Redmond, Jennifer
(2008)
‘Sinful Singleness’? Exploring the
Discourses on Irish Single Women’s
Emigration to England, 1922–1948.
Women's History Review, 17 (3).
pp. 455-476.
ISSN 0961-2025
Abstract
In the interwar and immediate post-war years, the persistently high rates of emigration by
young, single Irish women gave rise to worries over their moral and spiritual welfare. This
was partly because of their assumed extreme vulnerability as women coming from rural loca-
tions to the metropolises of England. It seems that the combination of their singleness and
their gender was the prime reason for the concern evinced predominantly by the Roman
Catholic Church, but also by lay organisations and the Irish governments. Multiple sources
of danger for girls were perceived from their journey ‘across the water’ to their places of
employment, from which they were in need of help and protection, if not prohibition. The
majority of pronouncements on the topic were negative towards women, but no equivalent
amount of concern was given to male migrants often of similar age and background and who
also migrated as single persons. Thus, singleness was a gendered ‘problem’. Whilst studies
of Irish female emigrants have focused on their experiences of being immigrants and their
identity as white women who are in Bronwen Walter’s words ‘outsiders inside’, less attention
has been paid to ways in which their single status became a marker of concern over morals
and behaviour. Indeed, it is argued here that this was the particular reason why such moral-
istic discourses existed. This article seeks to explore some of the complexities of the public and
private voices engaged in the debates over whether single female emigration could be equated
with sinful behaviour and the gendered implications of migrants’ marital status.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Discourse; Irish Single Women; Emigration to England; 1922–1948; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > History |
| Item ID: |
4804 |
| Identification Number: |
https://doi.org/10.1080/09612020801924597 |
| Depositing User: |
Jennifer Redmond
|
| Date Deposited: |
07 Mar 2014 11:28 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Women's History Review |
| Publisher: |
Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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