Bad Bridget

Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women

THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

The untold true stories of the generations of Irish women who saw their American dream become a nightmare – a masterpiece of social history and true crime for readers of Hallie Rubenhold’s The Five.

SOON TO BE ADAPTED INTO A NETFLIX FILM STARRING ALISON OLIVER, EMILIA JONES, COLIN FARRELL, DOMHNALL GLEESON AND STEVE COOGAN!

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Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was not a good place to be a woman.

Among the wave of emigrants from Ireland to North America were many, many young women who travelled on their own, hoping for a better life. Some lived lives of quiet industry and piety. Others quickly found themselves in trouble - bad trouble, and on an astonishing scale.

In this fascinating book, historians and creators of the celebrated 'Bad Bridget' podcast, Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick, have unearthed a world in which Irish women actually outnumbered Irish men in prison, in which you could get locked up for 'stubbornness', and in which a serial killer called Lizzie Halliday was described by the New York Times as 'the worst woman on earth'.

They reveal the social forces that bred this mayhem and dysfunction, through stories that are brilliantly strange, sometimes funny, and often moving. From sex workers and thieves to kidnappers and killers, these Bridgets are young women who have gone from the frying pan of their impoverished homeland to the fire of vast North American cities.

A masterpiece of social history and true crime, Bad Bridget shines a light on a fascinating and previously unexplored world.

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‘Riveting’ Irish Independent

'Fascinating…A captivating account of lives previously ignored' Sunday Independent

'An important, impeccably researched though eminently readable book that charts new territory' Irish Examiner

'I just loved it!' Ryan Tubridy

'Fascinating' Irish Times

'Rich in detail and thorough in research' New Statesman

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