AN EXAMINATION OF THE CHANGING EXPERIENCE OF IRISH FEMALE MIGRANTS IN LIVERPOOL, FROM THE GREAT FAMINE TO POST-WORLD WAR TWO RE-DEVELOPMENT Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Pamela Taylor October 2014 -1- Acknowledgements This PhD research project was funded by a bursary from the University of Liverpool, for which I am most thankful. I owe a considerable debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Diane Urquhart, for her patient guidance and encouragement throughout the research process and preparation of this thesis. The staff of the Archives and Special Collections Department of the Sydney Jones Library, The National Archives in London and the Liverpool Record Office were most courteous and helpful, and I gratefully acknowledge their assistance. Similarly, the photocopying of documents by those at the Irish National Archives and Trinity College, Dublin was much appreciated. I offer my sincere thanks to the women who shared their stories with me, and hope that I have done them justice. And finally, like many researchers, I am grateful to my family and friends who provided understanding and support throughout this project. -2- Table of Contents List of Illustrations 5 List of Tables 7 Introduction 9 Part One ‘Overrun By A Pauper Horde’: Poverty, Hunger and Flight, 47 1830s-60s 1.1 ‘The Play of the Prince of Denmark Leaving Out the Part of Hamlet’: A Solution to Irish Poverty? 52 1.2 Migratory Patterns: ‘Overrun by a Pauper Hoard’ 61 1.3 Trends in Female Employment: Irish Women in the British Workplace 78 1.4 Charitable Effort and Mutual Self-Help: ‘They Assist One Another A Good Deal’ 103 1.5 Poor Law Provision - Liverpool as an Exceptional Case 111 Part Two The Dawn of A New Age?: Liverpool’s Divergence from 123 the National Norm, 1870s-1910s 2.1 Migratory Patterns: Late Nineteenth and early Twentieth-Century Irish Migration to Britain 127 2.2 Trends in Female Employment: ‘A Ready Pair of Hands’ 133 2.3 Charitable Effort and Mutual Self-Help: Sisterly Solidarity 165 -3- 2.4 Poor Law Provision: The ‘Stigma of Pauperism’ 212 Part Three The Depression, The War Effort and Post-War 219 Redevelopment, 1930s-50s 3.1 Migratory Patterns I: Interwar and World War Two 222 3.2 Trends in Female Employment I: Interwar and World War II 262 3.3 Migratory Patterns II: Post-War Ireland and the Emigration Problem 284 3.4 Trends in Female Employment II: Liverpool’s Post-War Redevelopment 322 3.5 Post-Poor Law and the Challenge to Mutual Self-Help 331 Conclusion 347 Appendix 358 Bibliography 369 -4- List of Illustrations 1. ‘The Irish Frankenstein’, Punch, 4 November 1843. 58 http://punchproject.blogspot.co/2009/11/july-dec-1843-irishfrankenstein.html 2. No. 2 Court, Mount View (off Rathbone Street), Liverpool. 64 http://www.liverpoolpicturebook.com/2012/09/CourtHousing 3. Basket Women outside Great Charlotte Street Fish Market, Liverpool. 93 http://www.liverpoolpicturebook.com/p/11/.html 4. Plan of Liverpool Workhouse, 1848, showing open spaces within its boundaries. 113 http://www.workhouses.org/liverpool 5. Plan of Liverpool Workhouse, 1886, showing extensive development within its boundaries. 113 http://www.workhouses.org/liverpool 6. ‘What will become of the servant gals?’, Punch, 8 July 1865, reprinted 1898. 144 http://www.diomedia.com/public/en/1013971/imageDetails.html 7. ‘Cook’s Afternoon Out’ - Ellen Monaghan, c.1904. 145 Author’s Private Collection. 8. No. 2 Court, Silvester Street, Liverpool. 180 http://www.walkingbook.co.uk/liverpool/anfield/pages/villas.htm 9. Aerial View of Liverpool Workhouse from the West. 212 http://www.workhouses.org/liverpool -5- 10. ‘Train to Win’, Ministry of Labour and National Service poster, 1940. 267 http://www.iwm.org.uk.history/war-work-during-the-second-world-war#lightbox-object- 32137 11. ‘Come into the Factories’, Ministry of Labour and National Service poster. 267 http://www.iwm.org.uk.collections.item/object/389228 12. Women workers at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Kirkby. 278 http://www.liverpool/museums.org.uk/maritime/exhibitions/blitz/munitions.asp 13. Bomb-damaged house in Canterbury Street, Liverpool, 1946. 336 http://streetsofliverpool.co.uk/Canterbury-street-1946 14. The Dream: The Modern Kitchen, 1950s advertisement. 337 http://www.advertisingarchives.co.uk/details/54158/1/Magazine-Advert/Leisure- Kitchens/1950s 15. The Reality: ‘Going to the Wash House’, Liverpool, 1955. 340 http://www.liverpoolpicturebook.com/2012/02/liverpools-wash-houses.html -6- List of Tables 1.1 Birthplaces of the Population of England and Wales at National Census, 1801-1951. 56 1.2 Emigrants from Ireland by Sex, 1851-1855. 76 1.3 Summary of the Lodging House Registry, 31 March 1851. 88 1.4 Declared Religious Denomination of Prisoners at Walton Prison During Year Ending 30 September 1869. 98 1.5 Place of Birth of Catholic Prisoners Committed to Walton Prison During Year Ending 30 September 1869. 99 1.6 Occupation of Female Catholic Prisoners at Walton Prison During Year Ending 30 September 1869. 99 2.1. Birthplaces of the Population of England and Wales at Selected Censuses, 1851-1901. 127 2.2 Migrant Population of Merseyside, 1911. 131 2.3 Occupational Structure of Liverpool’s Female Workforce, 1901-1911. 139 2.4 Wages of Women and Girls Engaged in Tobacco Processing, 1893. 150 2.5 Number of Arrests for Prostitution in Liverpool and Comparison with Other Cities, 1895-1913 (rates per 100,000 of population in brackets). 164 2.6. Comparison of Death Rates in Liverpool Corporation Tenements with Total Population of Liverpool, 1912-1915. 181 2.7 Nationality of Patients in Rainhill Asylum, 31 December 1900. 192 3.1 Balance of Irish Migrants Entering Liverpool, 1927-1929. 239 3.2 Age Distribution of Recipients of Travel Permits, Identity Cards and Passports, 1943-1945. 257 3.3 Occupational Status of Liverpool’s Female Workforce, 1921-1931. 264 3.4 Number of Female Irish Migrants (by Last Occupation) Receiving New Travel Documents for Work in Britain and Northern Ireland, 1940-1945. 269 3.5 Number of Irish Registered Nurses Migrating to Britain and Northern Ireland, 1940-1951. 275 -7- 3.6 Reduction of Numbers Within Main Fields of Employment in Eire, 1951-1961. 286 3.7 Primary Fields of Primary Fields of Female Occupation in Ireland, 1926-1961. 304 3.8 Number of Female Irish Migrants (by Last Occupation) Receiving New Travel Documents to for Work in Britain and Northern Ireland, 1946-1951. 303 3.9 Age Distribution of Travel Permits, Identity Cards and Passports, 1946-1951 304 3.10 Recommended Pay Scales for Nurses, Rushcliffe Committee Report, 1943. 328 3.11 Birthplaces of the Population of England and Wales at Selected Census, 1911-1961. 331 3.12 Birthplaces of the Population of Merseyside, 1951. 332 3.13 Birthplaces of the Population of Liverpool Borough, 1961. 332 -8- Introduction This study seeks to reclaim the history of Irish women in Liverpool who formed part of a migrant community undergoing transition and change in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also aims to contribute towards a more comparative study of Irish migrant women in port cities, such as Boston, New York, London and Sydney. From the outset is was clear that research in this field might prove problematic since working-class migrant women left very few records of their lives, especially during the nineteenth century. The causes of this gap in the records are several, not least being that the pressures of family, along with work within and outside the home, meant that women had very little time for committing their thoughts and experiences to paper. Even if they found the time and inclination, literacy levels might have limited their ability.1 Furthermore, when faced with the daily struggle to put bread in the mouths of their children, paper and ink must have represented a dispensable luxury. Liverpool represented an appropriate focus for this study due to its long tradition as a key receiver of Ireland’s migrants. By the first quarter of the nineteenth century Liverpool was already established as the primary point of entry into Britain and gateway to the rest of the world. The introduction of a steamship service between Dublin and Liverpool in 1819 was the first of many from other Irish ports, ensuring that Merseyside experienced 1 In 1831 the National Irish education system was introduced. In 1901 95 per cent of Irish females and 93 per cent of Irish males had basic literacy. -9- the full impact of mass migration from Ireland in the years that followed.2 Some arrived intent on making the most of the opportunities presented by a port massively reliant upon casual unskilled male labour and where little experience of industrialised processes was necessary. Some were temporary visitors, en route to the manufacturing towns of Lancashire, the industrial centres of the midlands, or London, whilst others set their sights further afield aiming to explore the possibilities offered by the United States, British North America (Canada) or Australia. And there were those whose plans were never realised; who came thus far and found, for any number of reasons, they could go no further. But whatever the rationale for their arrival in Liverpool, the impact of their presence coloured local and national attitudes towards Irish people - attitudes which frequently erupted in expressions of resentment and hostility. The period of this study spans the mid-nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century and was chosen because it encompassed several major surges in the flow of Irish migration to Britain, including those arising from the Great Famine of 1845-51 and its aftermath, the economic depression of the 1930s, the First and Second World Wars, and the 1950s which saw the last sustained Irish migration of the twentieth century.3 This period also encompasses the rise and decline of the British Empire and with it the fortunes of the port of Liverpool, bringing enormous social and economic changes which were to impact 2 Patrick Fitzgerald and Brian Lambkin, Migration in Irish History, 1607-2007 (Basingstoke and New York, 2008), p.