New book explores life of female Kildare landowner
At the age of 32, Mary Anne Tyrrell found herself responsible for a scattered landed estate
A new book exploring the life of a 19th-century Kildare landowner who described being a woman as “a miserable thing” is due to be published next month.
‘A miserable thing to be a woman’: Mary Anne Tyrrell (1821–94) and her landed estate, by Lesley Whiteside, examines the extraordinary life of a woman who was widowed and orphaned at a relatively young age while also losing two of her children.
At the age of 32, Mary Anne Tyrrell found herself responsible for a scattered landed estate spanning neighbouring baronies in counties Kildare and Offaly.
Living in a dilapidated house on a rundown farm, she was left to raise two infant sons and a teenage daughter while attempting to manage an estate for which she had received little preparation or training.
Initially overwhelmed by the challenges facing her, Tyrrell eventually succeeded in raising her children and preserving the estate intact until her death in 1894.
The book offers a rare insight into the experiences and attitudes of a free-thinking woman navigating landed society in 19th-century Ireland, at a time when feminism and greater rights for women remained largely outside the mainstream.
Author Lesley Whiteside is archivist at Ballinderry House in Co Kildare and Monksgrange in Co Wexford.
She has written extensively on Irish history and heritage, including Farming and Society since 1700 in the Barony of Carbury, Co. Kildare, published in 2024.
She has also contributed articles to the Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society.
The 96-page illustrated paperback is priced at €12.95 and is due for publication in September 2026.