Unsettled by Rosaleen McDonagh. No Advance Reader Copy included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
‘These essays are not by an inspirational person. These essays are not by a supercrip. These essays don’t pathologise my Traveller ethnicity or my gender. There was no triumphant moment of overcoming the violence inflicted on me. Instead, these pieces embody a diverse experience of what it is to be Irish. There is no room for wanting to deny or overcome my impairment. There is no hiding my Traveller ethnicity. The opposite. This book finally allows me to take ownership of my fractured heart.’
Dr Rosaleen McDonagh is an Irish Traveller woman with a disability, an academic, a playwright, a columnist, an activist, and a member of Ireland’s affiliation of creative artists, Aosdána. From the introduction, Dr McDonagh sets the parameters for the following essays by telling us that ‘These are not essays by an inspirational person.’ Instead, McDonagh informs the reader that Unsettled embodies ‘a diverse experience of what it is to be Irish.’
In less than 130 pages, McDonagh covers a lot of ground in these hard-hitting essays examining her life through an intersectional lens. McDonagh’s experiences as a Traveller cannot be separated from her experiences as a woman. Her experiences as a Traveller woman cannot be divorced from her experiences as a disabled person.
McDonagh’s writing is vivid and confronting. She does not shy away from discussing racism aimed at Travellers, ableism, sexism, abuse, dehumanisation, shame, and stigma. In telling her story, McDonagh explores the very nature of identity and bodily autonomy in a manner that does not always seek to answer the questions it poses, inviting us to take a closer look at our beliefs and assumptions about Traveller culture and disability culture.
Unsettled is an uncompromising essay collection in which McDonagh refuses to sugar-coat her experiences for settled and non-disabled/able-bodied readers. It is a welcome and necessary addition to the growing voices reminding us that Ireland is often not as progressive as we like to think.
Unsettled by Rosaleen McDonagh is published by Skein Press and is available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
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