IT IS unlikely that Limerick woman Bridget O’Connell could foresee that her marital status would show the tensions between civil law, ecclesiastical authority, and social norms in early 20th century Ireland. Her attempted remarriage to her deceased husband’s brother, Michael Hartigan, occurred at a moment of legal ambiguity and exposed the limits of legislative reform, and how clerical and civil institutions tried to regulate private life.
The story begins on February 27, 1900, when Timothy O’Connell walked his daughter Bridget O’Connell down the aisle of Catholic Church in Castleconnell.
Bridget had not quite reached her 21st birthday, although the marriage certificate noted that she was of “full age” (above the age of 21). This was the first of many discrepancies in the official records around her life. The native of Lisnagry was illiterate, signing her name with a mark confirmed by the officiating priest Rev Matthew McNamara.
Her new husband, Patrick Hartigan, was about 10 years her senior, a labourer and from Pennywell in Limerick City at the time of their marriage.
The couple moved in together at Pennywell, where Bridget took care of the home as Patrick changed employment becoming a jarvey man (taxi driver). The usual family relations took place in the following seven years as four children promptly arrived on the scene.
It was not to be a long marriage though as on March 25, 1907, Patrick died of peritonitis and was buried in the family grave in Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery two days later. This left Bridget a widow with young children to care for in a time before social welfare safety nets.
After her bereavement it seems as if Bridget went back to live with her mother Mary O’Connell (née Hayes), a widowed shopkeeper in Rivers, Lisnagry. She continued close relationship with the Hartigan family, particularly with Patrick’s younger brother Michael, who would bring clothes and boots to the children.
Michael proposed to Bridget and they returned to the same church in Castleconnell in early November 1909 to book their wedding. Rev Matthew McNamara had passed away in 1900 and the new priest, Rev Patrick McInerney, was not too interested in the couple. He recorded Bridget’s name as O’Gorman and the marriage date as the November 14 instead of 16, her living in Rich Hill and her marital status as single.
The couple might have known about the “Deceased Wife’s Sister’s Marriage Act 1907” but not that it only covered England, so a woman marrying her dead husband’s brother was still illegal in Ireland and would remain so until 1914.
It was only after speaking with the clergy in St John’s Cathedral that McInerney discovered there were rumours in the parish of a woman who married her late husband’s brother. He then decided to bring the case to the civil authorities. He did this more to stop a public scandal than finding an issue with the marriage.
A case was brought to the Castleconnell petty sessions in May 1910. During the trial the priest cited Leviticus, which was quickly rejected with “that is Jewish law but we are dealing here with British law”.
When the defence rebuffed the priest’s comments with “Don’t you know that is also laid down in the New Testament that it is better to conceal a scandal than to stir up a mire?”, McInerney quickly jumped to the defensive claiming that the marriage with a deceased wife’s sister was different than a deceased husband’s brother.
During the trial it was discovered that Michael and Bridget had approached a priest in St John’s Cathedral seeking a dispensation for the marriage but the priest, Rev A Murphy, would not even let them apply as “none but the Pope could give a dispensation for such a marriage”.
McInerney’s claim was that Bridget had purposely tried to deceive him. Although it was he who had made several errors on the registration form and that another woman Mary O’Gorman who fitted this description the priest had accompanied the couple on their first visit causing the confusion. Bridget’s mother could not recall if her daughter was going by Hartigan or O’Connell after the death of her first husband, in either case she was not going by O’Gorman, nor did she ever live in Rich Hill.
The couple were placed in custody until a follow up trial in the quarter session in Limerick in June. There they both pleaded guilty to making false statements and were released on bail under the First Offenders Acts.
This case demonstrates how marriage law functioned not merely as a legal framework but as an instrument of social discipline. Widowed women, in particular, occupied a precarious position, subject to scrutiny when their choices transgressed accepted norms of kinship and sexual conduct.
The trial ended and the couple’s marriage was annulled. Although, during the period between the marriage and the couple’s arrest, Bridget had become pregnant with Michael’s son, Thomas Hartigan, born in June 1910. Tragedy would strike the Hartigan family once again as the baby would pass away nine months later. He was buried in the same grave as his uncle and grandparents in Mount Saint Lawrence Cemetery.
In the census of April 1911, Bridget was recorded as a widow living with her mother in Rivers, while Michael Hartigan living with his parents in Pennywell was listed as married, with the caveat that his wife was living in County Limerick. So despite the annulment, Michael at least saw the marriage as legal.
Rev Patrick McInerney died in 1919 at what his obituary called an advanced age. This might explain his confusion over Bridget’s name. The obituary also called him a “great favourite with his parishioners and all classes at Castleconnell”. It was unlikely that Bridget and her family counted themselves among that number.