Sinead herself experienced this mistreatment by medical professionals . Gleeson was put down time after time by make doctors for her shame. Seen as an overreacting, dramatic teenage girl, she struggled in her fight for relief from pain while being made feel powerless, helpless and shameful by all make doctors. As a grown woman and mother of two still then they needed convincing to relieve her from 24hour pain and had to prove herself worthy of relief, a thing a man would never have to do. Sinead says how pain isn't a negotiation and her body not a question mark and she couldn't be more true. Everybody male or female deserves relief from pain and equality while achieving it. The disrespect of girls and women by medical professionals is shown first handedly by her experiences from a young girl to a mother of two. The unnecessary need for convincing about the severeness of her pain and the unwillingless to intervene wouldn't have been second guessed if she had been a boy. The pain wouldn't have been questioned, she wouldn't have been repeatedly put down for her shame and "overreacting", but because she was a girl, its something she couldn't possibly be avoided.
Its also difficult to ignore the influence of Catholicism on the Irish society in the 1900s. as with Sinead Gleeson, religion was a big part of the lives of most Irish. the church was at the centre of authority and for the most seemed to abuse the power they held. Priests and nuns were responsible for the education of the youth and instilled fear into them. They governed society by forcing their opoinions or right and wrong onto the people of Ireland. an abuse of power within the church has been revealed in recent with victims of child abuse by priests and nuns coming forward, no longer afraid of the churches authority.
One of the main opinions forced upon Irish society was the sin of pre-marital pregnancy. Unfortunately only women paid the price and men got away scott free. Women were seen as unclean, shameful and sinful for getting pregnant but nobody took one second to punish the man or put the blame on him for a "sin" equally his fault. The mother and baby homes and Magdalene Laundries were prime examples of the not only physical but emotional punishment given to women. The shame brought to families for a girl becoming pregnant outside marriage separated girls from their families. Parents sent their daughters to these institutions to hide the embarrassment and punish her for her sins. Mother and baby homes were all over the news recently with the heartbreaking stories of women who's babies were taken from them ruthlessly in these homes along with the emotional scars of going through such an ordeal of shame and disrespect. Never was there a mention of a father sent anywhere as punishment to accept the blame and be humiliated just like the woman. The inequality in the hands of the church was appalling and its secrets are still being exposed by victims today.
Our bodies are seen as holy and sacred but are not entirely our own. From the early days of Christianity we learned that women were evolved from the ribs of Adam. From his ribs our childbearing hips and sturdy pelvis required for birth were created to please the church with generations to follow. The female body was seen as sacred for that reason solely. Their purpose is seen to be childbirth but childbirth is seen to be unclean and shameful in the churches opinion. The churches views were generally the countries views. Shame implied by the church was shame implied by all the neighbours not just on the girl but on the whole family. The disrespect and inequality shown to these young women is unacceptable these days but back then because of the church it was seen as the right thing to do, to punish them for the impurity of childbirth, something only possible with equal involvement of a man. Therfore equal responsibility should have been taken.
The need was felt for womens bodies to be cleansed of sins after a pregnancy even within a marriage. seen as holy and sacred for its ability to bear children , the church still viewed the woman as impure and sinful once shed given birth. She had to be "churched" to be reaccepted into the religious community. The appointment of blame and guilt on the female wasn't second guessed and sole responsibility of the pregnancy was put on her. She held the physical evidence and because of this the father got away unknown. Her "sins" had to be cleansed of but although he was equally at fault he was seen to not have sinned.
Overall "Blue Hills And Chalk Bones" has a lot to say about Irish society. the awfulness of its views of women and the shame and guilt imposed on them for being natural human beings still shocks people to this day. The severeness of the implications of the churches actions who's implications are still visible today. they treated women like animals, covering up the deaths of babies and compulsively lieing and covering up their actions because they knew they were wrong but continued to do them anyway. They buried women and babies without any respect for them of their families. They weren't treated as humans but as sinners and the consequences of sinning. Mother and baby homes such as Bon Secours and Roscrea should never have been allowed happen but because of the abuse of religious power an the belittling views of women in society allowed it to. We are only now seeing the implications of their uncivilised ways of dealing with these "sins".
CB