Erin I. Bishop
The Word of Mary O'Connell 1[zasłonięte]778-18
Dublin 1999
Stron VII+216, format: 15x23 cm
In 1800 Daniel O'Connell, a young Kerry barrister who had just made his first forays into national politics, began a clandestine correspondence with his distant cousin Mary O'Connell of Tralee. Two years later Daniel secretly married the dowerless Mary in Dublin, jeopardizing his inheritance and forging a bond that would last until Mary's death in 1836. Husband and wife corresponded voluminously from the beginning of their courtship until Mary's death, and over a thousand letters between them have survived.
The World, of Mary O'Connell, based on close examination of these letters and of Mary's correspondence with other family members and friends, is more than a portrait of the Liberator's wife. Through the life and letters of Mary O'Connell, Erin Bishop has produced a fascinating study of social and domestic life in Ireland in the early nineteenth century. In chapters dealing with love and marriage, motherhood, domesticity, family and kin, sickness and health, and religion, Bishop paints both an intimate picture of the life of one woman and a panoramic view of a time and a social stratum — the Catholic middle class — that have hitherto received inadequate scholarly attention.
erin i. bishop received her doctorate in history from the National University of Ireland, University College Dublin, in 1997. She is the editor of My Darling Danny: Letters from Mary O'Connell to Her Son Daniel, 1[zasłonięte]830-18 (1998).
Contents
Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 MARY O'CONNELL 9 'partner of my soul' : LOVE AND MARRIAGE 31 'angel mother': MOTHERHOOD 58 'regulating matters': DOMESTICITY 88 'all our friends' : CORRESPONDENCE AND KIN 108 'a most treacherous complaint' :SICKNESS AND HEALTH 127 'a pattern ofpiety' : RELIGION 148 Afterword 169 Notes 171 Bibliography 201 Index 209
|