The aim of this thesis is to examine the nineteenth century inquest court and to highlight the benefit of employing coroners' records to view Ireland, in this period, from a new perspective. The position of the Dublin coroner was uniquely different to that of his country colleagues and while he will be referred to in this dissertation, the main thrust of this work will focus on his rural counterpart. The rural Irish inquest court has received little academic attention and it is the objective of this study to alter that situation and to offer new insights into this important office. This study will outline the legal and social parameters surrounding the main protagonists of the inquest court; the coroner, the jury, the medical witness, and the deceased. An examination of each principal role will require a multidisciplined approach across diverse subjects such as law, medicine, and social history. By approaching the topic of this dissertation in this manner a greater understanding of the of the inquest court in the nineteenth century will be achieved