Prostitution and Irish Society, 1800-1940

Prostitution and Irish Society, 1800-1940
Author: Maria Luddy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2007-12-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521709059

The first book to tackle the controversial history of prostitution in modern Ireland.

Marriage in Ireland, 1660–1925

Marriage in Ireland, 1660–1925
Author: Maria Luddy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 463
Release: 2020-06-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108788467

What were the laws on marriage in Ireland, and did church and state differ in their interpretation? How did men and women meet and arrange to marry? How important was patriarchy and a husband's control over his wife? And what were the options available to Irish men and women who wished to leave an unhappy marriage? This first comprehensive history of marriage in Ireland across three centuries looks below the level of elite society for a multi-faceted exploration of how marriage was perceived, negotiated and controlled by the church and state, as well as by individual men and women within Irish society. Making extensive use of new and under-utilised primary sources, Maria Luddy and Mary O'Dowd explain the laws and customs around marriage in Ireland. Revising current understandings of marital law and relations, Marriage in Ireland, 1660–1925 represents a major new contribution to Irish historical studies.

Matters of Deceit

Matters of Deceit
Author: Maria Luddy
Publisher: Four Courts Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781846822940

In Irish history, marriage was of huge significance to women and men for social, emotional, and economic reasons. Married women had greater status than unmarried women. The most acceptable way to form families was through marriage and, as in all time periods, both men and women desired children. Economic stability - though not necessarily guaranteed by marriage - was an inducement to marriage for many women, especially in a society where paid employment opportunities for them were limited. A breach of promise to marry is a fundamental break of a promise - by either a man or woman - to carry through a marriage. However, as this book shows, breach of promise cases were not always straightforward. Exploring the history of breach of promise cases in Ireland allows an insight into courtship rituals. It reveals the significance of monetary considerations in marriage settlements and the value that was placed on women's - and men's - reputations. (Series: Maynooth Studies in Local History - Number 96)

Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century Ireland
Author: Maria Luddy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 1995-05-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0521474337

This book examines the role of women in philanthropy in nineteenth-century Ireland. The author focuses initially on the impact of religion on the lives of women and argues that the development of convents in the nineteenth century inhibited the involvement of lay Catholic women in charity work. She goes on to claim that sectarianism dominated women's philanthropic activity, and also analyses the work of women in areas of moral concern, such as prostitution and prison work. The book concludes that the most progressive developments in the care of the poor were brought about by non-conformist women, and a number of women involved in reformist organisations were later to become pioneers in the cause of suffrage. This study makes an important contribution both to Irish history and to our knowledge of women's lives and experiences in the nineteenth century.

Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment

Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment
Author: James M. Smith
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2007-09-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0268182183

The Magdalen laundries were workhouses in which many Irish women and girls were effectively imprisoned because they were perceived to be a threat to the moral fiber of society. Mandated by the Irish state beginning in the eighteenth century, they were operated by various orders of the Catholic Church until the last laundry closed in 1996. A few years earlier, in 1993, an order of nuns in Dublin sold part of their Magdalen convent to a real estate developer. The remains of 155 inmates, buried in unmarked graves on the property, were exhumed, cremated, and buried elsewhere in a mass grave. This triggered a public scandal in Ireland and since then the Magdalen laundries have become an important issue in Irish culture, especially with the 2002 release of the film The Magdalene Sisters. Focusing on the ten Catholic Magdalen laundries operating between 1922 and 1996, Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment offers the first history of women entering these institutions in the twentieth century. Because the religious orders have not opened their archival records, Smith argues that Ireland's Magdalen institutions continue to exist in the public mind primarily at the level of story (cultural representation and survivor testimony) rather than history (archival history and documentation). Addressed to academic and general readers alike, James M. Smith's book accomplishes three primary objectives. First, it connects what history we have of the Magdalen laundries to Ireland's “architecture of containment” that made undesirable segments of the female population such as illegitimate children, single mothers, and sexually promiscuous women literally invisible. Second, it critically evaluates cultural representations in drama and visual art of the laundries that have, over the past fifteen years, brought them significant attention in Irish culture. Finally, Smith challenges the nation—church, state, and society—to acknowledge its complicity in Ireland's Magdalen scandal and to offer redress for victims and survivors alike.

Origins of the Magdalene Laundries

Origins of the Magdalene Laundries
Author: Rebecca Lea McCarthy
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2010-03-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786455802

The convents, asylums, and laundries that once comprised the Magdalene institutions are the subject of this work. Though originally half-way homes for prostitutes in the Middle Ages, these homes often became forced-labor institutions, particularly in Ireland. Examining the laundries within the context of a growing world capitalist economy, the work argues that the process of colonization, and of defining a national image, determined the nature and longevity of the Magdalene Laundries. This process developed differently in Ireland, where the last laundry closed in 1996. The book focuses on the devolution of the significance of Mary Magdalene as a metaphor for the organization: from an affluent, strong supporter of Jesus to a simple, fallen woman.

Sexualities and Irish Society

Sexualities and Irish Society
Author: Máire Leane
Publisher: Orpen Press
Total Pages: 591
Release: 2014-01-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1909895113

In Ireland, recent social, cultural and political changes combined with globalisation, commercialisation and new technologies have re-shaped how we understand and think about sexuality. There is now a multiplicity of ways in which individuals can experience their sexuality, negotiate their sexual identities and advocate for sexual rights. Meanwhile, sexualities continue to be denied, problematised and subjected to regulation. The ongoing exchanges between real-life sexualities and the social contexts in which they are forged, provides the core focus of this book. Sexualities and Irish Society explores the construction and management of sexualities across a number of different sites, including the family, the legal and education systems, medical and therapeutic settings, and cultural and commercial arenas. Engaging with both theoretical and empirical material, the authors analyse the power relations within which sexualities are constructed, resisted and reconstructed. Written by academics, researchers, advocates and practitioners, this is the first comprehensive academic text on sexualities in Irish society. It showcases the best of recent scholarship from a range of disciplinary perspectives. Sexualities and Irish Society is a valuable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in social policy, social care, social work, sociology, women's studies, cultural studies, history, politics and studies of the body. It should also appeal to activists, campaigners and professional practitioners.

The Murder of Helen Jewett

The Murder of Helen Jewett
Author: Patricia Cline Cohen
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 514
Release: 1999-06-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 0679740759

In 1836, the murder of a young prostitute made headlines in New York City and around the country, inaugurating a sex-and-death sensationalism in news reporting that haunts us today. Patricia Cline Cohen goes behind these first lurid accounts to reconstruct the story of the mysterious victim, Helen Jewett. From her beginnings as a servant girl in Maine, Helen Jewett refashioned herself, using four successive aliases, into a highly paid courtesan. She invented life stories for herself that helped her build a sympathetic clientele among New York City's elite, and she further captivated her customers through her seductive letters, which mixed elements of traditional feminine demureness with sexual boldness. But she was to meet her match--and her nemesis--in a youth called Richard Robinson. He was one of an unprecedented number of young men who flooded into America's burgeoning cities in the 1830s to satisfy the new business society's seemingly infinite need for clerks. The son of an established Connecticut family, he was intense, arrogant, and given to posturing. He became Helen Jewett's lover in a tempestuous affair and ten months later was arrested for her murder. He stood trial in a five-day courtroom drama that ended with his acquittal amid the cheers of hundreds of fellow clerks and other spectators. With no conviction for murder, nor closure of any sort, the case continued to tantalize the public, even though Richard Robinson disappeared from view. Through the Erie Canal, down the Ohio and the Mississippi, and by way of New Orleans, he reached the wilds of Texas and a new life under a new name. Through her meticulous and ingenious research, Patricia Cline Cohen traces his life there and the many twists and turns of the lingering mystery of the murder. Her stunning portrayals of Helen Jewett, Robinson, and their raffish, colorful nineteenth-century world make vivid a frenetic city life and sexual morality whose complexities, contradictions, and concerns resonate with those of our own time.

Sex, Gender and Social Change in Britain since 1880

Sex, Gender and Social Change in Britain since 1880
Author: Lesley A. Hall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2017-09-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1137292687

Sexual attitudes and behaviour have changed radically in Britain between the Victorian era and the twenty-first century. However, Lesley A. Hall reveals how slow and halting the processes of change have been, and how many continuities have persisted under a façade of modernity. Thoroughly revised, updated and expanded, the second edition of this established text: • explores a wide range of relevant topics including marriage, homosexuality, commercial sex, media representations, censorship, sexually transmitted diseases and sex education • features an entirely new last chapter which brings the narrative right up to the present day • provides fresh insights by bringing together further original research and recent scholarship in the area. Lively and authoritative, this is an essential volume for anyone studying the history of sexual culture in Britain during a period of rapid social change.

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History

The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History
Author: Alvin Jackson
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 979
Release: 2014-03-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191667609

The study of Irish history, once riven and constricted, has recently enjoyed a resurgence, with new practitioners, new approaches, and new methods of investigation. The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History represents the diversity of this emerging talent and achievement by bringing together 36 leading scholars of modern Ireland and embracing 400 years of Irish history, uniting early and late modernists as well as contemporary historians. The Handbook offers a set of scholarly perspectives drawn from numerous disciplines, including history, political science, literature, geography, and the Irish language. It looks at the Irish at home as well as in their migrant and diasporic communities. The Handbook combines sets of wide thematic and interpretative essays, with more detailed investigations of particular periods. Each of the contributors offers a summation of the state of scholarship within their subject area, linking their own research insights with assessments of future directions within the discipline. In its breadth and depth and diversity, The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History offers an authoritative and vibrant portrayal of the history of modern Ireland.