Defending Ireland or Attacking Woman? The Irish Riposte to Harriet Martineau

Abstract

This essay examines challenges by three nineteenth-century Irish writers—Thomas Moore, William Maginn, and John Wilson Croker—to Harriet Martineau’s prescriptions for their country. While these critics expressed legitimate concerns about Martineau's support for Malthusian ideas and her criticism of the Poor Laws, their concerns were overshadowed by male indignation at an alarmingly successful and transgressive woman writer. The Irish riposte against Martineau demonstrated not only the multifaceted nature of Irish writing in the nineteenth century, but also the misogyny attached to its eloquence and wit. Ultimately, Martineau bore the brunt of a cynical treatment that ridiculed her sex as a means to air Irish grievances.