Forgetting Frolic: Marriage Traditions in Ireland

by Linda May Ballard 186 pp.

Forgetting Frolic: Marriage Traditions in Ireland. By Linda May Ballard. Belfast: the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University, 1998. Pp. xiv + 186. Index, extensive footnotes, selected bibliography, drawings and photos.

In Ireland, as elsewhere, marriage has been and remains the definitive rite of passage that confers adult status to men and women alike. By tracing change and continuity in Irish marriage customs, Ballard provides a window into larger forces and tensions in Irish society and highlights the negotiations of individual, gender, and cultural identities over time. Ballard is engaged in the experience of the individual in society, and her study both humanizes the historical record and provides historical depth to contemporary testimonies of individuals. Supported by oral, written, and material sources, Ballard's study of marriage in Ireland is a social history from a folklorist's perspective.

Ballard's introduction justifies her scope, methodology, and choice of sources; it also acts as a succinct folklorist's credo and seeks to bridge the disciplines of folklore and history, the social sciences and humanities. The chapters then follow the individual's path toward married life---courtship, wedding preparations, the ceremony itself---and culminate in a discussion of life in the home after marriage. Folklorists may be particularly interested in her chapters on marriage divination and on wedding pranks and disruption.

Ballard's literary and ethnographic sources for each phase of this central rite of passage span the centuries, from early medieval Breton laws to contemporary biker weddings. Where possible she allows people to speak in their own words. Where people cannot speak for themselves, she turns to material sources, especially wedding attire---from traditional Strawboys' costumes, to Victorian suits and gowns, to custom-made white satin Dockers boots. Ballard began research for this book when she became Curator of Textiles at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Belfast, which holds an impressive collection of wedding dresses, so her chapter on "Dressing for the Day" is particularly comprehensive.

Whereas much previous Irish ethnography and social history has explicitly or implicitly focused on Catholic males, Ballard strikes a more equal balance by giving due consideration to the experiences of women and Protestants. She gives attention to women's experiences throughout the study, but she highlights them particularly in her final chapter on married life. By including both Catholic and Protestant wedding traditions, her definition of Irish society becomes more inclusive than some previous discussions. Her attention to Protestant traditions is also partly a result of the location of her fieldwork and academic affiliation in Northern Ireland, but her own fieldwork with northern Catholics and archival sources from the mostly Catholic Republic of Ireland are well represented. Her geographical rather than ethnic or religious scope also allows for some mention of Jewish, Chinese, and Indian wedding customs in Ireland.

Ray Cashman
Indiana University, Bloomington