Women, Crime and Punishment in Ireland

Life in the Nineteenth-Century Convict Prison

Inbunden, Engelska, 2020

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Focusing on women's relationships, decisions and agency, this is the first study of women's experiences in a nineteenth-century Irish prison for serious offenders. Showcasing the various crimes for which women were incarcerated in the post-Famine period, from repeated theft to murder, Elaine Farrell examines inmate files in close detail in order to understand women's lives before, during and after imprisonment. By privileging case studies and individual narratives, this innovative study reveals imprisoned women's relationships with each other, with the staff employed to manage and control them, and with their relatives, spouses, children and friends who remained on the outside. In doing so, Farrell illuminates the hardships many women experienced, their poverty and survival strategies, as well as their responsibilities, obligations, and decisions. Incorporating women's own voices, gleaned from letters and prison files, this intimate insight into individual women's lives in an Irish prison sheds new light on collective female experiences across urban and rural post-Famine Ireland.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2020-10-01
Mått235 x 160 x 20 mm
Vikt590 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor304
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781108839501

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List of figures and tables; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction: 'Another generation of jail-birds'; 1. 'A powerful engine in reforming the prisoner': the prison framework and the convict body and mind; 2. 'A strange medley of character do these prisoners' friends present': family ties; 3. 'Even in prison, they have those extreme friendships, antipathies, and jealousies': convict relationships; 4. 'At first she refused to say how she got it': networks of acquisition; 5. 'I will be very desolate leaving prison': liberation; Conclusion: 'I think of the time that you and myself ust [used] to be to gether'; Bibliography; Index.

'The first comprehensive analysis of incarcerated women in Irish history, this book is nothing short of path breaking. Persuasive, innovative, and convincing, Farrell's book integrates the history of institutions in Ireland - a current fascination of many - with astute analyses of gender and sexuality, 'deviance' and criminality, and bodies and emotions. In the hands of this skilful historian, the daily struggles and triumphs of ordinary if 'outcast' women in the past come alive, providing essential context for discussions of gender in Irish life today.' Cara Delay, College of Charleston