Strong Irish families better models

I LIVED in Ireland for five years recently and was struck by how patriarchal Irish society is.

It seemed to me, after spending all my life in England, to be heavily dominated by men in all towns and cities. I visited many, who made it their business to control communities on many levels and appeared to me to be much bigger busy bodies and gossips than their female counterparts as they stood around on street corners gossiping and watching others.

From running town councils and standing for local government positions, or running business association meetings and family sports and religious events, these men ran everything with the zealousness of tyrants, or that’s how it appeared to me. I always found it suffocating and very sexist as the women always appeared, on the whole, to be minding children and worrying about their hair, or holding down menial jobs in shops whilst juggling motherhood, and this was always the subject of their garrulous chit-chat at the tills.

However, in the wake of the recent riots in this country and in the city I now live in, Manchester, I am beginning to see Ireland in a different light.

Whilst I am still not a fan of overly patriarchal societies and feel slightly freer as a woman in this country, I can see the huge influence that a society with good male role models and strong family structures has on young males. In Ireland the family is still a very dominant unit and the male is the dominant force within that unit.

This seems to have an effect on young Irish men who are, on the whole, much better behaved, better educated and have better moral compasses than many of the young men here, I’m very sad to say.

During my years in Ireland I never felt afraid of young Irish people who seem to be benefiting from strong family and community values and this, I can see now, does seem to have a lot to do with the men who are good fathers, and good community role models. I can’t for one second imagine the young Irish rioting like the young have done here.

Jacqueline Cotter

Fallowfield

Manchester

England