Social Change in the 20th Century

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE 20THC

LEISURE AND ENTERTAINMENT

 

EARLY DECADES - LEISURE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE

• Much entertainment was home-based - conversation, story telling, music and card playing were popular forms of entertainment.
• Gaelic games of football and hurling were popular on Sundays in country areas.
• For the rich former landlord class, there was hunting, partying and visiting other houses.

LEISURE IN TOWNS

• Homes were still used for entertainment. Middle-class people held musical evenings.
• Mass entertainment was beginning to develop.
1. Gaelic games were held in the smaller towns.
2. Soccer was more popular in the working class areas of cities like Belfast, Dublin and Cork.
3. Day trips to the seaside became common as prosperity increased.
4. Theatres and music halls held plays, concerts, operas and variety shows.
5. The cinema was just developing and black and white films grew in popularity.
6. Radio broadcasting began in 1926 and families in country areas depended on battery radios because electricity was still limited.

 

RECENT TIMES - LEISURE INDUSTRY

The demand for leisure has increased because of the shorter working week, longer holidays and more money.

• Dance halls became common in the 1960s with rock 'n' roll, country and western music.
• Dance halls went into decline in the 1970s and 1980s with the popularity of discos.
• Cinema continued to be popular up to the 1960s when television led to its decline. On New Year's Eve 1961, RTE began broadcasting and controversial topics were discussed on The Late, Late Show.
• The coming of multi-channel and digital television and the use of videos and DVDs have increased the popularity of TV.
• Cinemas in recent times have revived and there has been the development of comfortable cineplexes.  In recent years, films like My Left Foot, In the Name of the Father and Michael Collins have been big box office successes. Irish actors such as Liam Neeson and Pierse Brosnan have been very successful. Irish stars like Ray MacAnally, Brenda  Fricker and Liam Neeson have won either Oscar nominations or awards since the 1980s
• Sport has changed with a greater variety of sports being played like soccer, rugby, horse racing, athletics and the emphasis on health and fitness. Golf, cycling and fishing have become popular. Ireland has enjoyed international success in rugby and football.
• A youth market for leisure and entertainment has developed with large-scale pop concerts at the Point Depot and Slane.
• Many Irish musicians have become worldwide stars including Thin Lizzy, The Boomtown Rats, U2, The Cranberries, Boyzone, Westlife. Folksingers such as The Chieftains and Mary Black have been successful.

 

THE ARTS

In literature there have been many successes.

·         In the first half of the 20thc. W.B. Yeats (poetry) and George Bernard Shaw, J.M. Synge and Sean O’Casey (drama) and the novelist James Joyce were the giants in literature.

·         Playwrights like Brendan Behan, Brian Friel and Hugh Leonard have seen their work be successful both at home and abroad.

·         Samuel Beckett is on of the four Irish winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Seamus Heaney also won a Nobel Prize for his poetry.

·         Many best-selling novelists such as Maeve Binchy and Edna O’Brien are from Ireland.

SOCIAL CHANGE IN 20THC IRELAND

COMMUNICATIONS

 

THE BEGINNING OF THE CENTURY

• Communication was limited and slow in the early decades of the 20thc.
• Letters were used to send news to family and friends at home and abroad.
• The telegraph  was used for urgent messages
• Telephones  were little used because of their expense.
• Newspapers were the only form of mass media. They were read widely and they were the main source of news. Ireland had both serious and popular papers like the Irish Times, the Irish Independent and the Cork Examiner.
• There were also provincial papers like the Kilkenny People.

 

MODERN COMMUNICATIONS

• Letters remain important, but so are telephone, fax, e-mail and the internet.
• The mass media has expanded as newspapers and magazines have been joined by radio and T.V.
• Ireland's first radio station, 2RN opened in 1926.
• RTE television made its first broadcast in 1961
• The number of channels has increased enormously due to cable, satellite and digital television.
• TV has had an enormous impact by allowing a wider range of attitudes and values to be expressed. The Late, Late Show, beginning in 1962 is credited with opening up many topics for discussion. People are more aware of national and international news and Ireland has become part of a 'global village'.
• Irish newspapers remained similar in layout and content for decades but there have been changes recently as more British newspapers are bought - both tabloids and broadsheets - partly because they are cheaper.

SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE 20THC

THE STATUS OF WOMEN

 

EARLY DECADES

WOMEN AS SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS

In the early decades of the 20thc women

• Could not vote in general elections.
• Education was limited.
• They were expected to marry and have children.
• They were largely dependent on their husbands who were the breadwinners.

Middle-class women did not go out to work but supervised their children, who did the housework and minded the children. Poorer women had to work outside the home as domestics, street traders and in the Belfast mills for lower wages than men. In rural areas they were expected to help on the farm as well as the housework. Single women often became domestic servants. Many emigrated, especially to America, attracted by better wages and city life.

 

CHANGES IN THE STATUS OF WOMEN

Were happening in the first half of the century.

• More girls were going to school, although the number of women in colleges and universities was small. Trinity College, Dublin admitted women in 1904.
• Some people like Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington who founded the Irish Women's Franchise League in 1908 campaigned for the vote. They used the same violent tactics as the British suffragettes.
• In the First World War women played a role and they got the vote in 1918 partly because of this.
• Cumann na mBan was founded in 1914 to help assist the independence movement. Countess Markievicz was an active member of this group and she played a role in the Easter Rising of 1916, the first woman to be elected to parliament in Westminster but she refused to take her seat.

 

WOMEN IN THE FREE STATE

·         Women over the age of 21 got the vote in 1922.

·         Women's role was still limited. Many continued to be domestic servants and be employed in low-paid jobs. They got less pay than men and they were mostly in unskilled or low-paid jobs.

• Ireland was still a very traditional society.
• Most thought that 'a woman's place was in the home'.
• Divorce and contraception were banned and women could not sit on juries.
• A 'marriage ban' was brought in which meant that women had to give up certain jobs like teaching and the civil service when they got married.
• The Irish Constitution of 1937 supported the traditional attitude by recognising women's special role 'within the home'.

 

RECENT TIMES

• Girls have had wider access to education and the growing economy has meant that there are more job opportunities.
• The Women’s Movement demanded changes. The Commission for the Status of Women issued a report in 1972. This encouraged the government and other organisations to eliminate all aspects of inequality. The 'marriage ban' was lifted as  a result of this report.
• The Employment Equality Act of 1977 outlawed discrimination on the basis of sex or marital status.
• Women have become involved in politics. Maire Geoghegan-Quinn became Minister for Justice, Gemma Hussey was Minister for Education, Mary Harney the first woman leader of a political party and first woman Tanaiste. Mary Robinson became the first woman President and was succeeded by Mary McAleese.
• There have been successful sportswomen like Sonia O'Sullivan and Catriona Mc Kiernan.
• More women work outside the home, and married women retain their jobs and cope with the demands of home and careers and have used contraception to limit the size of their families.

 

PROBLEMS REMAIN

• Some traditionally male clubs and institutions were slow to accept women
• The pressures of modern life have led to break-up of marriage.
• The proportion of senior women executives is smaller than their proportion in the workforce.

SOCIAL CHANGE IN 20THC IRELAND

RURAL AND URBAN WORK

 

RURAL WORK - EARLY DECADES

In 1901, about 40% of the people worked on the land. Most farms depended on cattle rearing and dairying. There was little machinery and manual hand labour was common. Farmers tended to be old and conservative so change happened very slowly. From the 1920s tractors replaced horses. Rural electrification brought many changes including:

• Lighting in farm buildings.
• Electric power for machinery.
• Running water for milking and cleaning.

Membership of the EEC from 1973 onwards meant that farmers got better prices and grants for improvements. Better technology was introduced including milking machines, combine harvesters silage cutters, slurry spreaders; all this meant less need for labour. Modern farming is commercial and there are problems:

• Competition from countries like New Zealand.
• The BSE scare.
• The reduction in help from the EEC.

 

URBAN WORK - WORKING LIFE IN THE EARLY 20THC

• Belfast was the only industrialised city. Dublin was the centre of commerce and trade.
• There were many unskilled workers and much of the work was casual with workers being employed on a daily basis. Efforts by Jim Larkin to unionise the workers led to the Dublin Strike and Lockout of 1913
• Many women worked in domestic service and for low wages.
• Middle class jobs included clerical workers and small traders; the better-off classes were dominated by businessmen and professionals.

 

CHANGING PATTERNS OF WORK

• Manufacturing industry has remained small scale. Factories are on the edges of towns and cities and are automated.
• Service industries - transport, banks, law and insurance have grown in importance.
• There is a greater variety of employment - jobs connected to the chemical and electronics industries.
• For many years unemployment was high in many areas especially in Dublin, Cork and Limerick and Waterford. It was only in the late 1990s with 'the Celtic Tiger' that economic conditions improved and unemployment was reduced.

TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS

 

TRANSPORT - EARLY DECADES

• Horse and cart used in country areas.
• Horse and carriage in the towns.
• Bicycle invented by Dunlop was beginning  to come into use.
• Long distance transport of goods and people was usually by train.
• In cities like Dublin, Cork and Belfast electric trams carried people around
• Travel and transport out of Ireland was by ships:
1. Ferries from Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire).
2. Merchant ships from ports around Ireland.
3. Liners for trans-Atlantic journeys from Queenstown (Cobh).

 

The Influence of transport

·         Cities spread out along tram and railway lines and people commuted to work.

·         Day trips to the seaside became common.

·         Trains made travel to GAA matches easier.

 

MODERN TRANSPORT - DEVELOPMENTS

• Cars and lorries from the 1920s cars and lorries came to dominate transport. Some railway lines and tramlines began to close.
• In modern times traffic jams have lengthened the journey to work and people are encouraged to use public transport in cities like Dublin - the buses or the DART.
• More bypasses/ring roads have been built and the LUAS will improve the situation.
• Air Travel developed slowly in Ireland. Aer Lingus began its first flights in 1936.
• After 1945 Shannon Airport was developed as the main airport serving America.
• Dublin Airport was developed for British and European air travel.
• Air travel was expensive until recently, but now the cost has been reduced and new companies like Ryanair have reduced costs.
• Ferries have also been improved. They are faster and more comfortable and new routes to Britain and the Continent have developed.

 

IRELAND IN THE 20THC: SOCIAL CHANGE

 

RURAL AND URBAN LIFE

 

RURAL LIFE - EARLY DECADES

70% of Irish people lived in the countryside or in small villages.

• The landlords had sold off their land but lived in big houses; they had pastimes like hunting and shooting and they acted as judges in courts.
• Prosperous farmers had over 50 acres and lived in two-storey farmhouses with three or four bedrooms.
• Smaller farmers were more numerous and lived in single storey houses with thick white-washed walls, with three to five rooms, an outside lavatory.
• Farm labourers lived in small thatched cottages, in poor repair, many of those who emigrated before 1914 were single agricultural labourers who hoped for a better life in the USA.

 

In the countryside there was much poverty and living conditions were difficult. There was no electricity in the houses and water came from a well or nearby pump. The kitchen was the most important room. Social life depended on conversations, gatherings in houses at night, stories, songs and dances. People could meet at mass, the pub and the GAA meetings.

 

RECENT TIMES

After the 1950s there was some improvement in living conditions but emigration was still high and rural depopulation (decline in population) was still a problem

·         Rural electrification in the 1950s was a major change, electric cookers replaced an open fire; the washing machine replaced hand washing; electric pumps brought water into the house so that inside lavatories could be built.

·         Greater prosperity came to Ireland with membership of the EEC in 1973- bungalows were increasingly built away from the farm with central heating.

·         Social life changed with greater emphasis on the TV and the car gave greater mobility, shops in the local town replaced the market but sporting and parish organisations brought people together.

 

URBAN LIFE - EARLY DECADES

About 30% of Irish people lived in large towns and cities but only Belfast had heavy industry. Living conditions for the poor were often difficult, but the middle and upper classes lived in comfortable conditions.

• Suburbs developed with the use of trains, trams and horses and carriages and the middle and upper classes lived in the suburbs and the city centre was used for business and working class housing.
• Bad living conditions - the working classes lived in terraced or tenement houses; most of these families were over-crowded in single-room flats with outside lavatories and they got water from a pump in a street.

• Serious health problems were caused by poverty, damp buildings, lack of running water and bad sewerage. Many died from killer diseases like TB.
• The middle and upper classes lived in the suburbs in detached or semi-detached houses with electric lighting, town gas and water on tap.

 

RECENT TIMES - BETTER LIVING CONDITIONS

During recent times people living in Irish cities enjoyed improved living conditions - except perhaps for the very poor.

• Electricity, prosperity and better building regulations have improved living conditions.
• Better houses, sanitation and improvements in medicine lessened the spread of disease.
• Working class houses improved as corporations and councils built housing in places like Crumlin and families were re-housed. Some were less successful like the high-rise Ballymun flats built in the 1960s
• Living in suburbs developed further as cars and buses made travel easier and schools, public amenities and shopping centres developed there.
• Inner city decay led to urban renewal schemes.
• Social pressures have developed such as rising rates of crime, use of drugs and drink and loneliness.