Irish Girls in Liverpool (1)

Abstract

This chapter examines how broad national concerns about prostitution and promiscuity could be moulded in response to localised issues. During the interwar years, large numbers of Irish young women came to Liverpool in search of work and new opportunities. Consequently, social purists in Liverpool gave the young Irish woman a starring role in their rhetoric about urban moral danger. Moral patrollers used Irish young women to magnify their broader concerns about young women who worked away from home, moved through cities and engaged in consumer pursuits. This resulted in Irish women in Liverpool being subjected to a network of moral surveillance that was managed via a range of local philanthropic organisations.