Protecting the honour of the daughters of Eire: welfare policy for Irish female migrants to England, 1940–70

Abstract

Across the middle decades of the twentieth century, approximately 500,000 people left Ireland for Britain. Around half were young, single females migrating alone. Drawing on archival material in Ireland and England, this paper analyses the ways in which Catholic and secular agencies became aware of female Irish migrants; and how they understood and responded to their needs. Catholic organisations focused on maintaining religious belief and practice as a means of avoiding social problems in migrants. Some female migrants, such as nurses, were considered exemplars of Catholic and Irish femininity. However, female sexuality was problematised when associated with single motherhood, prostitution and cohabitation. The Irish hierarchy expected to lead policy development for migrant welfare. The framing of female migrant social needs within a moral and religious discourse led to solutions prioritising moral welfare delivered by Catholic priests and volunteers. Both the Irish government and British institutions (state and voluntary) accepted the centrality of Catholicism to Irish identity and the right of the Catholic Church to lead welfare policy and provision for Irish female migrants. No alternative understanding of Irish women's needs within a secular framework emerged during this period. This meant that whilst the Irish hierarchy developed policy responses based on their assessment of need, other agencies, notably the British and Irish governments, did not consider any specific policy response for Irish women to be required.

Keywords:

• migration
• Irish
• female
• policy
• Catholic Church
• voluntary agencies
• government

Notes

 1. ‘Murder Hunt for Car’, Daily Express, 25 February 1965, in DDA, McQuaid Papers, Emigrants' Welfare, AB8/B/XXIX/a11.

 2. Irish Independent, 15 April 1955. NAI, Department of Foreign Affairs – Embassy, London, B101/42 Recruitment of Irish Nurses for Irish, British Hospitals and for other countries – general file.

 3. Commission on Emigration Reports (1954), in National Economic and Social Council (NESC), Economic and Social Implications of Emigration, 72; and Travers, ‘“There was Nothing for me There”’, 148.

 4. Commission on Emigration Reports (1954), in National Economic and Social Council (NESC), Economic and Social Implications of Emigration, 72; and Travers, ‘“There was Nothing for me There”’, 149.

 5. Commission on Emigration Reports (1954), in National Economic and Social Council (NESC), Economic and Social Implications of Emigration, 72; and Travers, ‘“There was Nothing for me There”’, 146–67; Delaney, Demography, State and Society, 185–9; Redmond, ‘“Sinful Singleness”?’, 455–76; Daly, Slow Failure, 168–72.

 6. Muldowney, Second World War and Irish Women; Walter, Outsiders Inside; Gray, Women and the Irish Diaspora.

 7. Culhane, ‘Irish Catholics in Britain’, 397–414; Bodkin, ‘Irish in Britain’, 209–40; Fisher, ‘Irishman in Britain’, 387–414.

 8. Correspondence relating to welfare of Irish Catholic girls who take up service in England, 1939; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Emigrants' Welfare 1, 1939–61, General Correspondence, AB8/B/XXIX.

 9. Note from McQuaid to Professor Moore (n.d.); DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XXIX/1a.

10. Anonymous, ‘Transfer of Irish Workers to Great Britain’, 338–42.

11. Records of the National Vigilance Association, Women's Library, London Metropolitan University, Special Collections Catalogue, 4NVA. Minutes of NVA meeting with reference to problems of Irish girls travelling to Britain, 1953; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Emigrants' Welfare, AB8/B/XXIX/a/1.

12. Notes of meeting at Department of External Affairs, 20 July 1942; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/1a.

13. McQuaid, inaugural speech for CSWB, 17 June 1942; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/1a.

14. CSWB Committee of Management Agenda, 20 August 1942; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/1a.

15. Correspondence in DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/1a.

16. Correspondence in DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/1a; CSBW Committee of Management Agenda, 20 August 1942; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/1a.

17. Gray, Report on Conditions of Irish Catholic Immigrants in Britain, May 1943; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/1a.

18. Ministry of Labour and National Service, Report by the Commissioner for Man-power Survey, Sir William H. Beveridge, KCB – with Annexed Memoranda, October 1940; National Archive, Cabinet Office Papers, CAB/67/8/84; and War Workers Clubs, 1943–45; Modern Records Centre, MSS.292/147.66/3.

19. Report on the Selly Oak Club by Mrs Winifred Cavanagh, Local Welfare Officer, Ministry of Labour, Birmingham Local Office, 11 April 1944; BDA, Williams Papers, Correspondence: Murtagh, Mrs Helen 1942–46, AP/C28/45.

20. Travel permits issued by the Irish government were required between 1943 and 1951.

21. Letter from William P. Fay, Assistant Secretary, Department of External Affairs to the Secretary, Department of Justice, 29 October 1952; NAI, Department of the Taoiseach, Irish Labour, Emigration, s11582E.

22. Annual Reports of the CSWB, Emigrant Section, 1955–69; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/4ac and 5ac.

23. Memorandum on Irish Emigrants in England and Wales (n.d.); DDA, McQuaid Papers, Emigrants' Welfare 3, Irish Episcopal Commission, AB8/B/XXIX.

24. Luddy, Prostitution and Irish Society, 194–6.

25. Letter from Hubert Daly to Frank Duff, 17 July 1954; DDA, Legion of Mary Papers.

26. Letter from Hubey Daly to Frank Duff, 21 July 1954; DDA, Legion of Mary Papers.

27. Brady, ‘Irish in London’, 527–30.

28. Boland, ‘Hotel Chaplain Scheme’, 579–81.

29. Report of Camp and Hotel Chaplains Scheme, 1959; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Emigrants' Welfare 3, General Correspondence 1959, AB8/B/XXIX/a21; Report of Irish Emigrant Chaplains' Conference, London, January 1968; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Emigrants' Welfare 3, General Correspondence 1968–71, AB8/B/XXIX/a15.

30. Richard Hauser, ‘Hypothesis of Preliminary Action Research for the Irish Problem’, Centre for Group Studies, London, 1963; and letter from Barrett to McQuaid, 23 January 1963; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/18 g.

31. Hopkins, ‘Comment on “Irish Catholics in Britain”’, 400.

32. Catholic Truth Society, Catholic Handbook.

33. Hopkins, “Irish Catholics in Britain”', 400.

34. The Sisters of Charity hostel in Birmingham is an example; see ‘Religious History: Religious Houses’, in A History of the County of Warwick. Vol. 7: The City of Birmingham, 403–5 (1964). For similar initiatives in Ireland, see Luddy, Prostitution in Ireland, 167.

35. ‘Dictabelt from Father Aedan McGrath to Father Connolly, January 1958’; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Emigrants' Welfare 1, 1939/1961, General Correspondence, AB8/B/XXIX.

36. Luddy, ‘Unmarried Mothers in Ireland’, 113.

37. Lewis and Welshman, ‘Never Married Motherhood in Britain’, 401–18.

38. Barrett, Reports on Repatriation Work of the Catholic Protection and Rescue Society of Ireland (included as appendices to Reports of the Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, Emigrants' Section), 1955–69; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau AB8/B/XIX/5ac.

39. Report to his Grace Archbishop Williams of a Discussion with his Grace Archbishop McQuaid on Social Problems arising between Eire and Great Britain, with Particular Reference to the Unmarried Mother and her Child, August 1942; and letter from Helen Murtagh to Archbishop Williams, 30 August 1942; BDA, Williams Papers, Correspondence: Murtagh, Mrs Helen, 1942–46, AP/C28/5.

40. Garrett, Social Work and Irish People in Britain, 31–5.

41. News clipping from the Irish Independent, 15 April 1955.

42. Fealy, ‘“Good Nurse”’, 649.

43. Ryan, ‘Becoming Nurses’, 123.

44. Hallam, ‘Nursing the Image’, 22–3.

45. Hallam, ‘Nursing the Image’, 22–3

46. Broomfield Hospital Brochure, 1959, NAI, Department of Foreign Affairs – Embassy, London, B101/42 Recruitment of Irish Nurses for Irish, British Hospitals and for other countries – general file.

47. ‘Irish Community Trust Fund’, Memorandum, December 1953; NAI, Department of Foreign Affairs – Embassy, London, B100/19 Financial assistance from Irish Government towards Welfare of Irish in Britain – General Policy 1959–69.

48. NAI, Department of Foreign Affairs – Embassy, London, B101/42 Recruitment of Irish Nurses for Irish, British Hospitals and for other countries – general file.

49. Press cutting from the Hornsey Journal, 25 November 1966, Recruitment of Irish Nurses – general file, B101/42. Miss Redmond, ‘An analysis of the progress of student nurses entering training at the Whittington Hospital since May 1960’, NAI, Department of Foreign Affairs – Embassy, London, Recruitment of Irish Nurses – general file, B101/42.

50. Cutting from the Irish Independent, 7 February 1967, Recruitment of Irish Nurses – general file, B101/42.

51. Report of meeting between Irish Ambassador and Miss Redmond, 10 February 1967, Recruitment of Irish Nurses – general file, B101/42.

52. McKenna, ‘Forgotten Migrants’, 296.

53. Pastoral Letter of the Irish Hierarchy on Emigration, The Furrow 18 (1967): 283–90.

54. Kelly and Nic Giolla Choille, ‘Listening and Learning’, 171–4.

55. Paul, ‘A Case of Mistaken Identity’, 116–42.

56. Minutes of meetings between the CSWB and Department of Labour, 27 May 1969 and 3 June 1969; DDA, McQuaid Papers, Catholic Social Welfare Bureau, AB8/B/XIX/19 g.

57. Cardinal Griffin, Trinity Sunday Pastoral Letter, 1955, qtd in Memorandum on Irish Emigrants in England and Wales (n.d.); DDA, McQuaid Papers, Emigrants' Welfare, AB8/B/XXIX/a/3.