This document summarizes and analyzes Brian Friel's play "Dancing at Lughnasa". It discusses the play's depiction of an Irish family in the 1930s and how their lives were impacted by Article 41 of the Irish Constitution of 1937 which promoted traditional gender roles. The play contrasts the family's past happiness and independence before these laws with their struggles afterwards, when two sisters were forced to emigrate and the others took on roles they disliked. The analysis concludes the play was making a statement about negative changes to Irish society and family structures brought about by the conservative constitution.

1. Where the Heart is:The Irish Constitution’sFailure of Defining Family in Brian Friel’sDancing at LughnasaCarla Sue SchmidtLoras CollegeDubuque, IA

2. The Mundy FamilyKate – a schoolteacherAgnes - knitterMaggie – homemakerRose – knitterChris – homemaker, the youngest sisterUncle Jack – missionary priestMichael – Chris’s young sonGerry Evans – Michael’s fatherEconomic and social troublesDancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel

3. 1937, one year after the play’s settingArticle 41 – The Family1.1 Fundamental unit of society with rights1.2 Protecting the family2.1 Importance of woman’s life “in the home”2.2 Protecting women from work outside home3.1 Protecting marriage3.2 Divorce forbidden3.3 No divorce from outside Ireland recognizedIrish Constitution

4. Constitutional referendumsDivorce1986 - failed1996 – amendment passedOther debates:Contraception1992AbortionPro-Life Amendment 1983Only permitted if the life of the mother is at riskDancing at Lughnasa 1990

5. Spontaneous dancingThe sisters “suddenly catching hands and dancing a spontaneous step-dance and laughing”Contrast with Uncle JackOld, sick, confused“shrunken and jaundiced” The Mundys: a happy family

7. Self-sufficient family of womenKate, Rose, and Agnes make moneyChris and Maggie keep houseMichael and Jack are subordinate, dependentKate as matriarchGentle authorityThe Mundys and patriarchy

8. Harvest DanceLughnasa, a pagan godInappropriate for the sisters to attendEmphasis on how they used to love itIdealized past - parallelPagan danceTime before the Constitution’s restrictionsCatholic vs. Pagan

9. Rose and Danny BradleyRelationship impossibleKate’s jobDoesn’t live up to social standardsKate and searching for RoseWon’t contact authorities for fear of the shameCatholic: destructive

10. Agnes and RoseForced to run away, die in povertyChrisForced to work at the factory, hates itKate, the rest of the familyUncle Jack dies, and Kate is inconsolable“Much of the spirit and fun had gone out of their lives”Catholic: destructive

11. Idealization of the past1937 Constitution, play written 1990Pagan & Catholic: past & presentPast was happy, productivePresent is dead, destructiveStatement on the changes taking place in the Republic of Ireland at the time the play was writtenConclusion