Women and Property in Twentieth-Century Ireland

Abstract

I now turn to look at women’s relationship to property in Ireland throughout the twentieth century. Undertaking this analysis serves to illustrate the embeddedness of the institution of patrilineal land transfer. It is important to grasp how deep-rooted this tradition and social custom is, as it fundamentally shapes women’s role in farming. My case study in this chapter is Ireland. It would be impossible to review all Irish ethnographies, and I have selected some of the better known and most cited studies. However, the issues raised are easily generalised. For example, de Haan (1994) raises similar questions using the Netherlands as a case study, Salamon (1992) does so for ethnic communities in the States, and Goody et al. (1976) do so for western Europe generally.