Unmarried Mothers in Ireland, 1880–1973

Abstract

This article explores the changing experiences and representation of Ireland’s unmarried mothers from 1880 to 1973. It focuses on the stigma of illegitimacy in political and cultural discourse and the representation of unmarried mothers as immoral and their children as a drain on resources. These remained constant themes within the discourse of unmarried motherhood in Ireland throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The article uses the records of philanthropic, government and religious organisations to chart the rising interest in the moral reformation of unmarried mothers at the end of the nineteenth century and rising tolerance towards them by the end of the twentieth century.

Notes

[1] See A. Bourke, S. Kilfeather, M. Luddy, et al. (Eds) (2002) The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing. Vols. 4 & 5, Irish Women’s Writing and Traditions (Cork: Cork University Press), vol. 4, pp. 637–638; vol. 5, pp. 1453–1439.

[2] Banks to Cardwell, 5 Nov. 1859, Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers, 1859/9780, National Archives of Ireland, Dublin (Hereafter NAI). This includes a return of the number of children under fifteen years of age in the workhouses of Ireland on the eighth day of October 1859, distinguishing the legitimate from the illegitimate.

[3] R. Galvin to Cullen, 12 Mar. 1861, Cullen Papers, Dublin Diocesan Archives, 1861/340/1, File I/Secular Clergy 1861.

[4] Greene to Cullen, 12 Mar. 1861, Cullen Papers, Dublin Diocesan Archives, 1861/340/1, File I/Secular Clergy 1861.

[5] Papers relating to the enquiry at Belfast Workhouse, H.C. 1881 lxxxix (123) p. 69.

[6] M. Luddy (2007) Prostitution and Irish Society, 1800–1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

[7] M. Luddy (1995) Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth‐Century Ireland (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

[8] Luddy, Prostitution and Irish Society, ch. 3.

[9] Ibid.

[10] For numbers of illegitimate births between 1864 and 1945 see E. W. McCabe, ‘The Need for a Law of Adoption’, article in Adoption of Children: General File. Department of the Taoiseach, S10815A, NAI.

[11] Luddy, Prostitution and Irish Society, ch. 6.

[12] F. Kennedy (2001) Cottage to Crèche: family change in Ireland (Dublin: Institute of Public Administration), pp. 30–32.

[13] Report of the Committee on the Criminal Law Amendment Acts (1880–1885) and Juvenile Prostitution. Department of the Taoiseach, File S5998, NAI, p. 8.

[14] Report of the Commission on the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor, Including the Insane Poor (1928) (Dublin: The Stationery Office). For newspaper coverage see Irish Times (17 September 1925), (22 January 1926).

[15] Irish Times (19 January 1928).

[16] Irish Times (13 March 1928).

[17] Report of the Commission on the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor, p. 68.

[18] Annual Report of the Department of Local Government and Public Health (1928–29) (Dublin: The Stationery Office), p. 47.

[19] Typescript, ‘Unmarried Mothers Report’, in Dr Bernard Hackett Papers, Waterford Diocesan Archives, Bishop’s House, Waterford c.1924.

[20] Annual Report of the Department of Local Government and Public Health (1928–29).

[21] J. Cruice to the Archbishop, September 1929, with attached list of statistics. Byrne Papers, Dublin Diocesan Archives.

[22] Report of the Commission on the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor, p. 68.

[23] Report of the Committee on the Criminal Law Amendment Acts, p. 10.

[24] After 1925 by the South Cork Board of Health and Public Assistance.

[25] Another home, St Gerard’s, opened in Dublin for about six years but closed in 1939. It admitted ‘paying cases and selected destitute ones’. Annual Report of the Department of Local Government and Public Health (1933–34, 1934–35) (Dublin: The Stationery Office). This home was managed by a group of lay Catholics, St Patrick’s Guild.

[26] In 1941 it was noted that the probable fee for these private nursing homes was £70, a sum that would put them out of the reach of the poorer women of society. See M.P.H.R. (1941) Illegitimate, The Bell, 11(3), pp. 421–436.

[27] Report of the Interdepartmental Committee Appointed to Examine the Question of the Reconstruction and Replacement of County Homes (1951). Department of the Taoiseach Files, NAI.

[28] Under the Public Assistance Act, 1939, persons in County Homes, as a condition of being granted assistance, could be required to work. The Health Act, 1953, repealed the provisions of the Public Assistance Act, 1939, and no inmate could be required to work.

[29] Commission on Emigration and other Population Problems, 1948–1954 (Dublin: The Stationery Office).

[30] Annual Report, Department of Local Government and Public Health (1930) (Dublin: The Stationery Office), p. 13.

[31] Note about maintenance of unmarried mothers in special homes, 1964. M124/53. Department of Health File, NAI. See also the excellent coverage of unmarried motherhood in Ireland in Lindsey Earner‐Byrne (2007) Mother and Child: maternity and child welfare in Dublin, 1922–60 (Manchester: Manchester University Press). See also, Report of the Consultative Child Health Council, 1949, p. 3, cited in ibid.

[32] Quoted in Annual Report of the Department of Local Government and Public Health (1933–34), p. 325.

[33] J. Glynn (1921) The Unmarried Mother, Irish Ecclesiastical Record, 18, p. 463.

[34] Annual Report, Department of Local Government and Public Health (1927) (Dublin: The Stationery Office), pp. 56–57.

[35] Annual Report, Department of Local Government and Public Health (1932) (Dublin: The Stationery Office).

[36] Annual Report, Department of Local Government and Public Health (1935) (Dublin: The Stationery Office), p. 146.

[37] Report of the Commission on the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor, p. 69.

[38] Annual Report, Department of Local Government and Public Health (1932), p. 29.

[39] C. Clear (2000) Women of the House: women’s household work in Ireland, 1922–1961 (Dublin: Irish Academic Press), p. 126.

[40] Annual Report of the Registrar General for Saorstat Eireann (1925) (Dublin: The Stationery Office), p. xii.

[41] Annual Report of the Registrar General for Saorstat Eireann (1927, 1929) (Dublin: The Stationery Office), pp. xlii–xliii.

[42] Annual Report, Department of Local Government and Public Health (1938) (Dublin: The Stationery Office).

[43] Typescript, ‘The Regina Coeli Hostel, Report, 5th October 1930–11th May 1932’, Byrne Papers, Dublin Diocesan Archives.

[44] Under 25 & 26 Vict. c. 83 s. 10 (1862) amended by 26 Vict c. 21, boards of guardians could sue fathers for maintenance.

[45] M. Luddy (2001) Moral Rescue and Unmarried Mothers in Ireland in the 1920s, Women’s Studies, 30(6), pp. 809–813.

[46] Memo on Unmarried Mothers, c.1924. Dr Bernard Hackett Papers, Waterford Diocesan Archives, Bishop’s House, Waterford,

[47] Margaret Kerr to Miss Monaghan, 14 December 1929, forwarded to Archbishop Byrne. Byrne Papers, Box, Lay organisations (2), Dublin Diocesan Archives.

[48] Memorandum from the Department of Health, 25 October 1955, on the report of the Commission on Emigration and Other Population Problems. Department of the Taoiseach File, S14294B, Emigration and Rural Depopulation, Commission of Inquiry, NAI. Much has now been written on Irish women who travelled to England to have their babies. The most comprehensive work has been published by P. M. Garrett (2000) The Abnormal Flight: migration and repatriation of Irish unmarried mothers, Social History, 25, pp. 330–343; P. M. Garrett (2004) Social Work and Irish People in Britain: historical and contemporary responses to Irish children and families (Bristol: Policy Press). See also, L. Earner‐Byrne (2003) The Boat to England: an analysis of the official reactions to the emigration of single expectant Irishwomen to Britain, 1922–1972, Irish Economic and Social History, 30, pp. 52–70; Earner‐Byrne, Mother and Child, ch. 7.

[49] Letter from Florence Russell to Archbishop of Dublin, 1920s. Byrne Papers, Dublin Diocesan Archives.

[50] Annual Report (1929) The Liverpool Society for the Prevention of International Traffic in Women and Children, p. 10. Byrne Papers, Dublin Diocesan Archives.

[51] See file of letters referring to unmarried mothers in Byrne Papers, Dublin Diocesan Archives.

[52] Annual Report, Department of Local Government and Public Health (1938).

[53] E. Delaney (2001) Demography, State, and Society: Irish migration to Britain, 1921–1971 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press), pp. 66–67.

[54] Memorandum on the problem of Irish girls emigrating to England, 25 August 1953, issued by Mrs Fitzgerald, Catholic Women’s League, England. Department of the Taoiseach Papers, S11582E, Irish Labour, Emigration. NAI.

[55] Annual Report, Catholic Protection and Rescue Society of Ireland (1948), p. 2.

[56] Annual Report, Catholic Protection and Rescue Society of Ireland (1952), p. 2.

[57] Annual Report, Catholic Protection and Rescue Society of Ireland (1964), p. 4.

[58] The number of women citing Irish addresses in British abortion clinics rose from sixty‐four in 1968 to 577 in 1971.

[59] Annual Report, Catholic Protection and Rescue Society of Ireland (1967, 1972). Paul Michael Garrett has written about the repatriation of Irish children from London. From 1955 the London County Council discharged from their care children to Ireland. The Council employed a child welfare officer in Ireland to assist in this task and by the mid 1960s, 298 children had been removed to Ireland. Garrett, Social Work and Irish People, ch. 3.

[60] Report by J. K. Feeney on the Coombe and unmarried mothers, November 1968. M124/53 Department of Health file. NAI.

[61] Luddy, ‘Moral Rescue’, pp. 809–812.

[62] Dail Debates, vol. 92, 24 November 1943, column 201.

[63] In 1983 the Law Reform Commission made a recommendation that the legal status of illegitimacy be abolished and in 1987 the Status of Children Act gave rights, similar to the children of married parents, to the children of unmarried parents. See, Kennedy, Cottage to Crèche, ch. 9.

[64] Irish Times (22 June 1946).

[65] Earner‐Byrne, Mother and Child.

[66] Kennedy, Cottage to Crèche.

[67] Irish Independent (5 March 1971).

[68] Irish Press (5 March 1973).