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Hello Dálaigh: Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma

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The Contemporary Irish Detective Novel

Part of the book series: Crime Files ((CF))

Abstract

Cantwell offers a feminist reading of Peter Tremayne’s (Peter Berresford Ellis’s) popular series set in medieval Ireland, arguing that Sister Fidelma’s authority as a dálaigh, or advocate of the law courts, advances the standing of the female detective. The chapter examines the detailed cultural backgrounds, which set crime in a socio-political context. Cantwell demonstrates that Tremayne’s treatment of progressive Celtic attitudes toward gender parity, intellectual accomplishment, and societal tolerance also critiques contemporary women’s issues, particularly motherhood. As a professional detective, Fidelma exemplifies the prominence of Irish women prior to the constricting influences of Rome and colonization. By employing the Brehon laws to restore social equilibrium, she endeavors to preserve her Celtic heritage.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    E.J. Rielly (2012) ‘Sister Fidelma: A Woman for All Seasons’ in E.J. Rielly and D.R. Wooten (eds) The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: Essays on the Historical Novels of Peter Tremayne (Jefferson, NC: McFarland), p. 29.

  2. 2.

    P. Tremayne (1997) ‘Sister Fidelma’s World’ in Absolution by Murder (New York: Signet), p. vi.

  3. 3.

    E.J. Rielly (2012), p. 11.

  4. 4.

    ‘Brehon law’, An tSiérbhis Chúrteanna (Courts Service) Ireland. Web. 21 March 2015.

  5. 5.

    P. Tremayne (1994) Absolution by Murder (New York: Signet), p. 79.

  6. 6.

    P. Tremayne (1998) Shroud for the Archbishop (New York: Signet), p. 26.

  7. 7.

    P. Tremayne, ‘Sister’, p. vii.

  8. 8.

    J. Kristeva (1986a) ‘Psychoanalysis and the Polis’ in T. Moi (ed.) The Kristeva Reader (New York: Columbia University Press), p. 307.

  9. 9.

    P. Tremayne (1998), p. 57.

  10. 10.

    L.M. Dresner (2007) The Female Investigator in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture (Jefferson, NC: McFarland), p. 2.

  11. 11.

    J. Kristeva (1986b) ‘Women’s Time’ in T. Moi (ed.) The Kristeva Reader (New York: Columbia University Press), p. 189.

  12. 12.

    K. Klein (1995) ‘Habeas Corpus: Feminism and Detective Fiction’ in G. Irons (ed.) Feminism in Women’s Detective Fiction (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), p. 177.

  13. 13.

    J. Kristeva (1986a), p. 307.

  14. 14.

    J. Kristeva (1986a), p. 307.

  15. 15.

    P. Tremayne (2012a) Atonement of Blood (New York: St. Martin’s), p. 121.

  16. 16.

    J. Kristeva (1986a), p. 307.

  17. 17.

    P. Tremayne (1998), p. 122.

  18. 18.

    A.M. McChesney (2008) ‘The Female Poetics of Crime in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Mademoiselle Scuderi’, Women in German Yearbook, 24, 2.

  19. 19.

    S. Tomc (1995) ‘Questing Women: The Feminist Mystery after Feminism’ in G. Irons (ed.) Feminism in Women’s Detective Fiction (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), p. 52.

  20. 20.

    C. Kinealy (2012) ‘Hidden from History: Fidelma of Cashel and Lost Female Values’ in E.J. Rielly and D.R. Wooten (eds) The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: Essays on the Historical Novels of Peter Tremayne (Jefferson, NC: McFarland), p. 55.

  21. 21.

    P. Tremayne (1999) The Subtle Serpent (New York: Signet), p. 50.

  22. 22.

    P. Tremayne (2004a) The Leper’s Bell (New York: St. Martin’s), p. 124.

  23. 23.

    M. Brunsdale (2012) ‘Fidelma of Cashel: The Plight of the Learned Lady’ in E.J. Rielly and D.R. Wooten (eds) The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: Essays on the Historical Novels of Peter Tremayne (Jefferson, NC: McFarland), p. 112.

  24. 24.

    J.C. Pennell (1985) ‘The Female Detective: Pre- and Post-Women’s Lib’, Clues, 6.2, 89–90.

  25. 25.

    J. Kristeva (1986a), p. 307.

  26. 26.

    J. Kristeva (1986a), p. 307.

  27. 27.

    P. Tremayne (1994), p. 180.

  28. 28.

    J. Kristeva (1986a), p. 308.

  29. 29.

    P. Tremayne (1998a), p. 208.

  30. 30.

    S. Cuthbertson (2004) ‘The Fascination with Sister Fidelma’, Solander, 15, Historical Novel Society, Web, 30 May 2015.

  31. 31.

    P. Tremayne (2004b) Master of Souls (New York: St. Martin’s), p. 126.

  32. 32.

    P. Tremayne (2012b) The Seventh Trumpet (New York: St. Martin’s), p. 161.

  33. 33.

    P. Tremayne (2004b), p. 57.

  34. 34.

    P. Tremayne (1999), p. 186.

  35. 35.

    C.W. Luehrs and R.B. Luehrs (2000) ‘Peter Tremayne: Sister Fidelma and the Triumph of Truth’ in R.B. Browne and L. Kreiser, Jr. The Detective as Historian: History and Art in Historical Crime Fiction (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press), p. 50.

  36. 36.

    P. Tremayne (1999), pp. 165–6.

  37. 37.

    P. Tremayne (1999), p. 166.

  38. 38.

    P. Tremayne (2010) The Chalice of Blood (New York: St. Martin’s), pp. 338–9.

  39. 39.

    P. Tremayne (2010), pp. 416–17.

  40. 40.

    S. Tomc (1995), pp. 46–7.

  41. 41.

    P. Tremayne (2010), p. 426.

  42. 42.

    P. Tremayne (2012b), p. 335.

  43. 43.

    K.A. Conrad (2004) Locked in the Family Cell: Gender, Sexuality, and Political Agency in Irish National Discourse (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press), p. 71.

  44. 44.

    P. Tremayne (2004a), p. 98.

  45. 45.

    K. Walter (2013) ‘From aisling to chora: Female Allegories of the Nation in Contemporary Irish Women’s Poetry’, Irish Studies Review, 21.3, 316.

  46. 46.

    A. Maxwell (2007) ‘National Endogamy and Double-Standards: Sexuality and Nationalism in East-Central Europe During the 19th Century’, Journal of Social History, 41.2, 413.

  47. 47.

    P. Tremayne (2012a), p. 62.

  48. 48.

    P. Tremayne (2003) Badger’s Moon (New York: St. Martin’s), p. 142.

  49. 49.

    K.G. Klein (1988) The Woman Detective: Gender and Genre (Urbana: University of Illinois Press), p. 196, and M.E. Kemp (2012) ‘Who Wears the Pants? Role Reversal in the Sister Fidelma Mysteries’ in E.J. Rielly and D.R. Wooten (eds) The Sister Fidelma Mysteries: Essays on the Historical Novels of Peter Tremayne (Jefferson, NC: McFarland), p. 188.

  50. 50.

    K. Walter (2013), p. 316.

  51. 51.

    S. Jung (2007) ‘Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the Female Detective, and the “Crime” of Female Selfhood’, Brontë Studies, 32, 29.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maria, USA

    Nancy Marck Cantwell

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  1. Nancy Marck Cantwell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Jacksonville Beach, Florida, USA

    Elizabeth Mannion

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© 2016 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)

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Cantwell, N.M. (2016). Hello Dálaigh: Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma. In: Mannion, E. (eds) The Contemporary Irish Detective Novel. Crime Files. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53940-3_2

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