Manifestations of institutional reform and resistance to reform in Ulster workhouses, Ireland, 1838-1855.

Summary

The new poor laws of the nineteenth century were a system based on the ideologies associated with Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham and Thomas Malthus; ideologies prevalent during the period of Improvement. The new poor laws introduced in to England and Ireland during the middle of the nineteenth century were dominated by the Malthusian theory of population and were administered as a means of discipline rather than a means of relief. To enable the improvement of society, to restore ‘the proper social order’, the workhouse was used as the instrument of the new Poor Law Act, particularly in Ireland were absolute centrality of administration was endeavoured. This paper investigates the physical manifestations of the governing ideologies of reform and improvement and the manifestations of resistance to this reform. It also highlights community efforts to restore workhouses and highlights how these once despised institutions are used as recreational and ‘reform’ centres.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology of Reform / Archaeology as Reform   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 214