Year: 1992
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines the lifestyle of a particular group of women who operated as prostitutes and were known as the ‘Wrens of the Curragh’. It also briefly examines the extent of prostitution in nineteenth-century Ireland and the particular Catholic ethos of those Magdalen asylums operated byfemale religious. The Irish discourse on prostitution was very much formed by the rescue work of female religious and prostitutes were judged in spiritualand moral terms. The information available on the ‘Wrens’ comes to us primarily through the work of an English journalist, James Greenwood. The discourse is quite different in many respects to that which pertained in Catholiccircles though there are also a number of similarities. Greenwood's account of the ‘Wrens’ gives us a unique insight into the everyday existence of a group of ‘outcast’ women who worked in their own interests and created their own community network away from ‘respectable’ society.
Source: Women s History Review
Author: Maria Luddy
Institution: University of Warwick
Language: English
Topic: Sex work and related issues
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2075366708