This book provides an overview of the incarceration of tens of thousands of men, women and children during the first fifty years of Irish independence. Psychiatric hospitals, mother and baby homes, Magdalen homes, Reformatory and Industrial schools, prisons and Borstal formed a network of institutions of coercive confinement that was integral to the emerging state. The book provides a wealth of contemporaneous accounts of what life was like within these austere and forbidding places as well as offering a compelling explanation for the longevity of the system and the reasons for its ultimate decline. While many accounts exist of individual institutions and the factors associated with their operation, this is the first attempt to provide a holistic account of the interlocking range of institutions that dominated the physical landscape and, in many ways, underpinned the rural economy. Highlighting the overlapping roles of church, state and family in the maintenance of these forms of social control, this book will appeal to those interested in understanding twentieth-century Ireland: in particular, historians, legal scholars, criminologists, sociologists and other social scientists. These arguments take on special importance as Irish society continues to grapple with the legacy of its extensive use of institutionalisation.

<p ><b >Introduction<p></b></p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >1. Setting the Scene<b ><p></b></p> <p >Ian O'Donnell and Eoin O’Sullivan</p> <p ><b ><p> </p></b></p> <p ><b >Part I. Patients, Paupers and Unmarried Mothers<p></b></p> <p ><i ><p> </p></i></p> <p >2. How to Deal with the Unmarried Mother</p> <p >‘Sagart’, 1922. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >3. The Unmarried Mother: Some Legal Aspects of the Problem</p> <p >Richard Devane, 1924. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >4. A Plea for Social Service</p> <p >Humbert MacInerny, 1925. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >5. Report</p> <p >Commission on the Relief of the Sick and Destitute Poor, Including the Insane Poor, 1927. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >6. Report</p> <p >Inter-Departmental Committee Appointed to Examine the Question of the Reconstruction and Replacement of County Homes, 1949.</p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >7. Irish Journey</p> <p >Halliday Sutherland, 1956. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >8. Report</p> <p >Commission of Inquiry on Mental Illness, 1966. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >9. No Birthright: A Study of the Irish Unmarried Mother and Her Child</p> <p >Michael Viney, 1966. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >10. Bird’s Nest Soup</p> <p >Hanna Greally, 1971. <u ><p></u></p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >11. Mental Illness: An Inquiry</p> <p >Michael Viney, 1971. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >Further Reading</p> <p ><b ><p> </p></b></p> <p ><b >Part II. Prisoners<p></b></p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >12. The Prisons</p> <p >Edward Fahy, 1940. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >13. I Did Penal Servitude</p> <p >D83222, 1945. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >14. Prisons and Prisoners in Ireland: Report on Certain Aspects of Prison Conditions in Portlaoighise Convict Prison</p> <p >The Labour Party, 1946. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >15. The Spyhole</p> <p >Shea Murphy, 1947. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >16. Dungeons Deep: A Monograph on Prisons, Borstals, Reformatories and Industrial Schools in the Republic of Ireland, and Some Reflections on Crime and Punishment and Matters Relating Thereto</p> <p >Peadar Cowan, 1960. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >Further Reading</p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p ><b >Part III. Troubled and Troublesome Children<p></b></p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >17. Report</p> <p >Commission of Inquiry into the Reformatory and Industrial School System, 1936.</p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >18. Memorandum on Children in Institutions, Boarded out and Nurse Children</p> <p >Joint Committee of Women’s Societies and Social Workers, 1943. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >19. Founded on Fear: Letterfrack Industrial School, War and Exile</p> <p >Peter Tyrrell, 1959. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >20. Some of our Children: A Report on the Residential Care of the Deprived Child in Ireland</p> <p >Tuairim, 1966. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >21. The Dismal World of Daingean</p> <p >Michael Viney, 1966. </p> <p ><i ><p> </p></i></p> <p >22. Report </p> <p >Committee and Reformatory and Industrial Schools Systems </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >23. The Road to God Knows Where </p> <p >Sean Maher, 1972. </p> <p ><p> </p></p> <p >Further Reading</p>

Most of these people were simply locked up in state institutions, creating a shameful legacy that is only now being dragged into the light. Coercive Confinement in Ireland is a valuable contribution to that process. Some of the documents reproduced here give a powerful insight into the social mores of the time. "Coercive Confinement in Ireland deserves a readership well beyond its jurisdiction of interest."