The End of the Irish Poor Law? : welfare and healthcare reform in revolutionary and independent Ireland / Donnacha Séan Lucey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lucey, Donnacha Seán, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public welfare--Ireland--History--20th century.

Public welfare.

History.

Ireland.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

218 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2015.

Summary:

This book examines Irish poor law reform during the years of the Irish Revolution and Irish Free State. A significant addition to the growing historiography of twentieth-century Ireland, this work moves beyond political history. It demonstrates that concepts of respectability, deservingness and social class were central dynamics in Irish society. This book provides the first major study of local welfare practices, policies and attitudes towards poverty and the poor in this ear. Exploring the poor law during revolutionary Ireland, the book provides fresh and original insights into this critical juncture in Irish history. It charts the transformation of the former workhouse system into a network of local authority welfare and healthcare institutions including country homes, county hospitals and mother and baby homes. This work makes an important contribution not just historiographical understandings, but also to modern-day debates on institutions in Ireland's past. New insights into medical history and hospital care are also provided. The book is based on under-utilised local and central government records and not only reveals the attitudes of the poor relief officials, but also sheds much light on the poor and how people engaged with the system. It is also comparative in context and places the Irish experience of poor relief reform against the backdrop of wider transnational trends. This work has multiple audiences and will appeal to those interested in Irish social culture, economic and political history. The book will also appeal to historians of welfare, the poor law and the social history of medicine. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The poor law and the Irish revolution: the case of the Cork workhouse 13

2 From outdoor relief to home assistance 41

3 Single mothers and institutionalisation 82

4 Child welfare and local authorities 119

5 From workhouses to hospitals 148.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 194-209) and index.

ISBN:

9780719087578

0719087570

OCLC:

907178253