From Jack¹s Army to Jedward: Ireland Masculinity and Popular Culture
1990-2010
Huston School of Film and Digital Media
NUI Galway, September 2010
1990 was a watershed year in contemporary Irish history for several reasons,
but perhaps the most resonant was the election of Mary Robinson, feminist,
activist and lawyer, to the position of Irish President, a position
previously reserved as a retiring ground for elderly male politicians. A new
and exciting phase of Irish history was suddenly in the offing and
Robinson¹s inclusive vision of Ireland looked beyond earlier understandings
of the state to give a central role to the women of Ireland and those
forgotten by generations of emigration; the Irish Diaspora. Slowly but
incrementally over the following two decades the patriarchal authority of
Irish political and religious structures collapsed.
During this period, Irish popular culture generated a variety of
masculinities across genres and forms: In fiction and theatre - the stage
and screen plays of Conor McPherson, Martin McDonagh and Mark O¹Rowe; the
soft masculinity of Louise Walsh¹s boybands Boyzone, Westlife, Jedward;
the cinema of the Celtic Tiger; Irish TV drama - Bachelor¹s Walk, Pure Mule,
Love/Hate; national sporting moments circulating around male sports stars
and teams. As traditional roles models and models of male authority
gradually eroded and Ireland became a more multicultural environment,
popular culture assumed an ever-increasing centrality in exploring tensions
in Irish manhood.
We invite papers and panels exploring manhood in Irish popular culture
sport, film and television, theatre and fiction, music and media - for a
conference to take place at NUI Galway September 23-25th 2011.
Proposals of 300-500 words) should be sent to (tony.tracy /at/ nuigalway.ie) /
(conn.holohan /at/ nuigalway.ie) Closing date for submission is April 4th 2011.
