Draft:Bad Bridget

• Comment: Still much of this is unsourced and some of the sources were written by Farrell and McCormick or are interviews so primary and not independent so should only be used sparingly and does not contribute to notability. Other sources are not reliable (magicmum) so should not be used. If the draft is resubmitted without without substantial improvement, it is likely to be rejected meaning it will no longer be considered. I suggest reading WP:Your first article along with all the linked information in the gray box above. At this time, nothing suggests this can meet the notability guidelines. S0091 (talk) 19:49, 3 November 2023 (UTC)

• Comment: The article currently has multiple unreferenced sections, some of which may contain WP:OR. Please add inline citations to reliable sources and remove any unverifiable information. InterstellarGamer12321 (talk | contribs) 16:32, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

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Bad Bridget is a term coined by two Northern Irish scholars Dr. Elaine Farrell who lectures in Queens University and Dr. Leanne McCormick who lectures in Ulster University. Both universities are in Belfast.

Originally, they were both undergoing different research but relatively similar regarding location and the type of person (19th century Irish women in America). After the two of them got into a conversation, they soon realised that they were both doing similar research. Soon after this they joined forces.

Eventually they came up with the idea of the project Bad Bridget which looks at the criminal activity of Irish women in the 19th century. They are specifically looking at Irish women in Boston, New York and Toronto. They chose the name Bridget because at the time it was a very common name for Irish women in the 19th century. Not only that, but it was also the name given to Irish women who worked as servants in American homes (it was a derogatory term). Back in the day cartoons frequently depicted Bridget's as sub-human, toothless and brutish women, somewhere between a man and a woman and between a human and an ape ​(Shane O'Brien, 2023). ​Under Irish culture, "Bridget was to St Brigid that the daughters of Erin owe their deathless legacy of virtue, which made the name of Irish women purity and virtue." (Farrell & McCormick, 2023). While under Northern American mass culture of 19th and early 20th centuries, it was the stereotype of the "blundering, drunken, quick-tempered and uncivilised 'Bridget'" (Farrell & McCormick, 2023 (Farrell & McCormick, 2023). The picture below shows Bridget under these two different cultures.

History

The project started when both women realised that in certain parts of North America in the 19th and early 20th century records it showed that Irish women outnumbered Irish men in prison This is usually unheard of and sparked interest in Elaine and Leanne.

Many of the Irish emigrants hoped for a fresh start and a happy life, but unfortunately for many of the women this was not the case. Being a sex worker was tied a lot with this too, a lot of the women when arriving in America had no money or no family. Some may have been planning to meet family when they arrived but due to the long journey and lack of communication it was often that they never got to. This led people to having no choice but to become prostitutes and work in a brothel to have somewhere to sleep and get paid.

The Bad Bridget project shares the untold stories of the Irish women who never got to live their American dream. The research project shares with us the stories of Delia Jones, Marion Canning or serial killer Lizzie Halliday. It tells us funny, intriguing, sad and frightening. It shows us the terrifying reality at that time for women and how hard it would have been for people to just simply live their life. It discusses themes of sexuality, race, morality, respectability and mental health.

Timeline

Exhibition

The Bad Bridget Exhibition opened at the Ulster American Folk Park in Omagh on 15 April 2022.

Elaine and Leanne have been developing ideas for the exhibition since 2019 and in 2021, AHRC Follow-on-Funding was secured to implement the project.

The project collaborated closely with National Museums NI staff, especially Curator of Emigration, Liam Corry, Design and Interpretation Manager Andrew McDowell, and Senior Curator of History Victoria Miller. The selection of more than 150 objects from National Museums NI collections (and a couple borrowed from the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland) relate to various aspects of migration and life in America.

Remaining Bad Bridget Storytelling through scent In addition to words, images, objects and sounds, the exhibition also has a sensory smell element, curated by Tasha Marks of AV Curiosities. So you can really imagine what the journey to America or life in a tenement might smell like.

2020 December, Podcast

This is a five-episode podcast channel that tells the story of Irish immigrant woman whose American dream turned into a nightmare. Each episode takes around 35minutes. The channel was released in December 2020, and can be accessed on Apple podcast and Spotify.

• Episode1: Poverity

This episode tells us how many young Irish girls and women, travelled unaccompanied to North America with a hope of raising their standard of living, and anticipations from parents especially mothers that obtain emigrant remittances back home.

• Episode2: The sex workers

Many Irish girls crossing Atlantic working as prostitutes and sent money back home. However, their families probably do not know their immoral lifestyle may pose some hazard to their family reputation.

• Episode3: The unmarried mothers

Tragic stories happen to those emigrant girls and women unmarried and pregnant, after they were tricked and find themselves helpless. As Luddy noted in 'An agenda for women's history in Ireland, 1500–1900', 'Abortion, infanticide and abandonment were the methods most commonly used by women to get rid of unwanted children.

• Episode4: The demon drink

The Irish have a long story with alcohol. This episode will introduce women who had broken the law being drunk.

• Episode5: The murderers

There are three most fascinating and interesting cases in this audio. A neighbour was murdered by a girl and then stole the house. A wife who suspects her husband sexually active with another woman. An Irish serial killer who was the first woman to be sentenced to death by electric chair in the United States.

2023, Book

After nearly 10 years of researching and writing, Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women was published by Penguin Sandycove on 26 January,2023. The book provides a rich account of the experiences of Irish female emigrants who found themselves on the wrong side of the law in nineteenth-century North America.

The novel is a spin off from both ladies' podcasts Bad Bridget. Similarly to the podcast, the book depicts how Irish women at the time wanted to move to America to experience a better life. Unfortunately for the majority of these women that wasn’t the case and they ended up being arrested. For most of these women their stories never got told, Leanne and Elaine want to change that. They want to give a voice to these women and share their stories so people are aware of the struggles and discrimination they faced. Each chapter in the novel tells the story of a different Irish woman. It is a book that definitely opens your eyes to the hardships these Irish women faced.

Impact

An award-winning podcast

'women's experiences remain peripheral or ignored completely in many general accounts of migration and the Irish diaspora', and 'the Irish' is still used to describe research that is solely focused on male migrants without it being explicitly acknowledged as such. As Mary McAuliffe asserted 'We owe these women their histories back, we owe these women to lift the veil of silence that has lain upon their experiences and we owe these women a rewriting back into the history books'. Farrell and McCormick's project offers a more nuanced account of female emigrant experiences.

Here are some examples of reviews made my people who have read the novel or listened to the podcast.

' A fascinating account of an aspect of the diaspora that is rarely given attention.. Farrell and McCormick have created a captivating account of lives previously ignored' - Sunday Independent

' An important, impeccably researched through eminently readable book that charts new territory.. this could yet be the book of 2023' - Clodagh Finn - Irish Examiner

' I just loved it.. this is a book that will enrich any bookshelf around the country' - Ryan Tubridy

From reading the reviews it is safe to say the book has definitely touched the lives of many Irish people. For the majority of the country it is the first time people are being made aware of what happened to these Irish women when they left home to start a new life. Leanne and Elaine both do not hold back when showcasing the stories of these women.