'A Miserable Thing to Be a Woman': Mary Anne Tyrrell (1821-94) and Her Landed Estate (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781801512268)

This study of a woman's management of a middle-sized estate contributes to the understanding of agrarian society and the role of women in it. At the age of 32, this beautiful woman, having suffered the early death of her parents, husband and two children, faced multiple challenges as a landowner. Living in a dilapidated house on a rundown farm with two infant sons and a teenaged daughter, she lacked the training to manage her scattered estate in neighbouring baronies in counties Kildare and Offaly. She initially felt overcome by difficulties but by the end of her life she had some sense of fulfilment, having successfully raised her children and left the estate intact. Her story provides a rare glimpse into the ideas and attitudes of a free-thinking woman in a society that was still closed to feminism and the changes that it would bring.

Author: Lesley Whiteside
ISBN-10: 1801512264
ISBN-13: 9781801512268
Publisher: Four Courts Press
Language: English
Published: 11/27/2026
Pages: 74
Format: Paperback