MA in the Social and Cultural History of Medicine. (360G-Wellcome-084119_Z_07_Z)

The 1940s were a watershed in the development of the Irish health system. The fuel and food shortages caused by WWII and the compulsory medical inspections of Irish immigrants to Britain from 1943 drew attention to the continuing deficiencies in the health of the nation. There ensued a debate on the future of the Irish health system. Various alternatives to the system in place were proposed and resisted by interest groups, most notably the Catholic Church, the government and the medical profession. Central to this discourse was the question of how much power the state should have over the lives and health of families, whose primacy was enshrined in the constitution. This thesis will examine how this debate impacted on the health and welfare of Irish Travellers. In this period the perception and status of Irish Travellers was changing due to modernisation and the strains of post war Ireland. This process culminated in the perception of Travellers as an 'itinerant problem' that needed to be fixed. Hitherto Travellers operated on the margins of the state. This had serious health implications for Travellers who experienced with high birth rates, high infant mortality rates, high suicide rates and low life expectancy. The change in the perception of Travellers in the post war period culminated in the appointment of a Commission on Itinerancy in 1960 to investigate the rehabilitation, education and health of Travellers.