Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: May 10, 2021 at 10:27:48 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Albion]: Arnold on O'Dowd and Luddy, 'Marriage in > Ireland, 1660-1925' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Mary O'Dowd, Maria Luddy. Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925. Cambridge > Cambridge University Press, 2020. xiv + 448 pp. $32.99 (paper), > ISBN 978-1-108-73190-4. > > Reviewed by Claire Arnold (Northwestern University) > Published on H-Albion (May, 2021) > Commissioned by Douglas Kanter > > While the decades since Leonore Davidoff and Catherine Hall's > landmark _Family Fortunes _(1987) have seen a steady increase of work > on English and Scottish families, equivalent work on Irish families > has remained sparse. In _Marriage in Ireland, 1660- 1925_, Maria > Luddy and Mary O'Dowd aim to address this gap with an ambitious study > of the "logistics of heterosexual marriage in Ireland" over three > centuries of British rule (p. 407). Luddy and O'Dowd approach this > sprawling topic thematically. The book's twelve chapters are divided > into four sections, the first focused on a legal history of marriage, > and the subsequent three on experiences of courting, marrying, and > separating. Each section is further divided in thematic chapters, > which are in turn organized in topical sections. Thus, part 2, "Ways > to Marry," contains chapters 3-6, which include "Meeting and Matching > with a Partner," "Courtship Behavior," "Breach of Promise," and > "Abductions." The chapter on courtship behavior is then further > divided into subsections on public courting, secret courting, > financial considerations, premarital sex, and seduction. > > Though presented as a preliminary survey, this volume contains a > substantial amount of primary research. This is partly a symptom of > the lack of existing work on the subject. But it is also driven by > Luddy and O'Dowd's interest in bringing together official definitions > of marriage with individual experiences. To this end, they have > consulted an impressively large body of sources, pairing > parliamentary papers, court records, registrar's lists, and church > archives with personal papers, newspaper accounts, and folklore. This > approach allows them to deftly navigate Ireland's overlapping > religious and civil jurisdictions, describing informal marriage > practices alongside official ones. It also allows them to incorporate > a tremendous number of individual accounts, bringing real stakes to > often impersonal demographic trends. While they are not always > strongly stated, this comprehensive research has led Luddy and O'Dowd > to several significant conclusions. Their investigation of informal > practices demonstrates the importance of marriage as a social > institution across social classes. Their survey of doweries through > the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries allows them to challenge the > argument that the Famine made marriage more financially minded. And > their tabulation of newspaper reports provides new statistics on the > prevalence of marital violence, spousal murder, and abduction > > Of course, no survey is ever fully comprehensive. Like many histories > of family life, these themes do skew towards the disastrous (happy > couples leave few court records). And although Luddy and O'Dowd > acknowledge potential contributions from cultural history and gender > and sexuality studies on these topics, their approach is primarily > rooted in social history. As a result, the somewhat cursory treatment > of topics such as symbolic gift giving and wedding ceremonies > (chapter 7) or sex work (chapter 8) will undoubtedly leave some > readers unsatisfied. But it is also difficult to ask this already > lengthy study to include more. Luddy and O'Dowd themselves position > this volume as a foundation for future work, rather than the > definitive study on Irish marriage. They flag three areas they think > are particularly promising: the role of extended family, children, > and further comparative work with England and Europe. In practice, > the breadth of topics covered here will likely spark many more ideas. > > Unfortunately, this thematic approach does make it more difficult for > Luddy and O'Dowd to give their readers a sense of the larger arc of > Irish marriage over three centuries. Their introduction identifies > some significant changes from 1660 to 1925: demographic growth, > rising literacy, growing numbers of newspapers, and women's shifting > legal position. They also point to some intriguing particularities of > the Irish case compared to England and Scotland: poverty, limited > urbanization, the Famine and resulting emigration, the unique > position of the Catholic Church, and the lack of legal divorce > through the twentieth century. But this broader context is often > obscured by thematic divisions between and within chapters. Most > concerningly, chronological clarity is often sacrificed for topical > coverage. Though chapter and section titles rarely include date > ranges, most are understandably focused on a subset of the period > from 1660 to 1925. Thus, not every chapter starts in 1660 and ends in > 1925, nor does each chapter spend equal time between the early modern > and modern periods. However, the period focus of each section is not > always clearly stated. Combined with the lack of a larger narrative > about the evolution of marriage, this vagueness leaves the readers to > work out for themselves which topics are consistent features of > marriage over the three-century scope and which are tied to certain > periods or events. > > Change over time is most difficult to discern in the broadest > chapters. For example, chapter 7, "Marital Relations," begins with a > brief section on wedding ceremonies and celebrations, followed by a > long section titled "Forms of Patriarchy," three very brief sections > on wills, and a final section that describes women's changing > property rights over the nineteenth century along with the sexual > lives of a small set of twentieth-century couples. The conclusion > then mentions family size, before stating, "there can be no > generalizing about intimate relationships between married couples" > (p. 259). The reader is left with a vague sense of some aspects of > married life, but a limited grasp of their relative frequency, scope, > or change over time. This encyclopedic approach is also repeated in > chapter 4, on courtship; chapter 8, on adultery; and chapter 10, on > marital violence, with similar issues. > > Chapters with more specific topics are easier to follow. For example, > in chapter 6, "Abductions," Luddy and O'Dowd convincingly argue that > abduction was "extensively practiced" from the late eighteenth > through the early nineteenth century, peaking in the 1830s and 40s. > Backed by a broad survey of court records and newspaper accounts, > they argue abduction was economically motivated, and thus first > practiced among minor gentry before descending to the lower-middle > classes. Their survey also shows only 20 to 30 percent of cases > resulted in convictions, suggesting most abductions did eventually > end in a marriage. However, their incorporation of individual > accounts also emphasizes the physical and sexual violence of > abduction, allowing them to assert that few abductions were > pre-arranged consensual agreements. Chapter 2, on itinerant > ministers; chapter 5, on breach of promise to marry cases; and > chapter 9, on bigamy, have similarly focused scopes and conclusions. > Still, the thematic separation of these more argumentative chapters > makes it difficult to point to significant turning points or causal > factors beyond the specific case studies. > > The thematic organization also obscures the extent to which this book > focuses on the nineteenth century. The beginning and end points of > the more focused chapters frequently hinge on nineteenth-century > legislation, such as the 1844 Act to prevent "clandestine" marriages, > the Irish Poor Law, and the divergence of divorce law between England > and Ireland after 1857. The broader chapters have more uneven > chronologies, but their most substantial sections often focus on the > nineteenth century as well. Those more interested in the rest of 1660 > to 1925, meanwhile, may be disappointed. Discussion of > eighteenth-century marriage is mostly limited to legislative changes > in chapter 1, "A Legal Marriage," and chapter 9, "Bigamy." Debates > about early modern affectionate marriage, wider kinship networks, or > the transition to modern family forms, all common in English and > Scottish literature, are acknowledged but not expanded on. > Twentieth-century references are even more scattered, appearing > briefly at the end of some chapters in focused accounts of the Irish > Free State's relatively harsher attitude to breach of promise and > bigamy cases, and a moral panic over sex work and national health in > the 1920s. Again, the book's already broad scope makes it difficult > to ask for more content--but Luddy and O'Dowd could have been more > selective and transparent about their primary focus. > > Ultimately, this volume contains a tremendous amount of information > about marriage in Ireland, though it is not always fully > contextualized. Though the title suggests a general survey, these > chapters can focus in quite quickly to specifics, which may make it > difficult for readers not already familiar with the main themes of > either Irish history or the history of the family. But for readers > hoping to supplement or expand their work on marriage, family > relationships, or women's legal and social positions in Ireland, this > volume opens new questions and sets readers on the path to answering > them. > > Citation: Claire Arnold. Review of O'Dowd, Mary; Luddy, Maria, > _Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925_. H-Albion, H-Net Reviews. May, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56240 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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