The Horse-Lover’s Wife

Annie Callahan tells over the beads of her bitter-sweet memories which begin in nineteenth century Ireland. Driven by the threat of the poorhouse she crosses the ocean to find work in Australia, and instead finds a husband, a stranger who proposes to marry her ’off the boat’. Alarmed by an attempted gang-rape and not a little attracted to the stranger, she says yes. But what chance of happiness can their marriage have? Edward (Mad Paddy) Wilson is the quick-tempered, horse-obsessed son of a Protestant clergyman, while ’bog-Irish’ Catholic Annie has been taught to hate the Anglo-Irish class to which he belongs.

Apart from the first of her husband’s bankruptcies and sudden changes of address and income, Annie is now comfortably off and soon has three children to love, as well as the friendship and support of her servant, Jemima Shout, and a wardsman known as Rhyming Lynam. Happiness seems assured except for one obstacle ‒ her new social status requires her to become a lady, a change of identity she finds impossible to make.

A surprise visit from Ireland by her husband’s parents, who refuse to meet her, leads to bitter recriminations. Annie sinks into a loveless marriage until the rape of their nine-year-old daughter Cissie changes everything. In his fury Paddy whips the wrong boy and is publicly ridiculed. Meanwhile, in revenge for his intemperate act against one of their own, the Swamp Push kill his beloved dog. Overcome by shame and anguish, Paddy turns to Annie for comfort and their life becomes doable territory again.

But Annie can’t separate these earlier memories from the disaster she knows is coming: a vicious assault on Paddy by two drunken butchers incensed by his refusal to let them graze pigs on Lionleigh, the grand estate he acquires after an unexpected inheritance. Plunged yet again into chaos followed swiftly by another change of home, Annie cares for her now brain-damaged husband with the help of Douglas, a dispossessed Dawson River man, and in reckoning up her life with Paddy comes to terms with it.

Based on historical research, The Horse-lover’s Wife tells the true story of the author’s great-grandparents, Annie Callaghan and Edward Wilson.

Cover shows ’Home Again’ by Frederick McCubbin.

1884 oil on canvas 85.0 x 123.0 cm.

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria

with the assistance of G. J. Coles and Company Pty Ltd,

Governor, 1981 Image courtesy National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne