Four Courts Press

Our next book joining the Maynooth Studies in Local History Series is Lesley Whiteside's 'A miserable thing to be a woman': Mary Anne Tyrrell (1821-94) and her landed estate 🤩

At the age of 32, Mary Anne Tyrrell, having suffered the early death of her parents, husband and two children, faced multiple challenges as a landowner. Living in a dilapidated house on a rundown farm with two infant sons and a teenage daughter, she lacked the training to manage her scattered estate in neighbouring baronies in counties Kildare and Offaly. She initially felt overcome by difficulties but by the end of her life she had some sense of fulfilment, having successfully raised her children and left the estate intact. Her story provides a rare glimpse into the ideas and attitudes of a free-thinking woman in a society that was still closed to feminism and the changes that it would bring.

Lesley Whiteside is archivist at Ballinderry House, Co. Kildare, and at Monksgrange, Co. Wexford. Her works include the definitive histories of two historic Irish secondary schools, a biography of a Church of Ireland primate, George Otto Simms, and several books on ecclesiastical stained glass. She has contributed a number of articles to the Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society. Her most recent book is Farming and society since 1700 in the barony of Carbury, Co. Kildare (Dublin, 2024).

Copies of this book are available to buy from all good local bookshops and from the Four Courts Press website https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2026/mary-anne-tyrrell-182194-and-her-landed-estate

The first of the wonderful new additions to the Maynooth Studies in Local History Series to be featured here is Donegal Town, 1474-1974 by Matthew Potter 🌟

Donegal town is one of the most historic places in Ireland, and has given its name to Co. Donegal. It has been a Gaelic town, a Plantation town, an estate town and a market town. Owned successively by three great families – the O’Donnells (1474-1610), the Brookes (1610–76) and the Gores (1676-c.1950s) – the most striking feature of its history is its former political prominence. Under the O’Donnells, it was for 130 years the capital of Tír Chonaill – effectively an independent state and a minor international power. Later, it suffered four sieges (1601, 1641, 1651, 1689) but was never captured, it was the principal estate town of the Gore family for 240 years, a parliamentary constituency for 187 years, the administrative centre of a poor law union for 85 years, and the archetypical Irish market town for two centuries.

Matthew Potter is a native of Donegal town but has been resident in Limerick since 1974. He is curator of Limerick Museum and an associate fellow in the School of History and Geography, University of Limerick. He has published extensively on urban history and local government history.

Copies of this book are available to buy from all good local bookshops and from the Four Courts Press website https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2026/donegal-town-14741974

It's a great day for history book lovers 📚

Six new additions to the Maynooth Studies in Local History Series have arrived in all good bookshops‼️

The six volumes in the MSLH series for 2026 span five centuries, from the foundation of Donegal town in 1474 to the late twentieth century, and range geographically from Wexford to Donegal, Cork, Limerick, Offaly and Kildare. Together, they demonstrate the breadth and vitality of local history as a means of exploring Ireland’s past. Through studies of people, places institutions and communities, they engage with themes including politics, healthcare, religion, gender, urban development, print culture and estate management. Several concerns recur throughout the collection, notably power, reputation and responses to social, political and economic change.

Browse the collection here 👉 https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/browse/history/maynooth-studies-in-local-history

Department of History, Maynooth University Maynooth University

Don't miss out on this exciting book launch next week! 💫

All the details are on the invitation. Everybody is welcome to attend - the more the merrier 📚

Read about the book here: https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2026/landlords-and-tenants-in-county-carlow-18791960

Introducing Moynagh Lough: Studies 1 edited by Michael Potterton 📗🎉

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Moynagh Lough is one of the most important archaeological sites ever excavated in Ireland. Situated in the rolling terrain of north Co. Meath, it preserves an extraordinary record of human activity extending from prehistory to the early medieval period. Excavated between 1980 and 1998 under the direction of John Bradley (d. 2014), the site yielded a remarkable range of artefacts and environmental evidence from Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and medieval contexts. The waterlogged conditions ensured the survival of materials rarely preserved elsewhere, offering exceptional insights into everyday life, craft production, trade, diet and the environment across thousands of years.

Although Bradley published a series of interim reports and pioneering studies, the full significance of the excavation has only become clearer through renewed research undertaken since the re-establishment of the Moynagh Lough Project in 2018. This volume represents the first book-length study devoted to the site and brings together eighteen essays by leading specialists from Ireland and abroad.

Richly illustrated and drawing on the latest archaeological and scientific research, Moynagh Lough Studies 1 marks an important milestone in the publication of one of Ireland's most remarkable archaeological discoveries.
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More information, as well as a full list of contributors, is available on our website.

Available to buy now from all good local bookshops and the Four Courts Press website 🛒https://www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/2024/moynagh-lough-studies-1