to defend themselves against infantry, light tanks, and other armored cars.

The Cór Armúrtha, or Armored Corps, form the primary armor divisions of the an tArm. In the Second Weltkrieg, Ireland almost exclusively used the Collins medium tank, though the Cór Armúrtha retains some small scout tanks as a reconnaissance vehicle. A tenacious tank prized for its reliability, the Collins carried a 76mm main gun meant to emphasize its capability as a multi-role combat platform, that could fire an anti-tank or high-explosive shell as necessary. The Collins was first introduced in 1939 during the invasion of Ireland as an upgrade to the earlier Skoda tanks produced on lease from the Danubian Federation, and achieved marked success against the Internationale forces landing on Irish shores. Following Irish flexible industrial doctrine, the Collins tank chassis was modified to support a variety of different armaments. Early variants of the Collins equipped the same 105mm howitzer cannon to function as self-propelled guns, named the Saint Barbara. With a few modifications to the chassis and some slight reduction in armor functions, the Saint Barbara was able to keep pace with the Collins tank, firing and moving to prevent counter-battery fire. Facing stiff resistance from heavy Union and Communard tanks when the Second Weltkrieg began to push into syndicalist home territories, the Collins chassis was equipped with a German 88mm anti-tank gun. Further modifications created the Marú tank destroyer variant. Marú crews often called themselves Maiges, after the mythological Irish battle of Maige Tuired, where a sling stone killed the giant Balor of the Evil Eye, and gained a reputation for fearlessness. The Maiges fear their time is ending, as Irish developments in recoilless rifles and other man-portable anti-tank weaponry along with improving bombing and missile technology has made a dedicated platform for fighting armored units less necessary.

When the Irish needed to invade Cornwall, Michael Collins authorized the creation of the Muirsaighdiúirí, a special operations force that would act as a marine corps for amphibious landings. This unit has been built as a fully mechanized amphibious invasion force, using amphibious tracked vehicles to provide protection for the soldiers inside until they can reach land firm enough to disembark and fight. The Muirsaighdiúirí have created a variant of the Collins tank, officially named the Collins ALSV but unofficially named the “Puddler.” The Puddler is a Collins tank reinforced with a synthetic rubberized canvas and modified to include propellers linked to the engine to provide forward motion in water, meant to provide armored support for hostile beach landings.

The Irish Armed Forces also employs the Army Ranger Wing, named the Sciathán Fiannóglaigh an Airm, as a special operations paratrooper division. The Rangers are among the most elite of the Irish Armed Forces, hand-selected from across the services and trained in commando tactics, sabotage operations, and irregular warfare. The Sciathán Fiannóglaigh an Airm claims that they more than any other division maintains the traditions and conduct of the Irish War of Independence, and have proven their aptitude against overwhelming odds. While the Rangers are not a separate branch of the army, they report directly to the Chief of Staff and exist outside the traditional command structure of the An tArm.

The an tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh maintains a green-water naval mission primarily dedicated to the defense of Irish territorial waters, maintaining both an armed naval force and a merchant marine. The Irish navy maintains that spotting and speed can facilitate a strike at the opportune time to maximize damage, and so invests heavily in surface and undersea detection systems and eschewing slow battleships for faster cruisers.

Ireland has one aircraft carrier which is considered the flagship of the an tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh and the pride of the fleet. The LÉ Delbáeth is a high-capacity aircraft carrier with a full complement of fighters and bombers to support naval missions. The vessel boasts the latest in compound armor designs and torpedo detection capabilities to act as a floating fortress, anchoring the naval battle line. The Delbáeth saw limited action in the Second Weltkrieg, as the European battleground was capable of being supported by land-based aircraft flying out of Dublin and Derry, and naval coverage in Siberia was provided by the Transamurian and Japanese carriers operating out of Golden Horn Bay. The Delbáeth’s gunnery loadout is modest, relying instead on its aircraft as the primary attack arm and its escort vessels for defense and ship-to-ship combat.

The Manannán-class heavy cruiser is considered the primary heavy naval gunnery craft of the an tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh. A modern, sleek design, the Manannán is equipped with heavy 20 cm deck guns, smaller 138mm secondary guns, and 40mm anti-aircraft guns meant primarily to engage carrier-based aircraft. Equipped with an improved floatplane catapult and a powerful engine, the Manannán is one of the fastest capital ships in the world, specializing in attacking and overwhelming a naval battle group while out of position as opposed to the naval linear tactics of earlier eras. Work is underway to refit the Manannán with guided missiles, which exceed naval gunnery ranges, as the primary ship-to-ship platform for the an tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh going into the post-war era.

The Sinann-class light cruiser is an escort vessel and primarily equipped to provide a wall of anti-aircraft fire in support of naval groups to prevent the establishment of naval air supremacy. Smaller but faster than the heavier Manannán, the Sinann exists as a heavy screen ship and possesses light surface armament, relying instead on numbers and heavier attack vessels to provide ship-to-ship firepower. The armor on the Sinann is much lighter than the armor on the Manannán, and the Sinann is not considered a capital ship for the purposes of naval arms limitation treaties.

The Boann is a destroyer and the smallest armed surface ship in the an tSeirbhís Chabhlaigh. The Boann acts as a screen ship for the larger cruisers and the Delbáeth, but it is also a specialized sub hunter. The Boann is equipped with highly sensitive sonar and 360 degrees of depth charge mortar coverage, permitting it to detect and destroy enemy submarines at a great distance and eliminate their threat before closing to torpedo range. Some Boann-class destroyers are equipped with advanced minesweeping gear. Boann-class destroyers were the primary path-clearing vessels that cleared the landing paths for the Union of Britain in 1941, and the “Boann Boomers” were among the most celebrated sailors, personally commended by Michael Collins for their daring in mine-clearing operations both during and after the Second Weltkrieg.

The Selkie-class submarine is a stealthy ambush submarine that was considered the main attack vessel against the Union of Britain during the Internationale War. Originally designed by Gio Ansaldo Irish Sea Shipwright, the Selkie is the latest iteration in Irish undersea warfare. Heavily-equipped with advanced torpedoes, the Selkie was designed for exceptional endurance missions under the waves, in order to allow ships too heavily-defended to pass by unnoticed before surfacing and striking. During the Second Weltkrieg, the Selkie primarily looked to sink Union trade convoys to starve the Internationale’s war machine of Chilean imports. Early in the Second Weltkrieg, the Selkie also carried out mine-laying operations in the North Sea, and the potential remains for Selkies to be quickly refitted with minelaying rails in the event that another waterway needs to be denied to the enemy. Theoretical designs for a variant ballistic missile carried on a Selkie have been theorized and discussed by Irish naval engineers, with the intent of creating a second-strike capability for nuclear missiles to improve deterrence and solve the first strike security crisis currently plaguing foreign policy debates.

The An tAerchór is responsible for the air defense of Ireland and to provide air support to the An tArm. The An tAerchór during the Second Weltkrieg flew small-frame aircraft, specializing in fighters for air support, close attack support aircraft to attack ground targets, and naval bombers to attack fleets at sea or in port, in an attempt to weaken the Union of Britain’s naval supremacy. The shortcomings of this pursuit were identified by Dan McKenna during the Siberian campaign against the Russian State when covering large stretches of territory. The An tAerchór’s solution was to start investing in jet engines, creating an entire line of high-speed fighters and bombers. These new aircraft were designed too late to see use during the Second Weltkrieg, but Ireland is increasingly moving toward an air force fully powered by the jet engine.

---

Image List:

Header

Irish-American Trade

Atlantic Trade Commission

Dublin Reborn as the SEZ

TransÉireann Transit Network

Mechanized Farming Reforms

Rural Renovations and Maintenance Board

Industrial Defense Plan

Irish Zinc Mining

Irish Medium Industry

Industrial Flexibility

Safety Reforms

Harland and Wolff

Belfast Capital Shipyard

Short Brothers Aerospace PLC

ESIC

Irish-American Research

Moderate Taxation

Gaeilge, the National Language

Secular State

Women in Industry

Youth Scouting Program

Mechanized Infantry Template

Armored Division Template

Marine Template

Ranger Paratrooper Template

Aircraft Carrier Design

Heavy Cruiser Design

Destroyer Design

Submarine Design

Alright folks, the Celtic Tiger writing project is over. Sad to see it end, but that’s the way of things. The alternative is a project which never ends and runs out of things to write about. Let me know what you think, of the worldbuilding appendix and of the project in general. Did you like the idea of a worldbuilding appendix for AAR’s, or was it too distracting? What projects would you like to see next? Character analysis? Worldbuilding essay? Video Game Reviews? Let me know

-SLAL

#kaiserreich #creative #celtic tiger

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blackswaneuroparedux · 4 years

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Pioneers may be picturesque figures, but they are often rather lonely ones.

- Nancy Astor, the Viscountess Astor

Nancy Astor was an American-born British politician who was the first female MP to take her seat in the House of Common. Viscountess Astor had won the constituency of Plymouth Sutton in 1919, and after Irish Sinn Féin’s Constance Markievicz had refused to take her seat the previous year, became the first woman to sit in the House. So in effect Astor became the second female Member of Parliament but the first to take her seat, serving from 1919 to 1945.

Nancy Witcher Langhorne was born in 1879 in Virginia to a prosperous railroad businessmen.

Following the American Civil War, prosperous Southerners who had relied on slavery fell on hard times. Such was the fate of her father, Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, who had been a successful railroad businessman before the war. So when Nancy, his eighth child was born on May 19th, 1879 he was still struggling to recover. However by the time that daughter, who had been christened Nancy, was thirteen, he had re-established his fortune.

Nancy Langhorne had four sisters and three brothers who survived childhood. All of the sisters were known for their beauty; Nancy and her sister Irene both attended a finishing school in New York City. She finished successfully and in 1897.

In New York Nancy met her first husband, a wealthy socialite Robert Gould Shaw II, a first cousin of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, who commanded the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first unit in the Union Army to be composed of African Americans. They married in New York City on 27 October 1897, when she was 18.

The marriage was an unhappy one. For Nancy it was not such a success, since she left her husband for the first time during their honeymoon and after a turbulent and troubled four years and a son, they separated permanently.

Nancy Shaw took a tour of England and fell in love with the country. Since she had been so happy there, her father suggested that she move to England. Seeing she was reluctant, her father said this was also her mother's wish; he suggested she take her younger sister Phyllis. Nancy and Phyllis moved together to England in 1905. Their older sister Irene had married the artist Charles Dana Gibson and became a model for his Gibson Girls.

Nancy Shaw had already become known in English society as an interesting and witty American, at a time when numerous wealthy young American women had married into the British aristocracy. Her tendency to be saucy in conversation, yet religiously devout and almost prudish in behavior, confused many of the English men but pleased some of the older socialites.

She did marry an Englishman, albeit one born in the United States, Waldorf Astor - 2nd Viscount Astor, an American-born English politician and newspaper proprietor.

While crossing the Atlantic to Britain, Nancy had met Waldorf Astor, the son of the American magnate William Waldorf Astor. Waldorf had been born in New York on the same day as Nancy, but when he was ten years old his father had moved the family to Britain to raise his children as English aristocrats. Waldorf had been educated at Eton College and Oxford University. In May of 1906 Nancy and Waldorf were married and moved into their wedding gift – the 375 acre Cliveden Estate and its 400-foot-long mansion in Buckinghamshire, which Nancy modernised and had electrified.

The Astors moved into Cliveden, a lavish estate in Buckinghamshire on the River Thames that was a wedding gift from Astor's father. Nancy Astor developed as a prominent hostess for the British social elite.

The Astors also owned a grand London house, No. 4 St. James's Square, now the premises of the Naval & Military Club. A blue plaque unveiled in 1987 commemorates Astor at St. James's Square. Through her many social connections, Lady Astor became involved in a political circle called 'Milner's Kindergarten’. Considered liberal in their age (but in reality very conservative), the group advocated unity and equality among English-speaking people and a continuance or expansion of the British Empire inspired by the vision of Cecil Rhodes.

Nancy encouraged Waldorf to enter politics and he became a Member of Parliament in 1910 for the Conservative Party, although he broke ranks with his party and tended to vote for social reforms. When his Liberal friend David Lloyd George became Prime Minister of the wartime Coalition government in 1916, Waldorf became his parliamentary private secretary and part of his circle of advisors. In 1916 his father William was made a peer - Viscount Astor. When William died in 1919, Waldorf tried unsuccessfully to avoid taking the title, but was forced to surrender his seat in Parliament and enter the House of Lords as the 2nd Viscount Astor.

This triggered a by-election for his Plymouth seat, which Nancy contested and won. Women had only recent been granted the right to vote. Her American informal style was new to the British and seems to have charmed them in an age where campaigning was very much about personality.

Nancy Astor was a very remarkable woman: determined, witty and accomplished. She was also the beneficiary of considerable privilege, through birth and marriage - none of which is generally looked on with forgiveness in our age.

Her sharp wit hid a cold, aggressive, paranoid and illiberal personality.

She also clashed with her contemporary, Sir Winston Churchill and there’s a famous exchange between the two that goes along these lines “Winston, if I were married to you I’d put poison in your coffee”….”Nancy, if I were married to you I’d drink it.” This supposedly occurred during a weekend house party at Blenheim Palace in the early 1930s.

Nancy Astor's accomplishments in the House of Commons were relatively minor. She never held a position with much influence, and never any post of ministerial rank, although her time in Commons saw four Conservative Prime Ministers in office. The Duchess of Atholl (elected to Parliament in 1923, four years after Lady Astor) rose to higher levels in the Conservative Party before Astor did. Astor felt if she had more position in the party, she would be less free to criticise her party's government. She did gain passage of a bill to increase the legal drinking age to eighteen unless the minor has parental approval.

During this period Nancy Astor continued to be active outside government, supporting the development and expansion of nursery schools for children's education. She was introduced to the issue by socialist Margaret McMillan, who believed that her late sister helped guide her in life. Lady Astor was initially skeptical of this aspect, but later the two women became close; Astor used her wealth to aid their social efforts.

Left out of the boy’s club within the all male atmosphere of Parliament, She worked hard instead to use her wealth and influence to recruit women into the civil service, the police force, education reform, and the House of Lords.

Lady Astor chaired the first ever International Conference of Women In Science, Industry and Commerce, a three-day event held London in July 1925, organised by Caroline Haslett for the Women's Engineering Society in co-operation with other leading women's groups. Astor hosted a large gathering at her home in St James's to enable networking amongst the international delegates, and spoke strongly of her support of and the need for women to work in the fields of science, engineering and technology.

Her legacy though remains very controversial as she was intimately bound to the upper-class appeasement movement of the 1930s. She was a fierce anti-Communist and like many others saw the rise of Germany as a bulwark to thwart the Bolshevik menace.

Astor was critical of the Nazis for devaluing the position of women and opposed the idea of another war. But as Harold Nicholson (among others) noted in his diaries, she was perfectly willing to indulge in the kind of ugly, reflexive anti-Semitism that was thought to be “clever” in aristocratic circles in those days. She exchanged anti-Semitic letters with the then American ambassador to Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and entertained prominent members of the Nazi government. She herself asserted she was not an anti-Semite; she said in 1947, "I'm not anti-Jewish but gangsterism isn't going to solve the Palestine problem".

When World War Two did break-out Nancy Astor admitted that she had made mistakes and supported the war effort, although still causing controversy by, for example, opposing the entry into Britain of Communist refugees at a time when Russia was an ally in the war.

As her views became more extreme and eccentric she became an embarrassment to the Conservative Party and with them facing defeat by the Labour Party in the 1945 election, Waldorf Astor was persuaded to force her to step down. She did, but with anger and bitterness which she continued to express for many years.

She and Waldorf drifted apart and his movement to the political left did not help their marriage. They began to live separate lives and travel apart, although there was a reconciliation before his death in 1952.

During the 1950’s she added racism to her other views and became notorious for, among other statements, proudly announcing to the white minority Rhodesian government that she was the daughter of a slave owner and telling a group of Afro-American students that they should be more like the servants of her southern childhood. As her brothers and sisters died and she became estranged from her children, loneliness took over.

Nancy Astor died in 1964.

A statue commemorating her life was unveiled in Plymouth in November 2019 by Prime Minister Theresa May - and her future successor Boris Johnson also posed by the statue of the former Tory MP. The unveiling was one way to commemorate the centenary of women being involved in Parliamentary politics in the UK.

Theresa May said at the unveiling: “For two years Nancy Astor was the only woman in a House which was not designed for women. A place of Honourable Gentlemen, somking rooms and no ladies’ loos. She ignored the jeering, the patronising and the bawdy jokes, and began to make the Commons an easier place for the many –but all to few – women who have followed her.”

The statue was the culmination of a popular public campaign started by Labour MP for Plymouth and Sutton and Devonport, Mr Luke Pollard. The campaign enjoyed cross political party support. All of Plymouth’s living former MPs were present at the unveiling - Alison Seabeck (now Raynsford), Linda Gilroy, Baroness Janet Fookes and Liberal peer Lord David Owen.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the whole country should be “proud of the great strides Nancy Astor made for equality and representation”. The inscription on the statue’s plinth reads: “Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer - into a selflessness which links us all with humanity.

In June 2020, her statue was placed on a target list of Black Lives Matter movement and other activist groups to campaign for its removal.

#nancy astor #lady astor #quote #aristocracy #britain #politics #statue #blm #protests #mixed legacy #femme #icon #churchill

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ao3feed-fitzsimmons · 5 years

Text

civility is a facade

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/39qF7qD

by rathxritter

May 2015: The posh boys are back in power. Prime Minister David Cameron forms a majority single-party government with a working majority of 12 (increased to 15 due to Sinn Féin’s MPs’ abstention). He promises an in-out referendum before the end of 2017 and to respect the outcome.

The year marks the tenth anniversary of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005, Achd na Gàidhlig (Alba) 2005, an act that provides an official framework to the efforts to preserve and sustain the Gaelic language and culture.

Meanwhile, Fitz and Simmons plan their future.

Words: 4772, Chapters: 1/2, Language: English

Series: Part 3 of dearbh-aithne chultarail is phearsanta, dualchas, brexit

Fandoms: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Characters: Leo Fitz, Jemma Simmons

Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons

Additional Tags: 2015 UK General Election, GE: Conservative manifesto, Brexit, Established Relationship, Alternate Universe - No SHIELD (Marvel)

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/39qF7qD

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #Fitzsimmons #aos

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brookstonalmanac · 4 months

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Events 5.22 (after 1920)

1926 – Chiang Kai-shek replaces the communists in Kuomintang China. 1927 – Near Xining, China, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake causes 200,000 deaths in one of the world's most destructive earthquakes. 1939 – World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel. 1941 – During the Anglo-Iraqi War, British troops take Fallujah. 1942 – Mexico enters the Second World War on the side of the Allies. 1943 – Joseph Stalin disbands the Comintern. 1947 – Cold War: The Truman Doctrine goes into effect, aiding Turkey and Greece. 1957 – South Africa's government approves of racial separation in universities. 1958 – The 1958 riots in Ceylon become a watershed in the race relations of various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total deaths are estimated at 300, mostly Tamils. 1960 – The Great Chilean earthquake, measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, hits southern Chile, becoming the most powerful earthquake ever recorded. 1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson launches his Great Society program. 1967 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. 1967 – L'Innovation department store in Brussels, Belgium, burns down, resulting in 323 dead or missing and 150 injured, the most devastating fire in Belgian history. 1968 – The nuclear-powered submarine USS Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores. 1969 – Apollo 10's Lunar Module flies within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the Moon's surface. 1972 – Ceylon adopts a new constitution, becoming a republic and changing its name to Sri Lanka. 1972 – Over 400 women in Derry, Northern Ireland attack the offices of Sinn Féin following the shooting by the Irish Republican Army of a young British soldier on leave. 1987 – Hashimpura massacre occurs in Meerut, India. 1987 – First ever Rugby World Cup kicks off with New Zealand playing Italy at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand. 1990 – North and South Yemen are unified to create the Republic of Yemen. 1992 – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia join the United Nations. 1994 – A worldwide trade embargo against Haiti goes into effect to punish its military rulers for not reinstating the country's ousted elected leader, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. 1996 – The Burmese military regime jails 71 supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to block a pro-democracy meeting. 1998 – A U.S. federal judge rules that U.S. Secret Service agents can be compelled to testify before a grand jury concerning the Lewinsky scandal involving President Bill Clinton. 2000 – In Sri Lanka, over 150 Tamil rebels are killed over two days of fighting for control in Jaffna. 2002 – Civil rights movement: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicts former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murder of four girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. 2010 – Air India Express Flight 812, a Boeing 737 crashes over a cliff upon landing at Mangalore, India, killing 158 of 166 people on board, becoming the deadliest crash involving a Boeing 737 until the crash of Lion Air Flight 610. 2010 – Inter Milan beat Bayern Munich 2–0 in the UEFA Champions League final in Madrid, Spain to become the first, and so far only, Italian team to win the historic treble (Serie A, Coppa Italia, Champions League). 2011 – An EF5 tornado strikes Joplin, Missouri, killing 158 people and wreaking $2.8 billion in damages, the costliest and seventh-deadliest single tornado in U.S. history. 2012 – Tokyo Skytree opens to the public. It is the tallest tower in the world (634 m), and the second tallest man-made structure on Earth after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m). 2014 – An explosion occurs in Ürümqi, capital of China's far-western Xinjiang region, resulting in at least 43 deaths and 91 injuries. 2015 – The Republic of Ireland becomes the first nation in the world to utilise a public referendum to legalise gay marriage. 2017 – Twenty-two people are killed at an Ariana Grande concert in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.

#Events

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weirdletter · 6 years

Photo

A Brilliant Void: A Selection of Classic Irish Science Fiction (Recovered Voices), edited by Jack Fennell, Tramp Press, 2018. Info: tramppress.com.

An astronomer challenges an emperor. A hunter pursues the last dinosaur through a remote rainforest. A young Kerryman emigrates to the Moon to seek his fortune. These fifteen darkly funny stories illuminate a side of Irish literary history that is often overlooked. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the winds of change came rushing in Ireland’s direction. Science and technology would transform everything: life, love, death, crime, war, and even history itself. Edited and introduced by Jack Fennell, this collection of lesser-known works of classic Irish science fiction includes stories by Frances Power Cobbe, Fitz-James O’Brien, Charlotte McManus and Cathal Ó Sándair.

Contributors: JANE BARLOW (1856–1917) was born in Dublin, the daughter of the Vice-Provost of Trinity College. She wrote under a couple of different pseudonyms, most notably Felix Ryark and Antares Skorpios, and her work includes the philosophical space-voyage story History of a World of Immortals Without a God (1891), and the ‘lost world’ novel A Strange Land (1908). FRANCES POWER COBBE (1822–1904) was an outspoken social reformer who campaigned for women’s suffrage and advocated for animal rights; she was a founder of the National Anti-Vivisection Society and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection. Cobbe was a regular correspondent with Charles Darwin, and wrote extensively on the moral implications of his theory of evolution. She is buried beside her partner Mary Lloyd in the cemetery of St Illtyd’s Church in Gwynedd, Wales. CLOTILDE (‘CLO’) GRAVES (1863–1932) was born in Buttevant, Co. Cork, and published her first novel at the age of forty-six, under the pseudonym ‘Richard Dehan’. Prior to this, she was also a playwright, a freelance journalist and a cartoonist. During her lifetime, she was perhaps best known for her controversial 1911 novel The Dop Doctor, which lionised the British side of the Second Boer War (1899–1902). MARGARET WOLFE HUNGERFORD (1855–1897) was born in Rosscarbery, Co. Cork, and later married a Dublin solicitor. Her first novel was written to support herself and her three young children following the sudden death of her husband. She is perhaps most famous as the originator of the phrase, ‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ which first appeared in her second novel, Molly Bawn (1878). DOROTHY MACARDLE (1889–1958) was born in Dundalk, Co. Louth. She studied at University College Dublin, and subsequently taught English at Alexandra College, the girls’ school at which she herself had been educated. Although she was best known as the author of The Irish Republic (1937), her 1942 novel Uneasy Freehold – adapted to film as The Uninvited (1944) and subsequently published under that title – is now acknowledged as a modern classic ghost story. WILLIAM MAGINN (1794–1842) was a native of Cork and a prolific writer of short fiction. A resident of London from 1824, he was a frequent contributor to various newspapers, and in 1836 he fought a duel over the fallout from a negative review he had written of a Whig MP’s debut novel. Also of genre interest is his 1827 novel Whitehall, presented as a historical novel about the 1820s from the year 2227. CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH (‘L’) MCMANUS (1853–1944), a native of Castlebar, Co. Mayo, is best remembered today for her novel The Professor in Erin, originally serialised in Arthur Griffith’s Sinn Féin Weekly in 1912. She also helped to establish the second branch of the Gaelic League in Co. Mayo, and was a member of the Irish Literary Society. L.T. MEADE, or ELIZABETH THOMASINA MEADE SMITH (1844– 1914), was a prolific author, mostly of children’s stories. She was born in Bandon, Co. Cork, and later resided in London. She was also a member of the Pioneer Club, a progressive feminist group based in London. AMELIA GARLAND MEARS (1842–1920) was born in Freshford, Co. Kilkenny, and died in Leeds; FITZ-JAMES O’BRIEN (1828–1862) was born in Cork, and grew up in Castleconnell, Co. Limerick. He emigrated to the US in the early 1850s, and later fought for the Union in the American Civil War. TARLACH Ó hUID (1917–1990) was born Augustus Walter Hood, after his father, in London. He was a member of the Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and later a member of the IRA. For his IRA activities (mostly pamphleteering), he was jailed from 1940–1945, and he continued working for the Gaelic League after his release. ART Ó RIAIN (1893–1968), a native of Thurles in Co. Tipperary, was a civil servant who wrote under the pseudonym ‘Barra Ó Caochlaigh’ (since civil servants were not permitted to publish under their own names at the time); under this name, he wrote the Oireachtas Literary Award-winning sci-fi novella An Tost [Silence]. He went on to write for the state Irish-language publishing company, An Gúm. CATHAL Ó SÁNDAIR (1922–1996) was born in Weston-super-Mare, and published his first Irish-language short story at the age of sixteen. He is reputed to have written 160 books for schoolchildren, featuring the intrepid detective Réics Carló, the cowboy Réamonn Óg, and the space-pilot Captaen Spéirling. Æ (GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL) (1867–1935) was born in Lurgan, Co. Armagh. A poet, political activist, novelist, essayist and painter, he appears as a character in James Joyce’s Ulysses. His pseudonym ‘Æ’ was abbreviated from the word ‘Æon,’ and reflects his spiritualist beliefs.

#book #anthology #irish gothic #irish science fiction #weird fiction #science fiction #science fantasy

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Brexit LIVE: 'Not what we voted for' furious Farage pinpoints 'biggest betrayal' | Politics | News

Brexit LIVE: ‘Not what we voted for’ furious Farage pinpoints ‘biggest betrayal’ | Politics | News

Boris Johnson is being forced to “reboot” old Brexit arguments, a political expert told Express.co.uk. The Prime Minister is under renewed pressure with the looming publication of Sue Gray’s report into Downing Street parties held in lockdown. Dr Nicholas Dickinson, a political expert from the University of Oxford underlined the significance of Sinn Féin winning the election, with the nationalist…

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Paul Jonathan Givan Biography and Profile

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Paul Jonathan Givan Biography and Profile

Paul Givan (Paul Jonathan Givan) was born 12 October 1981. He is a Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician from Northern Ireland who has served as First Minister of Northern Ireland since 2021.

Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) replaced Arlene Foster as Northern Ireland’s First Minister on Thursday 17 June 2021 after the region’s main parties staved off a fresh political crisis that threatened to lead to a snap election.

Paul Givan Biography:

Paul Givan Education

Givan was educated at Laurelhill Community College, where he studied Business and History and is a graduate of the University of Ulster where he obtained a degree in Business Studies and completed an Advanced Diploma in Management Practice.

Paul Givan Political Career

Paul Jonathan Givan is a Democratic Unionist Party politician from Northern Ireland who has served as First Minister of Northern Ireland since 2021. He started his political career in Poots’ constituency and Stormont offices as a part-time assistant.

He later worked as special advisor for the now-DUP leader when he was Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure and again in 2009 when he was Minister of the Environment.

In 2010 he began his assembly career when he was co-opted in the Lagan Valley constituency to replace Jeffrey Donaldson.

Givan had been serving as chair of the Stormont Justice Committee ahead of his nomination as Foster’s replacement.

He has been a somewhat controversial figure and is likely to be an unpopular choice among many nationalists.

Back in 2016, Givan was criticised by leading members of Sinn Féin when, as Minister for Communities, he cut funding for the Líofa Gaeltacht scheme, which allowed people on lower incomes to go to the Donegal Gaeltacht and learn Irish.

The email informing employees of the decision was signed off “Happy Christmas and Happy New Year” and led to Givan being branded an “ignoramus” by then Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.

He later made a u-turn, stating that he had identified the funding necessary for the scheme and claimed his decision had not been a political one. However Sinn Féin has described this funding cut as the “straw that broke the camel’s back” in the context of the collapse of power-sharing in 2017.

Before this controversy, Givan had been given credit for his praise of the GAA. During a highly publicised visit to a GAA club in Lisburn while he was sports minister in 2016, he expressed support for the new Casement Park GAA stadium project in west Belfast. He also paid tribute to the GAA and the “value that it brings to young people”.

Givan, who is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church, which was founded by Ian Paisley, has previously supported Creationism. In 2008 put forward a motion calling for schools in Lisburn to teach alternatives to the theory such as Intelligent Design.

In February this year he brought a private member’s bill seeking to change the law in Northern Ireland to prevent abortions in cases of non-fatal disabilities.

Following the announcement from Poots, Givan said he was “privileged and humbled to have the opportunity to serve our people in the days ahead”.

“When I first entered politics I never believed I would follow in the footsteps of Dr Paisley, Peter Robinson and Arlene Foster. I am indebted to their service and sacrifice,” he said.

“The challenges are significant as we emerge from Covid and seek to rebuild our community and public services but our strength is in our people and I have no doubt we can overcome these challenges and build a better future for all our people.”

If Sinn Féin does not block his appointment and there is a smooth transition of power, Givan is set to take over from Arlene Foster next Monday.

DUP leader Edwin Poots nominates Paul Givan as Northern Ireland’s new first minister despite concerns within own party

Paul Givan First Minister

Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) replaced Arlene Foster as Northern Ireland’s First Minister on Thursday after the region’s main parties staved off a fresh political crisis that threatened to lead to a snap election.

Givan is a close ally of new DUP leader Edwin Poots. He needed to secure the consent of the party’s main partners in the region’s power-sharing government, Irish nationalist rivals Sinn Fein, to take the post.

Sinn Fein insisted the nomination be accompanied by the implementation of the cultural elements of a political agreement struck last year and the parties agreed a means to do so in late night talks on Wednesday.

Paul Givan Creationist

Paul Givan, a creationist who has in the past supported the teaching of alternatives to scientific theory of evolution in schools in Lisburn.

Creationists believe the Earth was created by a greater being, God, and that the accounts in the book of Genesis are literally true. They believe that Genesis contradicts the theory of evolution and that it should be taught as part of the science curriculum.

Paul Givan Irish Language

A power-sharing crisis in Northern Ireland was averted after ministers pledged to bring in new laws that would give the Irish language equal status in the province. The problem had arisen following the ousting of Arlene Foster by her DUP colleagues as leader and first minister.

Paul Givan of the DUP, who represents Lagan Valley, was 17 June 2021 formally nominated as the new first minister after the opposing sides reached a deal. He said: “We must recognise there is more in common than separates us. Northern Ireland is a special place.”

Paul Givan Church

Paul Givan religious beliefs are central to his identity. Givan is a member of the Free Presbyterian Church, which was founded by Ian Paisley. He is a committed Christian and has spoken about attacks on church buildings, the need for consistency in the approach to places of worship during Covid restrictions and abortion – with a bill in his name seeking to protect those diagnosed with non-fatal conditions such as Down’s Syndrome, club foot and cleft lip, all of which can currently be aborted up until birth.

Paul Givan says: “My faith determines my values; it’s intrinsic to who I am. I am a Christian, first and foremost, a husband, a father, a unionist.” He added in response to how he felt about dying: “Death doesn’t frighten me at all because I’ve put my trust in the Lord.”

Paul Givan Controversies

Paul Givan brought a private member’s bill seeking to change the law in Northern Ireland to prevent abortions in cases of non-fatal disabilities.

In September 2007, he attracted controversy because he proposed a motion to contact all secondary school science departments in the city of Lisburn asking them to supply information as to the plans they had to “develop teaching material in relation to creation, intelligent design and other theories of origin”.

He is also unpopular among some for cutting funding for an Irish language bursary scheme in 2016 while communities minister, which was cited as one of the reasons for the following breakdown in the power sharing arrangement with Sinn Fein.

Paul Givan Family:

Paul Givan Wife

Paul Givan married Emma at Lisburn Free Presbyterian Church in 2004 and they have three children.

Paul Givan Biography and Profile

#Biography and Profile #Paul Givan #Paul Givan Biography #Paul Givan Biography and Profile #Paul Jonathan Givan #Paul Jonathan Givan Biography and Profile

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