The Library

"Abandoned women and bad characters" : prostitution in nineteenth-century Ireland

Tools

Luddy, Maria. (1997) "Abandoned women and bad characters" : prostitution in nineteenth-century Ireland. Women's History Review, Vol.6 (No.4). pp. 485-503. ISSN 0961-2025

Full text not available from this repository.

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09612029700200157

Abstract

This article examines the extent of prostitution in nineteenth-century Ireland. It centres on the problem of prostitution as one of visibility and the prostitute as a site of possible contagion, both physical and moral. The legal powers given to the police to control prostitution were used when prostitution became a particular problem and the focus of public and clerical condemnation. However, for the public prostitution was most acceptable when it was hidden from public view. Attempts to rescue and reform prostitutes came from lay and religious women in particular. The establishment of Magdalen Asylums offered the Irish public a place of confinement for their 'wayward' daughters, placing them away from the public gaze. Examining the registers of these asylums reveals that 'fallen women' were capable of using these institutions for their own ends, particularly in the nineteenth century. The decline in prostitution evident in Ireland from the 1870s owned much to the new 'morality' being imposed on the Irish people by the middle classes and the Catholic church.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Subjects:

D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain
H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman

Divisions:

Faculty of Arts > History

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):

Prostitution -- Ireland -- History -- 19th century, Prostitutes -- Ireland -- History -- 19th century, Prostitution -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Ireland -- 19th century

Journal or Publication Title:

Women's History Review

Publisher:

Routledge

ISSN:

0961-2025

Official Date:

1997

Dates:

Date	Event
1997	Published

Volume:

Vol.6

Number:

No.4

Number of Pages:

Page Range:

pp. 485-503

Identification Number:

10.1080/09612029700200157

Status:

Peer Reviewed

Publication Status:

Published

Access rights to Published version:

Restricted or Subscription Access

Version or Related Resource:

Luddy, M. (2001). Abandoned women and bad characters: prostitution in nineteenth-century Ireland. In : Hayes, A. and Urquhart, D., eds., The Irish women's history reader. London : Routledge. pp. 87-94.

Related URLs: