-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Maria Luddy, The End of the Irish Poor Law? Welfare and Healthcare Reform in Revolutionary and Independent Ireland, by Donnacha Sean Lucey, The English Historical Review, Volume 132, Issue 558, October 2017, Pages 1377–1379, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cex271
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
The decade of commemorations marking the Irish Revolutionary period is now well under way. The revolutionary period, which was crucial in the development of the fledgling Irish state, has been extensively researched in recent years but this research has focused almost exclusively on political developments. Little attention has been devoted to social issues or to the way in which the social informed the political. By exploring attitudes to, and the administration of, welfare, this book, by Donnacha Sean Lucey, illuminates not only social and economic developments but also a central element of local and popular politics, thus offering new insights into conceptions of citizenship and national identity.
Following Virginia Crossman’s insight (2013) that the post-Famine Irish poor law must be viewed through an understanding of attitudes inherent in Irish society (thus eschewing traditional nationalist attitudes, which see the poor law as a reviled imposition on the country), Lucey opens a new chapter in Irish welfare history. He shows how the new state tried to move away from the poor law and the workhouse system while retaining many of the attitudes prevalent in the nineteenth century towards the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor. The ‘new’ system was at times much harsher than the old one. This is particularly evident in the chapter in which he explores the treatment of unmarried mothers in Ireland from the 1920s.
