Emphatic no. If anything, Ireland was a deeply philogynistic society, intent on protecting women. While modern feminists dismiss old-world philogyny as patriarchal condescension, a more troubling development has been the fabrication of false historical narratives to evoke pity and advance a victimhood agenda. In reality, women were often afforded a level of leniency and respect that men and boys did not receive.
For example, women who killed their infants were frequently spared harsh punishment, with judges and juries reducing their charges to ‘concealment of pregnancy.’ When a lighter charge was not possible—either due to the mother’s admission of guilt or irrefutable evidence—juries were still reluctant to convict, and when they did, they almost always pleaded for mercy. Judges, bound by law to impose the mandatory death sentence, tempered their rulings with sympathetic remarks. In practice, despite several death sentences being passed, all were commuted, and the women served only short sentences before being released. Had a man or boy been convicted of the same crime, there is no doubt he would have faced the hangman.
