Marriage on an Irish Farm sets forth the social, cultural and economic forces that shaped an impoverished rural Irish community in the middle of the twentieth century. It was a world before radio and television, cars and electricity, telephones and indoor plumbing. It is a world that no longer exists. That community was built on cooperation, out of necessity as much as choice: people survived together or not at all.
At the individual level, it portrays the life of a newly-married couple, John and Kate Ann McNamee, who must share their home with the groom’s mother. It chronicles the world of two women thrown together when the older woman’s son became the younger woman’s husband. The farm house that was the older woman’s for decades must now be handed over to the younger, part of the social compact inherent in every marriage in the area at that time. It is the story of two women, honorable, intelligent, and family-centered, of two lives often in conflict because of the adjustments forced upon them by the realities of life. It was partly a conflict of age and generation, partly the inevitable result of two human beings forced to share the same farm kitchen in the isolation of a rural Irish community all their waking hours. Although a commonplace phenomenon in rural Ireland at that time, it was a new experience for these two.
At the broader level the story of John and Kate Ann is intertwined with the community where they lived---the townland of Corglass, in the far north of County Longford---and the cycle of births, marriages, and deaths, of planting and harvesting that made up daily life there. Life in Corglass was typical no doubt of poor rural communities across Ireland at the time as families struggled with the impact of the Great Depression and World War II, with uncertain weather and almost certain emigration for many.
The world of Corglass in the middle of the twentieth century no longer exists. It is not just thatched houses and horse-drawn farm equipment that are gone. A way of life has disappeared. It was often hard, even harsh, eking out an existence from too little land, in uncertain weather, but it was a way of life where surviving was a communal effort. It was a largely self-sufficient culture, driven by the need to produce enough food to eat and clothes to wear. Variation in diet or fashion in clothes played very little role. The modern world was making only modest inroads. People didn’t compete to get ahead of others; they cooperated so everyone had enough, everyone got ahead. They looked out for each other. John and Kate Ann affirmed their small corner of the world with determination, passion, and sacrifice. They always thought of themselves in relation to their responsibilities to others. At the top of the list were their children. Their neighbors were not far behind.
They lived their lives by certain fundamental beliefs. They were religious people, and religion provided the framework of who and what they were, and expressed and defined their values. For them it had direct social implications: salvation in the hereafter required the practice of justice and fair play here on earth. The individual’s uncompromising pursuit of heaven served the common good on earth. What is right is good for one and all and the only way to act. Every religious impulse was tempered with a dose of common sense.
They had a simple view of economics. They didn’t measure success in terms of fame or fortune. Like most of their neighbors, no amount of wealth would have made them happier or more fulfilled. Neither their limited economic wealth nor modest education diminished that or made them feel inferior in any way. It never crossed their minds that anyone was better than them, no matter what money, prestige, or position someone had: all were equal. They were low key and self-effacing, and both possessed an enormous capacity for hard work. They worked hard to earn everything they had. Being poor was a fact of life, but not a reason for unhappiness. Most of all they were a team. In their give and take there was a lot of warmth. But neither was a romantic fool.
It is tempting to take a romantic view of rural Ireland then, especially in an area with as much natural beauty as North Longford. But weeding vegetables, picking potatoes, spreading turf, and a thousand other chores were no more fun when the view was one a tourist would pay good money to gaze at. In fact the natural beauty of the valley where they lived usually went unnoticed.
In today’s world there is great fascination with the lives of the powerful, rich or (in)famous. Traditional history books have followed a similar path. Until recently the lives of ordinary people were seldom of interest to historians. John and Kate Ann (and their neighbors) were ordinary people who kept no written record of their lives except unintentionally in the rare family heirlooms they saved. There were no note takers to record their thoughts or deeds.
Ireland has gone through unprecedented changes in the past half century. This book chronicles a decade of rural Irish life before these changes took place. The cultural, social and economic context that shaped John and Kate Ann’s lives is a distant memory today, as foreign to their grandchildren who grew up in Ireland as to their grandchildren who grew up in the United States.
|