Politics, pauperism and power in late nineteenth-century Ireland

Crossman, Virginia

doi:10.2307/j.ctt1vwmfm5

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Then 2.4 per cent of the population aged 60 and above were inmates of the workhouse, compared with just 0.71 per cent of those under 20 and 0.68 per cent of those aged 20–59. By 1872, one workhouse medical officer noted that since outdoor relief was becoming increasingly available it ‘gave the option to them of that class who were able to leave the house to do so’ leaving ‘none but those incapacitated by infirmity to remain’ (cited by Crossman 2014: 127). By 1901, the overall number of workhouse inmates had dropped to 42,932 (though still representing some 0.95 per cent of the population for the reason already mentioned) but among the over-60 s, numbers had risen to 15,234, representing 3.7 per cent of the total age group, compared with 0.51 per cent of those under 20 and 0.70 per cent of those aged 20–59 years old.…”

Section: Aged In the Workhousementioning

confidence: 99%

“…It represented as paupers some 7.5 per cent of all Irish men aged 60 and over and twice that rate – 13 per cent – of all Irish women of a similar age (HCPP 1910: 17, appendix XXXI). It might be argued that the growth in the absolute numbers of paupers reflects changing criteria in terms of eligibility, particularly after the widespread transfer of power during the 1880s when membership of many Poor Law Union Boards switched from being dominated by land-owners to a majority being land-holders (Crossman 2014: 3). But this hardly explains the rising proportion of the over-60 s receiving relief, compared with children or with those of working age ( i.e.…”

Section: Aged In the Workhousementioning

confidence: 99%

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The other Victorians: age, sickness and poverty in 19th-century Ireland

Gilleard

2015

Ageing and Society

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Drawing primarily upon data from the various censuses conducted in Ireland after the Act of Union in 1800, this paper seeks to elucidate the changing position of older people in Ireland during the Victorian period. Following the Great Famine of 1845–1849, it is argued, Ireland was transformed from a young, growing country to one that, by the end of the 19th century, had become ‘prematurely’ old. By the end of Victoria's reign, not only had Ireland grown ‘old’, but its older population were more likely to be identified as paupers. Later-life expectancy decreased and sickness and infirmity among the over-60 s increased. By employing a stricter form of ‘less eligibility’ in the drafting and implementation of the Irish Poor Law, proportionately more older people received indoor relief than outdoor relief compared with the rest of the British Isles. Not until the Old Age Pensions Act in 1908 did these disparities begin to change, by which time many of these ‘other’ Victorians had passed away.

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Section: Aged In the Workhousementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Aged In the Workhousementioning

confidence: 99%

The other Victorians: age, sickness and poverty in 19th-century Ireland

Gilleard

2015

Ageing and Society

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“…This was part of a wider legislative drive to provide adequate housing across Ireland for labourers from the 1880s, albeit primarily in rural Ireland. 48 The first subsidy for urban housing was only provided in 1908 and was inadequate to the needs of the city. 49 Even so, a series of housing schemes was commenced in the city during the first decade of the twentieth century.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The institution and the city: the impact of hospitals and workhouses on the development of Dublin's north inner city,c. 1773–1911

Fennelly

2019

Urban History

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Cities develop around industry, markets and transport links. Dublin in the nineteenth century was similar, but additionally the north-west of the city developed around the expansion of a complex of institutional buildings for the reception, confinement and welfare of the poor and sick. This article argues that these institutions were implicit in the development of the modern city in the same way as industry and commerce. The physical development of the buildings altered and defined both the streetscape and, over time, the social identities and historical communities in the locale, in the same way that industrial development defined urban areas.

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“…George Nicholls, one of the architects of the Irish poor law system, was a poor law commissioner in England; Nicholls, History ; Crossman, Politics , p. 10.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Irish poor law is seen as harsher than the English law, where the poor always had access to outdoor relief; Crossman, Politics , p. 11.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Women of an uncertain age: quantifying human capital accumulation in rural Ireland in the nineteenth century†

Blum

Colvin

McAtackney

et al. 2016

The Economic History Review

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Geary and Stark find that Ireland's post‐Famine per capita GDP converged with British levels, and that this convergence was largely due to total factor productivity growth rather than mass emigration. In this article, new long‐run measurements of human capital accumulation in Ireland are devised in order to facilitate a better assessment of sources of this productivity growth, including the relative contribution of men and women. This is done by exploiting the frequency at which age data heap at round ages, widely interpreted as an indicator of a population's basic numeracy skills. Because Földvári, van Leeuwen, and van Leeuwen‐Li find that gender‐specific trends in this measure derived from census returns are biased by who is reporting and recording the age information, any computed numeracy trends are corrected using data from prison and workhouse registers, sources in which women ostensibly self‐reported their age. The findings show that rural Irish women born early in the nineteenth century had substantially lower levels of human capital than uncorrected census data would otherwise suggest. These results are large in magnitude and thus economically significant. The speed at which women converged is consistent with Geary and Stark's interpretation of Irish economic history; Ireland probably graduated to Europe's club of advanced economies thanks in part to rapid advances in female human capital.

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Politics, pauperism and power in late nineteenth-century Ireland

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

The other Victorians: age, sickness and poverty in 19th-century Ireland

The other Victorians: age, sickness and poverty in 19th-century Ireland

The institution and the city: the impact of hospitals and workhouses on the development of Dublin's north inner city,c. 1773–1911

Women of an uncertain age: quantifying human capital accumulation in rural Ireland in the nineteenth century†

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