The End of the Irish Poor Law?

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, social class, and gender 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 era.
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 county homes, county hospitals and mother and baby homes. This work makes an important contribution not just to historiographical understandings, but also contemporary debates on institutions in Ireland's past. New insights into medical history and hospital care are also provided.
It is based on under-utilised local and central government records and reveals not just the attitudes of the poor relief officials, but also sheds much light on the poor and how people engaged with the system. The book 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.

Donnacha Seán Lucey is a Research Fellow in the School of History and Anthropology at Queen's University Belfast