Leslie’s book a glimpse into Ireland of the 19th century

The fascinating story of a strong-willed 19th century woman landowner, Mary Anne Tyrrell, has been recorded in a new book by Mullingar author, Lesley Whiteside. Her book, entitled A miserable thing to be a woman, was edited by one of her past pupils – Michael Potterton, a distinguished archaeologist and historian – and officially launched by another former pupil, Ken Wardrop, the renowned filmmaker, last week.

“I taught both boys Latin and English, and it is really lovely that now they are the experts,” Lesley laughed in an interview with the Westmeath Examiner before the launch.

The book has brought together many more of Lesley’s friends: David Clarke, who sadly died last year, drew the map, his daughter Rachel did the illustrations, and Lesley’s friends, Maria and Richard Williamson, hosted the launch at their home at Hill of Down.

Lesley confessed that she had no interest in Mary Anne Tyrrell to start with and no intention of writing about her or about feminism.

Then, a trawl through the archives of Ballinderry House in Carbury changed all that. “I discovered a large amount of her correspondence. I can’t read much during the cataloguing process but I have to read enough to place material in order and as I did, I discovered what an amazing woman she was,” Lesley said.

Lesley is also archivist to Monksgrange in Wexford and there she had discovered Dorothea Richards, a woman who had been widowed at a young age and left to bring up two young boys. “I had read her papers, and I knew she had coped well for 40 years.”

Then Lesley saw Mary Anne’s correspondence, “her fighting with everyone and taking people to court”. Like Dorothea, Mary Anne was widowed young and left to raise her family and run a large estate, but the difference was in their approach.

Lesley discovered Mary Anne’s prolonged dispute with a local land agent Frederick Hamilton. “She said she would have challenged him to a duel, were she a man,” Lesley said, adding: “Mary Anne believed that if she had been a man, she would have been a notable local figure.”

She fought with her only sister too. She and her sister Harriet had inherited most of the Tyrrell estate equally, as well as lands from their father, Jonathan Haughton. Their mother had been a Tyrrell and Mary Anne married her cousin, Garrett Tyrrell, while Harriet married Daniel Neill. The Neills lived in Offaly and had a town house in Rathgar, Dublin.

“The two sisters fought incessantly and were terribly rude to each other,” Lesley remarked.

In 1872 Harriet was murdered in her Rathgar home and “immediately after her murder, Mary Anne became a devoted sister. She wrote repeatedly to the chief secretary for Ireland, looking for justice for her sister, until she was told that her letters were so aggressive they were not welcome,” Lesley said.

Terence Walsh, son of one of Harriet’s tenants in Offaly, was charged “in connection with” Harriet’s murder, but not with murder, Lesley remarked. He had recently visited Harriet and threatened that she would be shot over a dispute about a set of gates she had erected on her land and which the Walsh family had taken down.

“It was all recounted in court

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and he served time for his involvement, but no one was ever convicted of her murder,” Lesley pointed out.

The case had a Westmeath connection in that there were reports that Terence Walsh had attended a meeting of the Ribbon Men in Tyrrellspass at which Harriet’s murder was planned. There was another Westmeath connection in that it was long believed that Harriet’s murder was the only murder of an Irish woman landowner by a tenant during the 19th century.

In 1977, a local man claimed that a relative of his had murdered Sarah Kelly of Ballinderry, Moate, in 1856 and his claim was accepted by the Dictionary of Irish Biography of 2009.

Delving deep into Mary Anne’s correspondence, Lesley discovered that at one stage a labourer had found gold lunulae ornaments on her land, some of which he brought to her, having already sold the rest. She went straight to Dublin the next day and took them to the Royal Irish Academy. (They are now in the National Museum.)

Lesley said that was a huge effort on Mary Anne’s part, at a time when travel was not easy. She was, however, not shy of travel, and she spent long periods in France with her children and ensured that the boys learned French at a young age.

“She had great energy but wasted a lot of it on fighting,” Lesley commented.

She admitted that she had presumed Mary Anne must have been “a plain, dumpy” woman, who made such a fuss because no one paid attention to her. Lesley was astounded to discover a photograph of her taken around 1850 in which she is “beautiful, with lovely auburn hair and fine features and is fashionably dressed”.

Lesley was conscious all the time that what she had was the letters Mary Anne had kept, but she could not help wondering how many more there had been and how typical the ones that survived were.

Lesley, in addition to being archivist at Ballinderry, Carbury, and Monksgrange in Wexford, was also archivist of the Purdon and Cairnes estates until the death of Mrs Anne Purdon (née Cairnes), of Lisnabin, Killucan.

She has written many books, this may be number 20, she reckons, but she claims it is probably her last. Last or not, it is a fascinating look at a remarkable life and an amazing glimpse into Ireland in the 19th century.

A miserable thing to be a woman – Mary Anne Tyrrell (1821-1894) and her landed estate is published by Four Courts Press.