An Immram into Irish Gender and Inheritance
A somatic and educational inquiry for Irish women and men
- in Ireland and across the diaspora -
into how history shaped the roles we inherited, and what becomes possible when we finally examine them together.
Early Bird Registration is now closed. Please contact us if you need a supported price
The Invitation
This course is an invitation to Irish women and men, in Ireland and across the diaspora. Many of us recognise something like this.
Women expected to hold families, emotion, and responsibility together. Men taught early to carry pressure silently.
Relationships shaped by roles that were rarely spoken about, but clearly understood.
For centuries, being Irish meant learning, often very precisely, what you were and were not permitted to be.
Centuries of occupation, famine, cultural suppression, and moral surveillance did not remain only in history books. The impact of so much threat took shape in institutions, legislation, the Church, our schools and daily life. What remained unprocessed in the collective stayed on in families, relationships and bodies.
When Irish culture needed to “tighten” under that kind of pressure, gender absorbed it. What a man was allowed to feel. What a woman was permitted to want. Who held authority and who deferred to it. What was spoken, and what was kept behind closed doors for generations.
What became normal was not accidental. This was the shape that survival took. And when generations of Irish people left, across every continent, we carried that shape with us and passed it on.
This course is an invitation to Irish women and men, in Ireland and across the diaspora, to examine that inheritance through our own lives with clarity and compassion. To understand what was formed, and what may now be possible.
Registration closes 17th of April
*Immram - an Irish word for a voyage into the unknown. A journey undertaken not for conquest, but for discovery. The traveller departs from what is familiar, moves through danger and revelation, and returns home, changed.
Guiding Question: Are we able to be who we truly are - beyond the Irish gender roles we inherited?
Thank you to all that joined the intro session if you need a supported price please contact us here.
The Core Frame
How Gender Formed Under Pressure
Inherited Irish gender roles were not simply natural or fixed.
They formed as adaptive responses to a culture living under sustained threat.
When cultures come under sustained pressure, they tighten.
They develop ways to hold themselves together. In Ireland, gender became one of the primary mechanisms:
• Men were shaped toward endurance, authority, and silence
• Women toward containment, sacrifice, and moral guardianship
• Those who did not fit the roles became threats to the system
• Shame worked differently on men and women, but kept everyone in place
These were survival strategies. Understanding them as such is what makes change possible.
What This Conversation Makes Possible
A deeper understanding of how Irish history lives in the body and in relationships
Clearer awareness of the inherited patterns that quietly shape identity, behaviour and belonging
Greater steadiness when navigating cultural and relational change
More compassion across difference, without losing discernment
The capacity to lead, love and relate without unconsciously repeating what was handed down
This is not about dismantling who you are. It is about meeting what formed you consciously, and with compassion, and choosing what to carry forward.
Early Bird Registration is now closed
*Supported places: €275
If finances are currently a barrier, you’re welcome to email me and request a supported place.
Registration closes 17th of April
Why This Matters Now
Ireland is changing, and so is the Irish diaspora.
With that change, new conversations are becoming possible about gender, authority, and belonging.
But cultural shifts do not automatically create personal change. Laws may change and silences may break, yet older patterns often remain, the withdrawal, the vigilance, the over-responsibility, the ways we go quiet or hold ourselves carefully in certain rooms.
Often what feels personal is not only personal.
It can be an echo of an undigested history still living in the nervous system.
Belinda Vigors' book Threatening Women beautifully articulates how Irish gender roles did not simply loosen over time, they often tighten again under pressure. In moments of collective stress, societies tend to fall back on more rigid expectations of what men and women are supposed to be.
In many ways, we are living through one of those moments now.
This is why looking at the roots matters. Not only for individuals, but for what becomes possible between us, in families, in communities, and in how Irish people relate to themselves and the world.
What has not been integrated does not disappear - it repeats
Understanding history intellectually is not enough. Real change asks us to explore how that history lives within us, in the body, in our patterns of relating, and in what we reach for under pressure.
When we begin to meet that inheritance with clarity and compassion, something new can start to emerge, for ourselves, and for those who come after us.
The Shape of the Inquiry
This inquiry unfolds across six live sessions, bringing together Irish women and men from Ireland and across the diaspora.
Each session weaves together:
• historical and cultural reflection
• somatic awareness and embodied inquiry
• shared dialogue in a relational group space
Together we explore how inherited gender roles were formed, how they continue to shape our lives today, and what becomes possible when we examine them with clarity and care.
The space is not about debate or ideology. It is about slowing down enough to see what has been shaping us - and what might begin to shift when we meet it together.
What We Will Explore
Each session weaves together teaching, reflection, and relational dialogue.
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Session 1 - What is Irish culture?
How does threat shape it?
Across generations of colonisation, famine and moral anxiety, Irish society learned to prioritise cohesion and stability, under threat.We introduce the concept of cultural tightness - how Ireland's history forged strict social norms, and how those norms live on in us: in what we police in others, monitor in ourselves, and fear others will see.
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Session 2 - Authority & Intimacy
The Public–Private Divide
How the Nation Entered the Family
When the nation decided that public life belonged to men and domestic life to women, it didn't just organise society, it reorganised families.
We explore how that division was enforced, who it excluded, and how it still shapes the roles we inhabit today.
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Session 3 - Ancestry
Family Patterns & Inheritance
In this session we move from cultural history into family lineage.
Across Ireland and the diaspora, gender roles were not only shaped by religion, politics and social expectations. They were transmitted through families adapting to migration, economic pressure and survival.
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Session 4 - Women Under Pressure
Respectability, Shame & the Moral Body
When morality became a matter of national survival, women's bodies became the primary site of control. We explore how respectability was constructed, enforced and internalised, through Church, State and family, and how that legacy lives on in patterns of hyper-responsibility, self-surveillance and shame.
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Session 5 - Men Under Pressure
Silence, Burden & Belonging
What happens to men when feeling becomes weakness and providing becomes the only measure of worth?
We explore how Irish men were shaped by colonial threat, institutional discipline and rigid expectation, and how withdrawal, absence and emotional silence became the adaptive and most available responses.
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Session 6 - What Do We Carry Forward?
Gender, Belonging & Cultural Change
Ireland has changed significantly in recent decades, but the ghost of “tightness” remains. In our final session we explore what genuine cultural transformation requires, and what it asks of each of us. We close with integration: what do we keep, what do we release, and what do we consciously pass on?
Meet the Teachers
Simon Courtney
FacilitatorSimon Courtney is a trauma-informed psychotherapist and group facilitator whose work is dedicated to exploring how historical and cultural inheritances continue to shape identity, relationships, and belonging.
Originally from Ireland, Simon has long been moved by the ways Irish history, colonisation, famine, religious authority, and migration, has shaped not only the nation, but the emotional and relational patterns carried across generations and throughout the diaspora.
His work brings together somatic awareness and relational group practice to create spaces where people can reflect together on these inheritances with honesty, steadiness, and care.
Simon is particularly passionate about supporting conversations that allow Irish people, both at home and abroad, to meet these histories more consciously, not to assign blame, but to understand what shaped us and what may become possible when we begin to look at it together.
Belinda Vigors is the author of Threatening Women: A Cultural History of Why Ireland Shamed and Contained Women and the founder of The Women of Ireland Project, an oral and cultural history research initiative exploring the forces that have shaped the lives of women of Ireland.
Her work looks at how Ireland’s past continues to shape our present, especially when it comes to gender roles, social norms and expectations, and the generational patterns many of us carry today. At the heart of her work is a desire to get to the roots of these inherited patterns and to offer practical frameworks and insights that help people better understand the Irish cultural legacies they are carrying and their continued influence in their lives.
Facilitator
Belinda Vigors PhD
Nicola (Nicky) Tannion PhD
Co-facilitator & Group SupportNicola (Nicky) Tannion PhD is a bean feasa, guide, and writer, who works both in the earthly realm and the “unseen” or dismissed parts of human existence: from energy work to dreams, symbols, and patterns to the ancestral and angelic realms. She is sought after as an intuitive, medium, and spiritual guide for her accurate insight, grounded approach, use of ritual, and grief/somatic/trauma supportive practices.
Nicky has over 30 years experience teaching and has lived and worked in Australia, England, the Netherlands, and the USA. Her PhD dissertation was focused on Irish identity, history, ancestral influence and connection.
Nallely Courtney
Group SupportNallely is a somatic practitioner and relational guide working at the intersection of body awareness, ancestral inheritance, and relational healing.
Born in Mexico and raised in Germany, her life between cultures shaped a deep sensitivity to how history, belonging, and lineage live within the body and in our relationships. Her own ancestry carries stories shaped by both colonization and the forces of empire, informing her interest in how historical dynamics continue to shape identity and collective memory today.
With a background in hospice nursing and ongoing training in somatic trauma work, Nallely supports individuals and groups through processes of grief, integration, and transformation.
Within this program she offers one-to-one somatic support for participants who encounter intense emotional processes, helping them stay grounded and resourced as deeper layers of experience unfold.
Who This Is For
This inquiry is open to people of Irish descent — in Ireland and across the diaspora — who feel curious to explore how inherited gender roles continue to shape our lives. Whether you relate to your Irishness with pride, curiosity, ambivalence, or a sense of distance, what matters most is a willingness to turn toward it honestly.
It may be particularly relevant for:
• Irish women and men navigating questions of identity, voice, and belonging
• Members of the diaspora exploring what was carried across generations and oceans
• Those whose work is rooted in relationship, therapists, coaches, educators, carers, leaders, artists, clergy, and others in community life
• Anyone curious about how Irish history shapes intimacy, leadership, and self-understanding
No prior knowledge of Irish history, trauma work, or ancestral practices is required, only curiosity and a willingness to reflect with care.
This may not be the right fit if you are:
Looking for a purely academic study without personal engagement
Seeking debate or ideological argument rather than reflective inquiry
Hoping this group will serve as primary support during acute crisis or mental health difficulty, (this work may touch tender places, but it is not a substitute for therapy)
This is a space for shared inquiry and honest reflection, not for avoiding the deeper work, but for finally doing it, together.
How We Work
Each session is three hours, carefully structured to create a space where cultural history and lived experience can meet safely and at a steady pace.
Each session combines:
• historical and psychological teaching
• clear conceptual framing
• small group dialogue
• guided reflection and embodied inquiry
• whole-group integration
There is room for honest reflection, dialogue across difference, and emotional depth, without overwhelm.
Meetings take place live on Zoom and are not recorded.
Because of the personal nature of this work, confidentiality is essential and honoured by everyone in the group.
Format and Details
Schedule
Six Sundays from 19th April - 24th May, 2026
6:00PM - 9:00PM, Irish Time
Not sure what 6:00PM Irish Time means for you?[Check your local time here timebuddy.com]
Session 1 - Sunday 19th April
Session 2 - Sunday 26th April
Session 3 - Sunday 3rd May
Session 4 - Sunday 10th May
Session 5 - Sunday 17th May
Session 6 - Sunday 24th May
Early Bird Registration is now closed.
*Supported places: €275
If finances are currently a barrier, you’re welcome to email me and request a supported place.
A Closing Invitation
We inherit more than stories. We inherit gestures, silences, postures of authority, ways of loving and ways of withholding.
The old Irish immrama were voyages into the unknown, journeys through danger, discovery and transformation before returning home, changed.
This inquiry is an immram of a different kind. Not across water, but inward into the inherited waters of history, family and body. What we carry without knowing. What was handed down in silence. What has been waiting, across generations, to be finally witnessed.
To look at these patterns together requires steadiness. It is not about dismantling identity. It is about meeting it consciously.
If you recognise something of your own history here, we invite you into the dialogue.
Early Bird Registration is now closed. If you wish to join for a supported price please contact us.
Get in Touch
You have questions about the Gender Roles in Ireland workshop experience.
You would like to book Simon and Belinda to facilitate this workshop for your organisation, community, or group.
You are interested in hosting a dialogue space on gender, identity, culture, and social change.
You’d like to collaborate on a related event, panel, podcast, or educational offering.
You believe in the importance of collective reflection and honest conversations around gender and would like to explore working together.
We look forward to connecting and continuing this conversation with you.