1. Social Change in Ireland

2. What you need to know
• Rural Life since 1900: Life in the early 20th
century, types of farmer, bad conditions.
• Rural Life in Recent Times: Rural
electrification, the EEC, Social Life.
• Urban Life since 1900: Suburbs, Bad
conditions, Health.
• Urban Life in Recent Times: Better conditions,
Corporation Housing, Middle-Class, Dublin
City.

3. People in History

4. Rural Ireland
• Most people in 1900 lived on farms or small towns – a rural
society
• Many small farmers lived just above subsistence level
• Running water did not exist (people used wells)
• No electricity – candles or oil lamps used
• Houses had very little furniture.

5. Sugan chair – locally made

6. Kitchens in 1900

7. Kitchens today

8. 5 Differences between kitchens today
and in 1900
1. _____________________________________
2. _____________________________________
3. _____________________________________
4. _____________________________________
5. _____________________________________

9. Women’s status in 1900

10. 5 Differences between women’s status
today and in 1900
1. _____________________________________
2. _____________________________________
3. _____________________________________
4. _____________________________________
5. _____________________________________

11. Farming in 1900 vs today
• Lack of mechanisation
• Women looked after the small animals & helped harvest crops
• Men ploughed the fields and did the “heavier” work
• Meitheal – neighbours helping each other at harvest time.
• Children helped during holidays (long school holidays today
come from this)

12. Meitheal in the 1950s

13. Schoolkids in rural Ireland

14. Rural Electrification
• By the end of the 1950s the electricity network had been
extended from urban areas to rural.
• This led to many improvements on farms
– Electric milking machines
– Pumped running water (showers, flushing toilets etc)
– Electric appliances for housework (hoovers, irons etc)
• It gave women more free time, which meant they could get
jobs off the farms.

16. 1973 – Ireland joins the European
Union
• Biggest single change occurred when Ireland joined the EU
and signed up to the Common Agricultural Policy
• Subsidies for farmers
• Guaranteed prices for farm produce
• Competition from other countries
• Quotas introduced
• Grants for infrastructure (roads etc)

17. Urban life

18. Urban life in 1900: Poor People
• Tenement House – an overcrowded house in an
urban area, usually occupied by several families
• No running water or electricity
• Disease easily spread due to overcrowding and
dirty conditions.
• Most poor people were unskilled and earned low
wages (1 pound a week).
• Lived close to work (couldn’t afford to travel far)

19. Urban life today: Poor People
• Social Welfare means less people in absolute
poverty
• Education improved – less people unskilled
• Housing improved – Local authority manages
much housing stcck
• People live in suburbs – transport is cheaper

20. Tenements

21. Tenements

22. Urban life in 1900 – the middle/upper
classes
• Many people had housemaid(s) to do the housework
• Middle class rented their houses; rich people owned theirs
• Lived in the suburbs; people did not commute far by today’s
standards
• Most jobs were in business, or as lawyers, or as Government
officials; very few good jobs in industry

23. Education & women’s rights
• In 1900, most children only attended primary school
• 1967: Free Secondary School education introduced – student
numbers began to steadily increase
• 1900: Schools strictly gender based
• 2000: Mixed schools the norm
• 1900: Some subjects (science, higher maths) only thought to
boys
• 2000: All subjects open to all
• 1900: Majority of men in University
• 2000: Women a majority in University!

24. Women’s Rights in Ireland 1900-2000
Why did shorter dresses become popular?

25. Women’s role in World War One
• Mothers
• Domestic support for men
• “Damsels in distress”
• Weak

26. Women’s role in World War Two
• Workers
• Fellow Patriots on the home front
• NOT “Damsels in distress”
• Strong!

27. Physical Exercise – 1900

28. Physical Exercise - today

29. Conflicting influences on women

30. Women’s rights: Key events
• 1918: Women get the right to Vote
• Until the 1970s, Women could only work in certain jobs. Women in
the Civil Service had to give up their job on marriage (Marriage Bar)
• 1972 – Commission on the Status of Women: This Government
report recommended changes to the law to end discrimination
against women
• The EU forced Ireland to remove marriage bar in 1973
• Contraception & family planning – legalised in 1970s
• Employment Equality Act 1977 – Women doing same job as men
get same pay
• 1990 – First Woman President (Mary Robinson)
• 1995 – Divorce Legalised

31. 5 Differences between women’s status
today and in 1900
1. _____________________________________
2. _____________________________________
3. _____________________________________
4. _____________________________________
5. _____________________________________

32. Women’s Suffrage
• Women’s Suffrage refers to the struggle by women to gain the
right to vote (suffrage) in the early 1900s
• A prominent Irish campaigner for women’s right to vote was
Hanna Sheehy Skeffington
• Similar campaigns took place in Britain and America
• Many methods used – including violent action.
• The Irish Women’s Franchise League were an organisation
which campaigned for Women’s Right to Vote.

33. Women campaigners in 1913

34. Transport Changes

35. 1900 - transport
• In 1900 – many people walked. Other forms of transport were
expensive
• Horses and Carts were used by rich people – streets smelled
of dung!
• Trams in the cities, pulled first by horses and later electric

36. Trains
• In 1900, powered by coal (steam trains).
• Now either diesel or electric (DART)
• Many rail lines closed due to competition from cars

37. Bicycles
• Bicycles became very popular after they were introduced in
the early 1900s
• People often cycled 40 or 50 miles a day to attend a match or
visit friends!

38. Cars
• Expensive and difficult to use at first, soon became very
popular
• No such thing as traffic lights or road markings (or rules!) at
first.
• Eventually became cheaper and cheaper and more people
bought them.

39. International Travel – then and now

40. 2007 HL

41. 5 Differences in transport between
today and 1900
1. _____________________________________
2. _____________________________________
3. _____________________________________
4. _____________________________________
5. _____________________________________

42. Communications

43. Entertainment
• In 1900, people had very little free time
– Working day was quite long
– 1 ½ days off per week (Saturday afternoon and Sunday)
– No holiday leave
– Bank Holidays and Christmas only official holidays
– For farmers – NO holidays at all!

44. Entertainment
• Visiting neighbour’s homes (Cuaird)
• Weddings/Christenings etc
• For rich people, going to balls was popular

45. Music Halls & Sports
• These were theatres with juggling acts, comedians, acobats
and singers, one after another (known as a variety show)
• Later they began to show short film clips and over time they
became the cinemas of today
• The GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) was founded in 1885
and Hurling and Gaelic Football had become very popular

46. Croke Park, home of the GAA

47. Entertainment in the home
• 1920s – Radio (known as the “wireless” became common
• 1960s – Television began broadcasting (one channel, RTE 1)
• 1980s/1990s – Computers and Internet became popular
• This reduced the need to call to neighbours houses (cuaird)

48. Films
• First cinema in Ireland – 1909
• First film with sound – 1927.
• The cinema was cheaper than variety shows and gradually
replaced them
• 1980s – arrival of videos meant that cinemas became multi
screen

49. Live Music
• 1920s – dance halls appeared
• 1960s – Showbands began giving concerts
• 1960s – 2000 – as people could travel further, big concerts
(such as Electric Picnic) became popular
• 1970s – Discos and nightclubs appered

50. Holidays
• 1900 – only rich people went on overseas holidays
• 1960s to 2000 - Arrival of Airplanes and higher wages meant
more people could afford to travel abroad

51. Sports
• Arrival of Radio and TV made more people watch sports
• As people drove more, cycling and walking became leisure
activities

52. 2011 Higher Level Paper

53. 2013 Higher
Paper