Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925

Maria Luddy is Emeritus Professor of Modern Irish History at the University of Warwick and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her book Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth Century Ireland (1995) was awarded the James S. Donnelly Prize for best book in Irish history in 1996. She has published extensively on Irish social history, writing on unmarried mothers, nuns, and the history of Irish childhood. Her most recent publications include Prostitution and Irish Society, 1800–1940 (2007) and the co-edited collection Children, Childhood and Irish Society, 1700 to the Present (with James M. Smith, 2014). Mary O'Dowd is Emeritus Professor of Gender History at Queen's University Belfast and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. She has published extensively on women and gender in Irish history. Her most recent publications include, as co-author, Reading the Irish Woman: Studies in Cultural Encounters and Exchange, 1714–1960 (with Gerardine Meaney and Bernadette Whelan, 2014) and A History of the Girl: Formation, Education and Identity (2018) which she co-edited with June Purvis.

• Introduction; Part I. What is a Marriage?: 1. A legal marriage?; 2. Couple beggars; Part II. Ways to Marriage: 3. Meeting and matching with a partner; 4. Courtship behaviour; 5. Breach of promise; 6. Abductions; Part III. Happy Ever After?: 7. Marital relations; 8. Adultery and sex outside marriage; 9. Bigamy; Part IV. The Unmaking of Marriage: 10. Marital violence; 11. Desertion; 12. Divorce; Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index.

'What did marriage in Ireland between 1660 and 1923 really look like? This ground-breaking study of a personal yet, public institution provides the first comprehensive account. It explains marriage law; how the middle and lower classes met, married and fared and what happened when unions failed. Individual agency and institutional control are central themes.' Bernadette Whelan, University of Limerick