Bridget Byrne was born in Ireland about 1853, and found herself in Brisbane in the 1870s. Circumstances drove her, like so many other young women at the time, to the streets. It was a time when there was no social security and the only work a woman could do was as a domestic, a shop assistant or a teacher/governess. Poverty, little education, being dismissed from service, not being of a social class that would enable an advantageous marriage – any or all of these could contribute to a young woman taking to the streets. In Bridget Byrne’s case, add mental illness, with no prospect of humane treatment.
In 1874 Bridget was fined for drunkenness in Brisbane. At the same sittings of the Magistrates Court, she gave evidence that a man named Alexander McQueen punched her in the eye at the Duke of Edinburgh Hotel. McQueen had already served two terms of imprisonment, and the Magistrate sent him to gaol with hard labour for a month.
By 1876, Bridget was in Maryborough, where a trip to the watch house uncovered just how ill and distressed she had become:
To be found mad in the lock-up was the fate of a poor young woman named Bridget Byrne. Perhaps we are wrong to express any sympathy with her, for she was only a ‘soiled dove,’ an ‘unfortunate’ who, according to popular belief, was a free agent, and therefore responsible for her sins of omission and commission.
On Tuesday she allowed her angry passions to rise, and used language unfit for the ears of a constable, who was close by, and he saw his duty and ‘ran her in.’ The gloom of the cell proved too much for her weak nerves, for she was always considered a little ‘daft’. During the night she had several fits, and in the morning, she was a lunatic. Not violent, but only subdued and hysterical.
The Bench humanely dismissed her with the stereotyped caution. A few hours after she was carried to the hospital in a fit. The authorities discovering that she was a violent maniac and having no accommodation in the institution for such cases, once more handed her to the police.
Confined in a straitjacket, guarded by a constable, and housed in a police cell, she remained till Thursday, when she was forwarded by steamer to Brisbane. It was a pitiable sight witnessed by those who saw her being conveyed to the wharf. Her clothes disarranged, her hair hanging in dishevelled masses, the sole protection of her poor disordered head from the sun, and her piercing shrieks, and sobs, proclaiming that her reason had left her, perhaps never to return. Perhaps it is better so.
She is now an irresponsible being, and the Recording Angel has balanced her account. She may live for years, but for the future she will ‘go and sin no more.’ We have drawn attention to this case with the object of once more showing the great necessity that exists for the erection of a Reception House in this town.
We have also drawn attention to the case for its more sensational aspects, I suspect.
Bridget was hospitalised on and off in Brisbane, but managed to get into trouble there. There were no medications or psychiatry that could help her to manage her behaviour, and the only treatment was confinement with other “lunatics”. In January 1877, she was sent to gaol for two months for assaulting another patient in the “lock hospital”.
Two arrests for drunkenness and obscene language followed that year, and in 1878, Bridget and another girl named Lucy Sayles summoned each other for assault (in Albert Street – Frog’s Hollow). Lucy claimed Bridget came up to her and slapped her in the face with no provocation. Bridget claimed Lucy called her some very insulting things, and that is how the fracas began. The bench listened to their accounts and promptly dismissed both cases.
In August 1878 Bridget was in the lock hospital again, but managed to escape. The Magistrate kept her in custody overnight and had her returned to hospital. A month later, Bridget was out and about – with permission this time – and was fined for disorderly conduct.
The very next day – 18 September, 1878 – Bridget ran amok in Queen Street. Judging by her behaviour the following morning in Court, her mental state was precarious. She dared the Magistrate to give her a longer term of imprisonment. Well of course he did.
City Police Court.
Bridget Byrne, convicted of riotous behaviour in Queen-street on Sunday night, was about to be sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, but in conformity with her own expressed desire, she was accommodated with six months, with hard labour. She then defiantly demanded to have it made twelve months, and being refused, revenged herself by assaulting the nearest constable as she was about to be removed from court.
Time away from alcohol and the rough and tumble of the streets appeared to have had a temporary therapeutic effect on Bridget. She was not arrested again until January 1880, and then for minor offences.
Exactly a year later, Bridget behaved in a disorderly manner in Albert Street, and the fed-up Bench (17 previous convictions!) sent her to prison for three months. The next year, Bridget was a regular in the Frog’s Hollow area, and the Courts, culminating in another three month stint for riotous and disorderly conduct in Albert Street with two other “women of ill fame”.
In 1882, Bridget became involved with a man named Archibald McAlister. McAlister had a history of violence and alcoholism, and the pairing was volatile and toxic.
The first blow was struck by Bridget, who admitted to assaulting McAlister when the Police came calling having just removed a bleeding McAlister to the doctor and then the hospital. She was remanded in custody until later in the week, when McAlister, released from hospital, had second thoughts and claimed that he was “drunk and insensible” at the time and could not say if Bridget had assaulted him, or if he had assaulted her and she acted in self-defence.
May 1883 saw Bridget Byrne losing a fight with another forlorn woman, Bridget Pearce, over a customer, and winning a fight with another, Rachel Solomons. Bridget was bound over to keep the peace for one month, and she just managed to keep out of trouble for that time.
Anger, drink, a toxic relationship and her illness were responsible for an assault on a neighbour in a block of flats with the glamorous name of Shackleton’s Buildings. The neighbour, Annie Betherley, was too ill from the beating to give evid
ence at the first hearing. Bridget, when arrested, said “I only took my part”.
CITY POLICE COURT.
THIS DAY. (Before the Police Magistrate)
Thursday. Assault.— Bridget Byrnes and Archibald McAlister were charged on remand with having, on Saturday, the 9th instant, unlawfully assault one Annie Betherley. Senior Sergeant Owens prosecuted. From the evidence adduced in support of the charge, it appeared that on the date in question Betherley went into a room in Shackleton’s Buildings, in Margaret-street, occupied by the prisoner Byrnes, and asked her for her (Betherley’s) teapot, which she had lent her.
She gave her the teapot, and asked Betherley to bring her a cup of coffee, which the latter did. Byrnes asked her to bring some coffee for the prisoner McAlister and another man, and after the coffee had been drunk, Betherley was about to take away the cups, when Byrnes said that they were hers.
A dispute followed, and Betherley was knocked on to a bed, and beaten by the prisoners and the other man who was present. She was afterwards dragged out into the kitchen where the prisoners kicked her. Betherley was taken to the hospital where she was attended by Dr. Jackson, who found that she had been severely beaten. One witness was called for the defence, but her evidence was not material to the charge. The prisoners were further remanded till tomorrow.
Archibald McAlister was gaoled for six months with hard labour, and Bridget Byrne went to gaol for two months. At least this result had the effect of separating the violent hard-drinking lovers.
Two years passed before Bridget Byrne was in trouble next, but her long record of priors saw her gaoled for three months for obscene language (unless the language was spectacularly obscene, it would have to be her criminal history that sent her to Toowoomba Gaol again).
In 1885, Bridget escaped conviction on a charge of possession of suspected stolen property. Property crime was not her style, and there did not prove to be enough evidence against her. Further minor offences followed, with fines imposed, and in 1887, Bridget was shown to have the other problem a life on the streets can bring. She, and three other “women of the town” were gaoled for fourteen days for failing to present themselves to the doctor under the Contagious Diseases Act.
June 1888 was the last time Bridget was reported as going to prison, although there would be several more minor offences before and after. Bridget as described by the Court Reporter was no longer young, ladylike or attractive. Life had been tough. Either she would not, or could not, go into the Salvation Army’s then-quite revolutionary treatment program, so she was sent to gaol.
After being picked up for drunkenness in April 1890, Bridget Byrne vanishes. She was admitted to lock hospital and Woogaroo Asylum over the years, and may have remained there. She probably went to live or die somewhere else, judging by the scarcity of records after 1890, that somewhere else may have been interstate or in the country. It would be nice to think she found some place or person who could care for her, but that wild, self-destructive streak suggests otherwise.
‘ Squabble’ in Albert street.
Although the list of cases set down for hearing at the hall of justice, this morning, numbered but eight, three of those were representatives of the ‘fair sex,’ but, judging from their appearance, the comparison is anything but complimentary. Two of these, named Mary Anderson and Bridget Byrnes, were charged with behaving in a riotous manner in Albert street last night. The appears that the two ladies in question were having a fight, and anything but choice language was used. The constable coming on the scene put an end to the hair-pulling, and conveyed the offenders to the watch-house. Mary said the ‘Army’ were going to take her, and she was remanded for a week. The story of Bridget was not satisfactory enough for the police magistrate, and she was sent to gaol for three months.
Sources:
Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 – 1947), Thursday 20 August 1874, page 2
Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 – 1947), Saturday 22 August 1874, page 2
Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld. : 1860 – 1947), Saturday 15 January 1876, page 2
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