In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Murder Trials in Ireland, 1836-1914
  • Neal Garnham (bio)
Murder Trials in Ireland, 1836-1914, by W. E. Vaughan; pp. xi + 450. Dublin and Portland: Four Courts Press, 2009, £55.00, $70.00.

W. E. Vaughan is best known for his work on landlord-tenant relations in nineteenth-century Ireland. These studies fundamentally reshaped the ways in which historians thought of the subject and had important repercussions for our wider understanding of Irish history and culture in this period. Given the sometimes fractious nature of the relationships that Vaughan studies, it is perhaps not surprising that he has now produced a study of murder and its treatment in the period. The book contains twelve chapters. The first offers an overview of violent crime and its contexts, indicating the routes that will be taken by the chapters to follow. The final section is a rather intriguing one, which is proportionately more anecdotal than any of those that precede it. It does, however, succinctly bring together the threads of the author's arguments. Three appendices follow, giving details of death sentences and hangings, the route to the abolition of capital punishment, and a statistical breakdown of the crimes that are examined elsewhere in the book. The bulk of Murder Trials in Ireland, 1836-1914 gives a methodical and intriguing breakdown of the processes of trial for murder, beginning with the verdict of the coroner's court, passing through the apprehension of the suspected offender and the direct processes of trial, and ending with the denouement of the executions of the convicted. There is a very full index, a useful bibliography, and a table of the key statutes that impacted the relevant processes of the law.

Each chapter offers a nuanced discussion of the key aspects of the processes to which it is devoted and a clear delineation of the key changes that occurred in them. The prose is clear, and concise and witty turns of phrase often cut through the legalese and jargon that could have shrouded the author's points. Along with the meticulous research upon which the study is based, this is a clear indication that this is a work of considerable scholarship, founded on a real understanding of the subject and underpinned by a substantial knowledge of the period. Only narrative is sacrificed, though this will frustrate some readers. Unsurprisingly, the author's conclusions sweep well beyond the courtrooms of nineteenth-century Ireland. Vaughan cites the steady decrease in capital sentences and executions across the period, noting that by 1914 "capital punishment had almost ceased" (357). This and other factors suggest to him that Ireland was neither a particularly violent nor crime-ridden society, nor one in which the law and the courts were mere tools of a ruthless and repressive colonial regime. The courts of law—at least at [End Page 557] the higher levels—instead emerge as merciful and independent, operating with a very large measure of public consent and approval. The author insists on examining the legal world of murder in toto rather than through the distorting prism of high-profile cases and causes célèbres. Such an approach, he argues, gives a more representative picture of the functioning of the criminal justice system. If he is right, then Ireland appears very much as a typical provincial region of the United Kingdom, rather than as an anomalous colonial possession. The law, the courts, and the crimes committed in Ireland differed remarkably little from those that existed elsewhere in the country's peripheries. The broadest implication, therefore, would be that Ireland itself, despite many calls to the contrary by both contemporary observers and modern historians, should be more clearly considered as part of the British national project than as an imperial addendum.

While Vaughan's analysis of his material cannot be doubted, these broader inferences seem to be based on less solid ground than his analysis of the minutiae. By diminishing the importance of widely publicised cases, he effectively dismisses the possibility that they may have colored popular opinions regarding the law and that belief and perception were more fundamental factors in defining the nation than reality and fact. This approach also seems to...

pdf

Share