Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Single Mothers in Twentieth-century Ireland and Britain: Pregnancy, Migration and Institutionalization

Single Mothers in Twentieth-century Ireland and Britain: Pregnancy, Migration and Institutionalization

Grimes, Lorraine

Hardcover

General World HistoryBritish HistoryIrish History

ISBN10: 1350515175
ISBN13: 9781350515178
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: Sep 18 2025
Pages: 312
Weight: 1.33
Height: 0.75 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

Throughout the Twentieth Century many women in Ireland and Britain endured shame and institutionalisation for becoming pregnant outside of marriage. In this welcome study, Lorraine Grimes examines the journeys made by hundreds of pregnant Irish women to Britain as they fled to escape their local communities.

Their experiences in Britain, however, were not free of stigma and Grimes's book analyses the nuances of the institutional networks both in Britain and Ireland which these women utilised.

Single Mothers in Twentieth Century Ireland and Britain focuses on the experiences of women from 1926-1973 in cities with high Irish emigrant populations, including London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow. Unlike official narratives such as Ireland's Commission of Investigation into the Mother and Baby Homes, this book prioritises the experiences of the survivors and ensure that women's experiences are central to the narrative. It also incorporates original interviews with children born in institutions and for the first time, interviews with religious and medical staff are also included in the historiography.

Using archival research and oral history, Grimes reveals the methods British and Irish institutions developed, from forced adoption to repatriation and the impacts of this on the women and children's lives. Grimes makes a significant contribution to the historiography surrounding the movement of women and children across international borders through repatriation and adoption between institutions on both sides of the Irish Sea.

From extensive archival research, this book reveals cases of Irish single mothers seeking assistance in Britain as well as cases of rape, incest and domestic violence within the institutional records.

A first for the field, Single Mothers includes a chapter on the experiences of single fathers. Sensitive to the underlying issues of class and gender politics, the book also shows that women often enacted a large degree of agency to improve their situation.

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