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Debates on poverty and provision for the poor have recently resurfaced with ideas of deserving and undeserving poor now dominating the pages of the right-wing media. The gospel of Matthew reminds us that we will always have the poor, yet they rarely have had any advocates in positions of influence that could direct beneficial change. The elevation of Jorge Bergoglio and Justin Welby to two of the most influential positions in Christendom sees the poor now having vocal advocates and their language makes rightwing apologists uncomfortable as they become more trenchant in their hostility towards the welfare state. The fact that food poverty, food banks and soup kitchens have reemerged in Britain and Ireland should provoke awkward questions to be more forcefully asked of government regarding their treatment of the poor. Current debates on the poor have striking resonances with the Victorian and Edwardian milieu and this makes Virginia Crossman's The Poor Law in Ireland: 1850-1914 so important. This excellent and nuanced book is divided into seven chapters that focus upon the concept and context of poverty, infrastructure and, most importantly, the experience of those in poverty. Crossman elucidates how contemporaries of various hues interpreted poverty while also drawing upon the experiences of those in receipt of relief. These actors in the historical record are generally voiceless because they frequently left no account of their lives behind but Crossman has mastered this challenge, showing that they were frequently articulate people struggling to have their voices heard, thus adding an important dimension to our understanding of poverty. Opponents to relief came from a variety of ideological backgrounds. In Ireland, it was seen to be unsuitable for the culture and society and became part of an effort of control and domination. Nevertheless, it had wide-ranging functions with dispensaries, social housing and public health legislation all stemming from it. The systematic use of Poor Law records aids in reconstructing elements of the experience of the poor and presents the diverse range of local practices which shows that there was no uniform implementation of the Poor Law. Crossman moves away from previous studies on the political engagement amongst farmers in local government and turns to the ideology, infrastructure and experience of various persons involved in the Poor Law from paupers, single mothers and prostitutes to relieving officers, politicians and clergy. By tackling this behemoth through a series of case studies she has unravelled the complications of the whole system while discussing the societal mores surrounding the issue of poverty and challenging some assumptions and reaffirming others. Crossman explores religious and political ideas that dominated contemporary discourse regarding the poor and shows how class could prejudice ideas and solutions. Crass and condescending generalisations about the poor abounded as contemporary commentators failed to understand the class-based and structural causes of poverty. Empirical evidence was emphatic about poverty's pervasiveness yet inspectors tended to apply moral criteria when it came to providing relief, with idleness and vice seen to be great temptations for the poor. Codes of behaviour for the poor were applied and they clearly delineated between deserving and undeserving. One example, Crossman examines is the case of John Meehan who was forced to beg because health problems prevented him from working but this was not immediately apparent and superficial judgements that delayed his receipt of relief belied the problems facing the poor. Crossman further challenges revisionist orthodoxy regarding post-Famine prosperity by asserting that it was not evenly distributed, particularly in the west of Ireland, where the threat of a subsistence crisis always lingered. Compounded by the lack of security if sickness struck, the fear of poverty was rarely far away for the most vulnerable. While indoor relief was readily available, hostility to outdoor provision remained until the 1870s when it was seen as an effective response to various crises. The fact that there were a variety of interpretations showed how complicated the Poor Law was and how inconsistent its application was. Guardians struggled to get to grips with its intricacies and misinterpreted it regularly. The provision of relief attracted ideological anxiety because some believed it would foster dependency and pauperise the poor. Coupled with efforts to keep the burden on rates minimised, some Poor Law Unions took overly literal definitions of what constituted destitution. While this kept costs down, only the most assertive poor succeeded in getting relief and knowing a guardian when looking for assistance presented the allure of respectability. The workhouse was a bare, fearful and prison-like space that the poor did not want to enter. Once again, ideology clouded the experience of various visitors to the workhouse as the poor were dehumanised and described as having the habits of a hog. The workhouse is portrayed as bleak space, with austere living arrangements and lack of space being serious issues always. Despite its grim reputation, Crossman states that it was central to the entire system of relief and its efficacy was dependent upon how good or bad it was. Those who entered and left the workhouse regularly were accused of abusing the system. Yet, as Crossman has consistently shown throughout the book, the reality was different from the hyperbole. Infirmaries became important features of the Poor Law system but were subject to regular criticisms for inhuman treatment of lunatic paupers. Administrators and medical officers frequently clashed over provision of care for lunatics, with costs being an overriding factor generally. The presence of an infirmary in many workhouses saw increased instances of admission for medical relief as highlighted from evidence gathered from the North Dublin Union. While improvements generally did take place, board members wanted to keep costs to a minimum. Where staffing levels were low, religious orders offered to provide nursing nuns but there was hostility towards them that remained until 1875, and even after they were welcomed they were frequently poorly trained. Pauper attendants were indicative of the challenges in recruiting suitable staff, and these attendants could exploit their position. This issue was not resolved until the Local Government Act of 1898 when local boards could now defray capital costs and some salaries. Cardinal Cullen's Ireland saw stricter social mores emerge and unmarried mothers and prostitutes were excluded from the respectable polity now emerging in the prosperous post-Famine milieu. Victorian quests for respectability saw domestic roles for women becoming more pronounced. Priests believed that the workhouse increased the risk of illegitimate births, with attitudes towards single mothers becoming very harsh as a result of the Devotional Revolution, and judgement was particularly harsh towards single mothers who had more than one child. Some guardians believed that the workhouse could reform prostitutes, though the Catholic clergy thought they were beyond redemption and their vice was contagious. While there were prostitutes in towns they were rarely identified as such, with the exception of the larger cities. The moral judgement ascribed to these women was the consequence of hasty and ill-informed judgement. They were subjected to harsh treatment as a result of this and those who were assertive were seen to be shameless and amoral. Vagrants were seen to be undeserving of any assistance and the Vagrant Act was an effort to criminalise and discourage it by making it a crime to go from union to union. While initially it was rarely enforced, this changed as the nineteenth century progressed, which saw it and mendicancy abate by 1856. While it resurfaced between 1868 and 1871, committees did not want to overstate the problem as they enforced the act and the press removed any sympathy that people may have had for them by portraying them as aggressive tramps. The success of this campaign saw them being viewed as parasites, and containing the problem became very important by the early twentieth century. The administration of the workhouse and, later, county homes reflected popular notions of entitlement and eligibility in that anyone capable of working should. However, we are still limited in our understanding of its operation because the failures are recorded more than the successes. The lack of contextualisation for individual cases of poverty limits our ability to understand it. Contemporaries frequently failed to understand the reality of involuntary poverty because of the rigid paradigm which the Poor Law was framed in, and claiming a state of nationhood for the national obscured the needs of the most vulnerable (229). This is an important and timely book. Professor Crossman's analysis is empathetic, robust and engaging. It sheds important light on the nature of the Poor Law from a variety of perspectives and this is to be welcomed. While we remain limited in our understanding of the experiences of the very poor, Crossman has shared some of their experiences in an empathetic and informative manner, which is to be welcomed. This is an important and timely book. Professor Crossman's analysis is empathetic, robust and engaging. It sheds important light on the nature of the Poor Law from a variety of perspectives and this is to be welcomed. A fresh, stimulating and important new work of Irish social and economic history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. A fresh, stimulating and important new work of Irish social and economic history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Debates on poverty and provision for the poor have recently resurfaced with ideas of deserving and undeserving poor now dominating the pages of the right-wing media. The gospel of Matthew reminds us that we will always have the poor, yet they rarely have had any advocates in positions of influence that could direct beneficial change. The elevation of Jorge Bergoglio and Justin Welby to two of the most influential positions in Christendom sees the poor now having vocal advocates and their language makes rightwing apologists uncomfortable as they become more trenchant in their hostility towards the welfare state. The fact that food poverty, food banks and soup kitchens have reemerged in Britain and Ireland should provoke awkward questions to be more forcefully asked of government regarding their treatment of the poor. Current debates on the poor have striking resonances with the Victorian and Edwardian milieu and this makes Virginia Crossman's The Poor Law in Ireland: 1850-1914 so important. This excellent and nuanced book is divided into seven chapters that focus upon the concept and context of poverty, infrastructure and, most importantly, the experience of those in poverty. Crossman elucidates how contemporaries of various hues interpreted poverty while also drawing upon the experiences of those in receipt of relief. These actors in the historical record are generally voiceless because they frequently left no account of their lives behind but Crossman has mastered this challenge, showing that they were frequently articulate people struggling to have their voices heard, thus adding an important dimension to our understanding of poverty. Opponents to relief came from a variety of ideological backgrounds. In Ireland, it was seen to be unsuitable for the culture and society and became part of an effort of control and domination. Nevertheless, it had wide-ranging functions with dispensaries, social housing and public health legislation all stemming from it. The systematic use of Poor Law records aids in reconstructing elements of the experience of the poor and presents the diverse range of local practices which shows that there was no uniform implementation of the Poor Law. Crossman moves away from previous studies on the political engagement amongst farmers in local government and turns to the ideology, infrastructure and experience of various persons involved in the Poor Law from paupers, single mothers and prostitutes to relieving officers, politicians and clergy. By tackling this behemoth through a series of case studies she has unravelled the complications of the whole system while discussing the societal mores surrounding the issue of poverty and challenging some assumptions and reaffirming others. Crossman explores religious and political ideas that dominated contemporary discourse regarding the poor and shows how class could prejudice ideas and solutions. Crass and condescending generalisations about the poor abounded as contemporary commentators failed to understand the class-based and structural causes of poverty. Empirical evidence was emphatic about poverty's pervasiveness yet inspectors tended to apply moral criteria when it came to providing relief, with idleness and vice seen to be great temptations for the poor. Codes of behaviour for the poor were applied and they clearly delineated between deserving and undeserving. One example, Crossman examines is the case of John Meehan who was forced to beg because health problems prevented him from working but this was not immediately apparent and superficial judgements that delayed his receipt of relief belied the problems facing the poor. Crossman further challenges revisionist orthodoxy regarding post-Famine prosperity by asserting that it was not evenly distributed, particularly in the west of Ireland, where the threat of a subsistence crisis always lingered. Compounded by the lack of security if sickness struck, the fear of poverty was rarely far away for the most vulnerable. While indoor relief was readily available, hostility to outdoor provision remained until the 1870s when it was seen as an effective response to various crises. The fact that there were a variety of interpretations showed how complicated the Poor Law was and how inconsistent its application was. Guardians struggled to get to grips with its intricacies and misinterpreted it regularly. The provision of relief attracted ideological anxiety because some believed it would foster dependency and pauperise the poor. Coupled with efforts to keep the burden on rates minimised, some Poor Law Unions took overly literal definitions of what constituted destitution. While this kept costs down, only the most assertive poor succeeded in getting relief and knowing a guardian when looking for assistance presented the allure of respectability. The workhouse was a bare, fearful and prison-like space that the poor did not want to enter. Once again, ideology clouded the experience of various visitors to the workhouse as the poor were dehumanised and described as having the habits of a hog. The workhouse is portrayed as bleak space, with austere living arrangements and lack of space being serious issues always. Despite its grim reputation, Crossman states that it was central to the entire system of relief and its efficacy was dependent upon how good or bad it was. Those who entered and left the workhouse regularly were accused of abusing the system. Yet, as Crossman has consistently shown throughout the book, the reality was different from the hyperbole. Infirmaries became important features of the Poor Law system but were subject to regular criticisms for inhuman treatment of lunatic paupers. Administrators and medical officers frequently clashed over provision of care for lunatics, with costs being an overriding factor generally. The presence of an infirmary in many workhouses saw increased instances of admission for medical relief as highlighted from evidence gathered from the North Dublin Union. While improvements generally did take place, board members wanted to keep costs to a minimum. Where staffing levels were low, religious orders offered to provide nursing nuns but there was hostility towards them that remained until 1875, and even after they were welcomed they were frequently poorly trained. Pauper attendants were indicative of the challenges in recruiting suitable staff, and these attendants could exploit their position. This issue was not resolved until the Local Government Act of 1898 when local boards could now defray capital costs and some salaries. Cardinal Cullen's Ireland saw stricter social mores emerge and unmarried mothers and prostitutes were excluded from the respectable polity now emerging in the prosperous post-Famine milieu. Victorian quests for respectability saw domestic roles for women becoming more pronounced. Priests believed that the workhouse increased the risk of illegitimate births, with attitudes towards single mothers becoming very harsh as a result of the Devotional Revolution, and judgement was particularly harsh towards single mothers who had more than one child. Some guardians believed that the workhouse could reform prostitutes, though the Catholic clergy thought they were beyond redemption and their vice was contagious. While there were prostitutes in towns they were rarely identified as such, with the exception of the larger cities. The moral judgement ascribed to these women was the consequence of hasty and ill-informed judgement. They were subjected to harsh treatment as a result of this and those who were assertive were seen to be shameless and amoral. Vagrants were seen to be undeserving of any assistance and the Vagrant Act was an effort to criminalise and discourage it by making it a crime to go from union to union. While initially it was rarely enforced, this changed as the nineteenth century progressed, which saw it and mendicancy abate by 1856. While it resurfaced between 1868 and 1871, committees did not want to overstate the problem as they enforced the act and the press removed any sympathy that people may have had for them by portraying them as aggressive tramps. The success of this campaign saw them being viewed as parasites, and containing the problem became very important by the early twentieth century. The administration of the workhouse and, later, county homes reflected popular notions of entitlement and eligibility in that anyone capable of working should. However, we are still limited in our understanding of its operation because the failures are recorded more than the successes. The lack of contextualisation for individual cases of poverty limits our ability to understand it. Contemporaries frequently failed to understand the reality of involuntary poverty because of the rigid paradigm which the Poor Law was framed in, and claiming a state of nationhood for the national obscured the needs of the most vulnerable (229). This is an important and timely book. Professor Crossman's analysis is empathetic, robust and engaging. It sheds important light on the nature of the Poor Law from a variety of perspectives and this is to be welcomed. While we remain limited in our understanding of the experiences of the very poor, Crossman has shared some of their experiences in an empathetic and informative manner, which is to be welcomed. Debates on poverty and provision for the poor have recently resurfaced with ideas of deserving and undeserving poor now dominating the pages of the right-wing media. The gospel of Matthew reminds us that we will always have the poor, yet they rarely have had any advocates in positions of influence that could direct beneficial change. The elevation of Jorge Bergoglio and Justin Welby to two of the most influential positions in Christendom sees the poor now having vocal advocates and their language makes rightwing apologists uncomfortable as they become more trenchant in their hostility towards the welfare state. The fact that food poverty, food banks and soup kitchens have reemerged in Britain and Ireland should provoke awkward questions to be more forcefully asked of government regarding their treatment of the poor. Current debates on the poor have striking resonances with the Victorian and Edwardian milieu and this makes Virginia Crossman's The Poor Law in Ireland: 1850-1914 so important. This excellent and nuanced book is divided into seven chapters that focus upon the concept and context of poverty, infrastructure and, most importantly, the experience of those in poverty. Crossman elucidates how contemporaries of various hues interpreted poverty while also drawing upon the experiences of those in receipt of relief. These actors in the historical record are generally voiceless because they frequently left no account of their lives behind but Crossman has mastered this challenge, showing that they were frequently articulate people struggling to have their voices heard, thus adding an important dimension to our understanding of poverty. Opponents to relief came from a variety of ideological backgrounds. In Ireland, it was seen to be unsuitable for the culture and society and became part of an effort of control and domination. Nevertheless, it had wide-ranging functions with dispensaries, social housing and public health legislation all stemming from it. The systematic use of Poor Law records aids in reconstructing elements of the experience of the poor and presents the diverse range of local practices which shows that there was no uniform implementation of the Poor Law. Crossman moves away from previous studies on the political engagement amongst farmers in local government and turns to the ideology, infrastructure and experience of various persons involved in the Poor Law from paupers, single mothers and prostitutes to relieving officers, politicians and clergy. By tackling this behemoth through a series of case studies she has unravelled the complications of the whole system while discussing the societal mores surrounding the issue of poverty and challenging some assumptions and reaffirming others. Crossman explores religious and political ideas that dominated contemporary discourse regarding the poor and shows how class could prejudice ideas and solutions. Crass and condescending generalisations about the poor abounded as contemporary commentators failed to understand the class-based and structural causes of poverty. Empirical evidence was emphatic about poverty's pervasiveness yet inspectors tended to apply moral criteria when it came to providing relief, with idleness and vice seen to be great temptations for the poor. Codes of behaviour for the poor were applied and they clearly delineated between deserving and undeserving. One example, Crossman examines is the case of John Meehan who was forced to beg because health problems prevented him from working but this was not immediately apparent and superficial judgements that delayed his receipt of relief belied the problems facing the poor. Crossman further challenges revisionist orthodoxy regarding post-Famine prosperity by asserting that it was not evenly distributed, particularly in the west of Ireland, where the threat of a subsistence crisis always lingered. Compounded by the lack of security if sickness struck, the fear of poverty was rarely far away for the most vulnerable. While indoor relief was readily available, hostility to outdoor provision remained until the 1870s when it was seen as an effective response to various crises. The fact that there were a variety of interpretations showed how complicated the Poor Law was and how inconsistent its application was. Guardians struggled to get to grips with its intricacies and misinterpreted it regularly. The provision of relief attracted ideological anxiety because some believed it would foster dependency and pauperise the poor. Coupled with efforts to keep the burden on rates minimised, some Poor Law Unions took overly literal definitions of what constituted destitution. While this kept costs down, only the most assertive poor succeeded in getting relief and knowing a guardian when looking for assistance presented the allure of respectability. The workhouse was a bare, fearful and prison-like space that the poor did not want to enter. Once again, ideology clouded the experience of various visitors to the workhouse as the poor were dehumanised and described as having the habits of a hog. The workhouse is portrayed as bleak space, with austere living arrangements and lack of space being serious issues always. Despite its grim reputation, Crossman states that it was central to the entire system of relief and its efficacy was dependent upon how good or bad it was. Those who entered and left the workhouse regularly were accused of abusing the system. Yet, as Crossman has consistently shown throughout the book, the reality was different from the hyperbole. Infirmaries became important features of the Poor Law system but were subject to regular criticisms for inhuman treatment of lunatic paupers. Administrators and medical officers frequently clashed over provision of care for lunatics, with costs being an overriding factor generally. The presence of an infirmary in many workhouses saw increased instances of admission for medical relief as highlighted from evidence gathered from the North Dublin Union. While improvements generally did take place, board members wanted to keep costs to a minimum. Where staffing levels were low, religious orders offered to provide nursing nuns but there was hostility towards them that remained until 1875, and even after they were welcomed they were frequently poorly trained. Pauper attendants were indicative of the challenges in recruiting suitable staff, and these attendants could exploit their position. This issue was not resolved until the Local Government Act of 1898 when local boards could now defray capital costs and some salaries. Cardinal Cullen's Ireland saw stricter social mores emerge and unmarried mothers and prostitutes were excluded from the respectable polity now emerging in the prosperous post-Famine milieu. Victorian quests for respectability saw domestic roles for women becoming more pronounced. Priests believed that the workhouse increased the risk of illegitimate births, with attitudes towards single mothers becoming very harsh as a result of the Devotional Revolution, and judgement was particularly harsh towards single mothers who had more than one child. Some guardians believed that the workhouse could reform prostitutes, though the Catholic clergy thought they were beyond redemption and their vice was contagious. While there were prostitutes in towns they were rarely identified as such, with the exception of the larger cities. The moral judgement ascribed to these women was the consequence of hasty and ill-informed judgement. They were subjected to harsh treatment as a result of this and those who were assertive were seen to be shameless and amoral. Vagrants were seen to be undeserving of any assistance and the Vagrant Act was an effort to criminalise and discourage it by making it a crime to go from union to union. While initially it was rarely enforced, this changed as the nineteenth century progressed, which saw it and mendicancy abate by 1856. While it resurfaced between 1868 and 1871, committees did not want to overstate the problem as they enforced the act and the press removed any sympathy that people may have had for them by portraying them as aggressive tramps. The success of this campaign saw them being viewed as parasites, and containing the problem became very important by the early twentieth century. The administration of the workhouse and, later, county homes reflected popular notions of entitlement and eligibility in that anyone capable of working should. However, we are still limited in our understanding of its operation because the failures are recorded more than the successes. The lack of contextualisation for individual cases of poverty limits our ability to understand it. Contemporaries frequently failed to understand the reality of involuntary poverty because of the rigid paradigm which the Poor Law was framed in, and claiming a state of nationhood for the national obscured the needs of the most vulnerable (229). This is an important and timely book. Professor Crossman's analysis is empathetic, robust and engaging. It sheds important light on the nature of the Poor Law from a variety of perspectives and this is to be welcomed. While we remain limited in our understanding of the experiences of the very poor, Crossman has shared some of their experiences in an empathetic and informative manner, which is to be welcomed. This is an important and timely book. Professor Crossman's analysis is empathetic, robust and engaging. It sheds important light on the nature of the Poor Law from a variety of perspectives and this is to be welcomed. A fresh, stimulating and important new work of Irish social and economic history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. A fresh, stimulating and important new work of Irish social and economic history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. A fresh, stimulating and important new work of Irish social and economic history of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

This is an important and timely book. Professor Crossman's analysis is empathetic, robust and engaging. It sheds important light on the nature of the Poor Law from a variety of perspectives and this is to be welcomed. --Irish Studies Review

Author Information

Virginia Crossman was Professor of Modern Irish History at Oxford Brookes University until her retirement.

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