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Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925


Illustration of a ‘couple beggar’ priest conducting a marriage service (The Irish Magazine and Monthly Asylum for Neglected Biography (January, 1814))

Marriage in Ireland, 1660-1925

Co-directed by  Professor Mary O'Dowd (Queen’s University Belfast) and Professor Maria Luddy (University of Warwick)

Funded by the AHRC

Duration May 2007-May 2010

The aim of this project is to produce a major study of the history of marriage in Ireland, north and south, from 1660-1925. The time frame begins with the Restoration of Charles II as King of Ireland and ends with the prohibition of divorce in the Irish Free State.  The primary focus is on the logistics of marriage among the social classes below the level of wealthy landowning families: how marriage was perceived, negotiated and controlled by church and state as well as by individual men and women. Although a significant amount of research has been completed on aristocratic marriage in Ireland surprisingly little has been done on the history of marriage among the 'middling' and lower social classes in rural or urban society.  The project will, therefore, open up a new field of Irish social history 

The project will examine four main themes:

  • Control and regulation of marriage by church and state
  • Choosing a marriage partner and the negotiation of formal and informal marriages 
  • Experience and reality of married life 
  • What happened when things went wrong:  the logistics of marriage breakdown: why and how did marital partners separate and  how was the separation viewed by the family, the community and church and state authorities

Key questions to be asked of each of these themes is the extent to which attitudes and practices changed over the time period examined and differed regionally and according to social class.

There were two Research Fellows attached to the project:Dr John Bergin  and Dr Katie Barclay who is now based at Queen's.