Wild Irish Roses: Tales of Brigits, Kathleens, and Warrior Queens

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
From ancient warrior queens to the labor-movement maven Mother Jones, this book explores wild Irish women throughout history.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars

Ireland's most famous mothers, sisters & daughters July 14, 2005
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

Long before the Equal Rights Amendment was even a twinkle in anyone's eye, Irish women were asserting their place in the world -- sometimes with a well-placed word, and sometimes with a well-aimed sword.

Trina Robbins provides a delightful, educational look at some of Ireland's most famous mothers, sisters and daughters in "Wild Irish Roses." Subtitled "Tales of Brigits, Kathleens & Warrior Queens," the book is packed with stories about women dating back to the far reaches of legend and as fresh as the early 20th century. Whether lusty or greedy, passionate or political, scholarly or savage, these are women with a positive, independent outlook on the world around them.

Robbins saves the tales from being dry biographies and historical anecdotes by injecting a modern woman's perspective into the prose. The dialogue she employs in her stories sounds modern, not ancient; for instance, when the goddess Macha implores her husband, Crunden, not to go to the Ulster fair, he whines, "All the other guys are going. If I don't go, they'll say I'm henpecked." (He goes anyway; bad things happen.)

Other featured characters of legend include Queen Maeve, whose desire for a powerful bull led Connaught into bloody conflict with Ulster; Skathach of Skye, the mighty warrior who trained the hero Cuchulain in the arts of war and love; Deirdre, who defied the high king of Ulster, Conor Mac Nessa, and ran off with the studly fighter Naoise; Grania, who similarly fled the wedding bed of aging warrior Finn Mac Cool with young lover Dermot; and many more.

Although the Christian church took a dim view of uppity women in later years, the coming of Christianity to Ireland didn't diminish the Irish women's strength and independence, as later chapters show. Take for example Kathleen O'Shea, who reportedly sold her soul to the devil to save the people under her care, or the Meath princess Dervorgilla, whose preference for one man over another led to England's invasion of Ireland. (OK, that turned out badly for the Irish.) The Clare witch Biddy Early defied church laws to help people as a mystical healer and seer, while Grania O'Malley, who made her home on Clare Island, grew to be Ireland's fiercest pirate queen.

There's also the goddess Brigit, whom the church made into a saint to help with its conversions, and Eliza Gilbert, who fooled the world into believing she was the Spanish beauty Lola Montez. By the 19th century, Lady Jane Wilde (Oscar's mom) was writing columns fomenting rebellion, and Lady Isabella Gregory was resurrecting Ireland's mythic past and Maud Gonne was inspiring Yeats to greater literary heights (while thrice spurning his more familiar urges). In 1916, Countess Constance Markievicz, who grew up in Sligo and married a Polish count, fought in the Easter Rising, while across the ocean, Irish Americans like Mother Jones, Elizabeth Flynn and Margaret Sanger redefined the boundaries of equal rights.

And there are more. Robbins has compiled an enoyable collection of Irish history, lore and mini-biographies to delight those with an interest in Ireland's past as well as the bold strides women have made to seize their place in the world.

5 out of 5 stars

A Legend of Its Own February 8, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

The title "Wild Irish Roses" is an exquisite way of
saying"Read Me" and this book doesn't stop there.

The introductory illustrations by the late Nell Brinkley
grace the book as if it were an extension of Trina
Robbins's book:" Nell Brinkley and the Early 20th
Century Woman."

Simultaneously,"Wild Irish Roses" has a stunning and
exciting similarity to Trina Robbins's book
"Eternally Bad : Goddesses With Bad Attitudes" almost
like another extension ,however,set in Ireland.

This book,no matter what similarities may grace it with
with their uniqueness,is more than capable of standing
on its own with its' uniquess and quality.

Through legends,myths, history,and folklore there is
never a dull moment.In fact,there's never a moment when
you willingly want to put the down!

It is so intricately put together with obvious research
and gifted writing I became a part of the book.

I would give it more than 5 stars if I could!

5 out of 5 stars

The power of Irish women December 17, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

I read this book after having loved Ms. Robbins's 'Eternally Bad: Goddesses with Attitude,' and was not disappointed. She's now one of my favorite feminist writers, and has such a fresh hip writing style, combining the academic side of things with modern language making these tales relevant for the modern reader. As she makes clear many times throughout the book, Irish women have never exactly been shrinking violets. They knew what they want and they took it, even if it meant starting a colossal war, double-crossing a relative, selling one's soul, having to go to prison, or disfiguring oneself. According to legend, the first people to land on Irish soil were a queen and her 50 female subjects. It didn't stop there, what with plenty of feisty empowered (and not always very nice or "ladylike") goddesses, such as Maeve and the Morrigan. Women were so revered by the ancient Irish, in fact, that when Claudius Caesar came to Ireland, the people thought that Empress Agrippina was the real ruler and paid no attention to Claudius at first. Irish women also fought alongside the men, until the British outlawed female fighters in the year 697. The status of women and these legendary goddesses was so strong, in fact, that many of them were turned into saints when the Christian missionaries were converting the Emerald Isle. (I was delighted to find out that my own favorite saint, Dymphna [a real historical person and not a goddess], is also Ms. Robbins's favorite Irish saint!) And to top it all off, Irish women were among the original Lucy Stoners, keeping their names after marriage until sometime in the 19th century. You wouldn't find any women identified as Mrs. Husband's Full Name in Irish history, that's for sure!

The book goes forward in chronological order, starting with the Irish goddesses such as Maeve, Macha, and Aoife (EE-fa), and other women of ancient mythology and legend, such as Deirdre, Fand, and Grania. (I was a bit disappointed by how my own favorite Irish goddesses, Flidais and Nemetona, were left out.) It then moves onto Brigit, the most prominent example of a beloved goddess transmogrified into a saint by the early Church, and revered folk figures such as Countess Kathleen O'Shea and Biddy Early, the Witch of Clare. (It really speaks volumes about just how revered Irish women still were by how only about four women were burnt at the stake in Ireland during the Burning Times, as opposed to the hysterical fear of "witchcraft" and the women suspected of being "witches" back in Continental Europe. Most of Ireland would have been excommunicated or burnt at the stake by the Continental Church's standards!) Then we get the tales of legendary pirate queens and the bawdy entertainer Lola Montez, and finally more modern women, some of whom led the reawakening in Irish culture and nationalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fighting for freedom from the oppressive British rule, and some who fought the good fight in America. This final section includes women such as Margaret Sanger, Mother Jones (the classic "I'm not a feminist, but..."), Maud Gonne, Countess Markievicz, Lady Wilde, aka Speranza (mother of Oscar Wilde), and the fictional character Scarlett O'Hara. All in all, the stories of these truly amazing women should make anyone feel deep pride in being Irish, and make those of us who aren't Irish wish we were, or at least partly Irish. A lot of people seem to wish they were Irish already, or to take great pride in being even .0000000001% Irish on their four-greats-grandmother's side, but Irish pride and national literacy should be about knowing these ancient myths and the stories of these inspiring modern-day heroes, not drinking green beer on St. Patrick's Day or naming one's child some ridiculous pseudo-Irish name like Azzlyn (for real). (And speaking of names, I really would have appreciated some sort of pronunciation guide, even though Ms. Robbins said she used the most simplified spellings wherever possible. Let's be honest--most non-Irish folks have no idea how to pronounce names like Badb, Aedh, Cimbaoth, Skathach, or Bodb without pronunciation instructions.)

Overall, this book is a fun read and hard to put down, and highly recommended for all those interested in Irish history in general and Irish women in particular.

3 out of 5 stars

A bit simplistic May 18, 2006
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

While I loved the tales that were told in this book, I wasn't crazy about the way the author told them. Her language is a bit simplistic and in today's vernacular. Comes across as a bit odd when telling ancient legends. But good to maybe read to kids to tell them about their heritage.

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