Social Security Development in Ireland 1939-1952: The Limits to Solidarity

Description

This book focuses on developments in Irish social security between 1939 and 1952, a pivotal era in welfare state development both in Ireland and internationally. The study looks at how the Irish case contributes to our ability to understand and explain cross-national diversity in social security outcomes. It provides a timely and relevant contribution to the extensive literature on contemporary welfare states, where social security has traditionally been one of the key policy sectors of research. Ireland is a European welfare state, but one in which colonial legacies are paramount; it is a modern, but late industrialising nation; and it is, very unusually, English speaking but Catholic. Industrialisation, modernisation, religion and state-formation lie at the heart of contemporary debates about the influences shaping welfare states, and the Irish case illuminates them in a way which is inaccessible to most European case-studies.

About the Author

Dr Sophia Carey is a research associate in the School of Social Work and Social Policy. She was funded by a post-doctoral fellowship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) while completing the book.