Women, Crime and Punishment in Ireland

Farrell, Elaine

doi:10.1017/9781108884242

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 153 publications

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“…96 Some women who committed violent acts had their sentences commutated on the explicit condition that they did not gohome, the decision made for them. 97 In January 1892, Elizabeth Buchanan sought early release, promising to emigrate to her siblings in the U.S. 98 The chairman of the General Prisons Board supported the application on the basis that she 'has been over 10 years in prison, and on the whole well-behaved', 'Her conduct before the commission of the crime was good', 'the jury considered her weak-minded' and 'she is now at an age when she could earn her livelihood'. 99 The implication was, of course, that delaying Elizabeth's release would mean that she might then be too old or infirm to emigrate and thus become entirely dependent on public funds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crime in the nineteenth-century Irish home

Farrell

2022

Women's History Review

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This article interrogates the Irish home as the scene of a crime. Using a sample of nineteenth-century textual records, namely coroners' inquest documents, police and witness statements, judges' reports of trials, and newspapers, it showcases how the home could become a focus of attention in court. Police (and sometimes the general public) infiltrated these domestic spaces in their search for clues; they often interfered with domestic materiality, or confiscated objects or fragments therefrom. In court, maps, plans and models illustrated the physical space and layout of the home for those who had not crossed the threshold. Witness testimonies accounting for the crime inadvertently reveal how the homes looked, some of their contents, and the nature of relationships between occupants and neighbours. These Irish homes were typically ordinary domestic spaces but as this article shows, the crime brought the intimate space to a more public arena. It also demonstrates how the home could both protect or expose a suspect.At around ten past five on the evening of 29 April 1881, Sub-Constable Thomas Dickson surveyed Artillery Street, Derry, from the door of the Royal Irish Constabulary barracks. 1 Suddenly, a crying woman in her thirties rushed up to him, pleading with him to follow her to nearby Fountain Street 'to see the sight'. Acting Constable Andrew Farry, overheard this conversation from inside the barracks, and joined his colleague outside. The woman in front of them was around five foot two, with light brown hair and blue eyes. Dickson pressed her for more details and after initially hesitating, Elizabeth Buchanan confessed her fears that her eighty-four-year-old husband had killed himself at their home. This information prompted an immediate response from the policemen at the station; suicide was still a criminal offence and, along with the associated link with insanity, could carry a stigma for surviving relatives. 2 Dickson accompanied Elizabeth back to her house, and Farry followed a few minutes later. By the time they arrived, neighbours and other curious spectators had already gathered outside, evidently having heard of the incident. Dr James MacCullagh entered the house shortly thereafter, to examine what

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crime in the nineteenth-century Irish home

Farrell

2022

Women's History Review

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“…In an Irish context, sustained research on the voices of the poor has been led by Virginia Crossman (2017) and Lindsey Earner-Byrne (2015a, 2015b, both of whom have focused on begging letters submitted to Dublin officials. This current chapter, and my previous research (Farrell, 2020), builds on work by Crossman and Earner-Byrne by analysing the female criminal voice. In doing so, it also adds to scholarship on criminal voices outside Ireland (Foyster, 2014;Dodge, 2006, 53-64).…”

Section: Women's Voices In the Irish Pastmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The punishment of violent women in Ireland has featured in scholarship on transportation, imprisonment, and execution (including Carey, 2000;Curtin, 2001;Farrell, 2020;Lohan, 1989). Lynsey Black's research on the use of the death penalty in twentieth-century Ireland evaluates the factors that contributed to the execution of women or the commutation of their sentences (2018).…”

Section: Women and Violence In Nineteenth-and Early-twentieth-century...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Historians have mined these records for the light that they shed on individual cases, crimes, or regions (Curley, 1989;Farrell, 2013;Farrell, 2020;Fleming, 2012;Irwin, 1989;Lohan, 1989;Luddy and O'Dowd, 2020;Steiner-Scott, 1997;Vaughan, 2009). They recognise that the sources 'help enormously in the reconstruction of the type of life which led people to commit crimes (Curley, 1989, 82-3) and 'contain some remarkable life-stories (Vaughan, 2009: 307).…”

Section: Women's Voices In the Irish Pastmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Voices of Violent Women in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Farrell¹

2023

The Emerald International Handbook of Feminist Perspectives on Women’s Acts of Violence

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This chapter focuses on women's descriptions of their own violence in nineteenth-century Ireland, as revealed in prisoner petitions held in the National Archives of Ireland. It privileges the case files of women imprisoned or sentenced to death for violent crimes, including infanticide, manslaughter, murder, wounding and assault. This chapter takes an empirical approach and considers the ways that women explained and rationalised their violent acts. An analysis of the petitions offers an insight into women's views of their own violence, gendered attitudes at the time, and women's sense of the factors that might lead to a commutation of sentence. The truthfulness of the petitions is not important in this study; instead, the chapter explores the self-image that women wanted to portray and the tactics that they opted to use to seek a reduction in their sentences. As shown in this chapter, most women emphasised their passivity: they typically claimed to be innocent, coerced or provoked into violence.

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Fine lines: locating commercial sex work in official data, Dublin 1901 and 1911

Breathnach

Murphy

2023

Urban History

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Dublin at the turn of the nineteenth century had limited permanent employment opportunities compared to Belfast, and for poor families financial instability manifested in limited life expectancy. This article focuses on young adult cohorts in Dublin city. By cross-referencing names and addresses from death records with census, court and prison records, it casts new light on the lives of the city's most disadvantaged people. It applies a digital humanities framework and uses historical Geographical Information Systems to explore patterns in cause of death, and to reveal more about household income, casual labour, women's work and community networks. We contend that the cautions about the occlusion of commercial sex work in historical data should be extended to the lowest strata of the working classes more generally and that it is only through granular analyses that the fine lines between poverty and destitution can emerge.

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Women, Crime and Punishment in Ireland

Cited by 3 publications

References 153 publications

Crime in the nineteenth-century Irish home

Crime in the nineteenth-century Irish home

The Voices of Violent Women in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Fine lines: locating commercial sex work in official data, Dublin 1901 and 1911

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