Mother Stories: The Woman Myth in By the Bog of Cats and Tea in a China Cup

Abstract

The American poet Anne Stevenson argues that Irish narrative tradition is full of ‘vivid figures of the past’ which should excite the imagination of Irish writers (Ni Dhomhnaill, 18). The ‘vivid figures’ to which she refers may be those like the mother goddess Ernmas of early Irish tradition. Ernmas and her female descendants were celebrated for their strength and skill in battle (MacKillop, 335). Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill suggests these figures may seem ‘wonderfully powerful and enabling’ but dismisses them as ‘fictions of the imaginations of men’ (Ni Dhomhnaill, 21), as products of the patriarchal order. Similarly, Ireland’s contemporary images of woman are products of colonization. When a nation is conquered and colonized, it is represented by its conquerors as female. Hence Ireland’s aliases ‘Mother Ireland or Erin’ which, combined with Ireland’s religious identity, are also tied to ‘the Mother of God … [and] Mother Church’ (Steel, 106). Irish women are thus linked to the nation and its identity through their common gender, and this connection is reinforced in the nation’s literature and through its religious iconography. The plays of Marina Carr and Christina Reid imply that ancient narratives, as well as those of Christianity and colonization, have deprived the Irishwoman of any empowering foremother figures.