Education of Tubercular Children in Northern Ireland, 1921 to 1955

Abstract

This paper looks at the education of tuberculous children in Northern Ireland from 1921 to 1955. It shows that there were regional differences and deficiencies in the extent of provision in Northern Ireland. Although rates of tuberculosis were higher for Irish children than their English counterparts, the Irish School Medical Service was not developed until at least 16 years later than in England and Wales. Other regional differences are revealed in the paucity of open-air education. This was considered the ideal but places were available for comparatively few children. Many continued to attend the same school as before their diagnosis whilst others were nursed at home and did not receive any schooling. We can obtain a much deeper picture of the impact of these deficiencies on tuberculous children and their families by supplementing the documentary sources with evidence obtained from oral interviews.

Review of periodical literature published in 2011

“…As the example of the Cork Poor Law Union suggests, welfare issues developed a politics of their own in Ireland, partly owing to the cleavage between unionists and nationalists. Geographical peculiarities are also to the fore in articles by Jones and Kelly. Jones highlights discrepancies in family planning services between Liverpool and Bradford during the early to mid‐twentieth century: whereas a Mother's Welfare Clinic opened in Liverpool in 1926, it was not until 1960 that Bradford obtained its first voluntary birth control clinic.…”

“…Jones highlights discrepancies in family planning services between Liverpool and Bradford during the early to mid‐twentieth century: whereas a Mother's Welfare Clinic opened in Liverpool in 1926, it was not until 1960 that Bradford obtained its first voluntary birth control clinic. Drawing on documentary sources and evidence obtained from interviews, Kelly examines regional differences in the provision of tuberculosis education for children in Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1955.…”

“…The provision of postwar health services is discussed in three articles in the Social History of Medicine— one by Jones examining the individuals, institutions, and broad population questions that influenced the provision of local birth control clinics during the mid‐twentieth century; another by Davis dealing with the practice and development of maternity care available to Oxfordshire women between 1948 and 1974; and a third by Kelly covering the regional differences and deficiencies in the education of tubercular children in Northern Ireland from the 1920s to the mid‐1950s. The development of ‘psychiatric social treatment’ is the subject of a detailed study by Long (in Medical History ), who investigates the support roles provided by postwar psychiatric social workers based in hospitals, and how concepts such as care, treatment, and recovery were mobilized to substantiate claims for professionalism and status.…”