Peg did travel about, spreading her love amongst those who could afford her. Dropping babies along the way. All of whom she loved and sadly lost. Child birth was a hazardous proposition for a woman and child rearing seemed a bothersome task for the men who sired them.Child support being a lifelong commitment the worldly and selfish seemed reluctant to adopt.In much the same way as in the age of celebrity culture a nine to five job serving our fellow human beings is viewed as a step down or beneath the dignity of the golden league.You cannot help but speculate that Peg Plunkett would thrive in the polluted media driven miasma of today.Although there is a degree of anachronism at play in such speculation for no amount of unwanted or unwarranted fame is worse than the notion of a homeless death in a filthy ditch or death whilst chained to a wall as a sexually transmitted pox shrivels your brain.
Julie Peakman's account of the life of this woman is refreshingly free of judgementalism and carries the reader along as a witness without seeming purile or salacious. This is what this woman had to endure and no amount of post dated morality can change a written line of it. Nor does the author attempt to evoke sympathy for her horrendous plight or the randomly cruel events which at times overtake her.She trusts to the truth of the situation and the readers own ability to call a spade a spade whilst peering into a social abyss to carry us through to the conclusion of the book. She does not blow scarlet rose petals in our face or attempt to color the readers own judgement by imbuing Pegs character with infantile romanticism.Sexual relations, even those which are paid for(and few are not) are about so much more than just the exchange of bodily fluids and yet also so much less than the poets would lead us to believe. Peg Plunkett was a realist if nothing else and utterly pragmatic in the face of very masculine cruelty.Throughout her life she let her affections and strong feelings for certain men lead her to make decisions which were far from in her best interests but she survived as best she could in an age where few choices even existed for her gender, loving well if not wisely. Living long enough to see even this aspect of her character become a real threat to all the things she built, breathed life into and ultimately lost.
The illustrious House of Plunkett played host to many people over the period of its owners life(as well as changing shape, size and location.) that to say she covered the waterfront would be something of an understatement. The force of Peg Plunketts, nee Mrs. Margaret Leeson's, personality combined with her wit and hard won determination not to be a victim helped her overcome the adversities that were such a component of her everyday life. It would be something indeed to pass a copy of this book onto Martyn Jacques, the man and mind behind the genius Tiger Lilies. It might inspire him to write an opera based on the life of this most notorious of bawdy historical figures. Perhaps only they could skew the perspective sufficient to tell her tale truthfully free of moral judgements and sing her life as it was.
Peg came to visit.She came, she saw and she partied.)
Peg Plunkett Memoirs Of An Irish Whore is published by Quercus.
