For nearly 150 years, the wretched, squalid tenements of Dublin were widely judged to be the worst slums in all of Europe. By the 1930s, 6,400 tenements were occupied by almost 112,000 tenants. Some districts had up to 800 people to the acre, up to 100 occupants in one building, and twenty family members crammed into a single tiny room. It was a hard world of hunger, disease, high mortality, unemployment, heavy drinking, prostitution and gang warfare. But despite their hardship, the tenement poor enjoyed an incredibly closely knit community life in which they found great security and indeed, happiness. As one policeman recalls from over half a century ago, they were 'extraordinarily happy for people who were so savagely poor'. Contents of Dublin Tenement Life - History and Evolution of the Tenement Slum Problem Physical Deterioration Profiteering Landlords and Powerless Tenants Overcrowding, Sanitation, and Illness Social Stigmas and Stereotypes The Press and Public Enlightenment Housing Reform and Slum Clearance Oral History and Tenement Folklore - Social Life in the Tenement Communities Community Spirit and Gregarious Nature The Home Setting Economic Struggle Securing Food and Clothing Health, Sickness, and Treatments Entertainment and Street Life Religion and MoralsCourting, Marriage, and Childbirth The Role of Men, Mothers, and Grannies Drinking, Gambling, Prostitution, and Animal Gangs Death, Superstitions, and Wakes - Oral Testimony: The Monto and Dockland Maggie Murray—Age 80 Timmy "Duckegg" Kirwan—Age 72 Alice Caulfield—Age 66 Chrissie Hawkins—Age 83 Johnny Campbell—Age 68 Mary Waldron—Age 80 Billy Dunleavy—Age 86 Nellie Cassidy—Age 78 Elizabeth "Bluebell" Murphy—Age 75 - Oral Testimony: The Liberties Nancy Cullen—Age 71 Paddy Mooney—Age 72 Harry Mushatt—Age 83 Margaret Byrne—Age 72 John-Joe Kennedy—Age 75 Frank Lawlor—Age 66 Mary O'Neill—Age 84 John O'Dwyer—Age 70 Tommy Maher—Age 81 Lily Foy—Age 60 Senan Finucane—Age 73 Christy Murray—Age 86 Bridie Chambers—Age 66 John Gallagher—Age 60 Mickey Guy—Age 72 Margaret Coyne—Age 72 Patrick O'Leary—Age 70 Jimmy Owens—Age 68 Elizabeth "Lil" Collins—Age 91 Stephen Mooney—Age 65 - Oral Testimony: The Northside Paddy Casey—Age 65 Chrissie O'Hare—Age 76 John V. Morgan—Age 70 Peggy Pigott—Age 65 Mary Chaney—Age 84 Father Michael Reidy—Age 76 Ellen Preston—Age 65 Thomas Lyng—Age 70 Una Shaw—Age 61 Con Foley—Age 75 Margaret Byrne—Age 81 Jimmy McLoughlin—Age 50 - Four Tenement Tales Mary Doolan of Francis Street Noel Hughes of North King Street Mary Corbally of Corporation Street May Hanaphy of Golden Lane

This is Volume V of thirteen of a collection on Urban and Regional Sociology. Originally published in 1966, this study looks at the kinship in Irish families, including their characteristic cultural patterns and effects of urbanization.

Annotation Originally published in 1966.

Provides a new history of the capital of Ireland during the 1960s, examining how an aging eighteenth-century city was rapidly transformed by speculative office construction and suburban development, and exploring how this impacted on the lives of the city's ordinary inhabitants

In Working Class Heroines acclaimed historian Kevin C. Kearns brings us the voices of the forgotten women of Dublin's tenements. If it weren't for his work the lives of these everyday heroines would be lost forever. Based on 30 years of research spent interviewing and recording the life stories of the working-class women of Dublin, it covers the squalid tenement days of the early 1900s, through the mid-century decades of 'slumland' block flats, and into the 1970s when deadly drugs infiltrated poor neighbourhoods, terrifying mothers and stealing away their children. What emerges is an intimate and poignant celebration of the mammies and grannies who held the fabric of family life in an environment of hardship and, often, cruelty.Through vivid tales of how they coped with grinding poverty, huge families, pitiless landlords, the oppressive Church, dictatorial priests, feckless and often abusive husbands, these remarkable women shine with astonishing dignity, wit, pride and a resilient spirit, despite their struggles.Working Class Heroines gives voice and pays tribute to the long silent, unsung heroines who were the indispensable caretakers of both family and community, and remains one of the most important Irish feminist documents of our times."The ordinary woman has long been absent from our national narrative. I think we should be grateful that Working Class Heroines exists, and we can benefit now from listening to these voices.' Ellen Coyne, The Sunday Times