‘It was a bit like the passover’: recollections of family mealtimes during twentieth century Irish childhoods

Abstract

The article presents an in-depth qualitative analysis of experiences of childhood mealtimes amongst three cohorts of Irish people in different historical periods during the twentieth century. By analysing family mealtimes during respondents' childhoods, the article sheds light on change and continuity to family practices throughout twentieth century Ireland. The analysis shows that patterns of family eating respond to changes in the economy and employment patterns, technological innovation, as well as to shifting family arrangements and structures. But the popular idea that the family meal is in terminal decline is disputed: tendencies towards fragmentation of family mealtimes often meet counter-tendencies. These accounts are important as they problematize normative assumptions about the pivotal role shared family meals play in supporting family life.

Keywords:

• family meals
• family practices
• childhood
• twentieth century Ireland
• re-use of secondary data

Acknowledgements

I thank Dr Jane Gray for her constructive comments on an earlier version of this paper. I would like to thank the financial support of the Irish Research Council in supporting this research.

Notes

To protect the anonymity of respondents, pseudonyms are used throughout.