Post-Famine Ireland LINKS TO INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS. CLICK POST-FAMINE TO RETURN TO BOOK LIST; CLICK Home Page TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE
[Post Famine Ireland- Social Structure
Ireland as it
Really Was.
Copyright
© 2006 by Desmond Keenan. Book available from Xlibris.com and Amazon.com]
GOVERNMENT II
Chapter Summary. This chapter deals local government in the towns, cities and counties of Ireland, the duties of the sheriff, the provisions for the poor, the sick, the aged, and those without housing. Public health also came under local authorities. The rest of the chapter describes the system of courts, the police forces, the Royal Irish Constabulary, the Dublin Metropolitan Police, crime including terrorist crime, and the penal system. The hyperlinks immediately below are to the most important headings.
County Councils and Urban and Rural District Councils
========================================================
Local Government
County Governments
Shiring, or the establishment of counties, was commenced in the 10th century when Edward the Elder of Wessex divided up the old kingdom of Mercia in England into shires under shire reeves (sheriffs) appointed by himself. In the course of the Middle Ages more and more of Ireland was shired, which in practice meant that the local chief submitted to the crown and was appointed sheriff. The first sheriffs were mentioned in Ireland in the 14th century, but with considerable overlapping with the office of seneschal of the local lord.
It is not easy to describe the government of counties. It just emerged over several centuries. The various officers were appointed at different times and for different reasons. The sheriff and the coroner were originally officers to collect different revenues for the king. All county offices seem to have been offices of profit with remuneration derived from fees attached to the duties. (Famously, the turnkey of a gaol had to be paid by a prisoner to let him in and again to let him out.) In Ireland the Grand Jury of the county, representing the gentlemen of the county and sitting in assize with a Commission judge, formed the government of the county to which the officers were responsible, a form that remained in force until 1898 (Keenan, Pre-Famine Ireland 206-222). The most important officer was the sheriff. There was a county governor who was responsible for the militia. There was a custos rotulorum who was responsible for the safe custody of the official administrative books, and the clerk of the peace who was responsible for writing writs and records, and was in effect the sheriff’s clerk. In the 19th century he was given the job of keeping the records so the office of custos became an honorary one. This happened when Lords Lieutenants of counties were introduced in 1831 following the English pattern. Then the latter became the principal representative of the crown in the counties, joining the sheriff and coroner. The principal job of the coroner had originally been to secure treasure trove (ancient buried treasures often dating from the late Roman period) for the crown. But he became the independent investigator of unexplained deaths, thus acting as a check on the sheriff. Within the county itself there was a county treasurer, the county surveyor (superintendent) in charge of the public roads, which in practice meant little more than filling in the larger holes.
The high constable for the county with his assistant constables was responsible for maintaining public order. They could, for example, remove a broken cart obstructing a bridge or road. These elderly constables were figures of authority rather than young, strong and effective policemen. If they could not quell a disturbance by persuasion they could get a magistrate to read the Riot Act and call on the military. From the 1780s onwards efforts were made by various Irish Secretaries to develop an efficient and well-trained police force able to maintain the peace, by force if necessary, and from which both men and officers retired as they grew old. By 1836, two such forces were established, not under the control of local magistrates. It was found advisable to organise all the police forces except that of Dublin on national lines. Other duties of the constables such as removing nuisances and obstructions from public highways were taken over by the surveyor. Unlike in England where the Chief Constable of the county became to pivotal figure in the new police, in Ireland he ceased to have any function.
These county officers employed lesser officers like bailiffs, gaolers, process servers, turnkeys, clerks, medical officers, cess-collectors, janitors, cleaners, etc. All these minor positions, perhaps several hundred of them, were filled by patronage. In the first half of the 19th century this meant that they were given to Protestants. As noted earlier, there was little supervision over or checks on an official once appointed. It was presumed that every office-holder would maximise his own income. Though gradually various checks were introduced, such as demands from the Government to know the exact specifications of public works.
The central Government too was always imposing extra duties on the counties, like the keeping of at least one county infirmary and one lunatic asylum, while at the same time urging the construction of proper sanitary gaols and court houses. Fever hospitals had to be provided when necessary, and Grand Juries could present for public works in times of famine. (Present, pronounced pre zen´t: request public money.) These duties had to be fitted into the administrative framework of the county. In the 2nd half of the century, gaols were placed under a Central Prisons’ Board, and so removed from the responsibilities of the county. The provision of relief for the destitute and a network of dispensaries were placed under a Poor Law Board. Though the Poor Law Unions were local elected bodies they had no connection with the counties. The same gentlemen however sat on Grand Juries and on Poor Law Boards. (In the 20th century more and more powers were transferred either to central government, but in the 19th century the county was at the centre of government and justice for most people.)
The governing body in the county, the county Grand Jury, was a more or less random selection from among £10 freeholders after 1832, but the qualification was modified by later acts. A jury was a representative selection of freeholders ‘sworn in’ by the sheriff or coroner for a particular purpose. The process of selecting a Grand Jury was the same as for a petty jury. The revision of the general jurors’ lists in 1904 caused 54,036 to be struck off out of 127,058; there were now 72,554 qualified jurors on the corrected list of whom 58,258 were on the rated qualification; 10,559 were £10 freeholders, 3,019 were £20 leaseholders, 698 were managers or directors of public companies, and 20 were harbour commissioners. Of the 17,647 on the special jury list 6,608 were struck off by the Revision Court, 171 were exempted by clerks of the peace, 24 were struck off by judges and 99 were added by the Revision Court; there were now 10,943 special jurors. 43,340 jurymen were summoned in the course of the year (New Irish Jurist 9 Sept 1904).
A panel from which the Grand Jury was drawn was selected by the sheriff who always placed the major ratepayers on the panels for presentment sessions. The size of the Grand Jury could vary from 12 to 23 of whom 12 had to agree. The principal duty of the Grand Jury was to set the county cess or rate. Many of the things for which local taxationhad to be raised were set by statute, but members of the Jury could put forward proposals or ‘presentments’ for particular works to be paid for by the county. These almost invariably meant something that was of particular utility to the one making the presentment, a new road or a new quay on his estate. In the 18th century there were few checks on how the money was spent or if it was spent, but gradually in the course of the 19th century controls were introduced. The Government was not worried for it considered that the county gentlemen were only cheating each other. That grand jurors were not averse to accepting bribes for votes, for example when an application for a licence was being considered, was well known.
In theory they were supposed to be in charge of the county officers, but the few days of the assizes and quarter sessions were filled with other duties, so no great scrutiny was made of the activities of the officers (Keenan, Pre-Famine Ireland 214-222). They agreed the estimates and assented to the county cess or tax. Besides the general expenses of the county officers the most important services for which the Grand Juries were authorised to raise money were: maintaining militia lists, holding the shire courts, roadsand bridges, lunatic asylums, building and maintaining county courts and offices, county infirmaries or hospitals, reformatory and industrial schools, public works in times of famine, and guarantees for railways. Gaols and prisons and the costs of the police were removed from them in the 19th century. By the county cess under the Grand Jury an equal poundage rate was levied on the county as a whole, but some charges were levied separately on baronies and half-baronies, and even special expenses levied on particular parishes or townlands. The rate was payable twice a year on the nett annual value of the rateable property and was payable by the occupier. An attempt in 1870 to make the landlord pay half proved a failure (Jurist New Irish 20 Mar 1903). Grand Juries were abolished in Southern Ireland in 1948 and in Northern Ireland in 1969, but by then they had been largely stripped of any functions except judicial. (Ireland seems to be the only common law country where a Grand Jury had administrative functions.)
Baronies were divisions of counties, and there were 324 of them in the 32 counties. A Grand Jury for a barony could deal with particular problems or opportunities in that barony. It could set a rate to be paid in that barony, for example authorising public works in times of famine. In the 18th century, when an effort was made to improve the police, they were organised by baronies, the baronial constabulary, ‘ould barnies’. In the following century the police were organised by counties, and then nationally. The baronies remained the basis for censuses and valuations. Curiously, at the end of the 19th century the Tramways and Public Expenses (Ireland) Act (1883) allowed Grand Juries of baronies to guarantee a certain return to investors and the Tralee and Dingle Light Railway was built with that guarantee (Flanagan, Cavan and Leitrim Railway, 7-8, 32-4). The barony was however usually too small and impoverished a unit for most purposes, and was gradually replaced by Poor Law Unions comparable in size but organised around towns to produce revenue.
The sheriff remained the principal officer in the county (Keenan, Pre-Famine Ireland, 208). It was not the custom however for the central Government to interfere in the counties, or to remove a sheriff except for a criminal offence. The office of sheriff was an arduous one, but the Government did not take kindly to a qualified gentleman refusing to accept the office when appointed (Dublin Irish Jurist 24 March 1905). By the end of the 19th century most of the duties of the sheriff were being carried out by the under-sheriff. The assize judges received three nominations in each county and passed them to the Lord Lieutenant to make the appointments each year. He must reside in the county and have a certain [property] qualification. His first duty was to appoint an under-sheriff, and almost invariably he appointed the man who served his predecessor. He then obtained from the under-sheriff an indemnity against cases like illegal seizure, and there his duties ended. But he remained legally responsible. At the ending of his office he must hand over a list of all prisoners in his custody to his successor, and all writs and processes in his hand not executed by him, and must hand over all books, records, etc. to him. The office lasted for one year only, but it could expire with the death of the monarch. If the sheriff died in office his duties were carried out by the sub-sheriff in exactly the same manner until the vacancy was filled. In 1889 a committee of the House of Lords recommended that a high sheriff should still be appointed annually for the sole purpose of empanelling a Grand Jury and receiving a judge of assize, and that a permanent office of under-sheriff should be established but this was not acted on until 1920. After the Local Government (Ireland) Act (1898) instituting elected county councils sheriffs had no administrative duties apart from the courts and the elections.
The duties of a sub-sheriff after 1898 were:
1) the summoning and empanelling all jurors, civil and criminal,
2) the execution of practically all writs, orders, and attachments of the High Court of Justice,
3) presiding over parliamentary elections,
4) presiding over enquiries for assessing damages,
5) the execution of all county court decrees, and orders, including ejectments,
6) the execution of capital punishments.
The assessment of damages payable by the county under the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act (1836) was made in the sheriff’s court at the quarter sessions, with right of appeal to the assize court. These duties were attached to the office of the high sheriff, but by 1900 were being carried out by the under-sheriff. The latter had no emolument but depended on certain fees derived from the execution of high court judgments. He had no lease of the office and could be replaced at any time. The uncertain and fluctuating income had to be set against the expenses of maintaining a staff of bailiffs at a high rate of wages for these are hard to find nowadays; as far as is known there is no under sheriff in Ireland who depended solely on his income from this source. The reason why so many wanted the change was that the sub-sheriff could not afford to make more than a few efforts to execute judgments in the civil courts in favour of plaintiffs; trade debts were virtually irrecoverable (Warder 22 Nov. 1902).
These desiderata were enacted in the Sheriffs (Ireland) Act (1920) which provided that under-sheriffs were to be appointed by the Lord Lieutenant and not by the sheriff, and an under-sheriff was to be appointed for every county and county borough. Everyone appointed would hold office at the Lord Lieutenant’s pleasure and would not be affected by the changes in the sheriff. He must in future be either an existing under-sheriff or a barrister or solicitor of at least five years standing, or a person who had acted as an assistant to an under-sheriff for at least five years. The powers and duties of a sheriff of a county or county borough were to be transferred to the under-sheriff, and the sheriff was not liable for any act or default of the sub-sheriff. The sheriff was however to continue to discharge his duties in connection with the reception of and attendance on judges and commissioners at assizes, and commissions of oyer and terminer, and in connection with persons to serve as grand jurors at such assizes and commissions. The salary appointed to be paid under the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act (1836) to be paid to sheriffs was to be paid to under sheriffs (Irish Law Times 2 Oct.; 4 Dec. 1920).[Top]
City and Urban Governments
The Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act (1840) brought to an end the system of town government in the hands of a corporation of merchants and traders and established directly elected bodies, though the old names of mayors, aldermen, and councilmen were retained. Their powers to act in future came from this statute and not from their charters. All powers to regulate trade were removed. Daniel O’Connell was determined to wrench control from what he regarded as the Protestant or Orange faction. They were equally determined that the corporations would have virtually no powers when he did succeed. It should be noted that this started a trend in local government elections which was to last for a very long time, namely, that councillors were usually elected for their allegiance to a political party, and not for any capability in administration. Also, being an elected councillor meant that small gifts or bribes came the way of any councillor who had a say in any public appointment. Opportunities could arise to assist a member of the public with an application for a minor post like street-sweeping, or for nominations to public housing, or a place in the county hospital or county home. (The approved method was to put a pound note or a five pound note in a brown envelope and say ‘Here is something for your trouble.’ It became a major grievance among Catholics in Northern Ireland that these little gifts had mostly to be paid to Protestants, but the practice was universal.) Hope was expressed when proportional representation was introduced that a better quality of person than party hacks and place-seekers would seek election, people actually concerned with the quality of the administration. But the major political parties were determined to control local government and its graft as well.
Besides the corporate towns urban areas were constituted under one of the three Acts which regulated local government in towns in Ireland, the Lighting (Policing) of Towns Act (1828, the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act (1840), and the Towns Improvement Act (1854 The 1828 Act was entirely repealed by the Local Government (Ireland) Act (1901) and all towns under it were placed under the provisions of the 1854 Act. Towns and townships under local Acts were Blackrock, Dalkey, Enniskillen, Galway, Kingstown, Newry, Pembroke, Rathmines, and Rathgar. (The last three were suburbs of Dublin.) There were town councils of boroughs or county boroughs in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Londonderry, Clonmel, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Sligo, and Wexford. There were 56 towns under the 1854 Act and not under the other Acts (New Irish Jurist 22 Nov 1901). Nevertheless six towns, Wicklow, Dungannon, Omagh, Bandon, Fethard, and Monaghan did not make any changes. Of the 11 boroughs Clonmel, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford adopted the 1854 Act in whole or in part. Others like Dublin and Belfast got special Acts passed. The 1828 Act allowed the electing of a Board of Police Commissioners instead of those named in the charter to look after certain duties of ‘policing’ like cleaning and lighting the streets, and hiring constables, and to set a rate to cover the charges. The 1854 Act allowed the establishing and electing a Board of Town Commissioners with more extensive powers over municipal affairs. The first thing to be done in either case was to establish the exact limits of the town.
There were three important bodies in Belfast wholly independent of each other, the Corporation, the harbour commissioners, and the water commissioners. The Belfast Corporation was established in 1841 under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act (1840) and possessed 25 special Acts from 1845 to 1902 from which it derives its powers. The Belfast harbour commissioners administer the affairs of the port and harbour of Belfast under 12 Acts from 1847 to 1901; the Belfast water commissioners were incorporated in 1840 and derived their powers from 12 Acts between 1840 and 1899. The Belfast Corporation Acts, known as the ‘Local Acts’ constituted the government of Belfast. In 1888 it was made a city; in 1892 by royal charter the title of Lord Mayor was conferred, and in 1898 it was made an administrative county under the Local Government Act. The principal Act governing the city was the first, of 1845, called An Act for the Improvement of the borough of Belfast; this Act repealed all previous legislation for the government of the city (New Irish Jurist 8 May 1903).
The Lighting (Policing) of Towns Act (1828 was connected indirectly with the attempt to ‘open’ the parliamentary boroughs to democratic control. Previously, each town was governed by a self-selecting body of burgesses in accordance with it own charter, and their powers as far as local government went, were restricted by the terms of their charters (Keenan, Pre-Famine Ireland, 226-7). The primary function of the burgesses was to elect a member to Parliament, but they were also allowed to hold a court to deal with disputes, to make necessary regulations, and levy fines if necessary. They were also responsible for cleaning and lighting the streets, paying night watchmen, supplying piped water, looking after the harbour if any, and regulating porters, carmen, and markets, so it is not clear if extra duties and powers were conferred by the 19th century Acts (Saunders’ Newsletter 20 Jan 1803). It would seem that duties earlier assigned variously to parishes, manors and liberties could now be undertaken by the town commissioners. The civil functions of the parishes, manors, and liberties virtually ceased. Newry in fact was both a borough, and a liberty, the latter directly under the Earl of Kilmorey and derived from the jurisdiction of the abbot of Newry. The 1828 Act was passed first with regard to Newry, following the establishment of a Gaslight Company, subsequent to which the borough owner, the Earl of Kilmorey, took steps to see a proper local authority was established. Newry later adopted the 1854 Act (Canavan, Frontier Town, 58, 124-6, 154).
It is worth noting that under the 1828 Act Monaghan town (pop. 5,000) employed a town clerk, a town sergeant, a bell ringer, a contractor for lamps, a street sweeper, and a keeper of the donkey (M’Kenna, Diocese of Clogher, 91). The sergeant would have been in charge of ‘policing’, i.e. clearing rubbish obstructions and nuisances, the bell ringer was presumably the town crier, and the contractor of lamps would have provided, maintained and lit the oil lamps in the streets. The street sweeper and the man in charge of the donkey presumably came under the sergeant. Newry, a larger town, established a town watch to patrol the streets at night, in addition to the county police. There was no definitive Act before 1898, and various towns and cities got further special Acts passed (Canavan, 158). No permanent workforce was employed before 1898, so those bidding for contracts would normally make a little gift to the relevant commissioners. Private companies to provide clean water, gas, electricity, and public transport could be established. By 1900 there were 108 gas companies in Ireland which corresponds closely with the number of towns. Most towns and cities eventually followed the lead of Joseph Chamberlain, mayor of Birmingham (1873-6) in developing to a greater or lesser extent municipal activities, gas works, water works, sewage works, slum clearance, libraries, art galleries and schools (DNB Chamberlain). As the century advanced, the municipal authorities dealt with water supplies, sewers and sewage purification, public health, fire brigades, public libraries, dogs and rabies, and whatever the Government saw fit to impose on them. Many built imposing town halls. [Top]
Public Health Authorities
Poor Law Unions
The basic unit for public assistance to the destitute was the Poor Law Union (Keenan, Pre-Famine Ireland, 233-4). The Irish poor law was modelled on the British one, and had as its basis the provision of workhouses where relief would be given to the destitute only within their doors. The Unions (of parishes) were to be of such a size that a reasonable Poor Law rate could be collected from it, and that a destitute person should not have to walk an excessive distance to obtain relief. Often it included a rich part like a town and a poor area of mountain or bogs. An elected Board of Poor Law Guardians was responsible for administering relief within each Union. During the height of the Famine crisis in 1847 a separate Irish Poor Law Board was hived off from the parent board (Keenan Pre-Famine Ireland 233).
Conditions within the workhouse were Spartan to deter applications for assistance from all but the desperate. Otherwise up to a quarter of the population of Ireland would have entered. It was also hoped that by keeping the Poor Rate as low as possible more money would be spent on improving agriculture (Saunders’ Newsletter 17 June 1850). Another deterrent was that the sexes were segregated to prevent destitute parents having any more children. The workhouses were swamped during and just after the Great Famine (1845-50) despite the enormous increase in make-work schemes financed by borrowing from the Treasury. Though intended for the destitute other categories were lodged in the poorhouses, lunatics and idiots, epileptics, orphans and deserted children or foundlings. These latter were usually farmed out to nurses or placed in families, and when old enough placed in domestic service. The poorhouses inevitably got involved in medical care and made provision for education. The National Board of Education gave some assistance but the system was never satisfactory. The Guardians were also made responsible for blind, deaf, and dumb institutes. Boards of Guardians acted as burial authorities and the provision and maintenance of burial grounds came under their remit (County Councils Gazette 9, 16 Mar 1900; Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine 79). In 1851 the Poor Law officials were given the direction of the dispensary districts and their local wardens issued tickets to see dispensary doctors. One great problem with workhouses in Ireland was that they were foisted on a country which had no experience in running them, and they were the first democratically elected bodies in local government in Ireland. It is not surprising that there were allegations of total ineptitude in management, including a failure in basic book-keeping and outright corruption involving contracts with suppliers (Saunders Newsletter 9 Sept 1850). Allegations of corruption never went away.
What came to be called ‘outdoor relief' was introduced in 1847, namely the payment of small sums to old people to enable them to stay in their homes. By 1911 there were as many people being assisted by outdoor relief as there were within the workhouses.
The civil valuation was extended by the Poor Law Valuation to cover all kinds of real property within a union, to spread the burden as wide as possible. The Poor Rate was valued and collected by electoral districts. When the Poor Law was introduced in 1838 the site of the workhouse was first determined on the principles given above, and then the boundaries of the Union were fixed around them ignoring county, barony, and parish boundaries (Saunders’ Newsletter 16 February 1849). Each electoral district was composed of townlands, the townland being the basic indivisible unit. Groups of local electoral districts formed dispensary districts, and groups of dispensary districts formed the Union. Each electoral district was to be responsible for the costs of sending the destitute from their district to the workhouse, which seems to contradict the principle of including rich districts to assist the poorer districts within the Union. Half the rate was to be paid by the landlord, and half by the tenant. The local Poor Law Board was composed of two thirds members, elected by those who had the county or borough franchise and one third chosen from the local justices of the peace; clergymen were excluded. Eventually half the Board was composed of justices of the peace (magistrates). All were unpaid, but they employed staff (Burke, Economic History, 262-3). The whole scheme was supervised by the main Poor Law Board or Commission in Dublin, which had been hived off from its parent body in London in 1947 and in 1872 it was renamed the Local Government Board.
By the Poor Law (Ireland) Act (1838 the workhouse infirmaries and hospitals were provided only for the legitimate inmates; in 1853 it was reported that poor sick people, not destitute, were being admitted so that especially in large towns they were assuming the character of general hospitals. Nevertheless the Commissioners commended the practice, especially in places distant from the county infirmary, and in 1860 they stated that better attention to the sick could be obtained in this way than under the Dispensaries Act. On 5 January 1901 there were 19,690 beds with 14,918 patients in the workhouse infirmaries, and 4,741 beds in fever hospitals with 649 patients. In the infirmaries there were 98 trained nurses, and in the fever hospitals 29. Other nurses numbered 588 and 165; other attendants numbered 272 and 62; pauper inmates employed were 1,496 and 157 (New Irish Jurist 27 Dec. 1901).
In 1861 they noted that salaried nurses were being employed. In 1862 an Act legalised the practice thus formally linking the Poor Law and the medical charities. The qualifications of nurses improved; in the first half of the century no qualification was required to obtain public money under the Dispensaries Acts; in some cases the operator had not even the licence of an apothecary. Until very recently, the standard of training of nurses, especially in Ulster outside Belfast, was little better than that of the old dispensers. It is now realised that nurses should have a formal training; but many Boards of Guardians still resist the introduction of trained nurses, preferring the old pauper inmates (New Irish Jurist 10 Oct 1902). Presumably in Catholic areas the presence of nuns ensured a higher standard of training.
Besides outdoor relief, other kinds of relief were gradually authorised. The Public Relief (Ireland) Act (1898) was passed to supply seed in times of scarcity in districts where there was none; for this purpose the Poor Law Guardians were allowed to borrow money interest free from the Government. They were also allowed to provide spraying machines and materials. By the loans so arranged the Guardians in 74 unions expended the sum of £68,482 on seed and potatoes, and £5,833 on spraying machines (Belfast Weekly News 6 Oct. 1900). Total expenditure on poor relief, medical relief, burial grounds, sanitary measures, superannuation, payments under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act, under the National School Teachers Act, and for all other purposes was in 1897 £1,488, 656 and in 1898 £1,597,027. The daily average number in workhouses April 1898 to March 1899 was 42,728 and on outdoor relief was 64,104 making a total of 108,780 or 1 in 41 of the population [2.44.%] (County Councils Gazette 9, 16 Mar 1900). There were 159 Unions in that year.
In 1900 Mrs Haslam reported excellent progress on women as Poor Law Guardians in Ireland; in the first year, 1896, there were only two women Guardians, in 1897 13, in 1898 21, and in 1900 86. Also she noted that the two Dublin Unions had appointed 17 women inspectors, 4 as sanitary sub-officers and 13 as schools attendance officers, while neither Cork nor Belfast had appointed any yet (County Councils Gazette 13 July 1900). In 1903 in Irish workhouse infirmaries 32 nuns were employed as matrons, 48 as schoolmistresses, and 335 as nurses; the salaries paid to them amounted to £13,504. It is now very difficult for other nurses to get these official positions as advertisements now increasingly require that applicants be members of a Roman Catholic religious order (Church of Ireland Gazette 15 May 1903).
In Ireland the practice was not to board out children outside the Union. The Guardians boarded out directly, the children being under the supervision of the relieving officer who was the responsible official. In some cases they were under a ladies committee of the Poor Law Union which the Local Government Board’s Order of 1902 provided should be appointed annually. This committee had full power to visit any house in which a child was boarded out or placed at service, and to report to the Guardians. It was found from experience that after a first visit from the lady inspector the accommodation provided to children improved (Dublin Irish Jurist 5 May 1905). Many children were being kept in workhouses that would be better off boarded out, but this requires a change in the law (Weekly Irish Times 28 March 1914).
A vice-regal commission in 1906 concluded that the Poor Law of 1838 was no longer suitable. At present one third of the inmates are sick, and another third are aged and infirm. Those who are sick are not really destitute but tradesmen and other humble earners who are accommodated in the cities in the voluntary hospitals; but because of the tradition of the poor houses these sick are housed in unplastered and unceiled rooms, with the roughest beds, and are attended by the other inmates as nurses, and are in general treated much worse than the lunatics. Similarly outdoor relief is given to those who are by no means destitute, but is provided as an additional support. ‘The boundary line has in practice been extended from destitution to poverty, with the result that the number of possible recipients is much increased’. The Report added that this was not what had been intended but the system is popular and appears to have taken root.
The professor [Thomas Jones] noted that since the Report was published the state was now providing for the aged poor, and he agreed with the recommendation of the Report that the poor houses should phased out and the various classes segregated into different institutions; he also concurred with the recommendation that a state medical service should be established and funded by money provided by Parliament (General Advertiser 26 Feb. 1910).
Besides relief of the poor, the Poor Rate was drawn on for expenses connected with Medical Charities and Dispensary Acts, Public Health Acts, Labourers Acts (housing), and other minor services. There was no provision for assisting vagrants of whom there were a large number wandering from Union to Union but never seeking work. The English Act did not apply to Ireland (Warder 5 Sept. 1903). Nevertheless, at least in Dublin, the Union House did have a casual ward for vagrants (Warder 7 April 1906).[Top]
Dispensary Districts
Medical assistance to the poorer classes had always been through the apothecaries’ or pharmacists’ (druggists) shops. Apothecaries, like surgeons and barristers, were trained under the system of pupilage or apprenticeship, and were licensed by the Irish Apothecaries Hall. Grand Juries were allowed to pay for dispensaries and did so, but it was complained that most of the money went towards the dispensers’ salaries. In 1827 in an advertisement to fill a vacant post in Ardee, Co. Louth, diplomas in medicine, surgery, midwifery, and pharmacy were required which may mean that an over-qualified person, at an appropriate salary, was being given the post. In 1851 it was decided to reform the system, and place dispensaries under the Poor Law Unions rather than the county Grand Juries. Expenses for them were transferred to the Poor Rate.
Province Unions Dispensary Dist. Electoral Divisions
Ulster 44 216 875
Munster 50 204 1023
Leinster 40 207 945
Connaught 29 93 596
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 163 720 3,439 (Irish Economist 19 June 1855).
Lord Chief Baron Palles noted that until 1838 poor relief and dispensaries were completely separate, but in that year was passed an Act which regulated Poor Law administration, and this, with the amending Acts, were now the law. The Poor Law Extension (Ireland) Act (1847) authorised outdoor relief, and the same Act empowered the appointment of a medical officer who would work outside the workhouse. Then the Medical Charities Act (1851 extended the Poor Law to purposes that were not strictly envisaged for it. The 1838 Act and the 1847 Act gave powers to the Poor Law Guardians and the Poor Law Board to make appointments; the 1851 Act also gave powers, so that the present Commissioners have the powers granted by all three Acts vested in them. It is clear that the 1851 Act gave powers to appoint officers, not restricted to medical officers (New Irish Jurist 1901-2 Reports 69). The medical officer was appointed by the Poor Law Commissioners (later Local Government Board) but other officers such as midwives locally, but still the Poor Law Commissioners could make any appointments in the dispensary service.
The declaration of dispensary districts was commenced on the 30 December 1851 and completed 27 May 1852. According to the Second Annual Report for the year ending 30 September 1853 the then authorised staff was 776 medical officers, 38 apothecaries, and 10 midwives, and the total number of new cases for that year was 690,411; the number of vaccinations was 43,332, and the number of lunatics certified was 480. For the year ending 31 March 1903 the number of new cases was 592,521 (Dublin Irish Jurist 3 June 1904) though the population had halved.
The system established for the free treatment of the poor was that a Poor Law warden would issue a ticket called the ‘red ticket’ to those in his own area and the recipient took it to the dispensary. It is clear that in most cases the dispenser was a qualified doctor. He was responsible for compounding his own drugs. (The patient had to bring his own bottle or container.) For more than a century the dispensary doctor was the bedrock for medical treatment of the poor. The dispensary doctor was allowed to have private patients and to make home visits, but the dispensary formed a solid basis to his income.
Under the Dispensaries Act 1851 the medical officer in each dispensary district was obliged to vaccinate against smallpox, as part of his ordinary duty, all persons who came to him for that purpose; and also to certify dangerous lunatics without fee or reward. This was clearly a public health measure not a poor relief measure, and later Acts secured further remuneration for vaccinations. Under the Public Health Acts 1874 and 1878 the Medical Officers of the various dispensary districts were constituted Medical Officers of Health, with additions to their salaries. The average remuneration for salaries of an MOH in 1853 was £73 8s; now for the combined offices of medical officer and medical officer of health it amounts to £141 11s exclusive of the fees or vaccinations, the examination of lunatics, registrar of births, marriages, and deaths, which office is usually held by the MOH. The total number of medical officers is 810; of these 32 get under £100 and 2 over £200; most get between £110 and £150 (New Irish Jurist 10 June 1904). Obviously, these salaries assumed that most of a doctor’s income would come from private patients, calculating that £100 then was equivalent to £5,000 today.[Top]
Sanitary Authorities
Public health was another matter which was the concern of the local authorities. In particular they were concerned with outbreaks of fever, and with the need to provide fever hospitals and medical care in times of fever. In local ports they were responsible for the quarantine of ships. As bad air was supposed to cause fevers, the authorities had to remove public nuisances like dead carcasses or stinking rubbish. Food poisoning was a common cause of illness so the local market authorities in the towns had to patrol the food shops carefully.
From 1870 onwards public opinion was increasingly focussed on public health. A Dublin Sanitary Association was formed in Dublin in 1872 and was vocal in its criticism of the failure of the Corporation to provide proper sewers. Part of the problem was the increasing use in urban areas of water closets or flush toilets. Previously the nightly collection by carts of night soil had been sufficient, but now the excrement was flushed into the River Liffey which accordingly stank. (The problem was even worse in London until 1858 when Disraeli introduced a short Act enabling Joseph Bazalgette’s great system of intercepting sewers to proceed. The London scheme was commenced in 1865 and completed in 1875.) The corresponding plan for Dublin was adopted in 1875 and work commenced 25 years later.
During Disraeli’s great reforming ministry from 1874 to 1880 the Public Health Act (1878) was passed, consolidating various provisions of earlier Acts. Though much of its content was not new, it established the principle that there should be an authority everywhere in Ireland responsible for public health, and that local authorities must constitute themselves as sanitary authorities. The problem was largely an urban one, but around Dublin various ‘suburbs’ were heavily built up and had all the problems of towns. The dispensary district, not the county or Poor Law Union, was to form the basis of the districts, but large towns and cities could constitute themselves the sanitary district and did so. (Later it was observed in a different connection that rural districts, virtually identical with Poor Law Unions, were too large for effective local control, while electoral districts were too small New Irish Jurist 22 Nov. 1901).The dispensary doctor became the Medical Officer of Health with an additional salary with respect to his sanitary duties. Dublin had two Poor Law Unions, but the Corporation of the city became the sanitary authority. The suburban districts of Clontarf, Drumcondra, Clonliffe, Glasnevin, Grangegorman, and Kilmainham were separate sanitary districts. These sanitary districts survived even after the establishment of urban and rural district councils. Belfast established its Corporation as the sanitary authority and commenced a large sewage scheme.
Earlier legislation was incorporated so the sanitary laws concerning the supply of pure water, adequate street lighting, regulating public clocks, providing and regulating markets and slaughterhouses were included. Under the Towns Improvements Act (1847) an urban authority might regulate slaughterhouses not owned by them. The Local Authority could condemn all unsound food (County Councils’ Gazette 5, 12, 19, 26 Jan. 1900). Within the districts, all new houses must have water closets, earth closets, or privies; scavenging and rubbish collection was made the duty of the health authority, subject to orders of the Local Government Board; those who kept pig sties and other nuisances might be prosecuted. Provision was made for the regulation of common lodging houses and tenements, and the inspection of such, with different regulations for common lodging houses and tenements; further powers to regulate these were given by the Housing of the Working Classes Act (1890). Dwellings in cellars were prohibited by the Public Health Act (1848) applied to Ireland in 1866, except where they were occupied as dwellings before that date. Rules were set out for the abatement of nuisances. These usually concerned smelly trades of which there were a great number. In this Act and in a whole series of other Acts powers were given to deal with infected premises both houses and factories, the notification of infectious diseases, the provision of hospitals, mortuaries, and burial grounds, and the control of these latter, the contagious diseases of animals with powers over dairies, cowsheds and milkshops, the sale of pure food and drugs, the discharge of sewage and effluent into streams, the provision of bathhouses, and recreation grounds. The big cities opened public baths. Many of these duties and powers were later transferred to the local District Councils, which explains the Gazette’s long exposition of the case in 1900 (County Councils’ Gazette 2 Feb. 1900).
It was felt that the greatest sanitary need in most of rural Ireland was proper housing for the poorer classes. Provision should be made for siting privies at a distance from the house, and for the collection of rubbish. It was alleged that the Poor Law Guardians as sanitary authorities were not doing enough in this respect (Homestead 29 Dec 1901). One of the provisions of the Public Health Acts was that in towns and cities all houses in all streets must be consecutively numbered.[Top]
County Councils and Urban and Rural District Councils: The 1898 Act
Following the establishment of county councils in England a similar Act was passed with regard to Ireland. In 1887 the Government in England under the Marquis of Salisbury decided on a comprehensive reform of local government in England and Wales which was then divided between quarterly sessions of magistrates in the counties and the sanitary districts. Charles Ritchie (Lord Ritchie), after a year of preparation, introduced a large Bill into the House of Commons to rationalise the system and place it under the democratic control of elected councils which would be autonomous and subject only to parliamentary control. All the existing legislation concerning county administration and sanitary districts as well as numerous powers of the English Local Government Board were to be transferred to the new councils and the sanitary districts. The complex Act was passed in 1888. One of the great problems was to ensure that the duties and powers conferred by all existing Acts were properly transferred (DNB Ritchie). A similar Act for Scotland was passed the following year, while the Irish Secretary, Arthur Balfour, introduced an Act for Ireland in 1892 but it was withdrawn.
In 1898 when Arthur Balfour’s brother Gerald was Chief Secretary the Local Government (Ireland) Act (1898) was re-introduced. The New Irish Jurist commented that Irish Chief Secretaries have to suddenly acquire a knowledge of complex issues in Irish law. Mr Gerald Balfour, in piloting the Local Government Bill through the Commons, displayed a complex knowledge of the intricacies of the Irish Grand Jury Acts, the Poor Law Acts, and the Towns Acts which were the despair of industrious lawyers who were working in those subjects all their lives (4 Mar. 1902). These included Acts dealing with Grand Juries, sheriffs and other county officials, Poor Law boards, dispensary districts sanitary districts, and the powers given to towns and boroughs under the Towns Acts and private Acts. By the Act control of the counties was taken away from the Grand Juries and given to elected County Councils. Cities and towns were reorganised as boroughs and urban districts. Counties were organised into urban and rural districts, each with its elected council beside the county council, while cities became counties in themselves, resulting in odd titles like ‘the county of the city of Belfast’. The rural districts were based on the Poor Law Unions. In many parts of Ireland their tax base was so low that rural districts could do very little and they were abolished in the Irish Free State in 1925. They survived in Northern Ireland until 1973 after direct rule from Britain was re-imposed.
The franchise was the same as the parliamentary franchise, but extended to include women and peers. Women became eligible to be elected as Poor Law guardians, and urban and rural district councillors. They were not eligible to be county councillors or borough councillors, justices of the peace in virtue of their office, nor poor rate collectors. Under the Local Government Act (1900), the chairman of a council of a district of more than 5,000 souls was ex officio a justice of the peace, women and legally disqualified persons excepted (Constabulary Gazette 19 May 1900). In 1911 they became eligible to be county councillors. Lyons comments on the poor quality of Irish county and district councillors: ‘It was not always possible to root out incompetence, corruption or simple self-interest from local government’ (Ireland Since the Famine, 482). While true, this misses the main point, for the object of self-government was to capture the corruption not abolish it. Immediately, the councillors commenced giving all jobs to Catholic nationalists, often inserting conditions like knowledge of the Irish language to exclude Protestants or Unionists.
The grand and petty juries and the sheriffs were not abolished; they were just deprived of all administrative functions and confined to judicial ones. Sheriffs remained returning officers for elections.
The level of debt of the old town authorities was £7,244,080; owed by-
Town councils 3,931,822
Town Boards under 1854 Act 438,385
Town Boards under 1829 Act 22,400
Town Boards under special Acts 699,353
Town joint burial boards 7,134
Town Boards of Guardians 2,144,986
These figures do not include loans for lunatic asylums; most of the cesses were raised on real property and amounted to 88.71% of the total collected; tolls, fees, and dues accounted for 1.61% and other receipts to 9.68%. The new councils have more extensive borrowing powers, so no doubt the debt will increase in future years (County Councils’ Gazette 17 Aug. 1900). Besides getting increased borrowing powers the newly elected councils were given additional powers. One, of the most practical importance, was the right to establish a county committee of agriculture to liaise with the newly established Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. They also took over powers given under the Technical Instruction Acts and Public Libraries Acts. Technical schools in Ireland date from this period, though grants for technical instruction had been given by earlier bodies. But the new councils were allowed to put technical education on the rates, and specialist technical schools were built, at first in urban centres but afterwards in the counties. The powers of the magistrates regarding the manufacture and use of explosives were transferred to the county councils. The councils themselves used considerable amounts of explosives in their quarries for road stone.
The total local taxation 1898 for Ireland in the year 1898 reached £4,116,561 and was continually growing. In 1898 the Grand Jury cess amounted to £1,273,655; the poor rate to £1,087,920, town taxes £757,854, to which must be added the Belfast water rate, the Dublin Metropolitan Police rate, and the Dublin Port and Docks Board taxes. For the past 20 years there has been a steady increase in taxes; in 1878 the total was £3,251,422. The sum of £838,276, about half the county cess was spent on roads, footways, bridges, and other public ways; the second largest item was £207,270 for the maintenance of lunatic asylums; the cost of £83,519 for infirmaries and hospitals is not excessive; neither is the sum of £100,398 for county officers (County Councils Gazette 9 Feb. 1900).
The distinction between owner and occupier was abolished and the occupier made solely responsible for the whole rate. The county cess was abolished and there remained only two charges; the Poor Law rate, and municipal rates; from the latter charges for paving, lighting, sewerage, and municipal administration are allowed and in Ireland these sums are quite small. From the new poor rate all other local charges are defrayed, not merely poor relief, but also all county expenditure, and all rural district expenditure. In other words a separate Grand Jury cess was abolished and the county charges were merged with the poor rate as a single rate. (The technical reasons why the county cess rather than the union one was abolished in the merger are not obvious, for the counties and boroughs actually remained the collectors.)
In the counties the rate was collected by the county councils, who then transferred appropriate amounts to the rural districts and the Poor Law Unions. In urban districts, other than the county boroughs, the urban district council collected the poor rate and handed over to the county council the sums required for the county charges and the Poor Law Union. In county boroughs the borough council collects the poor rate, and hands over to the guardians the necessary sum.
There are two sets of collectors, collectors for rural districts, and collectors for urban districts; the rural collectors are appointed by the county council with the approval and under the terms and conditions of the Local Government Board. To each collector there is assigned a district, there being normally two collectors for each rural district. They must keep offices for collection within their district which they must attend on market days and at other specified times. Many rates are paid by post. Every fortnight the collectors must lodge the amount collected to the credit of the county fund. Urban collectors are appointed by the urban councils and collect all rates within the urban district: the town rates, the sanitary rates, poor rates, etc., and the urban council remits each half year to the county council the amount collected on its behalf. In county boroughs the city itself was the county, but transferred the appropriate dues to the Poor Law Union(s) within its bounds.
The part of the new poor rate required to meet county charges is raised off the whole county, the part to meet union charges off the Union, and the part to meet rural district charges off the rural district. By the 1898 Act, rating by electoral divisions was abolished, all poor rates being levied on the union at large. Municipal rates, in addition to the poor rate, are levied by the county boroughs, other municipal borough councils, urban district councils, and town commissions of towns not urban districts. (The lesser towns were not constituted urban districts under the Act.) In addition to the county cess and the poor rate, municipal rates were levied in 120 Irish towns. The powers of these bodies to raise municipal rates were not substantially altered by the 1898 Act except for the provision for consolidating the poor rate with the other rates. The Report on the subject by the Local Government Board in 1897 showed the extraordinary variety and complexity of the rating arrangements in towns. Rates were raised under several general Acts, and a large number of local Acts. They were all based on the same valuation as the poor rate, for no other valuation existed in Ireland, but they showed great diversity in the rates [in the pound] imposed on different kinds of property. Belfast for example had a Police Rate for constabulary, lighting, fire brigade and repayment of loans, where a half charge is made on hereditaments under £20 value (New Irish Jurist 20 Mar. 1903). It also had a water rate. Rating powers in Belfast were granted under three separate private Acts. (In 1923 and 1925 the Free State Government drastically simplified the system, combining poor law unions, abolishing rural district councils, making the county councils the sanitary districts and organising public health and poor relief on a county basis, Lyons, Ireland Since the Famine, 483-3). .[Top]
Old Age Pensions
Though this was a national scheme it was devised to transfer the burden of assisting the aged by means of outdoor relief from Poor Law Unions to the Treasury the scheme being thus fiscally neutral. The first plan was put forward by a clergyman from Dundalk called the Rev. William Blackley who proposed a national fund. His plan was rejected by the House of Commons (DNB Blackley). However in the twentieth century the proposal of Charles Booth who had intensively studied the poor in London was adopted. He urged a non-contributory scheme, national in scope, which would not increase taxes but merely to transfer them from the parish to the Treasury. This had the added advantage that it would be uniform over the whole kingdom.
The major parties agreed on a scheme by which 5 shillings a week would be paid to all over seventy. Ireland was to be included in the scheme. This sum was not intended to be the complete support for the elderly but as a supplement to savings and any work the old could do (Briggs and Jordan, Economic History, 693-4). The Liberal Government passed the Old Age Pension Act (1908 which came into force on 1st Aug 1908, amounting to 5/- a week or £13 a year and applying to the whole the United Kingdom. There were no conditions or disabilities attached to receiving the pension; all who are British subjects for at least 20 years, over 70 years of age, and whose income from any source does not exceed £31 10/- a year or 12/- a week. Those who are in receipt of Poor Law relief or have received it since 1st January 1908 were disqualified until the end of 1910. Medical or surgical assistance, or any relief which does not disqualify for registration as a parliamentary elector, does not involve the disqualification. There were various other disqualifications including those who have failed to support their families, or have been sent to prison without the option of a fine, for 10 years afterwards.
The best evidence of age was a birth certificate, but compulsory registration of births did not come into force in Ireland until 1863. The best available evidence must be given including certificate of baptism, certificate of service in the crown forces, certificate of membership of a friendly society or trade union, or certificate of marriage. It is well known that local registers for marriage are very imperfect; many old people are quite ignorant of their own ages, but it can be established by comparison with others, or by reference to a known event such as the erection of a public building; in some cases middle-aged clergymen will be able to testify that the claimant was old when they were young. With regard to income this can be very difficult to establish especially on small holdings in Ireland; this is especially so if the applicant possesses a cottage in which he resides which is capable of being let, or a patch of land, though not worked, is capable of being let and worked; or savings which could be invested to produce an income (Weekly Irish Times 19 Sept. 1908).
The machinery of the Act included the local Pension Committee, the central pensions authority, and the pension officers. The local committee was to be appointed by every county or county borough, or by the urban district council in towns of over 10,000 inhabitants. The members of this committee may not belong to the appointing council. For proof of age, whether born on or before the night of the big wind 6 January 1839 [70 years to 6 January 1909]. All applications went to the pensions officer, 16 different forms being printed. The first or principal form could be obtained at any Post Office. The first pensions were paid on 1st January 1909, 127,309 claims being accepted in Ireland out of 209,136. The Post Office machinery to pay out the pensions worked smoothly; all the pensioners apparently had to go in person, even those who had not been outside for years; however medical certificates can be obtained giving exemption.
The writer commented on the number of people in the West of Ireland who remembered the night of the Big Wind clearly, and whose non-appearance in the 1841 census is explained by the fact that they were living at the time with an aunt in a different townland, whose name they do not recall. The Inland Revenue Board was supposed to check on claims, but gave up after thousands of claims were submitted, nor could the clergy furnish proof, but said they had no written records. Nobody knows on what grounds the Local Government Board decided on appeals; it has no staff for it own investigations. It was estimated that 108 persons are receiving the pension in Ireland for every 100 entitled. Several inspectors from Somerset House [London] have been sent over to investigate; the census returns have been preserved since 1841. In many parts of England, Wales and Scotland fewer were applying than were entitled, in Ireland much the reverse In 1910 30,000 Irish pensions were disallowed on grounds either of age or means (Weekly Irish Times 3 Oct. 1908, 9, 30 Jan. 1909; 20 Feb. 1909, 26 Mar. 1910).[Top]
Housing
The principle of the intervention of local authorities in the provision of houses was first enshrined in Disraeli’s Artisans’ Dwellings Act (1875) which provided that municipal authorities could acquire and demolish slum areas in towns and cities, to give no compensation above the value established by an arbiter, and to build and let suitable houses. Before that local authorities had powers only to demolish houses in danger of collapse. The Public Health Act (1878 imposed the duty on sanitary authorities to provide suitable housing. The Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Act (1896 gave powers to the sanitary authorities to acquire land compulsorily for the erection of dwellings for the working classes; in the same year an Act was passed for simplifying the acquisition of land for labourers’ cottages (Belfast Weekly News 6 Oct. 1900). Various Labourers Acts commencing in 1883 were passed allowing authorities to acquire land and construct labourers’ cottages on them. There were major problems with executing these Acts. One Poor Law Union in Ulster wished to purchase 50 sites in fifty places, none of which were worth more than £10. But all the costs of the legal searches, conveyances, and stamp duty fell on the Union. Of £12 million authorised by law for this purpose loans for only £2.7 million had been authorised (New Irish Jurist 19 February 1904). Another source of objections was from the small tenant farmers who having just bought their farms did not wish to part with any of it. It was also pointed out that there was a hidden subsidy as the rents did not cover the costs. After 1898 the cost of providing the cottages fell on the rural districts many of which were impoverished. There had been 482,000 single-roomed mud-walled cottages in Ireland in 1841; by 1901 this had fallen to about 10,000 (Weekly Irish Times 8 Sept 1906).
Under the Labourers Acts country workers could get cheap suitable housing; but the problem in large cities was the lack of money; this was remedied by the Housing of the Working Classes (Ireland) Act (1908) steered through the House of Commons by Mr Clancy [John Joseph Clancy MP for Dublin, North]. If the local authorities act on it they can provide many suitable dwellings at little cost to the rates; prior to the Act the local authorities could only borrow at the higher rates, and the longer the period of repayment the higher the interest. Also many had reached the limits of their borrowing powers under the Public Health Act of 1878. Despite the hope, Dublin Corporation had to pay £1 per square yard in the Ormond Market area (near Ormond Quay) or £4,840 an acre. Dublin's slums were among the worst in the three kingdoms; a large number of tenements in Dublin were unfit for human habitation. Under the provisions of the ‘Clancy Act’ investment in slum property will not be as profitable as before; under the Act the owner is obliged to keep the properties in habitable condition; it he does not the municipal authority is empowered to demolish the premises (Weekly Irish Times, 13 Feb. 1909; 10 Dec. 1910). One great problem in Dublin was the presence of numerous slum-property landlords and slum publicans on the corporation Weekly Irish Times 13 Dec. 1913; 3 Jan 1914).
After the First World War it was realised that rents for public housing would have to be subsidised and that help from the central government was required. The Cork Weekly News gave a table. It said it was possible to build houses for £500, but a subsidy for rent would be required for these because of the difference between the economic rent and what people could pay.
cost econ. rent tenant subsidy [repayment
£500 15/6 per week 4/- 11/6 =£806
£550 17/- 4/6 12/6 =£884
£600 18/6 5/- 13/6 =£962]
This allows an 8% return on capital with a repayment time of the borrowing over 60 years (Cork Weekly News 3 Jan. 1920). The Chief Secretary in 1919, Ian Macpherson promised to bridge the gap between the rent charged and the proper rent. The post-War Government took the issue seriously, and the Housing Act (1919) envisaged the construction of 350,000 new houses for the working classes, and 65,000 for Ireland. Compulsory purchase was allowed in England, but not in Ireland. The owners of condemned property would receive only the value of the cleared site (Weekly Irish Times 12 April; 17 May 1919).
Despite efforts by private individuals like the Guinness family slum-clearance did not develop to any great extent in Ireland until after the First World War. One problem with private working class housing was that the rents could only be paid by skilled tradesmen in full-time employment. Between the wars, many houses were built on green field sites for immediate sale at £500, the builder getting his cash immediately. [Top]
Crime and Police
Ordinary Crime
In Ireland in the prison service there arose a distinction between ‘ordinary decent criminals’ and politically-motivated or terrorist criminals. The first served their sentences with the minimum of disturbance, gained remission of their sentences, and got out as soon as possible. The others considered themselves either ‘victims’ or ‘prisoners-of-war’ and made life as difficult as possible for the prison officers. The motivation for their crimes was quite different, though in practice it was difficult to distinguish between a terrorist organisation and a criminal one or one which was both.
Ireland, politically-motivated terrorist crimes apart, was a comparatively crime-free society particularly in rural areas. The total of all offences committed in 1904 was 128,162; the cities of Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Londonderry, Limerick, and Waterford accounted for 60,315 of that total. In country areas this was a total of around 2,000 offences per county per year or perhaps 1 for every 500 people. Of the 9,617 indictable offences (liable for trial before a jury) committed, 5,841 were in those six cities. The rate for indictable offences was 632.8 per 100,000 of the population in those cities and 106.8 for the rest of the country; with regard to non-indictable offences the rates were 5,901 in the cities and 3,517 per 100,000 elsewhere. Drunkenness was rather higher in the country areas being 1,717 in the cities and 1,864 in the country areas (Dublin Irish Jurist 1 Sept. 1905).
Of the cities, half of all indictable offences were committed in Dublin alone in 1880, though this proportion declined with the growth of Belfast and other cities (Encyclopaedia of Ireland, Crime). The same Article notes that the period from 1920 to 1960 was one with stable and relatively low crime rates. Small numbers of not very proficient property crime offenders were responsible for much of the crime (loc. cit.). The same could be said for the previous 70 years. Prostitution too was a feature of the cities, especially Dublin, but any garrison town or port was liable to have its share. Other crimes were poaching and breaches of the game laws, street begging, Sunday trading, adulteration of milk and butter, and failure to have a dog licence. In some areas illicit distillation of alcohol was carried on. Though denounced alike by politicians and clergy it is doubtful if most people thought either it or poaching and illegal fishing proper crimes. When we consider that being drunk and disorderly on a fair or market day was probably the most common offence, we can regard rural and small town areas as being comparatively crime free. [Top]
Police
Policing in common law countries presented a particular difficulty because of the ingrained belief in the right of the citizen to his freedom to do whatever he liked, however strange or bizarre it might seem to others, or even how dangerous to the public it might be, unless there was a precedent in common law, or a statute prohibiting it. The largest liberty for example was given to violent sports, or indeed to violent demonstrations against unpopular politicians. The Duke of Wellington, among others, had his windows smashed by a mob. Nor were the police allowed to use more than the minimum force, and could detain arrested persons only for the briefest periods unless the detention was authorised by a magistrate. Even those charged with grave offences were allowed their liberty on bail until the date of their trial arrived.
Ireland had two police forces almost entirely composed of Irishmen. One was the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP), probably the oldest common law police force in the world, an unarmed force. The opportunity was taken in 1836 to re-organise and re-train the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Proper county police forces to replace the ineffective baronial constabulary were established in 1822 but re-organised and re-trained on a national basis in 1836 as the Irish Constabulary; after 1867 the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Against British tradition, for reasons given below, they were armed with muskets. These were progressively upgraded to Snider rifles and then Martini-Henry single shot rifles, but the men got little practice in shooting (Constabulary Gazette 16 June 1900).
These two police forces dealt with all crime, ordinary, agrarian and political, and only rarely had they to seek military assistance. Troops were sent to Belfast in 1907 to assist the police in their duties against the trade union leader James Larkin’s supporters’ violent actions, followed by serious sectarian rioting on the Falls Road. The RIC was organised on military lines with separate entries and careers for officers and other ranks. This was a major source of grievance for the ordinary policemen who could normally only advance to the rank of head constable (corresponding to sergeant major in the army). Sons of gentlemen entered as officer cadets and became officers. The Irish Constabulary Act (1836) provided for 1 inspector general, 2 deputy inspectors, 4 provincial inspectors, 35 sub-inspectors, 217 chief constables, 260 head constables, 1,350 constables, and about 8,000 sub-constables (Belfast Weekly News 2 May 1901). In times of crisis the numbers could be increased. The worst period of terrorism in modern Irish history was during the so-called ‘Land War’ between 1879 and 1889 when their numbers were raised to 14,000. There were 35 sub-inspectors for 32 counties, and 217 chief constables for 324 baronies.
The officer cadets were selected by competitive examination and the cadets were then given their uniforms made up by a military tailor, and their swords. They were instructed in marching and parading by drill instructors, and riding at a riding school. They were instructed in the arts of writing reports, doing accounts, and paying bills. Instruction ended at 3 p.m. after which the day was their own. For recreation, one of them recalled, they had a billiard table but no balls so they had contests of jumping over the table. They sang around the piano, but there was no card-playing. A lot of time and money was spent on drinking. For the first six weeks the cadet's family had to support him. The duties of a young orderly officer were to inspect every day the food for the men, to attend to any complaints, to see that sentries were posted, and that all lights were out at 10 p.m., to see to the forage of the horses and to visit all the sick in Steeven's Hospital; they all dreaded the visit to the fever ward (Weekly Irish Times 1 Feb. 1902).
Since 1847 practically the whole cost of policing was defrayed by the Treasury; the pay of the various ranks was regulated by several Acts, that of 1883 being now in force [1902]. As appears from the 1902 estimates the cost is now £1,376,447 of which £20,785 was recoverable from local rates, sale of old stores etc. The total cost of policing in Belfast was £89,877 of which £20,000 was contributed from the rates in Belfast; Dublin paid £62,000 towards the costs of its police. Londonderry was the other city which had to pay a police precept or charge. The Chief Secretary, George Wyndham, in 1903, noted that the £1.4 million spent on the police was largely spent on dealing with agrarian crime.
Total strength of the RIC in 1902 was 11,201 or 3,119 less than in 1883, of whom 2,562 were above the rank of constable. They were lodged in around 1,400 police stations or barracks around the country. The old military name barrack persisted in Ireland but they were just large rented houses. In 1916 the number was 9,101. The strength of the DMP was about 1,200. Both forces had a mounted branch, especially useful during trade disputes, and a detective branch. Detective officers from Dublin were sent to London to form the London Metropolitan Police’s Irish Special Branch, now simply the Special Branch. The RIC was widely respected in country areas and there was no shortage of people willing to supply them with information. Their information on American-backed subversive movements was detailed. Later, when the terrorist organisations started targeting the police they also targeted their informants or informers as they were called in Ireland. It was with a view of choking off this supply of information, that the Gaelic Athletic Association, a sporting body which was also a front for terrorists, prohibited the playing of any games against teams from the police and army.
There was no shortage of recruits, 10% of whom were sons of policemen, which showed the respect and esteem in which the force was held. A constable's pay has been nearly trebled since 1866, and a sergeant’s pay nearly doubled. The duties of the constabulary in Ireland in the disturbed districts are not more taxing or severe than those of the English constabulary; trade strikes on a large scale and other labour disturbances produced in England much the same condition of affairs as the agrarian and sectarian disputes in Ireland. Sectarian excitement is confined to one Province, while agrarian crime had decreased; political agitation keeps the police on the alert, but on the other hand there was practically no professional criminal class. The English police, unlike the Irish, patrol singly by day and night, except in the rarest circumstances; nor is the job more dangerous, as is evinced by the fact that in the past 10 years only 7 men retired because of injuries received in the course of their duties (Weekly Irish Times 24 May 1902). The ordinary policemen were not particularly well paid, and if they were not promoted they tended to leave the service, and almost always tried to get compensation for some injury or illness supposedly resulting from their duties in the force. One constant duty, especially in the West of Ireland, was affording some police protection to families being intimidated by the Land League or United Irish League, but this could amount to more than sending out police patrols on bicycles in their direction (Weekly Irish Times 15 Mar. 1902). One of their chief duties, especially in Co. Donegal was searching for illicit distillation. As soon as they left the barracks the direction they were taking was signalled, so consequently they left the barracks in the opposite direction and worked their way round (Weekly Irish Times 31 May, 7 June 1902).
When reading the Irish Constabulary Gazette, one can see how much sport was part of the policemen’s lives, especially cycle racing. The police did much to develop athletics in Ireland. The advertisements in the Constabulary Gazette were for Rover bicycles, bicycle tyres and saddles, boots, boot polish, boot repair kits, whiskey and tobacco, melodeons, furniture removals, and watches (6 Jan. 1900).
The forces were almost exclusively composed of Irishmen, and in 1913 79% of them were Catholics. Like almost all their fellow Catholics they were nationalist in politics, and the newspaper most likely to be found in police barracks was the nationalist Freeman’s Journal. From time to time there were complaints that Catholics did not get a fair share of promotions, but others said that this was because lacked influence in higher places. A few times there threats of police strikes, chiefly because of poor pay, but also because the ordinary constables felt that the officers rarely responded to their complaints. After the First World War, when the men in the London Metropolitan Police tried to organise a police strike some members of the RIC tried to do likewise but the Government appointed a new Inspector General, Sir Joseph Byrne, to deal with the men’s complaints, and in general they were satisfied, though they were still not able to join or form a trade union.
The first women police were appointed in Dublin in 1917. This followed on the success of the women's patrols which aimed at keeping young girls out of danger; they succeeded in convincing the Dublin Metropolitan Police who have now appointed two women police officers with a similar remit to patrol the streets of central Dublin. They will also try to deal with the persistent street beggars in Dublin, who are a public nuisance. They will not arrest offenders but call the attention of the nearest police officer to them (Weekly Irish Times 20 Oct. 1917).
The police were the front line in the fight against terrorism, but their efforts were hampered by political interference, and also by the incompetence of the long-lasting Chief Secretary, Arthur Birrell. Against the fiercer attack of the Land League the police had the total support of the magistrates, the courts, the Irish Government and Parliament, and were successful. But after 1910, when Asquith and Lloyd George agreed to hand over Ireland to the Home Rule Party, no coherent policy to deal with violent trade unionism led by James Larkin or revolutionary terrorism led by the American-backed IRB was followed. Predictably, in 1916, failure to allow the police to take action against those procuring arms led to an excessive military reaction. There seems little doubt that if it had been left to the police to deal with plotted putsch the RIC could have mopped up the would-be revolutionaries with little loss of life or destruction of property. It would have been sufficient to surround the buildings which the IRB had seized with barbed wire and marksmen. The police had the full support of the local people. Instead the army made martyrs.
Matters got worse after 1918 when Sinn Fein displaced the Home Rule Party and the agrarian terrorists/IRA resumed their terrorist campaign. The RIC had no doubt about their ability to deal with the local terrorists, but they were told to defend the police barracks, which were rented property. This made them sitting targets. The terrorists principally targeted the policemen who were mostly Catholic Irishmen in Catholic districts, but also intimidated their families, and murdered anyone who had contacts with the police. The pages of the Constabulary Gazette were filled with scathing comments about the misdirection of the police, and still more by the attempt to bring in Englishmen, as often as not misfits from the demobilised army. No attention was paid at first to screening these English volunteers, who introduced the idea of local reprisals. When Lloyd George and his Government realised the mischief they had carried out they were swiftly and systematically removed. But the harm had already been done, and republican propagandists never let anyone forget it.
A letter was written to the Gazette advocating the use of wireless by the police, as the telegrams could no longer be relied on in some parts. The first thing to do before attacking a police barracks was to cut the phone wires. It said that the old rule that a constable could not marry until he had served for seven years in the force should be abolished; at present the men share a common dormitory, with straw mattresses over iron grates with the windows sand-bagged. The police are not concerned with the reasons for the unrest; but it is their duty to prevent the attacks; at the moment it is clear to all that the offenders are having the best of the encounters. The police barrack is a barrack, a pallet of straw, a bare and cheerless day room, no armchairs, no privacy in the dormitory; not to mention the occasional bomb; remove the pinpricks; let them marry, give them wireless sets, make the barracks comfortable, let them find recruits, let them find ways of defeating the enemy.
The writer went on to criticise the system of forcing the police to 'mind' police barracks in remote districts; the whole time of the police is now taken up with minding the barracks; it would be better to shut the barracks and send out the men, armed, and in plain clothes on cycle patrols. The police love detective work more than anything else. To quell lawlessness the first thing to do is to abandon the uniform, and 90% of the red tape; there is not the slightest point in marching men to divine service in uniform. If the police are taught to shoot straight, and be rewarded for their success there is no need for an extra 1,000 police; the present men are sufficient. Police duty is utterly different from army duty; it is not like marching in battalions, but more like a cat catching a mouse; if he is a good cat he will catch the mouse, but not if he has a bell tied round his neck (Constabulary Gazette 17, 31 Jan. 7 Feb 1920).
The Royal Irish Constabulary was blamed by the IRA for causing trouble and was disbanded by the new Free State Government who had to find jobs for their supporters and so formed the Civic Guard. The Dublin Metropolitan Police survived as a separate body until 1925 when it was absorbed into the Irish Civic Guard. 425 policemen were murdered and 725 wounded, and the remainder incurred the bitterest animosity of their countrymen (Constabulary Gazette 24 Dec. 1921). [Top]
Gaols and Penology
As was general in common law countries there was a wide variety of places in which suspects could be held for trial. Grand Juries and Corporations were responsible for them. In 1800 there were 41 city and county gaols, and 112 local bridewells or local gaols (jails) where petty offenders and debtors could be held temporarily. Most of these buildings were ancient, ramshackle, and unhealthy. Imprisonment in itself was normally not a punishment, but individuals, especially writers of seditious pamphlets could be sentenced to terms of detention. The loss of freedom was the sole punishment, and the person detained could hire rooms and furniture, and have his food sent into him. Following the campaigns of John Howard in England for penal reform, the Irish Government in the 1780s established penitentiaries where those whose sentences to transportation were commuted could serve out their sentences, and also a Prison Inspectorate. After the Union in 1800 a general inspection of Irish gaols was made, and the construction of proper healthy gaols on modern lines commenced. In 1826 all gaols except the county gaols were abolished, and the bridewells where the New Police still had the right to hold those arrested in cells in the police offices until brought before a police magistrate, a police officer given the usual powers of magistrates (Keenan, Pre-Famine Ireland 247-53; Encyclopaedia of Ireland, Prisons). Mountjoy, Dublin’s new model prison was completed in 1850. For capital offences, and there were many of these, the usual punishment was hanging by the neck. A thick hemp rope was tied round the condemned man’s neck with a large knot at the back. He stood on a trapdoor with a considerable drop below so that his neck was broken by the fall. Death was not by strangulation but quick and painless. Executions were in public until 1868, either on a scaffold outside the prison, or at any place the judge might order, and thereafter within the walls of a prison. For lesser offences, periods of transportation to the colonies could be ordered where the convicts could be forced to work. After the loss of the American colonies, Australia was the normal place for penal colonies. This sentence was for capital crimes if there were mitigating circumstances. After 1848 the Irish leaders of the attempted rebellion were transported to Tasmania where they gave their parole and were allowed to live wherever they liked. The Treason Felony Act (1848) was passed to remove the automatic sentence of death for treason. The ending of transportation in 1856 meant that Irish revolutionaries had to serve their sentences in penitentiaries, prisons where a sentence of imprisonment with hard labour could be served. Hard labour consisted of breaking stones, or working a treadmill.
In the first half of the 19th century the Irish prison authorities followed the trends in Britain and America in trying to use prisons as penitentiaries, places to reform the prisoners especially through labour. Silence was imposed, and face to face contact between prisoners was prevented. These had to listen to sermons and read the Bible. The Irish Director of Prisons, Sir William Crofton devised a system of rehabilitation in four stages to rehabilitate prisoners which was more influential in the United States than in Ireland (Encyc. of Ireland, Prisons; Encyc. Britt., prison). They were taught a trade and then released early under police supervision as ‘ticket-of leave’ men. When Sir Richard Cross was Home Secretary in Disraeli’s ministry from 1874 to 1880 the management of prisons in the three kingdoms was transferred from the local authorities to the central government, and the costs likewise transferred to the Treasury, but with the local magistrates retaining visitatorial powers (DNB Cross). To deal with this a General Prisons Board of Ireland was established, but the Grand Juries retained the right to hear complaints and investigate abuses. A policy of reducing the number of prisons was commenced. In 1878 there were 4 convict prisons or penitentiaries, 38 local prisons, and 95 bridewells. In 1910 there was 1 convict prison, 1 joint convict and local prison, 15 local prisons, and 6 bridewells; to this list must be added the Borstal Institution at Clonmel (1909) and the state Inebriate Reformatory in Ennis (1899). The total number in Irish prisons in 1909 was 31,469 or a daily average of 2,305; the number of convicts sentenced in 1909 was 118, and the daily average number in convict prisons was 243; the numbers sentenced for drunkenness remained unchanged at 41% (Weekly Irish Times 6 August 1910).
The Report of the General Prisons Board of Ireland 1899-1900 noted the reduction in the number of bridewells; the number has decreased from 95 in 1878 to 14 in 1899. Bridewells are unsuitable for any but the shortest detention periods, and with improved communications [railways] prisoners can be sent elsewhere. Committal to larger prisons is also felt to have a greater deterrent effect, for example for defaulters on paying fines. Education is not neglected in the prisons and many prisoners learn to read and write; steps are being taken to get a larger supply of secular and instructive books in prison libraries. The numbers being committed are well down on twenty years ago. With regard to juveniles they are given physical drill and are educated. 19 male and 4 female juveniles were sent to Mountjoy were they were strictly segregated from the older prisoners. Mechanical work is now reduced to a minimum, and every effort is made to provide work which requires thought and care. Several prisons have acquired large gardens where the prisoners can work; baths and dressing rooms have been provided in Mountjoy using prison labour. The treadmill is now everywhere abolished as a form of hard labour in our prisons, though oakum-picking is still kept. The treadmill, highly favoured earlier in the century, was abolished because it was regarded as injurious to health, and ineffective as a punishment; the large rooms and spaces are now used as workshops (Belfast Weekly News 18 Aug. 1900, New Irish Jurist 19 Sept. 1902). Work commenced by the General Prisons Board on Maryborough [mara burra] gaol to be made the largest convict establishment in this country; work has been in progress for two years and cost £30,000 (Warder 31 August 1901).
A lot of effort was put into finding suitable punishments or corrections for juveniles. The first step was to try to segregate them from the older prisoners. In 1854 a Reformatory Schools Act was passed in England and the Reformatories (Ireland) Act (1858 was passed four years later. This Act allowed voluntary institutions and religious bodies to establish such schools providing full residential care with literary and industrial training for juvenile offenders. The buildings and equipment were to be provided by the institution while running costs would be met by the Treasury and Local Authorities. Both the Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches rushed to provide these. Reformatories are often confused with industrial schools. Though the latter were managed and run on similar lines the idea behind them was rather preventative, to take children in danger and teach them a suitable trade before they offended, but the distinction tended to be blurred. Industrial schools run by convents usually taught needlework and embroidery, while the National Board tried to provide literary instruction (Barnes, Irish Industrial Schools 29, 39-40). There followed a series of Acts trying to improve the system: a Summary Jurisdiction over Children (Ireland) Act (1884), the Probation of First Offenders Act (1887), the Reformatory Schools Act (1893), the Youthful Offenders Act (1901), the introduction of the borstal system into Ireland in 1906, and finally, the wide-ranging consolidating Children’s Act (1908. Barnes notes that this last Act was called the children’s charter (Barnes, Irish Industrial Schools, 86). Clonmel gaol in Co. Tipperary was designated Ireland’s borstal. Male prisoners between 16 and 21 were sent to Clonmel prison in 1909 where the 'borstal' system was in operation. Four had already been in industrial schools, and one in a reformatory; their parents were generally described as being of drunken habit. In the borstal system, which was introduced to Ireland in May 1906 the juveniles are employed in carpentry, gardening, laundry-work etc. (Weekly Irish Times 7 Aug. 1909). Borstals were reformatories run on lines developed in a reformatory at Borstal in England which was regarded as particularly successful.
In 1910, when the ever-active Winston Churchill became Home Secretary he looked into the state of the prisons. He authorised the introduction of books and entertainments into prison. Like others he was concerned with the treatment of juvenile offenders, did not think a prison sentence was effective against drunkenness, and he relaxed the prison conditions like compulsory bathing and hair cutting for the suffragettes (Weekly Irish Times 30 July 1910). He wished to review the ticket-of-leave system which made it hard for ex-convicts to get work, and he promoted the Association for the Assistance of Discharged Prisoners (DNB, A. Paterson).