The World of Mary O’Connell: A Social History of Ireland’s 19th Century Catholic Middle Class
Presented by Dr. Erin Bishop Sunday, April 29 2 p.m.
Maine Irish Heritage Center Corner of State and Gray Streets Portland, Maine
In 1800, Daniel O’Connell, a young barrister who had just made a start in Irish nationalist politics, began a clandestine correspondence with a distant cousin, Mary O’Connell of Tralee, County Kerry. Two years later, Daniel married the dowerless Mary, jeopardizing his inheritance and sealing a deep bond that continued through his rise to international prominence and election to the British Parliament. It would be severed only by Mary’s death in 1836. The public life of Daniel O’Connell, called “The Liberator” or “The Emancipator” for his work on behalf of Irish Catholic emancipation, is well known.
As part of the Maine Irish Heritage Center’s quarterly series of Dúchas (Heritage) talks, Dr. Erin Bishop will present a panoramic view of Mary O’Connell’s private world – a rare look at the lesser-known social and domestic life of the 19th-century Irish Catholic middle class.
Erin Bishop is the former Director of Education for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. She obtained an M.A. and Ph.D. in history from University College Dublin, where she explored the lives of 19th-century women. She has published two books on the life of Mary O'Connell, one of which is used in coursework on Marriage and Family in Ireland at Queens University, Belfast. Erin lives in Falmouth and works as an independent researcher, writer and museum consultant. Admission is free; all are welcome.
Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St. Portland ME
207-899-0505
