Arranged Marriages in Ireland

[Kevin J. O'Brien]

Arranged Marriages in Ireland

I am interested in comments, information or references to the custom of arranged marriages in Ireland, particularly in the West of Ireland.

Over the past few years I have studied the marriage register of the Kilmurry-Ibrickane Parish in County Clare starting in 1839. There, I have found many marriages taken place between siblings of one family and siblings of another family. This would make their children double first cousins. I have also found what seemed like a common practice of the clergy awarding a dispensation for cousins to marry cousins. I know of a cousin of mine that has married his 2nd cousin and my grand aunt married her second cousin. There are also family records and stories of cousins marrying 1st. cousins.

I was discussing this with one of my cousin’s that was telling me about her father skills in “making a match”. She was telling me that the arranged marriages were not just about the important dowry to secure a marriage. Many times the dowry that came in the front door with the new bride went out the back door with the new husband’s sister. This was the exact case with my grandfather’s sister.

It was explained to me that the big picture had to do with keeping the land in the family and that is why so many cousins married and siblings married other family siblings.

I would appreciate any clarification or comments.
Thanks,
Kevin J. O’Brien

[pwaldron]

Hi Kevin

I would agree with almost everything in your interpretation of marriage customs. Arenberg and Kimball's book is probably the best academic study of this subject.

Dispensations are one area that leave me mystified. I understand that they were granted by the Bishop. I assume that some paperwork had to be sent to the Bishop for each one granted. I assume some details of the relationship between the intended bride and groom must have been included in that paperwork. If so, then the records of dispensations would be the most valuable of all genealogical records, taking us back several generations beyond the earliest surviving marriage registers. Was such paperwork created? Was it archived? Can it be seen by researchers today?

I did pose this question on one occasion to a well-known canon lawyer who had just given a talk about marriage customs, and he tantalisingly suggested that the records exist but are not available to researchers.

[katrina]

In 1815 & 1821 my 2x great grandaunts (sisters) married 2 brothers. In addition, the brides' mother and the grooms' mother were sisters, making the couples double first-cousins.
In the next generation, I also have 2 sisters marrying 2 brothers, but this time unrelated, although the grooms' sister also married the brides' first cousin.
Several other examples of marriages between 1st & 2nd cousins, right down to the early 1900's.

[Kevin J. O'Brien]

Thank you for your comments.
I would be surprised that the Bishop was involved with each marriage dispensation. There are literally a few dispensations noted each month especially after 1870. I can’t imagine the Bishop having the time to investigate each family genealogy. The local priest that knew the families may have made the recommendation and the then it was just a sign off by the Bishop.
When my grandfather’s sister married her 2nd cousin in Elmira, New York in 1905, there was a local woman, Maggie Kane living in Buffalo, NY that was from the same parish that wrote a letter to the priest in Elmira, NY (150 miles away) explaining the relationship of the couple and recommending that is was allowable.
I was told this story by the children of this marriage who did not know that there great grandmothers in Ireland were sisters. After my genealogical research I explained this to them.
I did read a report; Marriage in Ireland after the Famine: The. Diffusion of the Match. By K H CONNELL, Queen's University (read before the Society in Dublin o 16 December, 1955, and in Belfast on 20th January 1956) http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/4 ... _82103.pdf.

I found this report informative and to support most of my findings regarding the acquisition and transfer of property and the marriage practices of my family in Ireland in the mid 1800’s to the early 1900’s.

Slán,
Kevin J. O’Brien

[murf]

The subject of matchmaking in County Clare was apparently treated in "The Irish Countryman" by Conrad Arensberg. An excerpt from the book was printed in the Launceston Examiner in 1939.
See http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article ... -year=1939.
I have a transcribed copy of this article if anyone wants it.

[mgallery]

Yes there were formal arranged marriages but also people married cousins because they knew them and they met them. The girls would not have been allowed out a lot but of course cousins called to cousins and if there was a girl you liked the look of from a suitable family (and a cousin would have been) then you could ask your father to make a match for you. This happens in countries that still have arranged marriages to this day.

My gt gt grandfathers brother married (we think ) cousins from Annagh. We think that is more likely to be that one sister married into Annagh and then the brother met her husband's cousin from up the road while calling to his sister.

There is a great scene in Peig where Peig claims her father arrived in with a man and said this is who you are marrying and she cast her eyes down and said yes daddy and married someone she had never met from the islands. My Irish teacher was from Dingle and said load of rubbish, she met him at a cross road dance and he came and asked her father for a match, she was painting herself holier than thou....

Undoubtedly there were pure arranged marriages but there would have been a lot of, I like the look of her can we do something about it