Marriage in Ireland, 1660–1925

What were the laws on marriage in Ireland, and did church and state differ in their interpretation? How did men and women meet and arrange to marry? How important was patriarchy and a husband's control over his wife? And what were the options available to Irish men and women who wished to leave an unhappy marriage? This first comprehensive history of marriage in Ireland across three centuries looks below the level of elite society for a multi-faceted exploration of how marriage was perceived, negotiated and controlled by the church and state, as well as by individual men and women within Irish society. Making extensive use of new and under-utilised primary sources, Maria Luddy and Mary O'Dowd explain the laws and customs around marriage in Ireland. Revising current understandings of marital law and relations, Marriage in Ireland, 1660?1925 represents a major new contribution to Irish historical studies.

Introduction; Part I. What is a Marriage?: 1. A legal marriage?; 2. Couple beggars; Part II. Ways to Marriage: 3. Meeting and matching with a partner; 4. Courtship behaviour; 5. Breach of promise; 6. Abductions; Part III. Happy Ever After?: 7. Marital relations; 8. Adultery and sex outside marriage; 9. Bigamy; Part IV. The Unmaking of Marriage: 10. Marital violence; 11. Desertion; 12. Divorce; Conclusion; Select bibliography; Index.

Maria Luddy is Emeritus Professor of Modern Irish History at the University of Warwick and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Her book Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth Century Ireland (1995) was awarded the James S. Donnelly Prize for best book in Irish history in 1996. She has published extensively on Irish social history, writing on unmarried mothers, nuns, and the history of Irish childhood. Her most recent publications include Prostitution and Irish Society, 1800–1940 (2007) and the co-edited collection Children, Childhood and Irish Society, 1700 to the Present (with James M. Smith, 2014).
Mary O'Dowd is Emeritus Professor of Gender History at Queen's University Belfast and a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. She has published extensively on women and gender in Irish history. Her most recent publications include, as co-author, Reading the Irish Woman: Studies in Cultural Encounters and Exchange, 1714–1960 (with Gerardine Meaney and Bernadette Whelan, 2014) and A History of the Girl: Formation, Education and Identity (2018) which she co-edited with June Purvis.