Dr Elizabeth Malcolm talks temperance, the effects of colonialism and the negative stereotyping of Irish people.
A recent book 'Ireland Sober, Ireland Free: Drink and Temperance in Nineteenth-century Ireland' by social historian Dr Elizabeth Malcom elicited strong reactions. Some took her work to mean that Irish people do not drink alcohol at all. That was not the case explains Elizabeth Malcolm, who having researched the history of the Temperance Movement in this country felt there was a need to challenge the view that Irish people drink too much,
I felt that needed to be said, to offset the normal stereotype of the heavy-drinking Irish.
Given that Irish drinking trends and patterns do lead to social problems in some cases, it is not surprising that drinking has become synonymous with Irish society. Elizabeth Malcolm says it is not helpful to label a nation in this way as such perceptions,
Tend to accentuate a particular characteristic, exaggerated to the point of caricature.
However a recent article by NUI (National University of Ireland Maynooth) anthropologist Eileen Kane which also looks at the issue of stereotypes and the Irish puts forward the explanation that viewing ourselves in this way goes back to Ireland's history,
In a colonial situation where the conquering power will impose a stereotype on the subdued society.
As regards differences between the Irish and Australians, Elizabeth Malcom feels that whereas Australians look forward to the future with enthusiasm, there is a sense that Ireland's golden age is in the past, which she does not believe to be true, but may be a legacy from colonial times and is,
Part of some sort of stereotype that Irish people have adopted.
This episode of 'Profile’ was broadcast on 2 April 1987. The presenter is Andy O’Mahony.
