‘Sending them to heaven’: Homicide and the family

Abstract

The role of the family in pre-Famine and Famine Ireland, let alone the role of violence within it, has received little attention. This chapter fills a major gap in the historiography by exploring the role of lethal violence within the family. It demonstrates how the use of violence within the family, although often severe, was clearly controlled and limited and how such violence reflects a continuity of behaviour within the family which persists to the present day. Such continuities are evident not only in the rates of family homicide but also in the contexts in which such cases emerge. The chapter also explores whether insights derived from evolutionary theory can shed light on the continuities in violent behaviour both inside and outside the family.