Abstract
Gender and Punishment in Ireland blends historiography, case studies and legal analysis in a skilfully woven narrative, making a rather heavy topic into a great read. The book opens with the story of Annie Walsh, accused of complicity in the murder of her husband Edward in October 1924, a case in which duplicity, violence, infidelity and secrecy were at play. Despite her protestations of innocence, Walsh was hanged in Mountjoy prison in August 1925, one of just twenty-two women to receive such a sentence in the period under study, although 292 women and girls were prosecuted for murder between the 1920s and 1960s. This figure may be surprising to some as female lethal violence is often regarded as less common. Indeed, Black argues convincingly that women's lethal violence has gendered hallmarks: women were less likely than men overall to kill, but when they did it was most likely to be a person within their own families. This could be because of abusive treatment, but in Walsh's case the suspicion was that she was having an affair with a man significantly younger than her husband, demonstrating the complexity of lethal violence cases. Black's book covers the spectrum of violent cases in which women in twentieth century Ireland were involved, from the unfortunately ‘typical’ cases of infanticide to the far rarer cases of women murdering strangers. Throughout the book the concept of the ‘double deviance’ of female killers is explored – the transgression is not just a legal one but a moral one, and as women were often understood to be society's moral guardians, their transgression when committing lethal violence was therefore double (pp. 3, 6).
The book is thematically arranged and covers a rich range of approaches to studying this topic. The introduction situates the study in the context of Ireland's status as a newly independent nation, the gender discourses that shaped expectations of men and women and how these were interpreted when women killed, and the historiography and legal cases that help us interpret the sources presented in the book. Black deftly handles the interplay between how gendered norms shaped women's sentencing; for example, women were more likely to get lighter sentences than men who were convicted of manslaughter, an outcome in tension with ideas of women's double deviancy. The first chapter contains a vast amount of quantitative data on women prosecuted for murder, broken down by year; victim status; whether prosecution resulted in a jury trial and, if so, what the outcome was; whether the women pleaded guilty (detailed profiles are given of the twenty-two women convicted of murder and sentenced to death, including the infamous abortionist Mamie Cadden); and whether the women had previous convictions (six in total). The painstaking work in compiling this data is to be commended and it will be of invaluable use to scholars conducting cognate studies. There are also indispensable insights provided by Black as to the ‘maleness’ of the justice system – in addition to the identification of capital punishment as male in Ireland (and internationally) even the documentation had to be altered to cross out ‘he/him’ to allow ‘she/her’ to be inserted when recording female perpetrators.
Gender and Punishment in Ireland also details the clemency shown towards women which considered personal circumstances, public reactions and gendered norms of the era, demonstrating that in common with other countries, clemency for women because they were women was notable in Ireland. This was based less on kindness and more on perceptions of women as inferior in their rational capabilities, a finding that correlates with scholarship on gendered constructions of citizenship in modern Ireland. This analysis is furthered in the chapter on insanity which details how it could be a reason for not having a trial at all or could influence the punishment given for lethal crimes. Again, notable differences based on gender are detailed, including arguments founded on a belief in post-partum insanity that led to judgements of diminished responsibility. In some cases, genuine compassion seems to be on display in the verdicts, but in others judgemental or stigmatising language is used which reveals rather harsh gendered attitudes towards women. Two of the most interesting findings of Black's work on trials that featured an insanity determination are that married women were more likely to be found ‘insane’ and that language that described women as having a ‘low mentality’ was often code for perceived sexual deviancy (pp 81–2, 98).
The chapter on sentencing and punishment is also replete with quantitative data, enhanced by discussion of cases in which the range of punishments for lethal crimes are discussed, with Black arguing that Ireland was and remains a country in which there is a high range of discretion used in sentencing. It is this chapter which details the religious institutions that women were often sent to across the country as a result of being found guilty of lethal crimes (which found them housed with women who had committed no crime at all). Such was the belief in the redemptive power of religious regimes that in the post-independence period there was an increase in the number of women being sentenced to spend time in them, rather than in prisons. More so than in prisons, release from such institutions was highly dependent upon strict conformity to the rules of the religious order rather than a set period of time congruent with the crime committed. Black's book details rare insights into some cases where women tried to advocate for their own release based on what they had been told at sentencing. Another factor which made incarceration in a religious institution more difficult for women than in a prison was the fact that contextual factors such as the ability to return to family or get a job were considered as reasons to support or delay release. Black also notes that willingness to enter a Magdalen laundry or similar institution was sometimes a condition of being released from prison and may have been a strategy used by some women to gain accommodation and employment. What emerges is a picture of a ‘sticky’ network of religious institutions from which women may or may not have emerged (pp. 106, 128–32).
A recurring theme of the book, because of the unfortunate prevalence of the crime, is women's involvement in infanticide, thus this work extends previous scholarship, notably by James Kelly, Elaine Farrell and Cliona Rattigan on a crime with gendered hallmarks. The intensity of shame around sexual activity outside marriage is reiterated in poignant detail in Black's book, bringing to life some cases with transcript evidence from trial which is particularly compelling.
Reflecting on the book it is perhaps striking to the present-day reader, imbued with the idea of equality before the law, that the criminal justice system predicated on the male offender was so predominant and led to such profoundly different treatment of men and women in modern Ireland. It spared many women from a sentence of death or life in prison, but it also confined them in institutions from which there was sometimes no escape.
This will be essential reading on many courses in Ireland (both in history and in law) but will appeal beyond that to all interested in the ways in which women's criminality has differed to men's over time, including the different ways they were punished. As Black's study reveals, at times the gendered norms of the period allowed for lighter sentences to be applied to women who committed crimes based on contemporary notions of ability, intention and mental state, all shaped by gendered discourses. While this may seem like a form of discrimination that benefitted women, it also led to them being transferred to carceral institutions like Magdalen laundries where the sentence was indefinite. Recent scholarship has revealed that in some cases this meant a lifetime of institutionalisation, a topic that continues to dominate in light of the controversial final report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. Black's study also notes the lack of access to sources from religious institutions who have not opened their doors to scholars which, she argues, ‘compounds the legacy of harm such sites have left in their wake’, a contention supported by other scholars who have examined the histories of carceral institutions in Ireland, particularly those designed to house unmarried mothers (p. 13). While Gender and Punishment in Ireland focuses on a parallel history of women's lethal violence, it will be of interest to all revisiting Ireland's recent past to understand how those deemed ‘deviant’ were characterised and responded to.