Muscular Catholicism: Nationalism,Masculinity and Gaelic Team Sports, 1884–1916

This article examines the highly gendered nature of the games of hurling and Gaelic football as propagated by the Gaelic Athletic Association from 1884 to 1916 and the relationship of these games to conceptions of nationalism, the body, anti-colonialism, and memories of the Great Famine. Through the discourses surrounding these games, and other facets of the Irish renaissance, a nationalist conception of Irish masculinity emerged which distinguished Irish men from English men, Irish boys and Irish women. In this moment of self-definition, nationalist goals were sought not in parliament or on the battlefield but on the playing fields.     

T.H. Green, advanced liberalism and the reform question 1865–1876

This paper examines Thomas Hill Green's changing attitude to the Reform Question between 1865 and 1876. Section 1 sketches the Radical landscape against which Green advocated reform between 1866 and 1867, paying particular attention to the respective positions of Gladstone, J.S. Mill and Bright on the relationship between responsible citizenship and class membership. Section 2 examines Green's theories of social balance and responsible citizenship at the time of his lectures on the English Civil War. Section 3 argues that, contrary to the established scholarship, Green's Radicalism was closer to Bright than to Gladstone and Mill during this period. Section 4 counters Richter's claim that Green abandoned democracy following the 1874 General Election, while arguing that even sympathetic commentators misunderstand Green's attitude to the Reform Question immediately after this date.