Lethal Violence in Ireland, 1841 to 2003

Abstract

Examination of recorded homicides in Ireland over a 160-year period reveals a trend that is in the same direction as found in other European countries: declining for around 100 years, then rising again. However, when the killing of babies is disaggregated from other killings, a different pattern emerges in that the secular decline is not reversed. It is argued that the virtual disappearance of baby killing is related to increasing respect for infant life and a marked increase in celibacy after the Famine of 1845-50. Other killings remained at a relatively high and stable level for the latter half of the nineteenth century. This is attributed to the persistence of recreational' violence. The decline in homicide from the turn of the twentieth century is related to emigration and the foundation, after 1922, of an independent Irish state.