Negotiating Female Identity in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Periodicals such as the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine were created in England but were often read in diverse locations within the British Empire and beyond. Indeed, as Elizabeth Tilley notes in this chapter, women in Ireland often had no choice but to read magazines and newspapers produced in the metropole. Consequently, she notes, it is ‘difficult to establish the cultural influence of Irish-produced periodicals, including those aimed at women, before the 1870s’ (69). The emergence of periodicals such as the Emerald; The Irish Ladies’ Journal (1870–1) demonstrated that there was a sufficient local market to support Irish periodicals for women. The journal not only incorporated fashion, recipes, and domestic advice but also information about women’s educational and employment opportunities. Still, it was ‘not until well into the twentieth century that women claimed a larger share of the public sphere and its cultural products’ (83).