In the last week, I attended an Irish Studies conference, where, amongst other things, I attended two papers, both by geographers: one on how research on DNA shapes how we view our national identity and the political consequences for power…
Category: Blog
The Women’s History Network blog
A Tale of Irish Courtship
Cork Police Office Judy Sullivans, antient dame, indicted for assaulting Miss Juliet Donnelly, tearing her bonnet and dishevelling her auburn dresses. Juliet’s lawyer requested she stand at the end of the table and remove her gloves. Judy (casting a scornful…
Of Riot and Women
The recent riots that dominated the British news have led to significant debate over the motivations of the crowd, and whether it was a form of political protest or simple criminality. Yet, for the historian rioting is nothing new. Riots…
Katherine Swynford (c.1350-1403)
Katherine Swynford was born Katherine de Roët, the daughter of a minor court official who served in the court of Queen Philippa of Hainault, the wife of Edward III of England. Her family were prominent landowners in Hainault, on the…
A Journey
This blogger is away on holiday, so as she packs and runs out the door to the airport, she offers you a letter from Jane Welsh Carlyle to her mother-in-law, discussing her own journey as well as local gossip in…
Couple Beggars in Ireland
Within a context of relatively low levels of interference from Church and State, the urban lower classes often determined their own regulatory mechanisms for marriage that were shaped by their local contexts. In both Dublin and, in most Presbyterian Irish…
Of Historians and Space
In 1904, Annie Dorey filed for separation from her husband Patrick Dorey, a farmer in county Meath, Ireland. The couple had married the previous year, after three weeks of courtship, and had one child. In her deposition, Annie detailed the…
Employment of Time
To make a good use of time, each minute must be well spent. It is well said, by a celebrated author, that many persons lose two or three hours every day for the want of employing odd minutes. A certain…
Policing Marriage
From the early nineteenth century, newspapers began to report on the operation of the local police and magistrate courts. The reportage of such cases uncovered the daily operations of the local court, as well as providing insight into working-class life…