Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women

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Description

Irish women emigrants in North America and the ten kinds of trouble they got into Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was not a very good place to be a woman. Among the wave of emigrants from Ireland to North America were many, many young women who travelled on their own, hoping for a better life. Some lived lives of quiet industry and piety. Others quickly found themselves in trouble - bad trouble, and on an astonishing scale. Bad Bridget is a book about these women and the various kinds of trouble they got into. Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick have unearthed a world in which Irish women actually outnumbered Irish men in prison, in which you could get locked up for 'stubbornness', and in which an Irish serial killer called Lizzie Halliday was described by the New York Times as 'the worst woman on earth'. They reveal the social forces that bred this mayhem and dysfunction, through a succession of stories that are brilliantly strange, sometimes very funny, and often deeply moving. From sex workers and thieves to kidnappers and killers, their Bridgets are young women who have gone from the frying pan of their impoverished and ridden homeland to the fire of vast North American cities. Bad Bridget is a masterpiece of social history and true crime, showing us a fascinating and previously unexplored world.

Reviews

A fascinating account of an aspect of the diaspora that is rarely given attention . . . Farrell and McCormick have created a captivating account of lives previously ignored * Sunday Independent *
An important, impeccably researched though eminently readable book that charts new territory . . . this could yet be the book of 2023 -- Clodagh Finn * Irish Examiner *
Fascinating * Irish Times *
I just loved it . . . this is a book that will enrich any bookshelf around the country -- Ryan Tubridy

Author Bio

Elaine Farrell (Author) Elaine Farrell is a Reader in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen's University Belfast, and co-creator with Leanne McCormick of the Bad Bridget podcast. Leanne McCormick (Author) Leanne McCormick is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Ulster and co-creator with Elaine Farrell of the Bad Bridget podcast.