Poverty, children and the poor law in industrial Belfast, 1880-1918 / Olwen Purdue with Georgina Laragy.
The late 19th-century city acted as a magnet for the poor of rural Ireland, attracting them with the promise of employment and economic independence. For many, however, urban life meant economic precarity, marginalisation and destitution, with the workhouse as an all-too-present reality. Young famil...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Liverpool :
Liverpool University Press,
2024.
|
| Series: | Reappraisals in Irish history ;
17. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | The late 19th-century city acted as a magnet for the poor of rural Ireland, attracting them with the promise of employment and economic independence. For many, however, urban life meant economic precarity, marginalisation and destitution, with the workhouse as an all-too-present reality. Young families were particularly vulnerable, with the result that thousands of children found themselves confined within the workhouse walls. This book explores the changing role of the Irish poor law in child welfare in the late 19th- and early 20th-century city. Taking as its focus Belfast, a burgeoning industrial and port city at the heart of a global trade network and a city deeply divided along political and confessional lines, it examines the ways in which that city's poorest children and their families engaged with the poor law and used the workhouse as part of their economy of makeshifts. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | 304 pages ; 24 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages [283] - 297) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781800855427 1800855427 |