Wild Irish Women: Extraordinary Lives from History (review)

Marian Broderick's new work attempts to fill the gap between Irish history and Women's Studies in a collection of historical, social, and cultural perspectives on the women who helped to shape Ireland, presented in an appealing and accessible manner. Broderick's timely recognition of the fissure between Women's Studies and Irish history is laudable—though any attempt to address that deficit with one encompassing collection will necessarily fall short of such an ambitious goal.

Broderick establishes three criteria for inclusion in her collection. The women considered must be "fascinating," which she defines as "women who broke the rules in days when rule breaking was riskier than it is today"; they must have an Irish connection, albeit at times she allows a distant and loosely constructed connection; and they must not be living. The problematic aspect of her criteria for inclusion is the Irish connection: issues of nationality, representation, and voice for Ireland are so contested that one expects a work concerned with recognizing and preserving the influence of women on Irish history to bear these issues in mind more fully. Broderick's introduction does recognize the tenuous nature of the Irish connection of some of her subjects, noting that some women included in the collection "merely limp in with an Irish background" and that their Irishness is "variously and liberally mixed and diluted with the cultures of Europe, the USA, South America, the Caribbean, Japan and Australasia." Still, one has to question the inclusion of women with questionable Irish affiliation—for example, Molly Brown, "society figure and philanthropist," born in Hannibal, Missouri to Irish parents, a woman who seemingly had no direct or indirect influence on Irish history—especially when it detracts from the narratives of more influential women. Author Kate O'Brien, who significantly impacted Irish literature, is a good example of the latter. She wrote twelve novels, two of which were banned by the 1929 Censorship of Publications Act, prompting O'Brien's criticism of the Irish political climate under the rule of Eamon de Valéra; O'Brien's work thus created space for Irish women to be critical of Irish politics and culture.

Broderick's collection contains biographical pieces of an eclectic mix of women, organized chronologically within separate categories identifying the women as "Political Animals," "Saints and Sinners," and "Wives and Lovers," to name a few. As the section names suggest, the women included vary from famous to infamous, noble to ignoble, and their stories tell the tale of a complicated, sometimes tumultuous, Irish past and present. While the organization of the collection makes it easy to navigate through the seventy-one women represented, the labels can be at times both limiting and reductive. Broderick includes in her collection the stories of such Irish figures as the healer, Biddy Early, labeled a "Tough Cookie"; Bridget Cleary, found in the "Wives and Lovers" section, who was burned as a changeling in a hideous crime in 1895; and in "Saints and Sinners," the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Brighid. Biddy Early inspired ballads, poems, and folklore with her ability to make predictions and heal the sick; her earned status of "wise woman" secured her placement in the works of Yeats and Lady Gregory, and she successfully negotiated the space between Catholicism and the supernatural. Broderick's categorization of "Tough Cookie" Biddy Early most certainly trivializes the influence of this revered woman.

Wild Irish Women offers an ambitious yet appealing collection for both the reader who is academically or otherwise vested in Irish Studies, as well as the reader who has only a passing interest. This collection will not satisfy the research appetite of most Irish scholars, but it should at least whet the appetite of those interested in the ways in which women have influenced Irish history. These brief lives of undeniably remarkable women serve as a worthwhile introduction to that still-evolving topic.