The first general survey of the history of women in early modern Ireland. Based on an impressive range of source material, it presents the results of original research into women's lives and experiences in Ireland from 1500 to 1800. This was a time of considerable change in Ireland as English colonisation, religious reform and urbanisation transformed society on the island. Gaelic society based on dynastic lordships and Brehon Law gave way to an anglicised and centralised form of government and an English legal system.

An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library. The theme of this book is cultural encounter and exchange in Irish women's lives. Using three case studies: the Enlightenment, emigration and modernism, it analyses reading and popular and consumer culture as sites of negotiation of gender roles. It traces how the circulation of ideas, fantasies and aspirations which have shaped women's lives in actuality and in imagination and argues that there were many different ways of being a woman. Attention to women's cultural consumption and production shows that one individual may in one day identify with representations of heroines of romantic fiction, patriots, philanthropists, literary ladies, film stars, career women, popular singers, advertising models and foreign missionaries. The processes of cultural consumption, production and exchange provide evidence of women's agency, aspirations and activities within and far beyond the domestic sphere.

This is the first general survey of the history of women in early modern Ireland. Based on an impressive range of source material, it presents the results of original research into women's lives and experiences in Ireland from 1500 to 1800. This was a time of considerable change in Ireland as English colonisation, religious reform and urbanisation transformed society on the island. Gaelic social order based on dynastic lordships and Brehon Law gave way to an anglicised and centralised form of government and an English legal system. Colonisation brought English and Scottish settlers to Ireland while urbanisation revolutionised the Irish economy. contrasting roles and status of women in the new as well as the old communities of early modern Ireland. O'Dowd also explores the engagement of women with some of the key developments of eighteenth century Ireland: the booming economy, the growth of patriot politics and emergence of the Volunteers and later the United Irishmen. This book will set the research agenda for the history of women in Ireland, 1500-1800 for many years to come. Mary O'Dowd is Senior Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast.

The Tudor revival of government and administration in Ireland dramatically increased the quantity of written sources concerning Ireland. This book attempts to survey this documentary material. It analyses of the written sources for early modern Irish history for the period 1534-1641. It discusses the different types of sources available and also provides descriptions of transcripts, copies and summaries of manuscript material which has been destroyed. This is very valuable, because much of the original documentation for this period was destroyed when the Public Record Office in Dublin was burnt, at the beginning of the civil war in 1922. The final chapter in the book includes an assessment of the historiography of early modern Irish history. In the light of the need for historians to understand the administrative machinery which produced the documents they use, the book also includes an account of the civil and ecclesiastical administration of early modern Ireland.

What were the laws on marriage in Ireland, and did church and state differ in their interpretation? How did men and women meet and arrange to marry? How important was patriarchy and a husband's control over his wife? And what were the options available to Irish men and women who wished to leave an unhappy marriage? This first comprehensive history of marriage in Ireland across three centuries looks below the level of elite society for a multi-faceted exploration of how marriage was perceived, negotiated and controlled by the church and state, as well as by individual men and women within Irish society. Making extensive use of new and under-utilised primary sources, Maria Luddy and Mary O'Dowd explain the laws and customs around marriage in Ireland. Revising current understandings of marital law and relations, Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925 represents a major new contribution to Irish historical studies.

What were the laws on marriage in Ireland, and did church and state differ in their interpretation? How did men and women meet and arrange to marry? How important was patriarchy and a husband's control over his wife? And what were the options available to Irish men and women who wished to leave an unhappy marriage? This first comprehensive history of marriage in Ireland across three centuries looks below the level of elite society for a multi-faceted exploration of how marriage was perceived, negotiated and controlled by the church and state, as well as by individual men and women within Irish society. Making extensive use of new and under-utilised primary sources, Maria Luddy and Mary O'Dowd explain the laws and customs around marriage in Ireland. Revising current understandings of marital law and relations, Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925 represents a major new contribution to Irish historical studies.

Nine writers trace the public and private lives of nine sets of sisters. Artists, publishers, writers, educationalists, philanthropists, revolutionaries, suffragists - thinkers all. Independent women with hopes and ideals who overcame barriers, even within their own families, to their participation in public life. Their stories have often been overlooked by the mainstream historical record. These essays take readers on a journey through the centuries from the 1600s to the turbulent years of the independence struggle in 1900s Ireland and uncover the influence, support and rivalries of family. Nualaidh, Maire and Mairghread O Domhnaill Alice, Sara, Lettice, Joan, Katherine, Dorothy and Mary Boyle Katherine, Jane and Mary Conyngham Deborah, Margaret, Mary and Sarah Shackleton Lady Sydney Morgan and Lady Olivia Clarke Anna and Fanny Parnell Constance and Eva Gore-Booth Susan and Elizabeth Yeats Hanna, Margaret, Mary and Kathleen Sheehy

This book is centered on the history of the girl from the medieval period through to the early twenty-first century. Authored by an international team of scholars, the volume explores the transition from adolescent girlhood to young womanhood, the formation and education of girls in the home and in school, and paid work undertaken by girls in different parts of the world and at different times. It highlights the value of a comparative approach to the history of the girl, as the contributors point to shared attitudes to girlhood and the similarity of the experiences of girls in workplaces across the world. Contributions to the volume also emphasise the central role of girls in the global economy, from their participation in the textile industry in the eighteenth century, through to the migration of girls to urban centres in twentieth-century Africa and China.

This book is centered on the history of the girl from the medieval period through to the early twenty-first century. Authored by an international team of scholars, the volume explores the transition from adolescent girlhood to young womanhood, the formation and education of girls in the home and in school, and paid work undertaken by girls in different parts of the world and at different times. It highlights the value of a comparative approach to the history of the girl, as the contributors point to shared attitudes to girlhood and the similarity of the experiences of girls in workplaces across the world. Contributions to the volume also emphasise the central role of girls in the global economy, from their participation in the textile industry in the eighteenth century, through to the migration of girls to urban centres in twentieth-century Africa and China.