Poverty and welfare in Ireland c.1833-1948
26-27 June 2009, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University Belfast
Organisers: Peter Gray and Olwen Purdue, QUB
Friday 26 June
0930
Registration/Coffee
IIS Foyer
1000
Introduction:
David Hayton (Head of School)
Plenary 1: Chair: Peter Gray (QUB)
Peter Higginbotham ‘The Workhouses of Ireland’
IIS Sem Rm 1
1050
Session 1: Chair: Andrew Holmes (QUB)
Richard Davis (U Tasmania) ‘William Smith O’Brien, Poor Laws and
Vandiemonian convicts’
Ciarán Reilly (NUIM): ‘Clearing the estates to fill the workhouse:
land agents and the Poor Law Unions in King’s County in the 1840s’
Ashley Amidon (U Hull) ‘Humanitarian crisis response in Ireland
1845-1850: Public vs. private sector involvement’
Caroline Skehill (QUB) ‘The origins of child welfare within the Poor
Law’
IIS Sem Rm 1
1230
Lunch break
Light lunches are available from Clements in QUB Student’s Union or
Café Krem in Peter Froggett Centre
RHS Symposium (1) Chair: Sean Connolly (QUB)
Niall Ó Ciosain (NUIG): ‘The Poor Inquiry: a consensus theory of
truth?’
Peter Gray (QUB): ‘Irish social thought and the relief of poverty,
1847-80’
1005
1345
1505
1520
1800
2000
Coffee
RHS Symposium (2) - Chair: Mary O’Dowd (QUB)
Anna Clark (U Minnesota): ‘Orphans and the British State: The Case
of 19th-Century Ireland’
Virginia Crossman (Oxford Brookes), ‘The Irish Poor Law revisited:
Reassessing Poor Relief in Post-Famine Ireland’
Greta Jones (UUJ) and Catherine Cox (UCD), ‘Doctors and
Dispensaries: The Doctor and the Poor Law in Ireland c.1860-1910’
Wine Reception in Clifton House
Address by Jonathan Bardon: ‘The Old Poor House and Belfast
Charitable Society’
Conference Dinner
IIS Sem Rm 1
IIS Sem Rm 1
IIS Foyer
IIS Sem Rm 1
Clifton House (N.
Queen St)
Nick’s Warehouse,
Hill St.
Saturday 27 June
0930
Session 2: ESRC Project Panel, ‘Welfare Regimes under the
Irish Poor Law, 1850-1922’ Chair: Virginia Crossman (OBU)
Georgina Laragy (Oxford Brookes): Eastern Ireland
Olwen Purdue (QUB): Ulster
Sean Lucey (Oxford Brookes): Western Ireland
IIS Sem Rm 1
1115
1130
Coffee
Plenary 2: Chair: Liam Kennedy (QUB)
Larry Geary (UCC): ‘The medical profession, health care and
the poor law in nineteenth-century Ireland’
Lunch
Sandwich lunch available
Session 3: Chair: Marie Coleman (QUB)
Ann Daly ‘The Dublin Medical Press response to the Medical
Charities Debate’
Sean Beattie (UUM): ‘Female cultural philanthropy: Alice
Hart and Donegal Industry’
Inga Brandes (U Trier): ‘Destitution, decency, deservingness:
Continuity and change within the Poor Law and Social
Welfare System in Ireland, 1880s-1930s’
IIS Foyer
IIS Sem Rm 1
1510
Coffee
IIS Foyer
1530
Session 4: Chair: Olwen Purdue (QUB)
Patricia Marsh (QUB) ‘“An enormous amount of distress
among the poor”: Aid for the poor during the Influenza
pandemic of 1918-19’
Leanne McCormick (UUJ) 'Bad, pregnant or missed the
train: the role of the Belfast Salvation Army home in
women's welfare, 1905-50'
Peter Martin (QUB): ‘Medical Benefit in Northern Ireland
1911-39’
IIS Sem Rm 1
1650
Concluding remarks:
Virginia Crossman (Oxford Brookes)
Peter Gray (QUB)
CLOSE
IIS Sem Rm 1
1230
1330
1700
IIS Foyer
IIS Sem Rm 1
For further information email: povertyconference@qub.ac.uk
Or Visit: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/History/NewsandEvents/Conferences/poverty09
Irish Poor Law and Welfare History Resources online

Peter Higginbotham’s Workhouse history site has an Irish workhouses section:
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/

Many of the official publications relating to the Irish poor law system are available online at:
http://www.eppi.ac.uk

Poor Law records at PRONI: http://www.proni.gov.uk/your_family_tree_series_-_13__poor_law_records.pdf

Poor Law records at National Archives of Ireland:
http://www.nationalarchives.ie/research/poorlaw.html

Health and Medicine in Northern Ireland, 1921-72 (Peter Martin): http://medicalhistoryni.co.uk/