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Social World of Midlands Ireland: Resarch Synopsis
Social World of Midlands Ireland: Resarch Synopsis
My research paper focused on the social world and the social concerns of the Irish people in BBOC. After re-reading this play and doing research, I was able to identify what I felt were the main social concerns of the characters in the play. These were: land ownership, livestock ownership, community structure, the role of outsiders to the farm community, the role of women, marriage, family, religion, folklore and superstition. While some of these areas will no doubt be covered in more depth in other presentations, it was still important to this paper to include them. While doing my research, the theme that I repeatedly discovered was that critics felt that the social concerns of the characters had to be understood within the context of what was occurring in Ireland at the time that the play was written. There seems to be agreement amongst these critics that this play was set in the late 1990s (which verifies Carrs direction of the setting as The Present). This is the period in Irish history known as the Celtic Tiger Era. The Celtic Tiger is a term that refers to a period of incredible economic growth in Ireland during the 1980s and 90s. This time period saw Ireland evolve from its poor agrarian past to a first-tier world economic power. During this period, Ireland had the highest growth of per capita income of any nation in the European Union. Eric-Michael MacCionnaith writes in his dissertation: As Ireland addresses its Celtic Tiger transformation, theatre is a key player, as a catalyst as well as reflection of this change (MacCionnaith, 8).