Growing up in Ireland: Constructions of Gender and Childhood 1800-1860

Abstract

This thesis examines cultural constructions of childhood and the experiences of children in Ireland from 1800 to 1860. At the beginning of the nineteenth century childhood was a fluid concept with a variety of meanings and responsibilities dependent on class, gender, and religious identity. By 1860 the idea of what childhood was supposed to be had been consolidated to a large degree by the middle classes, who rejected the lavish opulence of the aristocracy and the economic dependency of the working classes to create their own brand of child-rearing.

The project explores ways in which adults dealt with children, particularly within the family and in educational institutions across the island of Ireland. This holistic approach towards the middle-class child?s social world utilises medical and educational literature, religious tracts, personal correspondence, school archives, and material culture sources. It facilitates an understanding of gender roles, children?s participation in middle-class domesticity, and the use of education by middle-class families to shape a cultural narrative of childhood. This project considers normative discourses of ?ideal? Irish childhood, critically assessing the diversity of childhood experiences and ways in which child and society confronted each other.