Civilised by beasts: animals and urban change in nineteenth-century Dublin. By Juliana Adelman. Pp 234. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2020. £80.

Abstract

behaviour inherited by her renowned daughter, the first duchess, with whom the book ends. Overall the book shows that we can only reach a more complete understanding of Irish history ‘through a rounded and thorough analysis of all parties involved’ (p. 237). In attending to the women of the Ormond dynasty, Duffy has drawn upon a wide range of primary sources. His focus is on the women’s actions but their voices emerge through sources like wills, recorded speech and letters. Letters by Margaret Butler, Joan Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Preston are discussed in the book, and this is an aspect that could be developed further. It is possible that other women’s letters will be found among the Ormond Papers in the National Library of Ireland — the published calendars under-represent the number of letters by women and there is currently no alternative but to sift through the manuscripts one volume at a time. Duffy approaches thewomen’s writings as an historian but engagement with literary scholars and art historians who have also made significant contributions to our understanding of women in medieval and early modern Ireland would further support the central argument about women’s agency. Still, he utilises the textual and material culture of the Ormond women very well and vividly recreates the worlds in which they operated. Some illustrations to complement the text (portraits, buildings, objects, writings) would have been welcome, and a family tree would have helped to keep track of the generations of Ormond women and their relationships with one another, but overall this is an important and highly readable book that will be much cited by scholars of medieval and early modern Ireland.