Health and Social Change in 19th Century Ireland: Evidence from Prison Registers
Co-investigators: Matthias Blum, Chris Colvin and Eoin McLaughlin
Funders: Arthur H. Cole Grant-in-Aid of Research, Economic History Association; Challenge Investment Fund, University of Edinburgh; Carnevali Small Research Grants Scheme, Economic History Society
Funders: Arthur H. Cole Grant-in-Aid of Research, Economic History Association; Challenge Investment Fund, University of Edinburgh; Carnevali Small Research Grants Scheme, Economic History Society
Project Description: A paucity of data limits our understanding of standard of living and inequality in Irish society in the nineteenth century. The long-term effects of the Great Famine are difficult to ascertain due to an absence of individual-level census records. And the economic and social effect of the great penal and judicial reforms of the nineteenth century are not well quantified. The analysis of social data on Irish prison inmates may provide a solution. Prison registers, held at the National Archives of Ireland and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, are rich in detail, providing information on age profile, crimes committed, dates sentenced and released, recidivism, religion, height, literacy, marital status, migration and occupation. The aim of this project is to collect and analyse a representative sample of registers covering prisons in both rural and urban areas of the island, for the entire nineteenth century. Data on individual prisoners will not only enable us to track the evolution of standards of living across the century, but statistical analysis of these data will enable us to determine the causes of change.
Research Timetable: This project requires an extensive data collection phase. We carried out a pilot study using the records of just one prison, Clonmel Gaol in County Tipperary. We have now also digitised the inmates of Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin, and are working on those incarcerated in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast. The data from these studies will eventually be used in the second stage of the project, a comparative analysis of the evolution of standards of living in the north and south of the island of Ireland.
Outputs to Date:
Research Timetable: This project requires an extensive data collection phase. We carried out a pilot study using the records of just one prison, Clonmel Gaol in County Tipperary. We have now also digitised the inmates of Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin, and are working on those incarcerated in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast. The data from these studies will eventually be used in the second stage of the project, a comparative analysis of the evolution of standards of living in the north and south of the island of Ireland.
Outputs to Date:
- Matthias Blum, Chris Colvin and Eoin McLaughlin, 'Scarring and Selection in the Great Irish Famine', The Economic History Review (2025).
- Eoin McLaughlin, Chris Colvin and Matthias Blum, 'Anthropometric history: Revisiting what's in it for Ireland', Irish Economic and Social History (2021).
- Matthias Blum, Chris Colvin, Laura McAtackney and Eoin McLaughlin, 'Women of an uncertain age: quantifying human capital accumulation in rural Ireland in the nineteenth century', The Economic History Review, vol. 70, no. 1 (2017), pp. 187-223.