Conceptualizing and responding to poverty in the Republic of Ireland in the 1960s: a case study of Dublin

Abstract

The 1960s saw reformulations and rediscoveries of poverty in the West. This article examines the experience of the Republic of Ireland, a state with a large network of religious charitable agencies and a predilection for voluntary over statutory services. While sociologists have identified an Irish rediscovery of poverty as occurring in the early 1970s, it is argued here that a reframing of understandings of poverty, and the services required to address it, was apparent throughout the 1960s, in the media, in the actions of voluntary, civic and political groups, and in attempts to gather data on social problems. This article investigates the extent to which external ideas influenced a rediscovery or reformulation of poverty in Ireland, placing developments in local, national and transnational contexts. It focuses in particular on the changes within Catholicism that were key to the Irish rediscovery. Dublin is used as a case study in order to examine experiences of poverty on the ground. The correspondence associated with a charitable agency and a maternity hospital reveal the nature of the welfare mix that existed in the capital city and the way in which poverty was managed at a local level. In examining poverty from these different vantage points, this article identifies how ideas of and responses to poverty evolved in this period. It argues that while calls for the further development of collective responses to poverty were key to its reformulation, the historical dominance of voluntary agencies and the complex realities of welfare provision on the ground limited the potential for transformative change.