The myth of Catholic Ireland: Unmarried motherhood, infanticide and illegitimacy in the twentieth century

This dissertation argues, through an analysis of official discourses and popular experiences of two groups of social "outcasts"---unmarried mothers and illegitimate and neglected children---that the links between Catholicism and individual and collective behavior are not as simplistic or clear-cut as existing scholarship would suggest. The records of infanticide cases, and the ways that families and communities treated unmarried mothers and vulnerable children, indicates that at least in some circumstances women and men made decisions about their own moral and sexual behaviors, and evaluated their responsibility and loyalty to others, based on a variety of factors, and law and Catholic teaching were not always paramount. In its examination of attitudes toward, treatment, and experiences of infanticide and unmarried motherhood, and of the care provided by the state to illegitimate and vulnerable children, this dissertation seeks to disentangle the complex interactions between and among church, state, and society in elaborating the values, priorities, behaviors, and attitudes that defined the independent Irish state. Individuals and agencies of church and state attempted to enforce codes of maternity, childhood, and family life to suit the political and social agendas of the fledgling state, and they adopted a variety of coercive and indeed carceral methods to exact conformity. Given Ireland's historical reputation as a repressed and hyper-Catholic state, and the enduring impression even among those who lived in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s that sex simply "did not exist" in Ireland until the 1960s, it would be easy to assume that church and state were successful in their efforts. But historians must be careful not to interpret popular attitudes, values, and priorities only in the context of official agendas and expectations. Ordinary women and men had experiences, values, and priorities that occasionally conflicted with official demands, and these conflicts are most evident where matters of sexuality and morality are concerned.