"This book focuses on the evolution of the Dublin City Coroner's Court and on Dr Louis A. Bryne's first two years in office. Wrapping itself around the 1901 census, it uses gender, power and blame as analytical frameworks to examine what inquests can tell us about the impact of urban living from lifecycle and class perspectives. Coroners' inquests are a combination of eyewitness testimony, expert medico-legal language, detailed minutiae of people, places, and occupational identities pinned to a moment in time. Thus they have a simultaneous capacity to reveal histories from both above and below. Rich in geographical, socio-economic, cultural, class and medical detail these records collated in a liminal setting about the hour of death bear incredible witness to what has often been termed 'ordinary lives'. The subjects of Dr Byrne's court were among the poorest in Ireland and, apart from common medical causes problems linked to lower socio-economic groups, this book covers preventable cases of workplace accidents, neglect, domestic abuse and homicide"--
Depuis les années 1970, les historiens ont souligné la présence d'imprécisions dans les rapports de décès des registres nationaux dus aux maladies respiratoires. Au début du vingtième siècle, lorsque la tuberculose pulmonaire connaissait d'important niveaux de contagion en Irlande, les hauts fonctionnaires de santé publique comme les militants avaient parfaitement conscience que les décès dus à cette maladie étaient décrits sans précisions ou par euphémisme. Les connaissances en pathologie n'étaient que peu développées, et les examens post-mortem de routine étaient rares. À partir des années 1880, le responsable général de l'état civil fit part de son inquiétude face à la recrudescence des déclarations de décès indiqués comme pleurésie au lieu de tuberculose. L'ambiguïté des classifications, en partie causée par des restrictions ontologiques, pausa également problème pour la mise en place de mesures de santé publique. Par exemple, les symptômes de certaines maladies pouvaient être inclus dans plusieurs catégories en fonction du système nosologique en place. L'efficacité des mesures de santé publique à endiguer la propagation de la tuberculose était limitée du fait de sa non-classification dans les maladies à déclaration obligatoire. En raison de ses liens indissolubles avec la pauvreté et les questions de classe sociale, mais également en raison de l'héritage de la théorie des miasmes, cette maladie était grandement stigmatisée. En conséquence, sa dissimulation était un autre défi pour les autorités de santé publique. Cet article va explorer les raisons pour lesquelles la tuberculose est probablement sous-représentée dans les big data historiques composés des résumés compilés des rapports annuels du responsable de l'état civil d'Irlande, en utilisant une méthodologie combinant micro-histoire, prosopographie et géographie historique. Dans cet article des données qualitatives, plus spécifiquement des enquêtes de médecin légiste, sont associées aux big data représentées par le registre civil de déclaration des décès, entre avril 1900 et avril 1902. Ce faisant, l'article interroge sur les perceptions de la maladie et la prévalence de ses symptômes dans la vie quotidienne de la société civile, et note le contraste avec leur dissimulation en cas de décès. Les enquêtes peuvent servir à identifier des cas spécifiques dans l'ensemble des données, permettant d'examiner comment les problèmes respiratoires étaient rapportés et enregistrés, à une époque où les cas étaient rarement diagnostiqués et où l'efficacité des traitements était limitée. En cartographiant des cas individuels de décès enregistrés, on peut également identifier les sites géographiques problématiques dans la circulation de la maladie, avec certains lieux ou adresses spécifiques, et améliorer notre connaissance de la géographie historique de cette maladie.
peer-reviewed ; In a country where traditional or ethno-medical practices prevailed well into the twentieth century, the interface between the wider populace and 'modern medicine'1 was complicated by undercurrents of class, cultural difference, a mixed medical economy and, perhaps more significantly, denominational concerns. With the exception of Gerard Fealy's work on the history of nursing,2 much discussion on the social history of medicalization in the Irish context has focused on doctors; the function of nurses in that process has received relatively little attention. Even the activity of nursing orders in Ireland remains under-explored, as most discussions form part of wider studies of female religious. ; PUBLISHED ; Peer reviewed
It is largely agreed among scholars of social history and history of medicine that the medicalisation of maternity was slow to evolve in Ireland as it was beleaguered by competing professional, denominational and political agendas. Such discourses have dominated Irish history of medicine and hindered the progress of the medicalisation debate. A notable feature of the birthing process in Ireland is that for centuries handywomen, or untrained midwives, played a crucial role yet they have not been subject to the attention of historians. This article traces references to them in Irish Folklore Commission (1935–71) manuscripts and places them in wider social contexts to contend that their slight representation was a result of medico‐legal awareness and a desire to protect the identity of women who, after 1918, were operating outside the law.
AbstractDublin at the turn of the nineteenth century had limited permanent employment opportunities compared to Belfast, and for poor families financial instability manifested in limited life expectancy. This article focuses on young adult cohorts in Dublin city. By cross-referencing names and addresses from death records with census, court and prison records, it casts new light on the lives of the city's most disadvantaged people. It applies a digital humanities framework and uses historical Geographical Information Systems to explore patterns in cause of death, and to reveal more about household income, casual labour, women's work and community networks. We contend that the cautions about the occlusion of commercial sex work in historical data should be extended to the lowest strata of the working classes more generally and that it is only through granular analyses that the fine lines between poverty and destitution can emerge.
At the height of the Irish War of Independence, 1919–1921, 45-year-old Kate Maher was brutally raped. She subsequently died of terrible wounds, almost certainly inflicted by drunken British soldiers. This article discusses her inadequately investigated case in the wider context of fatal violence against women and girls during years of major political instability. Ordinarily her violent death would have been subject to a coroner's court inquiry and rigorous police investigation, but in 1920, civil inquests in much of Ireland were replaced by military courts of inquiry. With the exception of medical issues, where doctors adhered to their ethical responsibility to provide clear and concise evidence on injuries, wounds and cause of death, courts of inquiry were cursory affairs in which Crown forces effectively investigated and exonerated themselves. This article adopts a microhistory approach to Maher's case to compare how civilian and military systems differed in their treatments of female fatalities. Despite the fact that the medical evidence unequivocally showed that the attack was of a very violent sexual nature, the two soldiers directly implicated were not charged with rape or any other sexual offence. In her case, and in those of other women who died violently while in the company of soldiers and policemen, prosecutions of the men involved resulted in acquittal by military court martial. This was so both for women portrayed as of immoral character and for others assumed to be 'respectable'. It also reflects on the wider question of sexual violence during the Irish War of Independence, concluding that while females experienced a range of gender-determined threats and actions such as armed raids on their homes, the 'bobbing' of hair and other means of 'shaming', rape, accepted as the most serious act of sexual assault, was regarded by all combatants as beyond the pale.
peer-reviewed ; At the height of the Irish War of Independence, 1919–1921, 45-year-old Kate Maher was brutally raped. She subsequently died of terrible wounds, almost certainly inflicted by drunken British soldiers. This article discusses her inadequately investigated case in the wider context of fatal violence against women and girls during years of major political instability. Ordinarily her violent death would have been subject to a coroner's court inquiry and rigorous police investigation, but in 1920, civil inquests in much of Ireland were replaced by military courts of inquiry. With the exception of medical issues, where doctors adhered to their ethical responsibility to provide clear and concise evidence on injuries, wounds and cause of death, courts of inquiry were cursory affairs in which Crown forces effectively investigated and exonerated themselves.
ABSTRACT:This article uses data extracted from General Register Office mortality registers to map the localization of infant mortality in Dublin city from 1864 to 1910. It traces how late nineteenth-century social inequalities were deeply rooted in the city's history. In order to contextualize the high infant mortality rates, we draw on a range of approaches to provide an overarching view of the causes of the public health problems cities like Dublin experienced.
