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Social structure of the Dublin working class, 1871–1911

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Mary E. Daly
Mary E. Daly*
Affiliation:
University College, Dublin
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Extract

Studies to date of the Dublin working class have tended to concentrate on the history of trade unionism and labour relations, examining the working class only insofar as this is relevant to the question of labour politics. Although the distinction between skilled and unskilled workers is generally noted, there is little detailed study of distinctions and similarities within the working class except on questions of wages, trade union membership and related issues such as workers’ benefits. The only disaggregation in terms of broader social characteristics occurs in studies relating to Ulster, where the distinctions and similarities between catholic and protestant households have been explored.

This paper analyses the Dublin working class in terms of religion, social background, birthplace, housing conditions and family structure. The major sources employed are the censuses of population, using both published and manuscript material and the registry of marriages. Before examining these however it is essential to sketch the city’s overall economic character.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 90 , 1982 , pp. 121 - 133
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1982

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References

1 Keogh, Dermot, The rise of the Irish working class (Belfast, 1982), is a recent example of this type of work.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., pp 25–37.

3 Hepburn, A. C., ‘Catholics in the north of Ireland, 1850-1921: the urbanisation of a minority’ in Hepburn, A. C. (ed.), Minorities in history (London, 1978), pp 84–101 Google Scholar; Collins, Brenda, ‘Families in Edwardian Belfast’, paper read to the Urban History Group, Aberdeen, April 1982.Google Scholar

4 This paper concentrates on male employment, largely ignoring women’s employment. The majority of female workers were domestic servants, working away from their immediate families and this makes analysis of female workers within a family context very difficult.

5 Carriage workers’ wages, which ranged from 34s. to 60s. for skilled workers in the 1850s, had fallen to 24s.—46s. by the 1880s.

6 These figures refer to the population as a whole, not simply the occupied classes. The classification of occupations is based on Armstrong, W. A., ’The use of information about occupations — I: as a basis for social stratification’ in Wrigley, E. A. (ed.), Nineteenth-century society: essays in the use of quantitative methods for the study of social data (Cambridge, 1972), pp 191–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Royal commission on the poor laws, appendix vol. xi, p. 1, H.C. 1910 [Cd. 5072], li, appendix xlvii.

8 The 1861 census provides such a breakdown for the country as a whole.

9 Pop. Ire. Leinster, Table XIX.

10 I am grateful to Dr Cormac Ó Gráda for providing me with these figures.

11 Less than 25% of brides, mostly labourers’ brides, list any occupation, though occasionally there is indirect evidence to indicate that the bride is actually employed as a domestic servant.

12 Available at General Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, Custom House, Dublin 1. For 1871 the sample consists of one in two of all Dublin marriages located. The series for the second quarter of 1871 could not be located, while the clergy of St Andrew’s Roman Catholic church, Westland Row, failed to return any occupations. For 1911 one return in three was taken, though once again there are some cases with defective occupational data.

13 Reports of the commissioners appointed by the Treasury to inquire into the condition of the civil service in Ireland: report on the Local Government Board and General Registry Office plus minutes, p. 1, H.C. 1873 [C. 789], xxii, para. 977, evidence of James C. Colvill, governor of the Bank of Ireland.

14 Ibid., para. 8.

15 Report of the inter-departmental committee on the employment of children during school-age, especially in street trading in the large centres of population in Ireland, p. 1, H.C. 1902 [Cd. 1144], xlix, 209.

16 Catholic Working Boys Technical Aid Committee, The blind alley: some aspects of juvenile employment in Ireland (Dublin, 1916), p, 11.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., p. 23.

18 Andrews, C. S., Dublin made me: an autobiography (Dublin, 1979), p. 69.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., p. 29.

20 Ibid., p. 41.

21 P.R.O.I., 1911 census enumeration forms. All obtainable forms concerning Dublin corporation housing built within the pre-1900 city boundaries were examined, with the exception of those concerning the notorious Montgomery Street scheme. A sample of Artisans Dwellings Co. cottages, again within the pre-1900 city boundaries, ranging in size from two to five rooms, was examined. Tenement schedules in the same districts as Artisans Dwelling Co. and corporation housing were examined. In all, 337 corporation, 402 tenement and 399 Artisans Dwellings Co. households were examined. It was originally intended to examine 400 of each type but it proved impossible to locate one series of corporation returns. These data were originally collected for an analysis based on type of housing and this may introduce some bias into the social sample which I have not detected.

22 McDonnell, Brendan, ’The Dublin labour movement, 1894-1907’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University College, Dublin, 1979), p. 57.Google Scholar

23 Reports of the commissioners appointed to inquire into the conditions of the civil service in Ireland: report on the Dublin metropolitan police, p. 69, H.C. 1873 [C. 788], xxii, para. 103.

24 Andrews, Dublin made me, p. 55.

25 Irish Times, 5 July 1904.

26 Evening Telegraph, 12 Sept. 1896.

27 R.C. poor laws, appendix vol. xi, appendix xlvii.

28 Returns of wages published between 1830 and 1886, H.C. 1887 [C. 5172], lxxxix, 273.

29 Abstract of labour statistics, p. 301, H.C. 1914 [Cd. 7080], lxxx, 679.

30 Bowley, A. L., Wages in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century (Cambridge, 1900), p. 52.Google Scholar

31 Report on the cost of living of the working class, H.C. 1913 (Cd. 6955), lxvi.

32 R.C. poor law, p. 1, H.C. 1909 [Cd. 4630], xxviii, 887.

33 Report of the departmental committee appointed to inquire into the housing conditions of the working class in Dublin, p. 61, H.C. 1914 (Cd. 7317), xix, 3.

34 Seebohm Rowntree, B., Poverty: a study of town life (3rd ed., London, 1902), p. 136.Google Scholar

35 In 1911 mean age of marriage was 29 for women and 33 for men, and couples married for 20 years or more averaged 6.29 children born.

36 Lees, Lynn H., Exiles of Erin (Cornell, 1979), p. 123.Google Scholar