Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women

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A video interview between interpretation writer Carson and fellow author Kia Corthran adds a fascinating racial dimension to the immigrant story, but is not well integrated.

A really interesting read! I had no idea that Irish women made up such a high proportion of New York, Boston and Toronto’s incarcerated populations in the 19th and early 20th centuries, not to mention the breadth of crimes of which they were convicted. I took this as proof of the efficacy of the narrative reframing of the outlaw Bridget as a woman at the margins who is criminalised due to poverty and discrimination. My research to date has focused on women’s crime and imprisonment; Irish women’s migration; motherhood; infanticide; convict tattoos; and women during the First World War. I have delivered talks on my research in Ireland and the UK, Canada, Finland, the US (Charleston, Chicago, Nashville, New York, and New Orleans), Indonesia, and China. I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2015 and appointed Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2020. I was Distinguished Research Fellow in Irish Studies at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, in 2019-20 and went on a staff exchange to Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, in 2014. In addition to this collaboration, key elements of the exhibition were commissioned from women creative professionals, including artist Fiona McDonnell, author Jan Carson, and artist and food historian Tasha Marks. Echoing this journey, the temporary exhibition begins in Ireland, then takes the arduous trip across the sea, and ends in the cities of New York, Boston and Toronto.These were not criminal masterminds. They were often forced to do whatever they could to survive. In most of the case studies I found myself despairing at how easily these women fell into harm's way. The story of Rosie Quinn and her child in particular broke my heart. We first encountered Marion Canning when we came across letters from her father in the Clemency Records held in the New York State Archives in Albany. Four handwritten letters from Thomas Canning in Mohill, County Leitrim, to New York City authorities, pleaded for mercy to be extended to his imprisoned daughter.

Media enquiries and interview requests to Zara McBreartyat the Communications Office at Queen’s University Belfast and to Lee Campbell at Ulster University. Irish emigrants sail to the US during the Great Famine, 1850. Photograph: Illustrated London News/Getty Opened in April last year and inspired by a research project of the same name, Bad Bridget interprets the lives of women who left Ireland between 1838 and 1918 and were drawn to North America by the promise of economic opportunity.I think the senses can break down boundaries, making collections more accessible and enticing. Scent is closely linked to memory so it has the power to create a longer lasting impression that goes beyond the gallery walls.” At least 7.5 million people emigrated from Ireland between 1815 and 1914. They were disproportionately female, young, and often travelled alone; girls as young as seven crossing the Atlantic unaccompanied. Among these millions were women who became murderers, poisoners and professional thieves; there were also prostitutes, alcoholics, and unmarried mothers who killed their babies. The emigration story we mostly tell ourselves is a bright, shiny one to which Bad Bridget now adds invaluable corrective shading. Its haul of previously underused primary source material will certainly change how we understand that story, and allow us to tell it with more nuance and complexity, and truth.

The focus on marginalised subjects paired with such dynamic design marks an exciting departure for the museum. In Bad Bridget all of the featured women in the book come under the title ‘bad’ but, in many cases, they were simply sad, or sometimes mad, Bridgets. The project also seeks to uncover the types of criminal activity in which Irish women were involved, from drunkenness to murder. Our research has revealed that Irish-born migrants feature frequently in registers relating to prisons, houses of correction and houses of industry. We consider if Irish women deviated from societal norms to a greater extent than other ethnic groups and if the reactions of the authorities were guided by ethnic prejudices.On International Women's Day, social media is flooded with snippets of inspiring and pioneering female role models from the past, companies highlight women's achievements in and outside the workplace, and the Gender Pay Gap bot exposes what its name suggests (usually indicating lower pay for women).

If you like our Bad Bridget research, you might be interested in our books on related subjects of women, crime and sexuality: There was 20-year-old Kate Sullivan, charged with the murder of her infant twins, who told a New York courtroom she had been “duped by the son of a farmer for whom she worked in Ireland” who “shipped her over here, promising to follow on the next steamer” but did not. Thomas’s desperation is evident: he wrote on that occasion of his hope that the judge might release her ‘and thereby give peace to her disconsolate and broken-hearted parents.’ In his second letter a few weeks later, he pleaded with the New York State Governor to grant Marion’s freedom. The female equivalent of “Paddy”, the stereotypical Bridget was “often portrayed as this big, heavy-set woman, rolling pin in her hand, her face has those sort of simian features, often quite brutal, often very animal-like, as if she’s nearly subhuman, she hasn’t quite evolved properly, she’s coarse, she’s ignorant,” says Farrell. These are the women they collectively dub Bad Bridget, and they deserve to have their experiences showcased as part of the Irish emigration story.Marion Canning’s life in New York could not have been more different to that in Ireland. Prior to her arrest, she lived in Mulberry Street, which formed part of Five Points in New York City. This area was notorious for gangs and violence, overcrowding and dreadful living conditions. The historical record can be silent on these girls’ experiences. They might feature on passenger lists of those who crossed the Atlantic Ocean, in censuses, or in marriage records, if they married abroad. The historians have launched a five-part podcast series titled Bad Bridgets and are working on a book based on five years of research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The actor Siobhán McSweeney, who plays Sister Michael in Derry Girls, joined the podcast.