The Stained and Bloodied Cloths of Ireland

A Material Culture View of Irish Shame, Oppression, Morality and Repression

By: Professor Catherine Harper

Narrated by: Professor Catherine Harper

Bloomsbury presents The Stained and Bloodied Cloths of Ireland, edited and read by Catherine Harper.

The Stained and Bloodied Cloths of Ireland presents a textiles and material culture view of Irish shame, oppression, morality and repression.

Ireland – North and South – has sustained significant change in the last 100 years, accelerating at the end of the 20th century with the legalization of contraception, divorce, gay marriage, the end of the ‘Troubles’, and freedom to choose abortion and reproductive autonomy. In parallel to this, troubling instances of abuse, repression and cruelty have come to light through a series of scandals. These included the exploitation of unmarried mothers as unpaid labour in laundries, the deaths of women and babies in mishandled miscarriages, the unhealthy entanglement of Church and State, and the intolerance shown to 'visible Irish and immigrant minorities' in the so-called ‘land of a thousand welcomes’.

This collection of specially commissioned essays tells the stories of cloth, clothing, textiles and materials that have been actually or symbolically stained by blood or other bodily fluids in Ireland’s last 100 years. By focusing on the role of these materials in the events and experiences of shame, oppression, morality and repression, the book ‘lances the boil’ of Irish social history, celebrating the movement of the island of Ireland into post-Church, post-conflict, post-nostalgia modernity that, while a painful transition, is a vital part of coming to terms with its past and looking to its future.

©2025 Catherine Harper (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc