★ A major new work of Irish historical non-fiction, belonging to the genres of history, criminology, and social folklore. Drawing on real archives of encounters between ordinary people and the justice system in the 18th and 19th centuries, it avoids gratuitous or lurid depictions of crime, guiding readers instead to reflect on the passage of time, social justice, poverty, and individual fate. Suitable for categorisation as a book for intellectual and personal growth.

★ The work turns its gaze on the lowly figures buried by history, breaking away from the traditional historical narrative that focuses on great men. It records the life stories of marginalised groups—ballad makers, child labourers, working-class women, gaolers, escapees, hangmen—restoring the struggles and vicissitudes of ordinary individuals within their era.

★ The narrative combines dark humour with human warmth, recounting numerous bizarre prison escapes and absurd cases from old laws, revealing how poverty, chance, and human malice can determine a person’s fate. Through a micro-historical lens, it weaves a panoramic picture of hardship, resilience, and curious anecdote—witty in tone and immensely readable.

True stories of the strange, grim, and unforgettable characters who passed through Ireland‘s courts and prisons in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Ireland’s criminal history was not populated solely by notorious villains and heroic rebels. It was crowded with those who stumbled, schemed, or sang their way into the record: ballad singers arrested for sedition, children pushed into dangerous trades, women who committed crimes to survive, prisoners who drank their way out of gaol, unlucky deserters, illicit marriages, and those sentenced to the gallows whose reputations outlived their executions.

A Mixed Bag brings these stories together in all their oddity and humanity. From prison escapes that verge on the unbelievable to punishments that now seem cruel or absurd, the book explores how ordinary lives collided with extraordinary laws—and how poverty, opportunity, and sheer mischief often decided a person‘s fate.

Told with wit, insight, and a keen eye for detail, A Mixed Bag offers a panoramic view of Ireland’s criminal past—a canvas made up of hardship, resilience, and the curious anecdotes that make history so compelling.

Frank Hopkins

Lives in County Wicklow on the east coast of Ireland. He has written for The Herald, The Sunday Tribune, The Irish Echo, and Australia‘s Irish Echo. He is the author of St Stephen’s Green: A History of the Green and Its Surroundings (2021), Ireland‘s Hidden History: Everyday Stories from Ireland’s Little-Known Past (2019), Hidden Dublin: The Dead, the Poisoners and the Decent Folk (2008), and Old Dublin: Heroes, Hawks and Harlots (2002).