Love

Abstract

We began this study with Angela Doyle. I chose her because in many ways she revealed how quite an ordinary middle-aged, middle-class woman was shaped by the culture into which she had been socialized, and how she used this culture to develop her social position and live a fulfilling and meaningful life. She, like most of the participants, is suspended by strong webs of meaning spun around, in and between family members, friends, and neighbors. There is nothing particularly odd or special about her life. Her days revolve around caring for her husband, children, and parents and, beyond them, reaching out and attending to the needs of the parents, teachers, and pupils in the local school—she is president of the PTA and a member of the local GAA club for which she used to act as secretary. Like many others, she has her own trials and tribulations—particularly her alcoholic father. But the impression I got was that she is generally happy and content in the cocoon of love and care in which she is enveloped. There were others who were less happy and content, who had suffered great tragedies, losses, and illnesses: Miley Nolan, whose son died of cancer at a very young age; George Flynn, whose daughter almost died in a road accident and then he himself nearly died of an accident on his farm; Rosemary McManus, whose son died in a car accident; and Simon Walsh, whose brother committed suicide by a drug overdose.