| Summary: | "This is the first book to tackle the controversial history of prostitution in Ireland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Maria Luddy uncovers the extent of prostitution in the country and examines how Irish women came to work as prostitutes, their living conditions and their treatment by society. She provides new insights into the contentious history of Magdalen asylums in Ireland and reveals the inability of both the churches and government to eliminate prostitution from the streets of Irish towns and cities right through until the mid 1920s. She shows that, while prostitution and venereal disease were viewed as social and moral problems, these issues were politicised by nationalists who linked them to the presence of the British garrison in Ireland and used them to argue for the withdrawal of the British. Once independence was achieved these problems were expected to disappear. However, the apparent increase in illegitimacy and VD rates suggested that something was amiss in the new State." "Revealing complex social and religious attitudes towards prostitution, prostitutes and the expression of sexuality in Irish society, this important study provides new perspectives on both Irish social, cultural and political history."--Jacket.
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