Illegitimacy in Ireland

This study examines illegitimacy in Ireland from the§late eighteenth to the early twentieth century. It§has been undertaken against a backdrop of shifts in§social policy in the United Kingdom where single§mothers and their children have assumed a major§significance. Concerns over the family, children, and§deviations from sexual and social norms, are§recurring themes in social history and it may not be§too great an expectation that the past may§illuminate, however dimly, areas of current debate.§This study presents a general overview of the§literature on illegitimacy including the available§Irish literature. It also presents data obtained from§Presbyterian church courts in the eighteenth century§and a quantitative analysis of parish register§material on illegitimacy and pre-nuptial pregnancy in§the nineteenth century. In addition, evidence is§examined in relation to other important topics§concerning illegitimacy such as regional persistence§and also the workhouse. The study will be of great§interest to social historians, researchers, social§policy makers, and those who study the history of the§family, sexuality, welfare, poverty, and the social§history of Ireland generally.