Galway Women in the Nineteenth Century

This book  delineates the lives of  the ‘Unknown Irishwoman’ in a turbulent century in Galway County and City on Ireland’s western seaboard. Their (Irishwomen’) lot in history cannot easily be measured. Much of it has disappeared; more of it was never recorded (Bowman, 2014). The work tells many of the untold or forgotten stories of ‘the lives of women which slide between the cracks’, to cite the novelist Martina Devlin (2014) and who could so easily be completely written out of history.

The book will appeal to the local historian, those with an interest in social history, women’s history and the general reader.

The book is organised into three main sections, each of which has a number of chapters. They are The Necessities of Life, The Nature of Society and Distress, followed by an Epilogue and Addenda.   

The Necessities of Life include chapters on Employment, Housing, Clothing and Food ‘always the major source of anxiety for the labourer of Ireland’ (O’Neill, 1984).

The Nature of Society deals with Marriage, Unmarried Mothers, Religion and Education. The double standards regarding sexual behaviour which pervaded society at the time are clearly shown.  

The section on Distress contains chapters on Distress and Famine, Migration and Emigration, Women and Crime. The different sentencing patterns in courts for both men and women are of interest.

The Epilogue depicts reveals how women came to be more disadvantaged than in the earlier part of the century. The subservient role of women in Irish society was further emphasised when a new definition of work ‘from being all work contributing to the operation of society to a narrower definition based on the idea of economic activity‘ introduced in the 1861 Census  meant that many women became invisible, from an official point of view. From that point on, women’s non-wage labour counted for nought in official records. This further lowered women’s status in society (and was a huge contrast to the situation which pertained before 1815). Oxley (1996) argues that adherence to the notions of the market economy led to the undervaluing of women’s contributions to an Irish society already divided along gender lines,  where it was widely held that gender differences gave order, balance and rationality to human relations. While Bowman (2014) has stated that many women who emigrated were escaping the puritanical strain of Irish Catholicism, (which became widely prevalent with The Devotional Revolution, etc., see Chapter on Religion), it is important to  remember that the attitude of the Churches in Ireland merely reinforced the current views of the Irish on society rather than initiated this point of view.  

The Epilogue also deals with the violence which underlay much of society and the attitudes of the courts to both male and female offenders. Male defendants were sometimes portrayed as victims in court and could be excused if their wives were inadequate housekeepers or homemakers,  particularly if the women in question were fond of drink. Society demanded that women should be sober and compliant.  

The decades after the Great Famine present us with a picture of almost unrelenting gloom. There was widespread Famine in parts of the County in 1896–7, for instance. Conditions in Connemara were at their worst for several decades in 1924, as noted in the Dillon MS.  

Less obvious are the improvements in the lives of women which were hard won. At the beginning of the century, it could be stated that most Irish women experienced neither education nor emigration’ (Fitzpatrick, 1986). The end of the century was conspicuous by their experience of both.  

Women used their education and the modern means of communication to further their interests. Through the Post Office, they became aware of opportunities overseas, knowledge of other lands, they used mail-order to good effect, they remitted money to family members, mainly female, to enable them to emigrate using this service.  It is also important to recall that the Post Office was the official pioneer of women’s employment in both England and Ireland during the last two decades of the century (Report of the Civil Service Competition in 1903).  

Some notable women and girls are referred to. Among them is the Widow Scannell and her Herculean effort, using all the legal resources available to her, in an unsuccessful attempt to retain her holding during the Famine, a clear case of might is right; the well-connected Sr. Marie de Pazzi O’ Donnell of the Presentation Convent in Galway, an indefatigable letter writer, who used her skills to  inform relatives in the Austrian Army of the plight in Ireland, who were thereby inspired to raise considerable funds for Famine relief;  the respectable Anne Ward and her struggles to gain entry to a Workhouse to save herself and her family from starvation.  

We do not know the names of many of the female members of families of Church of Ireland clergymen who were instrumental in administering so much Famine Relief. One can only admire the resilience displayed by women and girls in the unremitting misery of the Great Famine  and their continuing efforts to improve the lot of society after it, despite the fact that so many suffered from donor relief and exhaustion. Social work, including that of Congregations of Sisters, marked much of the second half of the century.  

One is moved to tears reading an account of the life, death and inquest report of Celia Griffin, who has come to symbolise all the children who lost their lives in the Great Famine (see ADDENDA).  

The ADDENDA also gives an account  based on the Letters from the Quit Rent Office, edited by Ellis (1960) of the Emigration from the  Crown Estates in County Galway. This was state- aided emigration. The perception that little care was taken to ensure the safety and well-being of emigrants is dispelled somewhat on reading of the care taken by Golding Bird, the collector of Excise in Galway and also involved in Workhouse schools)  to insist that the emigrants from Boughhill and Irvilloughter Estates should leave from Galway, where an emigrant officer had been employed to ensure that vessels were inspected and sailed punctually with proper supplies for passengers.  

Little is known of the individual  lives of many girls who transported girls from Workhouses to countries such  as Canada and Australia. The story of Mary Ann Taylor (Murphy, City Tribune, May 2014) is truly awesome.


This research refers to many notable men. Golding Bird  was very active in his attempts to oppose the limitations on female curricula in Workhouses and widen their range of subjects to enable girls to obtain better positions.  Michael Page Haniffy, a native of Clifden who had worked in Galway, enabled many people from the distressed Clifden Union to get a good start in Australia, chiefly in the Melbourne area; clergy, such as Fr. Rush and Fr. Folan in Claddagh, the Revd. Maunsell, members of the Society of Friends all made valuable contributions to the betterment of society.  

Throughout history, there have been women who were unwilling to accept the status quo. They availed of any opportunities to better their lot in the circumstances in which they found themselves. The girls who pawned their clothes before entering workhouses as a measure of relief were not going to be institutionalised. Some entered these hated institutions hoping to be selected when the authorities provided passages to several of them to reduce the numbers in workhouses. One can detect the resentment of the burdens of hard physical work (women’s work) felt by some girls(in letters) which continued to be their lot in many rural areas and their determination to be paid for such work, if they could emigrate. Women proved to be pro-active in this regard. Thousands forwarded passage money to female friends and relatives in an attempt to better themselves. It was galling for many girls to be better educated than they would have been decades previously and who were still unable to obtain worthwhile employment in a patriarchal society.  Many who could emigrated. These were women who viewed themselves as self-sufficient beings with an economic role to play in their families and communities a role increasingly denied them in Ireland. Life for those who remained could be especially difficult if one was unemployed, a deserted wife, a single mother or agnostic or a non-practising Christian. It would seem that some accepted the situation with a sense of fatalism (it was their ‘lot’ in life).

Little material is available as to the thinking of girls who could have emigrated and did not. What was the pay-off for some of them, especially if they lived in difficult conditions? Interviews with emigrants published in They change their sky: The Irish in Maine ed. Michael Connolly in 2004 reveal that some parents  felt they were failures if unable to provide a dowry for a girl in Ireland, there was an idea in some localities that it was a disgrace if a girl had to emigrate.    

It is interesting to see that those who opposed girls’ emigration were frequently parents who had no experience of living overseas. Much research remains to be done on this topic. Were some girls who stayed at home happy to remain, were they assured of the value of their contribution to family etc., while invisible in official statistics? Some evidence may still come to light and one must always remember the dictum of Dr. J.J. Lee that ‘a line of evidence is worth a page of hypotheses!’

Research was based on the evidence of Parliamentary Papers, Official Reports, contemporary accounts, such as the Transactions of the Central Relief Committee of the Society of Friends during 1846 and 1847, travellers’ accounts, Saunders’ Newsletters, Local Newspapers.  

The book also contains many interesting photographs, revealing many aspects of contemporary life. The unknown lady on the cover, one of a group referred to by Thackeray as ‘offering for sale their beautiful Connemara stockings of every variety of hue and especially red’ was chosen to represent the Galway women of the period, as she seemed to embody the endurance, the fortitude and the resilience which marked them.

This book is well presented and edited.