Bloody Women: Ireland's Female Killers

by David M. Kiely, Fergal Tobin (Editor)

First published in 1999, Bloody Women was a runaway success. The book tells the stories of seventeen Irish murders, all committed by women. Some are notorious, some less well all reveal that the dark forces which drive men to murder are fully shared by women. Murder by a female hand can be just as brutal as by a man's. Bloody Women contains drownings, shootings stabbing and savage clubbings - as well as highlighting the ingenious methods by which some of Ireland's female killers disposed of their victims' corpses. Here are women who murdered their lovers; or who murdered relations in dispute over land and inheritance; here is Mamie Cadden, the Hume Street abortionist; Jane O'Brien from County Wexford who shot her own newphew in order to get possession of a farm; and Hannah O'Leary who killed and dismembered one of her elder brothers in County Cork. With murder sites from London to Donegal, from Down to Limerick, Bloody Women is a chilling and unforgettable read. Already a bestseller, Bloody Women returns to the shelves with an attractive new cover.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction

251 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very depressing read. We are looking back at history in this book, the most recent cases are 1970s. Unless they were bonkers, the women are mainly shown to have killed someone because of sheer societal pressure or a defence against aggression.
A woman was found to have disposed of four babies' bodies because she was not married to the father, who had secured her company for years but never intended marrying her. Another woman killed a woman because her lover was married, not going to leave his wife and there was no divorce. A teenager who was starved and regularly abused by her father for years, knifed him when his back was turned and he was sitting down. This was tried as murder because women are not strong enough to stand up to a man otherwise.
These are other cases, but these stand out as societal wrongs. By men. And don't forget, it was men who made the laws, and men who ruled on issues like divorce, illegitimate births and the man being unquestioned as head of the household. The police were also all male. Yet the women are blamed.
I read a paperback. This is an unbiased review.

[A 🐞 · Rating 3 out of 5]

good but took too long to read as the stories got less and less interesting

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read. The case histories were detailed and interesting, and almost all of them covered women I had never heard of before. (Possibly because I'm not Irish.) I look forward to reading the second one.

[Simon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only a handful of genuinely interesting cases. The rest just seems to be murders that indeed, happened to be commited by irish women