Femina Culpa is a poetry collective bringing together four Northern Ireland-based poets whose poetry is inspired by the real cases of 19th-century women caught up in the criminal justice system. Archives, old newspapers, family history and court transcripts may be the starting points for these collections, but it is the real women at the heart of the record (and, at times, the gaps in the record) that make their stories enduring and compelling.
Linda McKenna, Milena Williamson, Kelly Creighton and Emma McKervey offer new poetic perspectives on these bold women who challenged society’s expectations of them. These historical women may be scattered across time and space – London, rural Tipperary, New York City and the Outer Hebrides – but their stories are brought together through Femina Culpa.
Linda McKenna’s second collection with Doire Press, Four Thousand Keys, is partly inspired by the story of Elizabeth Dunham, who in 1819 was charged with the theft of keys from the Bank of England. Followed back to her lodgings by the porter of the bank, he discovered she had almost 4,000 keys hidden there, many stolen from public buildings across London and beyond. They included keys belonging to the House of Commons, the Foundling Hospital, Greenwich watch tower, the Guildhall and Maidstone Prison. Found guilty at her trial at the Old Bailey but non compos mentis, she was sent to Bethlem Hospital, known as Bedlam. Four Thousand Keys deals with themes of dispossession and dislocation, motherhood and belonging, and living at the margins of society and history.
Milena Williamson’s debut poetry collection, Into the Night that Flies So Fast, was published by Dedalus Press. The book investigates the life and death of Bridget Cleary. In 1895, she was murdered by her family due to their suspicion that she was a fairy changeling. In fact, according to historian Angela Bourke, “Among the documented cases of changeling-burning in Ireland in the 19th century, Bridget Cleary’s is the only one which involves an adult victim.”
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Cleary was also childless, literate, and financially independent from working as a seamstress and keeping hens. At the end of her life she was also ill, all of which contributed to the mysterious and violent events that unfolded. Fusing docupoetry, travelogue and drama, Williamson uses persona poems in order to portray the voices of Bridget Cleary, her family and members of her community. When Williamson visited Cloneen in 2022 to learn more about Bridget Cleary, her grave was unmarked but a small plaque has since been installed.
Kelly Creighton’s Unbecoming is a poetic study in form centred on Polly Bodine. Accused of murdering her sister-in-law and infant niece on Christmas Day, 1843, Bodine became a figure of spectacle in what is often considered one of the earliest true crime cases. She was dubbed the “Witch of Staten Island” by PT Barnum, and made into something of a caricature. But Bodine was a woman who challenged preconceived notions of femininity. She drank alcohol, had multiple relationships and had abortions. After being cleared of all charges, Bodine later became a nurse. Creighton says: “Sharing this first non-fiction work has made me lean further into witnessing and reclaiming ordinary women’s stories.”
Emma McKervey sums up what Femina Culpa means to her. “Standing on stage with Kelly, Milena and Linda, the resonance of what we have written is amplified. With every reading, the conversations between the books expand.” McKervey’s Highland Boundary Fault, published by Turas Press, is different from the other stories of Femina Culpa, in that the outcome is a happy one.
In 1893, a jealous village girl burned the letters that were meant to be exchanged between Lizzy and Dan, who were later reconciled after a court case. Nevertheless, the book raises issues around the voices of working-class women in Victorian society. Her great-grandmother’s voice, as the female protagonist in the collection, petitioning newspapers and speaking with confidence in the sheriff’s court in Stornoway, is the exception which proves the rule. In the same case, her soon-to-be sister-in-law had to sign her name with an X because she was illiterate.
The four poets are also looking to the future with new projects that nevertheless resonate with Femina Culpa’s themes.
McKenna is working on a third collection of poetry which is inspired by women’s voices that survive in archives relating to the 1798 rebellion. The archives are replete with the voices of ordinary women navigating their way through the most violent and traumatic period in early modern and modern Irish history.
Furthering her interest in folklore, magic and medicine, Williamson’s second poetry pamphlet Milk & Moon-Water will be published this summer with the Emma Press. She creatively translates and transforms the Old English metrical charms into remixed tellings of ancient texts, exploring the climate crisis, illness, fertility and more.
In addition to being a poet, Creighton is a crime writer, known for her DI Sloane series. Her stand-alone novel Annika is a new domestic noir that investigates fractured families and the danger that begins at home. As Creighton says, “the concerns of gender, power and violence always run through my work.”
McKervey’s latest collection, God-Head-Contraption is out in March with Turas Press, just in time for International Women’s Day. It also examines family history and working-class lives, and their impact on culture and society. The voices of women continue to sound, whether in transportations to Australia, or by Suffragettes flooding the streets of London.
During the past year, the four women of the Femina Culpa collective have read their poetry at a wide variety of venues including the National Poetry Library in London, the Seamus Heaney HomePlace, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, the Linen Hall Library in Belfast. They have also appeared at a number of festivals: Bangor’s Open House Festival, Rath Literary Festival in Rathfriland and the Not-So-Secret Book Festival in Carrickfergus. This has been part of their goal to bring poetry to audiences living outside of Ireland’s cities.
This year, for International Women’s Day, Femina Culpa will be travelling to London to perform at the Irish Cultural Centre on Sunday, March 8th. You can learn more about Femina Culpa on its website: feminaculpa.com.
