Alcohol, Medicine and Irish Society, c. 1890-1970 (360G-Wellcome-205455_Z_16_Z)

Keywords: Alcohol; Inebriety; Addiction; Ireland; Psychiatric Hospitals; Health Policy To date, there has been little consideration of medicine’s influence on attitudes towards, provision for and treatment of alcoholism in Ireland, in historical contexts. While the long held "drunken Irish" stereotype, still prevalent today, has been assessed from several viewpoints, there has yet to be a transformative investigation of how international and Irish medical communities interpreted, informed and/or absorbed this labelling. This project will explore the evolution of medicine’s role in framing and treating alcoholism/alcohol abuse in Ireland, from the 1890s, when acceptance of the disease concept of inebriety prompted state intervention in the form of short-lived inebriate reformatories, to the 1970s, when rising numbers of alcohol-related asylum admissions again forced recognition of the need for dedicated rehabilitation facilities. Centring on provision in asylums and inebriate reformatories, medical discourses and shifting government policies surrounding care, treatment and health implications, this project will question how, why and to what extent medicine came to influence treatment, care and rehabilitation and whether/how the medical profession informed official and lay discourses. It therefore seeks to make an important contribution to the medical humanities by employing historical methodologies to inform present-day social concerns.