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Title: $‘The Absolute Distress of Females’: Irish Abduction and the British Newspapers, 1800 to 1850
Abstract: AbstractBetween 1800 and 1850 the British newspapers published over 1,000 newspaper articles concerned with Irish abduction, offering a stark contrast to the little attention devoted to English cases during the same period. This article examines representations of Irish abduction in the British press and considers how this form of sexual spectacle contributed to British perceptions of Ireland during this period. Analysis of a number of particularly heinous abduction cases from the early nineteenth century demonstrates how images of vulnerable and often violated women encouraged unfavourable contrasts between Irish and British masculinity in ways that served to heighten anxieties about the nature of civilisation in Ireland. In so doing, this newspaper coverage of Irish abduction helped to assuage concerns about ‘the Irish question’ and, this article argues, to justify the coercive nature of Britain's imperial presence there. Notes1 These findings complemented archival research conducted in the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (hereafter HCPP), which records 1,919 committals for abduction in Ireland between 1800 and 1850, when the population ranged from 5.2 million in 1801 to 6.5 million in 1851. During the same period in England, the population more than doubled, from 8.3 million in 1801 to almost 17 million in 1851. There are, however, records for fewer than 60 abductions during this period of which the abduction perpetrated by Edward Gibbon Wakefield in 1826 receives the most attention. See Lindsey, ‘Taken’, 1–38.2 For a full list of these articles, see Lindsey, Taken, 186–244.3 First accessed 10 July 2007. http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.4 Fleming and King, ‘British Library Newspaper Collections’. Not all of these newspapers were in circulation for the entire 50-year period investigated and this database is yet to comprise full print runs of many papers because the digitisation process is ongoing, which means that new material is regularly added, and these search findings cannot be definitive.5 Returning to the digitised newspaper collection between 2012 and 2014 when substantially more newspapers and issues had become available, the number of articles concerned with Irish abduction had increased threefold. These figures are not representative of the actual cases, which occurred during this period, as there are often multiple articles concerned with the various stages of a particular trial.6 The National Folklore Collect at University College of Dublin does include references to nineteenth-century abduction, but most concern fictional accounts recollected in twentieth-century oral recordings.7 ‘Irish Assizes: Abduction of Miss Goold.’ Glasgow Herald, 12 Aug. 1822.8 Newgate Calendar, ‘Convicted of Abduction’, n. p. http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng590.htm (first accessed 2 May 2008); De Nie, The Eternal Paddy, 5.9 Curtis, Apes and Angels; Foster, Paddy and Mr Punch; Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White; Pittock, Celtic Identity; McVeigh and Rolston, ‘Civilising the Irish’.10 Colley, ‘Britishness and Otherness’, 309–29.11 De Nie, The Eternal Paddy, 3–4.12 Ibid., 4.13 For figures of Irish abduction during this period, see Lindsey, Taken, 1–15; Power, Forcibly without her Consent; Luddy, Abduction, 2013. Also De Nie, The Eternal Paddy, 271.14 De Nie, The Eternal Paddy, 276.15 This research subject to the same limitations as the general search of Irish abduction outlined in notes 4 and 5.16 Wilkinson, Newgate Calendar, n.p.17 Ibid.18 In chronological order: Malcolmson, Pursuit of the Heiress; Barnard, Abduction of a Limerick Heiress; Kelly, ‘Abduction of Women of Fortune’; Durey, ‘Abduction and Rape in Ireland’.19 Power, Forcibly without her Consent.20 Luddy, ‘Abduction’.21 Luddy refers to the Goold case in her introduction.22 Cleary, ‘Amongst Empires’, 12.23 Howe, ‘Minding the Gaps’, 136. See also Howe, Ireland and Empire; Howe, ‘Historiography’; Kenny, Ireland and the British Empire.24 Cleary, Amongst Empires, 53.25 For example, Nolan, ‘Postcolonial Literary Studies’, 337; Luddy, ‘Abduction’. There are also gender histories associated with Ireland before Cleary's Citation2007 challenge, such as Bitel, Land of Women; Buckley, Irish Marriage Customs; Cosgrove, Marriage in Ireland, to mention a few.26 Hall, ‘Of Gender and Empire’, 61; also Blom, Hall and Hagemann, Gendered Nations; Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes. Other scholars include Ida Blom, Lenore Davidoff, Nira Yuval-Davis, and Silke Wenke to mention a few.27 Levine, ‘Why Gender and Empire?’, 1.28 Ibid., 7.29 Ibid., 7.30 Hall, ‘Of Gender and Empire’, 65–73.31 McKenzie, Scandal in the Colonies.32 Shorthand Writer, Trial of Sir Henry Browne Hayes, 16.33 The statutes associated with abduction are complicated by the fact that different legislation was frequently applied within England and its territories. The basis of the English (and Australian) legislation was 4 & 5 Phillip and Mary, Chapter 8, An Act for the punishment of such as shall take away Maydens that be inheritors, being within the Age of sixteen years, or marry them without the consent of their parents. In 1828, this was amended by 9 Geo IV c.31 sections 19 and 20, which removed the death sentence. The death penalty was introduced into Ireland with 6 Anne 16, 1707, An Act for the more effectual preventing the Taking away and Marrying Children against the Wills of their Parents and Guardians. For a discussion on these statutes, see Lindsey, Taken, 1–38, which also outlines the details of the 173 Irish bride thieves transported to the Australian colonies.34 Lindsey, ‘So Much Recklessness’.35 Reid, Gender, Crime and Empire, 12.36 Temple, A Sort of Conscience.37 See Fox, ‘The Creator Gods’, and Yuval-Davis, Floya and Campling. Women, Nation, State, for examples in different contexts. In Sydney during the 1830s and 1850s, working men often wore distinctive dress and took great pleasure in knocking the beaver hats from the heads of British ‘jimmy-grants’. Molony, Native Born, 21.38 Madden, Wiggins, and Barry, Ireland and its Rulers, 24.39 Hall, ‘The Rule of Difference’, 114.40 James S. Donnelly Junior has dedicated the most attention to the Rockites and refers to this abduction in Donnelly, Captain Rock, 157, 185–86, 312, 391; Miss Goold's abduction is also mentioned in: McCartney, Dawning of Democracy, 90; Whooley, ‘Captain Rock's Rebellion’, 33. It is not mentioned in the following works, despite reference to related events and people: Donnelly, The Land and the People; Donnelly, ‘Pastorini and Captain Rock’; Donnelly ‘Ideology and Organization’; Katsuta, ‘The Rockite Movement’; Nolan, ‘Irish Melodies’.41 McCartney, Dawning of Democracy, 90.42 Donnelly notes how this name was associated with Celtic—carrigah (rock)—and referred to the fact that Patrick Dillane, the first rebel to adopt the name of Captain Rock was celebrated for pelting stones at Hoskin's staff. Donnelly, Captain Rock, 369, fn. 39.43 Ibid., 41, 45–46.44 Donnelly, ‘Pastorini and Captain Rock’, 113, 124.45 Gibbons, Captain Rock, Night Errant, 184. Letter 317, National Archives of Ireland (hereafter NAI), State of the Country Papers (hereafter SOC), 2513/43, Clonakilty: 27 May 1823.46 O'Sullivan Captain Rock Detected, 28.47 Donnelly, Captain Rock, 66–67.48 Donnelly, ‘Ideology and Organization’, 63.49 Donnelly, Captain Rock, 185–86. Donnelly refers to correspondence between Jean Deane Freeman and William Gregory, 31 Mar. 1822, NAI SOC 1, 2345/50.50 Donnelly, Captain Rock, 185–86.51 Gibbons, Captain Rock, Night Errant; Donnelly, ‘Ideology and Organization’, 86.52 Cunningham, Two Years, 241.53 ‘Disturbed Districts’, Trewman's Exeter Flying Post, 29 Nov. 1821. This article describes the captain wearing ‘a blue coat, pantaloons, cocked hat with feathers and a white sash’. This particular Captain Rock may have been David Nagle; see Katsuta, ‘Rockite Movement’, 286.54 ‘Abduction of Miss Goold’, The Examiner, 11 Aug. 1822.55 ‘Abduction of Miss Goold’, Trewman's Flying Post, 4 April 1822.56 ‘Limerick Assizes: Abduction of Miss Goold’, Glasgow Herald, 12 Aug. 1822; ‘Limerick Assizes: Abduction of Miss Goold’, Jackson's Oxford Journal, 10 Aug. 1822.57 ‘Irish Assizes: Abduction of Miss Goold’, Glasgow Herald, 12 Aug. 1822.58 Ibid.59 De Nie, The Eternal Paddy, 276.60 ‘Abduction: Miss Goold’, Caledonian Mercury, 28 March 1822.61 Ibid.; ‘The Limerick Chronicle’, Morning Chronicle, 16 July 1822.62 Morning Chronicle, 17 Aug. 1822; Jackson's Oxford Journal, 20 July 1822; Liverpool Mercury, 26 July 1822; Exeter Flying Post, 29 Aug. 1822.63 Morning Chronicle, 17 Aug. 1822.64 ‘Most Atrocious Case: Abduction of Miss Goold’, Freeman's Journal, 2 Aug. 1822.65 Donnelly, Captain Rock, 185; Freeman to Gregory, 31 Mar. 1822, NAI SOCP 1, 2345/50.66 ‘Most Atrocious Case’, Freeman's Journal, 2 Aug. 1822.67 Donnelly, Captain Rock, 185.68 Moore, Memoirs of Captain Rock, 1.69 Nolan, ‘Irish Melodies’, 41.70 Moore, Memoirs of Captain Rock, 153.71 1 George IV, C3, The Insurrection Act: to Suppress Insurrection and Prevent Disturbance, 1822.72 Moore, Memoirs of Captain Rock, 368.73 3 William IV, chapter 4, Coercion Act, 1833.74 Fenton, Origins of Animosity, fn. 9: Barnes to Le Marchant, 3 June 1834.75 ‘The Irish Coercion Bill’, Bristol Mercury, 9 March 1833.76 In 1840, the Walsh case attracted coverage from six articles from three London newspapers, as well as eight articles from eight different regionals, seven from three distinct Irish papers, but none from the Scottish press.77 ‘Horrible Murder’, Hampshire Telegraph, 4 March 1835.78 Case outcome unknown.79 ‘Remarkable Case of Abduction, Dreadful Assault and Outrage’, Freeman's Journal, 25 Feb. 1835; ‘Abduction and Rescue’, Belfast Newsletter, 6 March 1835; ‘Abduction and Rescue, the Creighton Brothers and Margaret McNamara’, Belfast Newsletter, 16 March 1835; ‘Abduction and Rescue’, Belfast Newsletter, 26 March 1835.80 The outcome of this case is unknown. A year later, in Rathcahill, a group of ‘near twenty fellows’ entered the house of widow O'Brien and ‘forcibly carried away’ her daughter Catherine, who was under a contract of marriage. ‘Abduction’, Belfast Newsletter, 23 Feb. 1836.81 ‘Abduction and Violation: McCarthy Bros.’, Belfast Newsletter, 1 Sept. 1840.82 ‘Abduction and Violation: McCarthy Bros.’, Examiner, 30 Aug. 1840.83 ‘Abduction and Violation: McCarthy Bros.’, Freeman's Journal, 26 Aug. 1840.84 ‘Abduction and Violation: McCarthy Bros.’, Era, 1 Sept. 1840.85 ‘Parental Cruelty: Walsh and McCarthy Case’, Era, 11 April 1841.86 Ibid.87 ‘Abduction’, Era, 11 March 1841.88 Ibid.89 Ibid.90 Ibid.91 Fenton, ‘Origins of Animosity’, 367; De Nie, the Eternal Paddy, 33.92 Marr, My Trade, 76.93 De Nie, The Eternal Paddy, 269.94 Much has been written about these literary tropes. See, for example, Connelly and Copely, Sydney Owenson.95 Levine, ‘Why Gender and Empire?’, 7.96 Hall, ‘Of Gender and Empire’, 62.97 Colley, Captive Britain.98 Colley, Captive Britain; Colley, ‘Britishness and Otherness’.99 ‘An Englishman's Estimate of an English Woman's Virtue’, Derby Mercury, 24 March 1841.