Why read Letters of the Catholic Poor?

Book cover of Letters of the Catholic Poor: Poverty in Independent Ireland, 1920-1940

Book description

This innovative study of poverty in Independent Ireland between 1920 and 1940 is the first to place the poor at its core by exploring their own words and letters. Written to the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, their correspondence represents one of the few traces in history of Irish experiences of…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Letters of the Catholic Poor as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Elaine Farrell

Author

I love how we can catch glimpses of Irish women’s lived experiences because sources from particular moments in their lives have survived the decades. Although this social history of letters written to the archbishop of Dublin is not specifically a women’s history book, many of those who wrote for help were women and so the book offers a glimpse of their often-difficult lives.

I love how Earner-Byrne privileges the ‘voices’ of letter writers in her book, exploring what they put in writing, as well as what they implied and their silences. I found this a very thought-provoking analysis, pushing me…

From Elaine's list on The best books on Irish women’s lives in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.