Daughters of Ireland : The Rebellious Kingsborough Sisters and the Making of a Modern Nation

Rating:
Summary: A seductive voyage into 18th century Ireland
Review: It's almost Jane Austen territory - two Protestant Irish aristocratic sisters, neglected by their wealthy dysfunctional parents, get a new governess: and she's none other than Mary Wollstonecraft! Even though the great radical author spent only a year with the family, it was enough to inject revolutionary ideas and plant seeds that bore fruit far in the future. The action doesn't end when she departs, the clangorous melodrama of "interesting times" merely opens there. The sisters, Margaret and Mary Kingsborough, set off on careers that will have you fastening your seatbelt. Margaret marries a stupid aristocrat, yet promotes and helps to foment the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Mary elopes with her married cousin, an action that seems almost tame compared to the rest of the storm and thunder of this narrative, which climaxes with a failed rebellion, and ends with pigs dining where the wealthy Kingboroughs once lived. Historian Janet Todd, in marshalling a vast amount of complex 18th century Irish history, gives a crash course in a bloody, tragic and overlooked era, and does it with beguiling skill and insight. Recommended to anyone who'd like to learn about this slice of Irish history: if the revolution is complex, don't worry, the murders, pursuits, dalliances and intrigues will keep you awake!

Rating:
Summary: An interesting read
Review: This is indeed an intersting book with plenty of information and details, but don't expect it to be just about the Kingsborough sisters. Todd does an excellent job of illuminating the situation in Ireland at the end of the 18 century - and the place of the Irish elite in the rebellion that would arise prior to the Act of Union that created Great Britian. This book is not about the lives of Margaret and Mary King as the title implies, but rather looks at their lives at the same time as much of this is happening. It is true that Margaret participates in the rebellion at a certain level and it is her life that is the most intersting part of the book. I wish that Todd had focused soley on her and made her the center of the book and had all the other information relate to her. Mary King is mentioned and plays an important part of her family's life - but there is no depth to her character - not like we see with Margaret. And the author appears to have made some mistakes about the dates concernong Mary's life and death (she states that Caroline King left her daughter money in her will in 1825, but Mary had died by 1819 according to the author).
I liked this book but I wish that the author had given more thought to the books structure.