A collection of essays, based on original research delivered at one of the Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland's recent annual conferences.--Back book cover.

This important volume, based on original research, innovative methodological perspectives and advanced historical scholarship, draws together some of Ireland's leading historians as well emerging talents to examine a range of topics, such as Irish secret societies, agrarian disorder, security and the law, sectarian violence, under the banner of crime and violence in 19th-century Ireland.

The book provides a quantitative and contextual analysis of homicide in pre-Famine and Famine Ireland, placing the Irish experience within a comparative framework and drawing wider inferences about the history of interpersonal violence in Europe and beyond.

This is the first full-length study of Irish Ribbonism, tracing the development of the movement from its origins in the Defender movement of the 1790s to the latter part of the century when the remnants of the Ribbon tradition found solace in a new movement: the quasi-constitutional affinities of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Placing Ribbonism firmly within Ireland's long tradition of collective action and protest, this book shows that, owing to its diversity and adaptability, it shared similarities, but also stood apart from, the many rural redresser groups of the period and showed remarkable longevity not matched by its contemporaries. The book describes the wider context of Catholic struggles for improved standing, explores traditions and networks for association, and it describes external impressions. Drawing on rich archives in the form of state surveillance records, 'show trial' proceedings and press reportage, the book shows that Ribbonism was a sophisticated and durable underground network drawing together various strands of the rural and urban Catholic populace in Ireland and Britain. Ribbon Societies in Nineteenth-Century Ireland and its Diaspora is a fascinating study that demonstrates Ribbonism operated more widely than previous studies have revealed.

This book presents the stories of men and women charged with murder in nineteenth century Ireland. Some were found guilty and sentenced to death and others were sent to the Central Criminal Asylum for Ireland at Dundrum. For those considered to be 'insane' at the time of committing the crime, their fate was an indefinite committal to Dundrum. For those considered responsible for their actions, it meant the death sentence which, in the first half of the century, was often reduced to transportation and, in the second half of the century, to penal servitude within the prison system. Drawing on her specialist knowledge of mental health policy and law, and with unique access to convict records, Prior explores these crimes within the context of criminal justice policies in Ireland at this time. Her examination of previously unexamined records shows that court judgments were highly gendered. The death penalty remained a possibility for anyone found guilty of murder and while the execution of a woman was unusual, it did occur. However, with the opening of a criminal lunatic asylum in 1850, a new approach was possible. Men who killed women and women who killed children began to use the insanity defence very successfully. For some, this was a positive outcome, leading to a short period of detention in Dundrum, but for others it led to a lifetime in an asylum. For those found guilty of the crime, the most frequent outcome was a long stretch in prison. An interesting outcome for many of these convicts was official assistance in emigrating to the US at the end of their sentences - a theme explored in the final chapter. If you are interested in crime in Ireland, in the link between mental disorder and crime, or in the impact of gender on crime and its punishment, this book is for you.

While most scholarly attention on violence in post-famine Ireland has focused on political crimes, this book examines non-political violence, which made up the vast majority of incidents in that period. Ireland's overall crime rate was below that of England and Wales, but the proportion of violent offenses to non-violent ones was significantly higher in Ireland. In Melancholy Accidents, Carolyn Conley decries the commonly-held belief that recreational and domestic violence was generally the result of understandable emotions. Conley demonstrates that the meaning of violence in post-famine Ireland was complex, personal, and often deeply traditional and idiosyncratic. This unique book will be valuable to a wide variety of scholars, including those who study women's history, European history, and social problems.

"In Certain Other Countries, Carolyn A. Conley explores how the concepts of national identity and criminal violence influenced each other in the Victorian-era United Kingdom. It also addresses the differences among the nations as well as the ways that homicide trials illuminate the issues of gender, ethnicity, family, privacy, property, and class. Homicides reflect assumptions about the proper balance of power in various relationships. For example, Englishmen were ten times more likely to kill women they were courting than were men in the Celtic nations." "By combining quantitative techniques in the analysis of over seven thousand cases, as well as careful and detailed readings of individual cases, the book exposes trends and patterns that might not have been evident in works using only one method. For instance, by examining all homicide trials rather than concentrating exclusively on a few highly celebrated ones, it becomes clear that most female killers were not viewed with particular horror, but were treated much like their male counterparts."--BOOK JACKET.

It was the biggest funeral Chicago had seen since Lincoln’s. On May 26, 1889, four thousand mourners proceeded down Michigan Avenue, followed by a crowd forty thousand strong, in a howl of protest at what commentators called one of the ghastliest and most curious crimes in civilized history. The dead man, Dr. P. H. Cronin, was a respected Irish physician, but his brutal murder uncovered a web of intrigue, secrecy, and corruption that stretched across the United States and far beyond. Blood Runs Green tells the story of Cronin’s murder from the police investigation to the trial. It is a story of hotheaded journalists in pursuit of sensational crimes, of a bungling police force riddled with informers and spies, and of a secret revolutionary society determined to free Ireland but succeeding only in tearing itself apart. It is also the story of a booming immigrant population clamoring for power at a time of unprecedented change. From backrooms to courtrooms, historian Gillian O’Brien deftly navigates the complexities of Irish Chicago, bringing to life a rich cast of characters and tracing the spectacular rise and fall of the secret Irish American society Clan na Gael. She draws on real-life accounts and sources from the United States, Ireland, and Britain to cast new light on Clan na Gael and reveal how Irish republicanism swept across the United States. Destined to be a true crime classic, Blood Runs Green is an enthralling tale of a murder that captivated the world and reverberated through society long after the coffin closed.

This book examines the phenomenon of infanticide in Ireland from 1850 to 1900, examining a sample of 4,645 individual cases of infant murder, attempted infanticide and concealment of birth. Evidence for this study has been gleaned from a variety of sources, including court documents, coroners’ records, prison files, parliamentary papers, and newspapers. Through these sources, many of which are rarely used by scholars, attitudes towards the crime, the women accused of the offence, and the victim, are revealed. Although infant murder was a capital offence during this period, none of the women found guilty of the crime were executed, suggesting a degree of sympathy and understanding towards the accused. Infanticide cases also allude to complex dynamics and tensions between employers and servants, parents and pregnant daughters, judges and defendants, and prison authorities and inmates. This book highlights much about the lived realities of nineteenth-century Ireland.

The history of modern crime control is usually presented as a narrative of how the state wrested control over the governance of crime from the civilian public. Most accounts trace the decline of a participatory, discretionary culture of crime control in the early modern era, and its replacement by a centralized, bureaucratic system of responding to offending. The formation of the 'new' professional police forces in the nineteenth century is central to this narrative: henceforth, it is claimed, the priorities of criminal justice were to be set by the state, as ordinary people lost what authority they had once exercised over dealing with offenders. This book challenges this established view, and presents a fundamental reinterpretation of changes to crime control in the age of the new police. It breaks new ground by providing a highly detailed, empirical analysis of everyday crime control in Victorian provincial cities - revealing the tremendous activity which ordinary people displayed in responding to crime - alongside a rich survey of police organization and policing in practice. With unique conceptual clarity, it seeks to reorient modern criminal justice history away from its established preoccupation with state systems of policing and punishment, and move towards a more nuanced analysis of the governance of crime. More widely, the book provides a unique and valuable vantage point from which to rethink the role of civil society and the state in modern governance, the nature of agency and authority in Victorian England, and the historical antecedents of pluralized modes of crime control which characterize contemporary society.