Prostitution and Irish Society, 1800-1940

Maria Luddy is Professor of Modern Irish History in the Department of History, University of Warwick. Her previous publications include Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (1995) and, as editor, The Crimean Journals of the Sisters of Mercy, 1854-56 (2004).

• Introduction; 1. 'Frowsy, Shameless Women': an overview of prostitution in Ireland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; 2. 'Looking for my Living': women, community and prostitution in Ireland; 3. 'Behaved very ill': rescue work and Magdalen asylums in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; 4. 'The Black Plague': venereal disease in nineteenth century Ireland; 5. 'Soldiers' Totty': nationalists, suffragists and the surveillance of women, 1900-1922; 6. 'Hopeless cases': prostitution and sexual danger in the Irish Free State, 1922-1940; Conclusion.

'This is not only a meticulously researched chronicle of prostitution in Ireland, it is also an investigation into the relationship between prostitution and the kind of society Ireland was and is … Impressive in its scope, Prostitution and Irish Society 1800–1940 provides a comprehensive history of the workhouse system, the 'rescue' work associated with the Magdalen, convent and lay asylums, as well as the ways in which prostitutes, often (mis)represented as passive victims, used the legal system to secure justice for themselves.' The Irish Times