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

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 institut