The remarkable journey of two Northern Irish academics from dusty archives to Hollywood glamour has captured public imagination, as their research into 19th century Irish female criminals becomes a major motion picture.
From Academic Research to Hollywood Adaptation
What began as a specialised academic project by historians Elaine Farrell of Queen's University Belfast and Leanne McCormick of Ulster University has evolved into a cultural phenomenon. Their investigation into the lives of impoverished Irish emigrant women in North America initially seemed niche, focusing on those who existed on society's margins.
Margot Robbie's production company LuckyChap announced this week that it will transform these forgotten histories into a feature film starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Emilia Jones. The project will be directed by Rich Peppiatt, fresh from his success with the film Kneecap.
The Real Bad Bridgets of History
Farrell and McCormick's research uncovered a startling reality that contradicted the conventional narrative of Irish female emigrants as dutiful domestic servants and mothers. Their work revealed that in the 1860s, while Irish people constituted about a quarter of New York's population, they represented disproportionately high numbers in prison populations.
Irish men comprised half of the male prison population, while Irish women accounted for a staggering 86% of female inmates. A survey of 1,238 foreign-born sex workers in New York City found that just over half - 706 women - were Irish.
The historians documented numerous compelling individual stories, including Ellen Price, who appeared in a Toronto court in 1865 "drunk as usual, with a flaming red feather in her hat" and sang Rocky Road to Dublin as she was led to prison. Margaret Brown, known as Old Mother Hubbard, attempted a dramatic escape from a Chicago prison in 1877 using tied bedsheets, though she fell and was badly injured.
Bringing Forgotten Stories to the Screen
The film will cast Daisy Edgar-Jones and Emilia Jones as sisters fleeing famine-stricken Ireland and an abusive father, who find themselves drawn into the shadow world of New York's "Bad Bridgets" - sex workers, thieves, drunkards and occasional killers.
Peppiatt and his Kneecap producer Trevor Birney optioned the historians' book, Bad Bridget: Crime, Mayhem and the Lives of Irish Emigrant Women, establishing the collaboration with Robbie's LuckyChap. The production has secured Oscar-winning talent, with James Price as production designer and Kate Hawley handling costumes.
Shooting is scheduled to begin next year in Ireland and Northern Ireland, bringing these long-forgotten stories to international audiences. The historians acknowledge the mixed emotions of seeing their research transition to the big screen.
"It's hard handing over your baby, something we've worked on for a very long time," McCormick admitted, though she expressed excitement about seeing experts in another field transform their work into something new and different.
Farrell noted the public's fascination with this darker side of the Irish emigrant experience: "It wasn't all good wives and mothers and nuns or teachers. There's a slightly darker side. I don't want to meet those women but I love that we can see their strong attitudes and their defiance."
As the academics continue their day jobs of research and teaching, they permit themselves to dream of Hollywood premieres and the all-important question of what to wear on the red carpet.
