Marriage in Ireland, 1660–1925

Luddy, Maria; O’Dowd, Mary

doi:10.1017/9781108645164

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…As Rebecca Ann Barr, Sean Brady and Jane McGaughey have argued, applying gender enables 'historians to interrogate the presumption of a naturalised relation between maleness and power' more broadly. 101 The sexual reputations of Irish men were not invulnerable by virtue of their being male.…”

Section: Men's Strategies To Recover and Restore Reputationmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘To Recover His Reputation Among the People of God’: Sex, Religion and the Double Standard in Presbyterian Ireland, c.1700–1838

Calvert¹

2022

Gender & History

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This article explores how Presbyterian religious belief and practice shaped the operation of the sexual double standard in Ireland. It argues that reputation continued to have a public element into the nineteenth century and highlights the role of religion as a locus around which male reputation was validated, restored and safeguarded. Through a system of surveillance, and underpinned by the gossip network, the Presbyterian church courts in Ireland held men to account for lapses in sexual conduct. Presbyterian men, too, were concerned to maintain clear characters. In their efforts to keep sexual indiscretions private and silence their accusers, some men even resorted to bribery, threats of violence and extortion. Others turned to the church courts to validate their reputations, recognising the place and power of the church as a source of moral authority.On 27 February 1786, the Presbyterian Kirk Session of Cahans, county Monaghan, met to discuss a 'fama clamosa' that was circulating among its community. Two of their members, Agnes Connolly and Joseph Young (who was also an elder of the Kirk Session), were spotted engaging in inappropriate behaviour on the roadside. Under questioning, the couple confessed that they were intoxicated at the time and that Joseph had touched the 'bare skin' of Agnes' hands, neck and breasts. Both denied that their activities had progressed any further, and Joseph offered to swear an oath to that effect, remarking that 'no member pertaining to his body was ever in her'. 1 The responses of Agnes and Joseph to the questions of the Kirk Session are illuminating for two main reasons. On the one hand, the emphasis placed by both parties on the non-penetrative nature of their physical contact reveals much about the ongoing negotiation between church and believer on the boundaries of sexual sin. Framed within the language of the 'sliding scale of sexual misbehaviour', Agnes and Joseph explained that their physical contact had not transgressed beyond acceptable limits. For both parties, penetration was the point at which sexual contact became most problematic. The emphasis on penetration as a measure of sexual sin underpins the second point: the disruptive potential of male sexuality. The response of the Kirk

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Section: Men's Strategies To Recover and Restore Reputationmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘To Recover His Reputation Among the People of God’: Sex, Religion and the Double Standard in Presbyterian Ireland, c.1700–1838

Calvert¹

2022

Gender & History

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“…59 Luddy and O'Dowd too observe this silence, extending the historical lens on marital violence from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, and exploring how victims could be supported and protected from abusive spouses by courts, as well as by neighbours or relatives. 60 They observe an increased likelihood of conviction and sentencing after the 1890s. 61 Luddy and O'Dowd also point out that spousal murder and manslaughter was not as uncommon as previously thought.…”

Section: Farrell Mccormick and Redmond-exploring The Ordinarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…69 Luddy and O'Dowd document some cases of wives abusing husbands in Ireland. 70 Further examination of spousal abuse by women could provide nuance to concepts and expectations of masculinities. Scholarship to date points to rich sources that could be used to interrogate abuse across place and time, which is facilitated by the large-scale digitisation of regional and national Irish newspapers.…”

Section: Farrell Mccormick and Redmond-exploring The Ordinarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They note that for abductors, 'sexual intercourse or rape appears to have been an important point of ownership'. 76 Conley's examination of rape in nineteenth-century Ireland reveals striking differences to England: 'In Victorian England rape charges were usually only sustained when a respectable woman of good character had been brutally assaulted in public by a total stranger. In the Irish evidence cases meeting these criteria were extremely rare.'…”

Section: Farrell Mccormick and Redmond-exploring The Ordinarymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the ordinary: migration, sexuality and crime, and the progression of the ‘Agenda’ in Irish women's history, 1850s–1950s

2022

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This article reflects on some developments in women's history based on the 1992 ‘An agenda for women's history in Ireland, 1500–1900’, particularly responding to the section authored by Maria Luddy, incorporating work grounded in the nineteenth century up to the first half of the twentieth. Specifically, it considers developments in Irish women's social history over the past thirty years on the period from the 1850s to 1950s. The focus is on themes of poverty and migration, crime, and sexuality, which were touched on in the ‘Agenda’ and identified as areas for future research. Analysis on these subjects allows for an insight into lived realities for ‘ordinary’ women. These are areas which reveal the growth and development of historical research and its impact on public narratives and policy. Taking its cue from the ‘Agenda’, this article also identifies other fruitful research topics that could be further explored in future scholarship.

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“…Pregnant brides were less of a problem than unmarried mothers. 45 Indeed, as I have argued elsewhere, the tropes of the 'chaste and pure' (Catholic) Irish and the 'promiscuous Ulster Presbyterian' exist more firmly in the cultural imagination than in historical reality. 46…”

mentioning

confidence: 92%

‘From a woman's point of view’: the Presbyterian archive as a source for women's and gender history in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ireland

Calvert

2022

Ir. Hist. Stud.

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This article responds to ‘An agenda for women's history in Ireland, 1500–1900’ by highlighting the explanatory potential of the Presbyterian archive in extending and reshaping our understanding of women, gender and the family in Ireland. Discussed here as the ‘Presbyterian archive’, the records of the Presbyterian church offer a tantalising insight into the intimate worlds of women and men in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ireland. Although Presbyterians were a minority religious community in Ireland, their records provide much more than a marginalised picture. Instead, the Presbyterian archive casts fresh light on the wider Irish evidence, enriching our knowledge of the everyday lives of women and men in Ireland. The article begins by introducing the Presbyterian archive and the community responsible for its creation. Next, it considers how the Presbyterian archive both meets and advances the aims of the ‘Agenda’ and reveals what it can tell us about the lives of women and men as gendered subjects. Overall, the article underlines the importance of the Presbyterian archive as a source for Irish historians because it underscores why all history is gender history.

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Marriage in Ireland, 1660–1925

Cited by 11 publications

References 65 publications

‘To Recover His Reputation Among the People of God’: Sex, Religion and the Double Standard in Presbyterian Ireland, c.1700–1838

‘To Recover His Reputation Among the People of God’: Sex, Religion and the Double Standard in Presbyterian Ireland, c.1700–1838

Exploring the ordinary: migration, sexuality and crime, and the progression of the ‘Agenda’ in Irish women's history, 1850s–1950s

‘From a woman's point of view’: the Presbyterian archive as a source for women's and gender history in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ireland

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