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The essays in this collection examine the intersections between
gender, medicine, and conventional economic, political, and social
histories in Ireland between 1700 and 1950. Gathering many of the
top voices in Irish studies and the history of medicine, the
editors cover a range of topics including midwifery, mental health,
alcoholism, and infant mortality. Composed of thirteen chapters,
the volume includes James Kelly's original analyses of
eighteenth-century dental practice and midwifery, placing the Irish
experience in an international context. Greta Jones, in an
exploration of a disease that affected thousands in Ireland,
explains the reasons for higher tuberculosis mortality among women.
Several essays call attention to the attempted containment of
disease, exploring the role of asylums and the gendered attitudes
toward insanity and reform. Contributors highlight the often
neglected impact of nurses and midwives, occupations traditionally
dominated by women. Presenting a social history of Irish medicine,
the disparate essays are united by several common themes: the
inherent danger of life in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
Ireland, the specific brutality of women's lives at the time, and
the heroics of several enlightened figures.
Mismanaged by local authority, in the 19th-century, Dublin lacked
sufficient industrial development to provide adequate employment.
Dublin's charitable workers attempted to improve the lives of the
thousands who flocked to the city in search of relief. As a means
to examining the hidden incentives of charity, the author offers a
discussion of the language of charity in this setting. She notes
how contemporary notions of race, class, and religion influenced
how Ireland's philanthropists thought of and related to the poor.
While much has been written on the perceived racial inferiority of
the Celt as compared to the Anglo-Saxon, Preston suggests that the
Irish upper classes, in seeking to gain equal footing with the
British elite, adopted the same language to describe the poor.
Intense sectarian strife marred Irish charities and undermined the
smooth operation of social services. Preston offers insight by
focusing on two women philanthropists who battled for the souls of
Ireland's children. She also explores those who remained above the
fray, such as the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland, who
offered aid to all regardless of creed. Within the charitable
records of this group, Preston contends that one can see how the
Society changed over time and that, in Ireland, the industrial
revolution as well as the 1798 Rebellion, contributed to the
Society adapting to the mainstream. Finally, the women of charity
helped to establish a modern nursing system for Ireland, and this
work details their efforts at turning nursing into a respectable
profession for women.
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