The Impact of Colonialism and Systemic Oppression on Mental Health in Ireland: Addressing Systemic Trauma in Therapy

Abstract

Colonialism and systemic oppression have left enduring psychological legacies in Ireland, shaping mental health through cultural suppression, intergenerational trauma, and institutional abuse. This article examines how British rule, the Great Famine, and Catholic theocracy established patterns of shame, scarcity, and disempowerment that continue to echo in present-day distress. It further explores how contemporary forces—including neoliberal capitalism, racial injustice, and patriarchal systems—reinforce these dynamics and contribute to psychological suffering.
A decolonised approach to psychotherapy is proposed, one that reframes symptoms not as individual deficits, but as survival responses to systemic harm, responses that may now be maladaptive but were once necessary. Drawing on Irish cultural resources such as language revival, storytelling, sea-based rituals, and community healing, the article advocates for therapeutic models grounded in historical awareness and collective resilience. Feminist and intersectional frameworks are integrated to address gendered and racialised trauma, offering concrete strategies for therapeutic practice.
Ultimately, this article calls for therapists to move beyond clinical neutrality, positioning therapy as both a site of personal healing and social resistance. In doing so, they can contribute to a more just, inclusive, and psychologically liberated Irish society.

Keywords: colonialism, intergenerational trauma, decolonised therapy, Irish mental health, systemic oppression

1. Introduction

“The major battles of the world are fought in the human soul.” – James Connolly

Colonisation is a violent and pervasive structural force that continues to shape identities, relationships, and emotional well-being long after the physical departure of colonial powers (Fanon, 1963). In Ireland, British colonial rule, the Great Famine, and Catholic theocracy have left deep psychological scars that influence how individuals experience and express distress (Connolly, 2008). Mental health professionals increasingly recognise that suffering cannot be divorced from systemic oppression, yet therapeutic models often fail to address these historical and political dimensions (American Psychological Association, 2020).

A decolonised approach to psychotherapy in Ireland must:

• Acknowledge intergenerational trauma and systemic oppression (Yehuda & Lehrner, 2018).

• Examine how colonial legacies manifest in modern mental health struggles (Moane, 1994).

• Integrate cultural and historical context into therapeutic practice (Martín-Baró, 1994).

• Empower clients to reclaim agency and resist ongoing structural harm (Ó Tuathaigh, 1990).

This article explores the psychological impact of colonialism in Ireland, its intersection with contemporary systemic injustices, and the role of therapists in addressing these issues. The article offers a reflective and opinion-based perspective grounded in clinical experience, critical theory, and cultural analysis. It aims to open dialogue rather than provide a definitive framework.

The article begins by tracing the historical roots of psychological trauma in Ireland, including cultural suppression, famine, and theocratic control. It then explores the contemporary consequences of systemic oppression through capitalism, racial injustice, and patriarchal structures. Attention is given to cultural resources that support healing, such as language, nature, and storytelling. A dedicated section explores gendered and intersectional trauma and presents therapeutic strategies grounded in liberation and cultural reclamation. The article concludes by reframing psychological distress not as personal deficit but as an adaptive response to systemic violence and calls for decolonised psychotherapy as both healing and resistance.

2. Historical Context: The Long Shadow of British Rule

2.1 Cultural Suppression and the Loss of Irish Identity

British colonisation systematically targeted Irish culture, language, and identity. The Penal Laws (1695–1829) criminalised Catholicism, disenfranchised the Irish population, and enforced linguistic erasure by penalising Irish speakers while privileging English (Fishman, 1991). By the 19th century, the percentage of Irish speakers had plummeted from over 50% to near extinction in many regions (Nic Pháidín & Ó Cearnaigh, 2008).
Language is not merely a communicative tool but a vessel for memory, identity, and collective meaning-making (Vallely, 2011). The suppression of Gaeilge (Irish) severed communities from ancestral wisdom, oral traditions, and spiritual practices, fostering cultural dissociation (Kinealy, 1994). Contemporary efforts to revive the language, such as state-supported Gaelscoileanna (Irish-medium schools), reflect a decolonial reclaiming of identity (Pembrey, 2010). Research suggests that language revitalisation can mitigate historical trauma by restoring cultural continuity (Canacott, 2025). Recent work affirms that the psychological benefits of cultural and linguistic reclamation include increased resilience and reduced intergenerational stress responses (Kirmayer, Gone & Moses, 2014; Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre, 2019).

2.2 The Great Famine: Scarcity and Intergenerational Trauma

The Great Famine (1845–1852) was not a natural disaster but a consequence of British economic policies that prioritised the exportation of food over local subsistence¹¹. Over one million died, and another million emigrated, triggering a demographic collapse with lasting psychosocial effects(Ó Gráda, 1999).

Psychological research on intergenerational trauma demonstrates that adversity and famine survivors’ descendants may inherit:

• Scarcity mindsets: Hoarding behaviours or guilt around resource use (Yehuda, 2018).

• Survival anxiety: Chronic hypervigilance, even in stable conditions (Bowe, Thomas & Mackey, 2025; Brave Heart, 2003).

• Disrupted attachment: Familial separation during mass emigration altered relational patterns (Agger & Jensen, 1990).

Recent advances in epigenetic suggest that trauma can alter gene expression related to stress responses, increasing susceptibility to anxiety and depression across generations Pembrey, 2010; Yehuda, 2018). While modern Irish clients may not consciously link their distress to the Famine, these embedded patterns often manifest in overwork, emotional suppression, people-pleasing behaviours, or reluctance to seek support (El-Khalil, Tudor & Nedelcea, 2025).
Rather than pathologising these symptoms, therapists are encouraged to reframe them as protective survival strategies formed under colonial conditions—adaptations that may be maladaptive today but were once essential (Taylor et al., 2025).

2.3 Religious Theocracy and Shame-Based Identity

Following Irish independence (1922), political sovereignty did not translate into psychological liberation. Instead, the Catholic Church assumed hegemonic control over Irish society, particularly in education, healthcare, and social policy (Inglis, 1998). Scholars increasingly recognise this postcolonial theocracy as a form of systemic oppression—one that reinforced strict moral hierarchies and regulated sexuality, family life, and emotional expression through fear, shame, and silence (Canacott, 2025). Religious dominance was embedded in legal and institutional structures, blurring the line between state and church until well into the late 20th century (Smith, 2004).

Institutions like the Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes illustrate the punitive extremes of this system. Women were institutionalised for behaviours deemed immoral—including sexual activity, pregnancy outside marriage, or perceived noncompliance—and subjected to forced labour, abuse, and lifelong stigma (Smith, 2004). These institutions were not historical anomalies but extensions of a theocratic value system that policed morality and subordinated autonomy (Smith, 2007). Contemporary psychological studies document long-lasting trauma among survivors, including guilt, shame, dissociation, and chronic self-doubt (Canacott, 2025).

In therapeutic contexts, this may present as:

• Avoidance of pleasure or self-care due to ingrained guilt (Fischer, 2016).

• Hypervigilance to perceived judgement, shaped by religious moral surveillance (El-Khalil, et al., 2025).

• Emotional constriction often misdiagnosed as low self-esteem or generalised anxiety (Miller, 2021).

Recent scholarship has affirmed that the psychological impact of theocratic control is not only interpersonal but systemic, reproduced through generations via schools, media, and public discourse (Connolly, James & Murtagh, 2023). The Church’s role in shaping affective norms of sin, sacrifice, and silence created a society where distress was internalised as moral failure, rather than recognised as a reaction to systemic control (Canacott, 2025).

Therapists must recognise these patterns not as personal deficits but as culturally and historically shaped survival responses. Reframing these behaviours as adaptive mechanisms honours the context in which they emerged and offers clients a pathway toward healing, self-compassion, and liberation (Naeem, 2023). However, clinicians must remain attentive to genuine psychopathology, ensuring that contextual understanding does not obscure the presence of conditions requiring structured intervention (Ferguson, Causadias & Simenec, 2023).

3. Systemic Oppression and Its Impact on Mental Health

3.1 Capitalism and the Pressure to Perform

In contemporary Ireland, neoliberal capitalism has deeply shaped societal values, equating human worth with productivity and success (Zeira, 2021). The Celtic Tiger era (1995–2007) reinforced this mindset, promoting economic achievement while dismantling traditional communal and welfare structures (Hodgins & Mannix-McNamara, 2021).

This economic ideology manifests in mental health struggles including:

• Workaholism and burnout.

• Guilt surrounding rest and leisure.

• Viewing success as the primary marker of self-worth.

Clients often present with feelings of exhaustion, existential emptiness, or a pervasive sense of inadequacy, even when externally successful. A therapeutic approach that deconstructs these capitalist narratives is essential (Patel et al., 2022).

Concrete therapeutic strategies include:

• Exploring Values Beyond Productivity: Invite clients to identify intrinsic values beyond work achievements. For example, “What would you value about yourself if you were not achieving anything?”

• Normalising Rest: Frame rest and leisure as acts of resistance against capitalist expectations (Taylor et al., 2025).

• Setting Boundaries: Support clients in establishing boundaries with employers, family, and social expectations.

• Celebrating Non-Productive Activities: Encourage engagement in activities purely for joy or connection, without external outcomes (e.g., walking, painting, or spending time with loved ones).

Therapists need to situate these discussions within broader systemic critiques, highlighting how capitalism reinforces self-worth distortions, particularly in a postcolonial Irish context (Zeira, 2021). Recent studies have highlighted rising burnout, internalised productivity pressure, and mental health issues among Irish youth, especially in a post-COVID neoliberal recovery phase (Hodgins & Mannix-McNamara, 2021).

3.2 White Supremacy and Racial Trauma in Ireland

While Ireland has historically perceived itself as racially homogeneous, systemic racism persists and significantly impacts mental health (Patel et al., 2022). The Direct Provision system, which confines asylum seekers in substandard living conditions, exemplifies state-sanctioned racial oppression (Arnold, Ryan & Quinn, 2018). Black, Brown, Traveller, and migrant clients often experience:

• Microaggressions and systemic discrimination.

• Barriers to accessing culturally competent mental healthcare.

• Feelings of alienation, invisibility, or hypervisibility within Irish society.

Therapeutic work with racialised clients requires a critical awareness of Ireland’s colonial complicity and ongoing racial hierarchies. White Irish therapists, in particular, must interrogate their own unconscious biases and challenge the Eurocentric foundations of psychological models (Doyle & Hannigan, 2024).

Concrete steps for decolonising therapy spaces include:

• Practising Cultural Humility: Approach cultural differences with openness and an understanding of one’s own limitations (Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998).

• Continuous Anti-Racism Education: Engage with works by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour scholars and activists to understand systemic racism.

• Acknowledging Privilege: Reflect on therapist positionality and privilege within therapeutic relationships.

• Validating Racial Trauma: Affirm the client’s lived experiences of racism without minimisation or defensiveness.

• Advocating for Systemic Change: Where possible, therapists should support broader efforts to dismantle racist structures in Irish society (Sue, 2007).

It is vital that therapeutic spaces become not only sites of individual healing but also sites of resistance to racial oppression. Recent qualitative research with Black and migrant communities in Ireland has reinforced how invisibility and microaggressions compound psychological distress (Murphy, Keogh & Higgins, 2021).

3.3 Cultural Healing Resources in Ireland

Despite the deep wounds inflicted by colonisation and systemic oppression, Ireland possesses rich cultural resources that can be harnessed within therapy to foster healing and resilience.

3.3.1 Connection to the Sea

Ireland’s relationship with the sea holds profound cultural, emotional, and spiritual significance (Foley, 2014). In recent years, cold-water sea swimming has emerged as a popular communal mental health practice, symbolising resilience, renewal, and emotional release. Many Irish people report feelings of emotional catharsis, increased vitality, and communal connection through sea swimming rituals (Taylor et al., 2025).
Therapists can explore metaphors of fluidity, resilience, and connection through clients’ relationships with the sea, utilising nature-based interventions where appropriate. Studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced how collective immersion in natural spaces like the sea acted as a protective and transformative force for Irish mental health (Groeneveld, 2025).

3.3.2 Music, Storytelling, and Community Healing

Traditional Irish music and the practice of storytelling (seanchaí traditions) have historically served as mechanisms for communal mourning, resilience, and resistance (Vallely, 2011). These forms allowed communities to process grief and preserve cultural memory during periods of intense repression.

Concrete steps therapists might take include:

• Encouraging Cultural Engagement: Invite clients to connect with traditional music, poetry, or storytelling that resonates with their emotional experience.

• Narrative Therapy Techniques: Use storytelling frameworks to help clients reframe their own histories as stories of survival and resistance (White, 1990).

Celebrating cultural expressions not only supports individual healing but also contributes to collective cultural reclamation. Emerging therapeutic literature supports the role of cultural rituals and oral histories in rebuilding a sense of self in formerly colonised populations (Duran, 2006).

3.3.3 Reclaiming Gaeilge

For many Irish people, reconnecting with the Irish language offers a profound sense of belonging, pride, and continuity (Moane, 1994). Language revival efforts, such as participating in Gaelscoileanna or community Irish classes, can be deeply therapeutic, representing both personal and political acts of resistance against cultural erasure.
Therapists can explore clients’ relationships with Gaeilge sensitively, recognising that reclaiming the language may evoke grief for what was lost as well as hope for restoration. Contemporary studies link language revival to improvements in emotional regulation, identity coherence, and cultural pride (Strange, 2023).

4. Patriarchy and Gender-Based Oppression: A Feminist Intersectional and Social Justice Approach to Decolonising Psychotherapy

4.1 Understanding Patriarchy and Gender-Based Oppression in Ireland

Patriarchy, as a systemic force, has profoundly shaped Irish society, embedding itself within cultural norms, religious doctrines, and political structures (Conaghan, 2019). Following independence in 1922, the Catholic Church consolidated significant control over key areas of life, including education, healthcare, and social welfare (Ferriter, 2012). This created a moral framework that elevated female purity, obedience, and sacrifice while punishing autonomy, especially in relation to female sexuality (Meehan, 2019).
Institutions such as the Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes exemplified the extremes of patriarchal control, incarcerating women for perceived moral transgressions and subjecting them to forced labour, abuse, and societal erasure (Smith, 2007). The psychological aftermath persists today, with many survivors and descendants exhibiting:

• Deep-seated shame and guilt around bodily autonomy.

• Hypervigilance towards judgment and external approval.

• Internalised beliefs that self-sacrifice is virtuous and necessary.

Therapists must approach these presentations not as individual pathologies but as adaptive survival strategies formed under oppressive conditions (Finnegan, 2004). However, this framing does not negate the reality that such strategies—when prolonged or rigidly applied in safer contexts—can become maladaptive, exacerbating distress (e.g., chronic shame, hypervigilance). A decolonised therapeutic lens thus requires dual accountability: honouring the historical logic of these responses while critically assessing their present-day costs. For instance, deep-seated shame, though rooted in survival mechanisms like appeasement or self-erasure under theocratic control, may now perpetuate isolation or self-sabotage. Therapists must therefore balance cultural humility with clinical discernment, distinguishing between understandable trauma reactions and debilitating pathologies requiring targeted intervention (Ferguson et al., 2023; Naeem et al., 2023). This approach avoids either pathologising resilience or romanticising suffering and instead situates healing within the tension between systemic harm and individual agency.

4.2 Modern Struggles: Reproductive Rights and Gender Inequality

Although Ireland has made significant strides in gender equality, including the 2018 repeal of the Eighth Amendment, systemic barriers persist (Government of Ireland, 2018) Key areas include:

• Gender Pay Gaps (Doorley K, O’Donoghue C, Sologon, 2021).

• Sexual Violence (Kane et al., 2025).

• Underrepresentation of women, particularly from marginalised communities, in leadership (Galligan & Buckley, 2023).

These systemic inequalities perpetuate psychological harm, fostering feelings of disempowerment, chronic stress, and disconnection from bodily and emotional autonomy. In the therapeutic context, addressing these struggles requires validating clients’ experiences as responses to structural oppression rather than internal personal failings (Kavanagh & Fassbender, 2024).

4.3 Sexual Violence as a Systemic Issue Rooted in Patriarchy and Power Imbalances

Sexual violence in Ireland is not an isolated phenomenon but a symptom of broader patriarchal systems that historically excused male entitlement while punishing women for autonomy (O’Connor, Harford & Fitzgerald, 2020). The Magdalene Laundries, Mother and Baby Homes, and legal frameworks historically criminalised women’s sexuality while overlooking male abuses (Smith, 2004).
Modern judicial outcomes often continue to reflect these biases. For example, the 2022 Limerick case involving Cathal Crotty—a serving soldier who violently assaulted Natasha O’Brien—highlighted the persistent failures of the legal system to prioritise survivor well-being and accountability (RTÉ News, 2025). Despite the unprovoked nature of the attack and clear evidence, Crotty received a suspended sentence, sparking national outcry and reinforcing how institutional frameworks continue to excuse male violence while silencing or blaming survivors.
Therapeutic manifestations include:

• Self-blame: Internalised narratives that the survivor “invited” or “deserved” the violence.

• Shame and silence: Reluctance to disclose experiences due to fear of judgment or disbelief.

• Hypervigilance and dissociation: Survival strategies to navigate unsafe environments.

Therapeutic responses include:

• Validating survivors’ experiences: Affirm the reality and injustice of their experiences without minimisation. For example, “What happened to you was wrong, and you are not to blame.”

• Reframing shame as systemic: Help clients locate shame not within themselves but within societal systems that perpetuate victim-blaming.

• Supporting emotional expression: Create safe spaces where anger, grief, and other suppressed emotions can be acknowledged and processed.

• Challenging internalised patriarchal narratives (Herman, 2022).

4.4 A Feminist Intersectional Approach to Decolonising Therapy

Intersectionality, as conceptualised by Kimberlé Crenshaw (Crenshaw, 1989), recognises that oppression is not experienced singularly but at the intersections of race, gender, class, and disability. Hence, in Ireland, women from racialised, Traveller, LGBTQ+, and disabled communities are at higher risk of facing compounded discrimination (Pavee Point Traveller & Roma Centre, 2019).

Therapists can:

• Explore multiple identities: When possible, invite clients to reflect on how different facets of their identity shape their experiences. For example, “How has being a woman of colour in Ireland shaped your experiences with safety and belonging?”

• Acknowledge structural barriers: Recognise how systemic discrimination impacts mental health beyond individual coping mechanisms.

• Avoid simplistic narratives: Recognise the fluid, interwoven nature of lived realities.

Intersectional practice allows therapy to hold the full scope of a client’s lived oppression and resilience (Hankivsky & Grace, 2011).

4.5 Concrete Strategies for Therapists Working with Gendered Trauma

To decolonise psychotherapy and address gendered oppression meaningfully, therapists can incorporate the following strategies:

4.5.1 Addressing Internalised Misogyny and Self-Worth

• Identify limiting beliefs: Work with clients to uncover narratives such as “I am only valuable if I am self-sacrificing” or “I deserve less because of my mistakes.”

• Reframe worthiness: Support clients in building self-worth grounded in intrinsic value rather than external validation.

• Celebrate resistance: Recognise everyday acts of self-advocacy, boundary-setting, and joy as forms of resistance against patriarchal norms (Manne, 2018).

4.5.2 Breaking Generational Silence

• Use narrative therapy.

• Validate survival-based silence.

4.5.3 Supporting Assertiveness

• Normalise anger towards injustice.

• Challenge guilt around needs.

4.5.4 Embracing Intersectionality

• Tailor culturally responsive interventions.

• Contextualise trauma within systemic forces.

4.6 Liberation-Focused Practices in Healing Gendered Oppression

Liberation psychology, developed by Martín-Baró (1994), asserts that healing requires resistance to injustice. Therapy becomes not only a space for survival but for transformation.

Key strategies:

• Facilitate collective healing.

• Support client advocacy.

• Honour resistance in daily life.
  

5. Conclusion: Healing as Collective and Political Practice

The legacy of colonialism in Ireland is not confined to history; it continues to shape the emotional, psychological, and cultural landscapes of Irish society today. From the cultural erasure enforced by British rule to the intergenerational trauma stemming from the Great Famine and the shame-based identity forged under Catholic theocracy, these historical oppressions have left profound psychological imprints.
Modern systems of neoliberal capitalism, racial hierarchies, and patriarchal structures further entrench these wounds, perpetuating cycles of distress, disempowerment, and marginalisation. Recognising this interconnectedness is vital for any meaningful therapeutic intervention. Mental health struggles in Ireland cannot be divorced from their socio-political roots. Thus, psychotherapy that claims neutrality risks colluding with structures of oppression by failing to name and challenge them (hooks, 1994).
A decolonised approach to psychotherapy demands that therapists centre cultural and historical contexts within their practice, acknowledging how systemic forces have shaped clients’ emotional landscapes. It involves supporting clients to:

• Reclaim lost aspects of identity, language, culture, and self-worth

• Recognise their suffering as rooted in systemic injustices, not individual failings

• Resist internalised oppression and advocate for personal and collective liberation

By integrating cultural healing practices—such as engaging with the Irish language, storytelling traditions, music, and nature-based rituals—therapists can help clients reconnect with ancestral strengths and foster resilience. Additionally, therapy becomes a site for radical empowerment when it validates anger, honours survival strategies, and encourages systemic resistance.

Healing, in the context of Ireland’s colonial and patriarchal history, is inherently political. It is a process that not only seeks to alleviate individual suffering but also contributes to dismantling oppressive structures. Therapy can, and must, be a bridge between personal restoration and collective resistance, fostering spaces where individuals are empowered to reclaim their agency and challenge the forces that have sought to diminish them.
In doing so, therapists do not merely treat symptoms; they participate in the broader project of societal healing, nurturing a vision of Ireland where all individuals—regardless of gender, race, class, sexuality, or ability—can live with dignity, safety, and freedom.

"It was culture as class performance, literature fetishised for its ability to take educated people on false emotional journeys, so that they might afterwards feel superior to the uneducated people whose emotional journeys they liked to read about." - Sally Rooney’s (Normal People).

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