'Go to the Devil to the River Head to Your Own Bogs': Unsettling Femininity in Early Irish-Newfoundland Fishing Communities

‘Go to the Devil to the River Head to Your Own Bogs’: Unsettling Femininity in Early Irish-Newfoundland Fishing Communities

Thursday, April 24, 7:30-9 p.m.

A-1043; online

Threats, curses, common assaults, and communal actions involving Irish-Newfoundland women provide intriguing insights into gender, ethnicity, and class relations in Newfoundland fishing communities during early settlement. For a variety of motives — self-defense; defense of reputation, property, or family business; employment disputes; enforcement of community standards; and maintenance of ethnic boundaries—these women deployed power in ways that did not fit hegemonic discourses on femininity. Yet these women also saw themselves as individuals with rights that should be protected by the legal system and were also not reluctant to take their adversaries to court. Dr. Willeen Keough will share her extensive research of archival records and oral history to demonstrate that Irish-Newfoundland women maneuvered easily within and between both formal and informal systems of justice to resolve conflicts in their new communities.

This lecture is in-person at A-1043 (with free parking in Lot 15B) and also online through this link: https://bit.ly/4i9Inca

Presented by Newfoundland and Labrador Historical Society

Event Listing 2025-04-24 19:30:00 2025-04-24 21:00:00 America/St_Johns ‘Go to the Devil to the River Head to Your Own Bogs’: Unsettling Femininity in Early Irish-Newfoundland Fishing Communities Threats, curses, common assaults, and communal actions involving Irish-Newfoundland women provide intriguing insights into gender, ethnicity, and class relations in Newfoundland fishing communities during early settlement. For a variety of motives — self-defense; defense of reputation, property, or family business; employment disputes; enforcement of community standards; and maintenance of ethnic boundaries—these women deployed power in ways that did not fit hegemonic discourses on femininity. Yet these women also saw themselves as individuals with rights that should be protected by the legal system and were also not reluctant to take their adversaries to court. Dr. Willeen Keough will share her extensive research of archival records and oral history to demonstrate that Irish-Newfoundland women maneuvered easily within and between both formal and informal systems of justice to resolve conflicts in their new communities. This lecture is in-person at A-1043 (with free parking in Lot 15B) and also online through this link: https://bit.ly/4i9Inca A-1043; online Newfoundland and Labrador Historical Society