Fintan o’Toole lectures on new book

By LIAM KELLY news Writer

o n Friday afternoon, famed Irish writer Fintan o ’Toole spoke at n otre d ame on his new book “We d on’t Know o urselves: A Personal h istory of m odern Ireland.” o ’Toole’s book, part autobiography and part history, details the evolution of Ireland from a conservative to a modern society.

When writing the book, o ’Toole said, he tried to answer why there was not “more violent social conflict in the r epublic of Ireland, in the 1960s, 70s and 80s” despite profound social change. o ’Toole explained that during this time Ireland began its transition from the “backwater of Western e urope” into “one of the most globalized economies in the world.” o ’Toole argued that while in the 1980s the “traditional hierarchies [in Ireland] looked more solid than ever” with referendums to ban abortion and divorce passing overwhelmingly, these hierarchies were actually on the verge of collapsing.

In his book, o ’Toole writes that “‘Ireland,’ as a notion, was almost suffocatingly coherent and fixed: c atholic, nationalist, rural… but Ireland as a lived experience was incoherent and unfixed.” o ’Toole detailed what he called the “six ambiguities” that explain the collapse of an apparently stable ideological structure in Ireland. These instances of “cognitive dissonance,” o ’Toole said, allowed Ireland “to change massively, while not actually understanding that it is changing, and therefore not resisting that change.” o ’Toole described mass migration as the “price that society pays” to retain its conservative culture. o ’Toole then described the ambiguity of “repressive freedom” which Ireland experienced during much of the post-independence period. While the r epublic of Ireland had become entirely independent of b ritain and attained freedom in that sense, it had many institutions and parts of its culture that were in fact very repressive, o ’Toole said. o ne of these repressive institutions was the “ m agdalene Laundries” which forced certain women who were considered to be a “moral danger” to work without a judicial process, o ’Toole said. Ireland also had the highest rates of mental hospital incarceration ever recorded in the world, o ’Toole added. o ’Toole detailed how the dramatic decline of agricultural life was actually caused by the very people who sought to conserve it. o ne way this transition occurred, o ’Toole said, was Ireland joining the e uropean Union in 1973. While the move was opposed more by those in urban areas, it was supported by farmers who wanted access to markets in e urope where they could receive higher prices for beef. This influx of capital into rural Ireland opened up more opportunities for younger Irish people. This was then followed by the expansion of free education to the high school level, o ’Toole explained. o ’Toole described that “the initial beneficiaries of this revolution were actually the old conservative farming class.” o ’Toole then described how the initial reaction to the troubles in n orthern Ireland displayed a contradiction between Irish people’s sense of nationalism and their willingness to fight at that moment. o ’Toole argued that this pacifism, despite the strong nationalism regarding n orthern Ireland, prevented war and further problems for Ireland which would have prevented it from modernizing.

The first of these ambiguities o ’Toole described was the history of mass migration from Ireland.

“What characterizes Ireland is this contradiction between people and place,” o ’Toole said.

“The Irish state after its foundation sustains itself as a conservative place because it exports most of the people who might have trouble, who might be unhappy, who might be kicking against the system, because they can’t get jobs, because they can’t have their aspirations fulfilled,” o ’Toole said.

“There’s a disjunction between Irish people’s sense of themselves as being free and the way that society actually works,” o ’Toole explained.

“We learned how to tolerate completely contradictory narratives of Irish freedom,” o ’Toole said.

The third of o ’Toole’s ambiguities is the decline of agricultural life in Ireland.

“It allowed people of a certain generation to think that they were still living in a very conservative Ireland, even though they were in fact the most enthusiastic participants in these two huge processes of change: joining the e uropean Union and the education revolution,” o ’Toole said.

“This whole idea of dying for Ireland is very, very profoundly imprinted on our sense of ourselves,” o ’Toole explained.

When the troubles began in n orthern Ireland in the 1960s and the I r A became resurgent, these nationalistic ideas surprisingly did not lead to civil war, o ’Toole said.

“The r epublic… just pretends it’s not happening and manages to sustain this for a couple of decades,” he said.

In his fifth ambiguity, o ’Toole described what he calls the “gamble of 1958” in which Ireland tried to modernize while retaining its ideological structures.

“Irish people were able to actually be living lives which were very radically changed, while at the same time deciding that it was more comforting, in the process of change, not to overturn all the structures and all the institutions but rather to hold onto them,” o ’Toole stated.

Although the ideological coherence in Ireland remained largely intact through the period of modernization up until the 1980s, the “gamble of 1958” soon failed after that. o ne example o ’Toole provided was how birth control was allowed in c atholic schools for women only as a means to regulate women’s menstrual cycles and not to prevent pregnancies. o ’Toole characterized these seemingly illogical norms as “transitional states that get you from a culture of obedience and orthodoxy into one of defiance.”

“ b y the time you get into the 21st century and things start to unravel, they unravel very, very fast because maybe underneath the reality was not as monolithic as it seemed,” o ’Toole said.

Finally, o ’Toole discussed the capacity of the Irish people to not confront the things that they think need to change.

“ m ost people learned, because they actually had to, how to navigate their way around apparently unchangeable power structures,” o ’Toole said.

Addressing all six ambiguities, o ’Toole acknowledged that while they may be “ways in which you actually don’t grasp your own reality” and can cause “a lot of hypocrisy to continue,” they allowed Ireland to transition “from a very conservative, inward looking society to one of the most liberal societies in e urope, and certainly one of the most globalized economies in the world without profound social conflict.”

Contact Liam Kelly at lkelly8@nd.edu conditions, he was impressed by what he saw.

“c ampus was really pretty,” he said. “I liked the history of everything.” e ven for those who have been on campus before, an official tour gave the chance to see parts of campus that are harder for normal visitors to access.

“It was really cool to see the inside of the dome,” r yan m c c arthy, a prospective student from Washington d c ., said.

Later that night, students gathered at a student-only event called “ c lass of 2027 c onnect.” The event, held in the d ownes c lub within c orbett Family h all,

West Lake

r edding and the other advisors at T r I o also organize trips to universities to show high school juniors what life as a college student is like.

“We want to give them the opportunity to experience being on campus and living on campus,” she said.

Through an immersion program in Washington d c ., Talent s earch students went on college visits, watched a baseball game and visited the n ational m useum of African American h istory and c ulture.

The first floor of West Lake featured music, games, photo booths, food and other experiences that were reminiscent of d omerFest, an event held during Welcome Weekend for incoming first-years. s unday evening also featured a “University Welcome” event in Purcell Pavilion. s everal speakers addressed the admitted students, including Kidder, assistant vice president for campus ministry Fr. Pete m c c ormick and senior Jack d avis. e ach of them emphasized the community aspect of n otre d ame, as well as how easy it is to feel h all is also home to another n otre d ame T r I o program, Upward b ound. With n otre d ame’s chapter established by Fr. Theodore h esburgh in 1966, Upward b ound serves as one of the oldest college preparatory programs of its kind in the nation.

“It gives admitted students the opportunity to meet and begin forming relationships with fellow members of their class,” Kidder said.

They offer opportunities for high school students in both the academic year and the summer to enrich their learning and gain insight into the college experience.

Upward b ound is similar to Talent s earch but is more rigorous and features a smaller group of students. Whereas Talent s earch helps high school and middle school students, Upward editor-in-chief of The o bserver in 1980. at home on campus. o n m onday, admitted students were given the opportunity to visit common spaces of several residence halls and engage with rectors and hall staff, something members of previous classes were unable to do because of the pandemic.

“c oming to n otre d ame has been this very, very special experience where even though I left where I’m from, I’ve come to this other place that is home,” d avis said.

“ o ur residential communities are such important and distinguishing features of a n otre d ame education,” Kidder said. “To share this with admitted students is an important and distinctly n otre d ame experience.” b ound only extends into the high school curriculum. s tudent Jennifer Leon participated in a summer internship through Upward b ound with the n otre d ame c enter for c ivic Innovation, where she helped develop a Lead r emediation Kit. s he wrote of her experience on the c enter for c ivic Innovation website.

“ s ome students start in Talent s earch then switch into Upward b ound, though it is more selective,” r edding said.

“ s ince I am still in high school, working with the n otre d ame Lead Innovation Team and learning more about lead in this class?”

Information sessions in d e b artolo Performing Arts c enter and m cKenna h all on the topics of financial aid, academic advising, alumni networking and the n otre d ame s cholars Program, as well as an academic and student services resource fair in d ahnke b allroom were also offered m onday. s tudents and their families had the chance to wrap up their time at n otre d ame on m onday evening with a special m ass celebrated in the b asilica. h osting thousands of guests on campus during the academic year while ensuring the academic and residential experiences of current students are not disrupted poses many logistical challenges, Kidder remediation helped me gain a better perspective on public health,” she said. m any participants in T r I o programs are potential first-generation college students who may not be aware of the options they have after high school graduation. r edding summarized the realization many students have after partnering with Talent s earch and Upward b ound, saying, “I don’t have to just get a high school diploma. I can also get a secondary diploma and open up a range of options for myself and my family.”

Through her internship and work with Upward b ound, Leon uncovered the options available to her as said, but n otre d ame admissions considers experiences like these essential for prospective students.

“It is an important and wonderful way to celebrate n otre d ame with new members of our family who will eventually call this campus home,” she said.

While organizing everything is a challenge, Kidder believes that it always pays off in the end.

“We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to welcome new students to our community and appreciate the many partners across campus who help us to do so in a distinctly n otre d ame way,” she said.

Contact Matthew Broder at mbroder@nd.edu

she discerned her career path.

“Ultimately, public health became a potential area of study I could see myself wanting to explore further in the future,” she said.

b ecause of students like Leon, r edding said her favorite part of her work as an advisor is opening up new perspectives for students.

“It may start with just one generation, then you get several people behind you that may want to pursue a college education. It really is a wonderful thing.”

Contact Katie Dobelhoff at kdobelho@nd.edu

not graduate,” b liley said. “In April of 1972, my senior year, d ean r aymond called me in and said, ‘ m ary, you are going to graduate from the University of n otre d ame, you are going to be the first female undergraduate and you will be the only female in the class’ … m y claim to fame is that Father h esburgh gave me my diploma and kissed me.” c ummings went on to describe a misconception — that 1972 somehow pinpoints a date of immediate equality. The culture at n otre d ame didn’t change quickly or easily, she said. s he proceeded to quote r osemary m ills, the

“There [were] the early years in which the ratio of men to women on campus was 17 to 1,” c ummings said.

In addition to female minority in the student population, c ummings said there were also very few female professors.

“ n otre d ame has admitted women as students for eight years, but it has yet to accept them,” m ills wrote. “And the difference between admittance and acceptance is the difference between the success and failure of co-education.”

Katie c onboy, who currently serves as the 14th President of s aint m ary’s c ollege, recalled witnessing these early years of women on campus. As a doctorate student, c onboy taught an introductory e nglish writing course. In teaching this course, she had one student encounter in the fall of 1984 impacted her for a lifetime, she said.

“I walked into my class on the first day of class, and there were 25 white men and one black woman,” c onboy said. “And I just had to stop for a second and say to myself, what is this experience going to be like for her? h ow can I ensure that her voice is heard, that she has a place

In June 2020, c onboy’s office received a call from that student.

“It turned out that [the student] had just been on a panel that was promoting a book called b lack d omers,” c onboy said. “ s he had written one of the c hapters, and in it she’d written about the class and her experience … n ot only was she the only woman and the only person of color in that class, but she never had another woman professor.”

R Ecent Advancements In Gender Equity

Although the integration of women at n otre d ame has been a long process, the panelists express pride for how far the University has come.

c arolyn Woo, former dean of the m endoza c ollege of b usiness, believes the best way to empower women is to serve as an example.

“In those days, business schools were not run by women. In fact, there were more women presidents of universities than women deans,” Woo said. “If people ask me what is the most impactful thing that I have done here, it was simply to succeed … there is this real thing called a glass ceiling, that if one person breaks it, it all of sudden really does open up for other women.”

Woo also said that, when it comes down to it, “the whole empowerment of women is really just being able to recognize their potential … basically to say, ‘yes, women can.’”

Goals for celebrating a century of co-education c onsidering the next 50 years, the panelists agreed the University is headed in the right direction. What’s next, Woo said, is to include more females in senior leadership and to “start helping women see how they can use their success.”

Indi Jackson, a 2017 n otre d ame graduate, former student-athlete and current regional director at n otre d ame echoed this message through her own experiences.

“ o nce you get in a position of power, oftentimes, especially if you’re a double minority, you have to bust down that door, and you have to drag your chair to the table,” Jackson said. “ b ut when you are in that position, when you talk about empowerment, it’s about inviting others to the same table. I know as long as women continue to do that, as long as our allies continue to do that, there’s a future that we can’t even imagine.”

Jackson explained that each individual woman’s success is a success for all women.

“I commend all of you for being here, listening to these wonderful women’s stories,” Jackson said. “Take them in, share them and know that for all of us to succeed, you have to make room for everyone at your table.”