Prostitution and Irish society, 1800-1940 /

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Luddy, Maria.
Imprint:	Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Description:	xiii, 352 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.
Language:	English
Subject:	Prostitution -- Ireland -- History -- 19th century. Prostitution -- Ireland -- History -- 20th century. Prostitutes -- Ireland -- Social conditions -- 19th century. Prostitutes -- Ireland -- Social conditions -- 20th century. Prostitution -- Social aspects -- Ireland. Prostitutes -- Social conditions. Prostitution. Prostitution -- Social aspects. Ireland. History.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/6684486

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780521882415 (cased) 0521882419 (cased) 9780521709057 (pbk.) 0521709059 (pbk.)
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
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.

Table of Contents:

'Frowsy, shameless women': an overview of prostitution in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
'Looking for my living': women, community and prostitution in Ireland
'Behaved very ill': rescue work and Magdalen asylums in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
'The black plague': venereal diseases in nineteenth-century Ireland
'Soldier's totty': nationalists, suffragists and the surveillance of women, 1900-40
'Hopeless cases': prostitution and sexual danger in the Irish Free State, 1922-40.

Similar Items