Speaker: Dr Jonathan Reinarz. This episode features Dr Jonathan Reinarz, Director of the History of Medicine Unit at the University of Birmingham. His paper “From rowdy youths to marginal men: a social history of medical students in provincial England, c.1825-1939” was delivered as part of the Centre Seminar Series on 28th January 2010 in University College Dublin. In this recording he gives a brief synopsis of his argument.

This episode features the renowned playwright and poet Frank McGuinness who gave a paper entitled “Living With Mortality: A Short Stay in Switzerland” on February 25th 2010 in the Humanities Institute of Ireland, UCD. Frank spoke about the issue of mortality as treated in drama from Greek theatre to contemporary work, including his adaptation of Ibsen’s Ghosts and his screenplay for the widely acclaimed and BAFTA nominated BBC drama “A Short Stay in Switzerland” which tells the story of Dr Anne Turner who chose to end her life in a Dignitas clinic in Switzerland in January 2006.

This episode features Professor James Kelly of St Patrick’s College Drumcondra. His paper I was right glad to be rid of it: dental medical practice in eighteenth-century Ireland was given on September 30th 2010 in University College Dublin. Prof Kelly has published on 18th Century Irish Legislature, poor relief and was co-editor of the collection ‘Ireland and Medicine in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’ which was published by Ashgate in January 2010.

Professor David Hufford, Senior Fellow at the The Samueli Institute in Virginia. His inquiry has focused on spiritual experience, the experiential grounds for spiritual beliefs, and the role of reason in their development and persistence. His paper “Folk Healing Comes of Age” was given in Trinity College Dublin on September 16th 2010 and was in association with Trinity Long Room Hub. Prof Hufford was also in Dublin to launch the publication of FOLK HEALING AND HEALTH CARE PRACTICES IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND: Stethoscopes, Wands and Crystals a new book edited by Ronnie Moore and Stuart McClean.

Professor Joanna Bourke of Birkbeck College. Her paper ‘Are Women Animals. Women, Sentience, and Rights in the UK from the 1790s to the Twentieth Century’ was given on October 21st 2010 in University College Dublin. Prof Bourke’s new book ‘Are Women Animals?: Historical Reflections on What It Means To Be Human, 1791 to the Present’ (London: Virago) is forthcoming in 2011.

Dr Gayle Davis of University of Edinburgh. Test Tubes and Turpitude. Debates surrounding Artificial Insemination in Mid-Twentieth-Century Scotland’ was given on November 11th 2010 in University College Dublin.

Harriet Wheelock, Archivist at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland on the material that she is in the process of archiving there. Harriet is funded by Wellcome Trust.

In this episode Dr Sarah York of the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland, UCD. Dr York’s paper was entitled “Whether Suicidal or Dangerous to Others”: The Certification and Admission of Suicidal Lunatics, 1853-1908.

Professor Mary Daly (UCD) – The curse of the Hospitals Sweepstake. A hospital service not a health service.

Speaker

Dr Phil Gorey (University College Dublin)

Chair

Dr Ciaran McCabe (Post Doctoral Research Fellow, University College Dublin)

Title

Municipal Gospel or necessity? Belfast Corporation and the regulation of midwives 1911-1918

Event

UCD Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland Seminar Series, 31 January 2019

Summary

In 1911, Belfast Corporation sought and was granted powers to establish a midwives roll for the County Borough. The Belfast Corporation Act, 1911, provided for the certification and enrolment of midwives practicing in the city of Belfast. It exercised supervision over midwives and their practice and prohibited, where possible, uncertified midwives from attending births in the city.

This initiative was timely. The city had witnessed a period of unprecedented growth which saw the population increase from 71,000 in 1841 to 380,000 in 1911. The Corporation was compelled to deal with the consequences of this exceptional growth and in the spirit of ‘municipal gospel’, which held that elected authorities were obliged to work for the social and moral well-being of its citizens, councillors, at the instigation of the local Health Association, in 1910, proceeded with important public health and sanitary regulations which included provisions for the control and regulation of midwives.

The Midwives Act, 1902, had not been extended to Ireland. Attempts to amend the legislation to include Ireland failed in 1906 and again in 1910, so Ireland was without a regulatory body similar to the British Central Midwives Board. This presentation examines the success of the scheme to train, register, and regulate the practice of midwives in Belfast until the Midwives (Ireland) Act was passed in 1918.

Phil Gorey

Dr Phil Gorey’s research interests include the advancement of male medical practitioners in midwifery in Ireland in the eighteenth century, the development of maternal welfare in Irish dispensaries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the early education of midwives and nurses in Ireland, the role of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland in the registration of Irish midwives 1891-1918, and puerperal fever. Phil is currently working on her monograph entitled Managing Midwives in Ireland. A History of the Regulation of Irish Midwives, 1615-1918. She has previously published on history of childhood opthalmia, midwifery in Dublin in the 18th century and puerperal fever.