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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2016
This article uses data extracted from General Register Office mortality registers to map the localization of infant mortality in Dublin city from 1864 to 1910. It traces how late nineteenth-century social inequalities were deeply rooted in the city's history. In order to contextualize the high infant mortality rates, we draw on a range of approaches to provide an overarching view of the causes of the public health problems cities like Dublin experienced.
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29 Legal Status Regulations regarding the status of the city of Dublin and adjoining Liberties issued in 1759 (33 Geo. II c. 16). City Liberty, 1760 (Roque County). County of the city of Dublin 1837 (Mun. Boundary repts, 61). County of the city of Dublin, borough, consisting of mayor, aldermen and burgesses established under Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act in 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 108), see Goodbody, Dublin, 9.
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31 The municipal area alters over time. The Census of Ireland for the Year 1861. Part III, 1863 [3204-II], 54 (1868 north and 1940 south). Several acts outlined Dublin Corporation's remit, the modern metropolitan areas was defined in Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act, 1840, 3 & 4 Vic. c. 108.
32 Census of Ireland for the Year 1861 [2865], 8.
33 Report of the committee appointed by the Local Government Board for Ireland to inquire into the public health of the city of Dublin, 1900 [Cd 243] [Cd 244] 2 (hereafter Dublin report, 1900).
34 Dickson, Dublin, 372, notes how ‘in 1864. . .no fewer than 120 stationary steam engines [were] at work in factories and workshops across the city’.
35 Municipal Boundaries Commission (Ireland). Part II, 1881 [C 2827], 9.
36 Ibid., 10.
37 61 & 62 Vic. c. 37, Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898.
38 Dickson, Dublin, 342–4.
39 Report of the royal commissioners appointed to inquire into the sewerage and drainage of the city of Dublin, 1880 [C 2605], 27.
40 M. Corcoran, ‘Water, sanitation and electricity’, in Art and Architecture of Ireland, vol. IV, 164–6 at 165.
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54 If Grimshaw's 9% underestimation for Dublin is accepted as a guide to readjust for underestimation, then this would raise national figures for infant mortality for the period 1864–1913 to 114.5 for males, 96.5 for females and 105.8 for all children.
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68 Freeman's Journal, 31 May 1881.
69 Ibid., 18 Jan. 1894.
70 Ibid., 26 Oct. 1900.
71 Ibid., 6 Oct. 1904.
72 Irish Times, 17 Aug. 1905.
73 Seventh Annual Report of the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, in England, 1846 [727], xx.
74 GRO dataset.
75 Preston and Haines, Fatal Years, 6.
76 GRO records, NC3, Q2 1901, National Archives of Ireland NAI/Coroners Court/Dublin 1901 (owing to a confidentially agreement with the GRO we are not permitted to give a more detailed reference).
77 The Nomenclature of Diseases (London, 1906), 311.
78 Preston and Haines, Fatal Years, 6.
79 Statistical Nosology, 12.
80 Ibid ., 21.
81 Jones, ‘Captain of All these Men of Death’, 68.
82 1,652 (54.4%) of these 3,038 deaths were certified. However, only 329 (44.5%) of the 740 deaths in 1870 and 676 (47.5%) of the 1,422 deaths in 1880 were certified, compared with 648 (74%) of the 876 deaths in 1890.
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