MA in the History of Welfare and Medicine in Society

MA History of Welfare & Medicine in Society

Programme Director: Dr Catherine Cox

catherine.cox@ucd.ie

About the MA

Medicine, illness and welfare occupy a central place in all our lives. The MA is designed to enable you to understand the place of medicine and welfare in society and history (c1750-1980) and engage with critical debates through various media, including film, literature, and art, amongst others. 

The modules on the programme explore the main trends within welfare and medical history from social history, gender history, post-colonial history to individual experiences of poverty, and of illness throughout history. You will explore how medicine and welfare regimes and policies culturally constructed conceptions of femininity and masculinity.

The modules are taught through seminar and you will develop expertise in presenting, analytical thinking, effective communication, and writing with clarity and precision. You will also partake in a lively seminar series and benefit from a vibrant postgraduate research community.

The dissertation, at the core the MA, allows you to engage your own research-based interests.

Your fellow students will be from diverse academic backgrounds and the MA is popular among healthcare professionals keen to understand the historical contexts that shaped current practices and systems.

The MA has a reputation for excellence and is taught be lecturers with international profiles in the field. 

Dr Catherine Cox, Director and
Co-Founder of the UCD Centre for
the History of Medicine in Ireland

Why do this MA?

Graduates have secured employment in the fields of media, education, politics and in private and public sector management and policy.

Graduates have also proceeded to PhD studies at Irish, British, and European institutions, securing prestigious external funding.

Funding

To apply for the acclaimed Wellcome Trust Masters Scholarship, please contact MA Director, Dr Catherine Cox.

Further Details

Please see the course description for the MA in the History of Welfare & Medicine in Society at UCD Graduates Studies

Download the MA poster

Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland (CHOMI) Seminar Series, Semester One, 2015-2016

Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland (CHOMI), Seminar Series

Semester One, 2015-2016

Thursday 17 September 2015
Dr Georgina Laragy (Queen's University, Belfast)
'Children, welfare and space in the industrial city: Belfast 1880-1939'

Thursday 8 October 2015
Dr John Cunningham (Trinity College Dublin)
'Medicine in early modern Ireland: identifying and locating practitioners'

Thursday 5 November 2015
Dr Ciarán McCabe (Maynooth University)
'"Contagion is supposed to have been introduced from the country": civic and charitable responses to the 1817-19 fever epidemic in Dublin city'

Time: 5 pm (for all seminars)
Location: Room K114, School of History and Archives corridor, Newman Building, Belfield, UCD, Dublin 4.

Download CHOMI Seminar Series Programme

A Knight at the Theatre: the Adelaide Hospital and Denominational Divisions in Dublin's Voluntary Hospitals by Robbie Roulston

One of the characteristic features of Dublin's voluntary hospitals has been their long-standing denominational divisions. In this month's blog post Dr Robbie Roulston, UCD, writes about Dublin's Adelaide Hospital, the 'most anti-Catholic hospital in the whole of Dublin', and the government's consternation arising in 1950 when the Irish President, Séan T. O'Kelly, received an invitation to attend one of the hospital's fundraising events. 

Adelaide nurses, on the main
staircase of the hospital,1950s

Dublin's Adelaide Hospital

The Adelaide Hospital was founded in 1839 in Dublin for the treatment of poor Protestants in Ireland. As such, the royal charter it was granted placed denominational restrictions on the patients which should be admitted to the hospital. Similar restrictions applied to staff and management. However, what was unusual was the fact that this charter remained in place until 1980.

A 'bitter anti-Catholic reputation'

Such restrictive policies were not unknown to Irish policymakers and caused a considerable degree of tension. In June 1950, the Adelaide Hospital Society issued invitations to various dignitaries for the Gala American Concert, a fundraising event for the Adelaide at the Theatre Royal, in Dublin. Invitations were sent to the Taoiseach, Fine Gael’s John A. Costello, and his wife; to members of the Government; and to a number of Army Officers. All of these officials declined the invitation owing to what the Secretary to the Government described as ‘the bitter anti-Catholic reputation of the Hospital’.

A Knight of Columbanus

Medical students, Adelaide Hospital, n.d.

When an invitation for the President of Ireland, Fianna Fáil’s Seán T. O’Kelly, arrived the government assumed that he too would refuse the invitation. O’Kelly had strong Catholic credentials. He had been one of the few Knights of Columbanus in Eamon de Valera’s cabinet and a proponent of Catholic morality in Irish medical ethics and foreign policy during his career. He had form in condemning restrictive policies in hospitals and twenty years earlier had condemned hospitals which employed religiously restrictive admissions procedures. He had argued then that ‘These barriers are a relic of bygone days and they should be a relic of bygone days.’

'Things had changed now'

The President, Séan T. O'Kelly and Mrs. O'Kelly attend the Gala
American Concert to launch the Adelaide Campaign (1950).
L. to R.: The American Ambassador (Mr. George Garrett);
Lord Farnham (President of the Hospital); Mrs. George Garrett;
The President; Mrs. O'Kelly, Mr. Edward Bewley (Chairman).

The presidential O’Kelly, however, was mellower than his former self. When an official in his office approached O’Kelly on the subject, informing him that the Adelaide ‘has the reputation at the moment of being the most anti-Catholic hospital in the whole of Dublin’, O’Kelly responded that he was aware of this. He acknowledged that there was a time when a Catholic priest would not be allowed inside the hospital, but he pointed out that ‘things had changed now to the extent that Catholics are admitted and priests are permitted to see them and administer the sacraments.’

The government remained uneasy and the subject moved up the ladder of protocol when the Taoiseach raised it with O’Kelly the following day. O’Kelly remained firm and informed Costello that he had already accepted the invitation and had promised to go, and that he intended to honour that promise.

O’Kelly continued to attend Adelaide functions when invited and newspapers reported on him attending the Gala American Concert in 1950, a Joseph Szigeti violin recital in 1952, and an Arthur Rubinstein piano recital in 1954.

'She would bid him take out his cheque book'.
Cartoon of Adelaide Hospital nurse collecting funds.
Drawn by Adelaide doctor, n.d.

A slight against the President

All of this proved very uncomfortable for Irish officials. At the Rubinstein concert the order in which the dignitaries were listed was perceived by officials as a slight against the President – the British ambassador had been listed ahead of the Irish President! A series of notes were passed between the Office of the President, the Chief of Protocol in the Department of External Affairs, and the Irish Embassy in London to see what conventions held there. In the end it was ruled that the ‘the matter is one of tact and good taste rather than of a definitive rule.’ The officials concluded that the Adelaide Hospital erred in a lack of the former rather than by a breach of the latter.

It was decided that no formal protest should be made to the organisers of the concert, but that in future the President’s attendance at such events would be organised more closely with the Secretary to the President to ensure that protocol was followed more strictly.

Ending religious restrictions

Adelaide Hospital nurses in class, n.d.

In the end, the state’s real power to affect change in the management of the hospital would not lie in attendance or non-attendance at its functions or in furious memoranda on the finer points of protocol. Cash was king, and only as the Adelaide’s financial position slid from bad to worse could the state exact the concessions favoured by Irish policy makers and politicians, which was to open up admission and recruitment policies to all people irrespective of their religion. The Adelaide chose to ignore these demands while it was independent of state supports, but as it grew needy it softened its stance on various matters and relaxed most of its religious restrictions.

Dr Robbie Roulston's recently completed PhD thesis is entitled, "The Church of Ireland and the Irish State, 1950–1972: Education, Healthcare and Moral Welfare." He has taught on the history of Protestants in twentieth century Ireland in the UCD School of History and Archives. Currently, he holds a position with UCD's Academic Secretariat, working in the areas of higher education policy, governance, strategy.

Below, you can listen to Robbie's presentation at the CHOMI Seminar Series, 3 April 2014, on the Adelaide Hospital

CHOMI Seminar Series, Thursday 3 April 2014
Dr Robbie Roulston (University College Dublin)
"The most priceless possession of Protestants in this country”: the Adelaide Hospital and upholding Protestant healthcare in Ireland 1950-1972.
5 pm, K114, School of History & Archives, UCD.

Conference report: Medical training, student experience and the transmission of knowledge by Anne Hanley

In the first blog post of 2015, Dr Anne Hanley reports on 'Medical training, student experience and the transmission of knowledge' - a conference which took place at the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland in October and which was funded by the Irish Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. Podcasts of papers from the conference were recorded by Real Smart Media and may be accessed here. 

I recently attended the conference, 'Medical training, student experience and the transmission of knowledge, c.1800-2014' (or #MTSE14 if you want to look over our live tweets), at University College Dublin. Needless to say its focus, and the discussion generated from its wide-ranging collection of papers, was excellent and very much overdue.

Students dissecting

Medical education

Despite an ever-growing interest in the history of medicine, the subject of medical education and student experience continues to be overlooked (the last international symposium dedicated to this subject having taken place in the early 1990s). Yet throughout the nineteenth century medical education was being increasingly formalized, centralized, and consolidated. It became the backbone of one’s medical career. Strangely, however, it has occupied the negative space in histories of clinical practice and patient care. This omission is incredibly problematic (but I digress…).

So, when Laura Kelly emailed to ask if I would give a paper at a conference devoted to the history of medical training and knowledge production, I sent back an immediate and unequivocal ‘YES!!’. (There were so many excellent papers about which I want to talk that my own paper, ‘Venereology at the Polyclinic’, will have to take a back seat for now.)

An important focus of MTSE was the centrality of pedagogy. Traditionally, histories of medical education have been written as administrative histories of major teaching hospitals. They have concentrated on the big names, significant infrastructural changes, and major medical developments that altered practice in these hospitals. Rarely have such histories considered in the implications of the big names and significant changes for the day-to-day learning and experiences of students. Happily, however, historians of medicine are beginning to recognize the importance of pedagogically-focused histories and MTSE really demonstrated this change. It brought a whole host of issues to the fore and, as those of you who follow me on Twitter will have gathered, I was rather excited by the rich collection of papers.

Professor John Harley Warner delivering his keynote.
Image courtesy of Real Smart Media

John Harley Warner keynote address

We began with the keynote address from John Harley Warner, who introduced us to his most resent and gruesomely fascinating work on the photographic history of dissection in American medical schools. As Warner observed, nineteenth-century medicine was often a solitary occupation and so medical schools provided an important opportunity for group learning and for developing a collective professional identity. And this is particularly well-evidenced in the strange collections of photographs in which groups of students posed around tables upon which they were dissecting cadavers. One particularly interesting aspect of Warner’s keynote was the figure of the medical school porter who often appeared in these photographs and who Warner identified as playing a key role in the facilitation of medical education (but I’ll return to this shortly).

Attendees at MTSE.
Image courtesy of Real Smart Media.

Microbes to matron

Many fantastic papers followed, including Claire Jones’s presentation of her most recent research on the ‘Microbes to Matron’s’ project. Her focus on the pedagogy and practice of infection control in British nursing between 1870 and 1900 offers an important counterpoint to what have traditionally been male-focused accounts of medical education. It is very easy to forget that there were (and continue to be) other groups of trained medical professionals beyond doctors who provided care to a wide cross-section of the population. What also interested me about Jones’s paper were the types of sources she and her fellow project investigators are drawing upon. By using surgical nursing examinations, Jones demonstrated the increasingly active role of nurses in their own education, and in surgical practice more broadly.

Dollhouse diorama

Crime scenes and dollhouse dioramas

Similarly, Neil Pemberton’s paper on teaching crime scene investigation through dollhouse dioramas also prompted us to reconsider the role of women in medical and scientific training. By appropriating the traditional female practice of miniature making, women like Frances Glessner Lee created a new way of thinking about crime scene science. Nathalie Sage Pranchère also looked at the important role of women in medicine, speaking about the development of nineteenth-century French midwifery training. Importantly, she also described how obstetric teachers used models to develop the anatomical and obstetric knowledge of their midwifery students. As we saw with Pranchère’s paper, the role of material objects in medical training and practice is becoming an increasingly central focus of historical scholarship and this was reflected throughout MTSE. For example, Jenna Dittmar used the collections from Cambridge’s former Anatomical Museum to demonstrate how human remains allow biological anthropologists to examine the historical tools and techniques of dissection.

Speakers Greta Jones, Anne Hanley,
Nadav Davidovitch and Victoria Bates.
Image courtesy of Real Smart Media.

Spaces of medical education

Another important theme to emerge from MTSE was the different spaces of medical education. Warner described the dissection room as a space for developing collective professional identify. Michael Brown spoke about the dynamic space of the nineteenth century lecture theatre, in which students and their lecturers were appealing to culturally resonant sets of values. Clare Hickman presented eighteenth-century botanic gardens as important spaces for thinking about the material culture of medical teaching. Hickman’s paper, like Warner’s keynote, also demonstrated that the history of medical education is never simply about those who learned the art of medicine but also those in the background. Like the African American medical school porters who procured cadavers for students, gardeners were important (but silent and overlooked figures) in the maintenance of teaching spaces and the facilitation of teaching practices.

Attendees at MTSE.
Image courtesy of Real Smart Media.

MTSE demonstrated how the nature of medical training has changed over time and within distinct national contexts. Through an excellent collection of papers we explored the emergence of centralized and consolidated systems of medical training. We looked at the development of new tools of training and the different spaces in which these tools were employed. And we looked at how medical knowledge and codes of professional identity were being assimilated by medical and dental students, nursing probationers, midwives, and qualified practitioners seeking further education.

I came away from MTSE with a new appreciation for the diversity of student experiences and systems of knowledge dissemination, and will certainly be drawing upon these ideas in future. With any luck, events like MTSE will slowly begin to generate greater interest in the important place of medical training in wider narratives of medical history.

Dr Anne Hanley is an LHRI Research Fellow at the University of Leeds with particular expertise in the history of modern medicine, medical education, health policy and the history of science. She recently completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge on the development and dissemination of venereological knowledge among English medical professionals, 1886-1913. She writes a blog Clinical Curiosities and tweets at @annerhanley.

Workshop report: Soviet healthcare in the comparative perspective by Susan Grant

In this month's blog post, Susan Grant reports on the recent 'Soviet healthcare in the comparative perspective' workshop which took place at UCD in May 2014.

Historians of Soviet and medical history met in the UCD Humanities Institute May 29-30 to discuss Soviet healthcare in comparative perspective. Generously supported by the Wellcome Trust, UCD Seed Funding, and the Irish Research Council, this workshop represented an important international gathering of scholars from Ireland, the UK, Canada, and the United States.  The inter-disciplinary nature of the workshop meant that there was much debate and discussion among participants (the programme is available on the CHOMI website here).

Nursing in the Soviet Union

The overall aim of the workshop was to analyse the history of Soviet nursing and healthcare in comparative perspective, and to critically examine issues such as professionalization, gender, and care. The workshop mandate was to evaluate Soviet nursing relative to international nursing and healthcare, and to explore how nursing in the Soviet Union developed in relation to other medical professions. Participants were asked to consider the development of Russian healthcare and to compare the Soviet healthcare system to that of other countries.

Comparative aspects of Soviet healthcare

The workshop was a great success, particularly in facilitating cross-disciplinary discussion about the comparative aspects of Soviet healthcare. Panels focused on three key aspects of Soviet healthcare: professionalization, gender and care. The issue of care and the idea of the ‘virtue script’ (as conceptualised and explained in the work of Prof. Sioban Nelson, University of Toronto) fostered a particularly engaging dialogue about how nursing care is conceived and understood. This fed into discussions of what constitutes a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ nurse, as well as patient perceptions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ nurses.  Nursing care, whether in the Soviet Union or elsewhere, depends on a variety of factors and an individual’s experience of nursing care. Studies of Soviet nursing are limited and probing expectations of care from an international perspective proved very productive in thinking about approaches to Soviet nursing and healthcare practices.

Panel on gender

Papers that focused on gender were particularly helpful in illuminating the difficulties and challenges of dealing with source material such as memoirs, interviews, etc. Prof. Dan Healey, Dr Laura Kelly, and Prof. Christopher Burton shared their experiences of working with memoir literature and the problems this can raise in terms of medical history. This was very informative for everyone, and especially instructive in highlighting the similar experiences of scholars who focus on different periods and countries. Indeed, scholars of medical and nursing history, and also the history of Russia, Ireland, Great Britain, etc., found that they had much in common. Participants specialising in Soviet history were surprised to learn of the liberal aspects of medicine in Ireland at the turn of the century. Cross-disciplinary dialogue here proved fruitful and underlined points of intersection and diversion between Russia and the West.

Transnational healthcare

The comparative dimensions of international healthcare were underscored in the panel featuring Prof. Susan Solomon, Prof. Paul Weindling, and Prof. Anne Marie Rafferty. Papers here focused on the transnational aspects of healthcare, dealing with Soviet cultural diplomacy in the 1920s, continental nurses in the UK  1933-1945, and nursing and decolonization during the second colonial occupation of Malaya, 1946-1955.

Round table on professionalization

The issue of professionalization was discussed in the opening and round table discussions. Scholars of Russian history, including Prof. Donald Filtzer, Prof. Benjamin Zajicek, and Dr Susan Grant presented their papers on professionalisation and practice in Soviet healthcare history.  Discussions about professionalization were elaborated on in the roundtable session, with participants Prof. Susan Solomon, Prof. Sioban Nelson, Prof. Dan Healey, and Prof. Anne Marie Rafferty contributing to a lively debate. It was questioned whether or not theories of professionalisation and histories of the professions are helpful as methods in analyzing both healthcare history and the Soviet case. Findings here were inconclusive, with some scholars acknowledging the merits of professionalisation literature in their work on the Soviet Union or healthcare, and others noting that they found this literature less useful.

The workshop proved that healthcare history continues to be a vibrant field and one that has much value when considering comparative international experiences. We look forward to more discussion of these debates in the future.

A Malady of Migration: theatre production in Coventry and Dublin

At a time when the issues of migration and mental health are seldom out of the news, the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland (CHOMI) has worked with the Centre for the History of Medicine at the University of Warwick (CHM) and Talking Birds theatre company to develop a new theatre production which explores why the mid-nineteenth century saw a prevalence of mental disorders among Irish migrants.The new piece is called 'A Malady of Migration' and is based on research being carried out by Professor Hilary Marland of Warwick and Dr Catherine Cox of University College Dublin, in a project called Madness, Migration and the Irish in Lancashire, c.1850-1921, funded by the Wellcome Trust. They are supported by postgraduate students and others, who will conduct supplementary research and take supporting roles in the drama.

There will be an expert panel discussion after the Thursday evening performances in each venue and a post performance discussion on Saturday lunchtime, providing opportunities for audience members to discuss the making of the piece with researchers and the theatre company, and to engage in debate on issues raised by the performances. A series of short briefing sheets have been produced to complement the drama and provide background information. These can be accessed here.

Check out the Malady of Migration website here!

Performances

Shop Front Theatre, City Arcade, Coventry CV1 3HW (opposite Argos):
Thurs 26th to Sat 28th June 2014
1pm - £6 (£3) and 7pm - £8 (£4)
Box office 0845 680 1926 talkingbirds.co.uk

The New Theatre, Temple Bar, Dublin:
Thurs 3rd to Sat 5th July 2014
1pm - €8 (€4) and 7.30pm - €10 (€5)
Box office 01 670 3361 thenewtheatre.com

A Malady of Migration

Madness, migration, and the Irish in Lancashire, 1850-1921

The Crusade to ‘Conquer Cancer’ in Ireland, 1950s-70s - Smoking and Lung Cancer: The Rise of the Visual by Jane Hand

In this month's blog post, Jane Hand, a PhD student at the Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick, writes about public health initiatives in the campaign against lung cancer in Ireland, c.1958-78. This was the subject of her MA dissertation undertaken at CHOMI, UCD (2011).

Since the late 1950s the relationship between smoking and lung cancer gained increased national prominence in Ireland, becoming the focus for a variety of both public and voluntary health education campaigns. The visual component of these health campaigns was central to the formulation of health education strategies reflecting changing perceptions of disease. In addition, as health advertising became increasingly central to public health, aspects of medicine and media consumption became more closely allied. This facilitated the emergence of a lifestyle-orientated public health centred on behavioural modification in relation to chronic disease diminution.

Fig. 1 Anti-Smoking Leaflet aimed at children, 

Department of Health and Children (NAI S16659A)

The causal connection between smoking and lung cancer was the first major chronic disease model to be explicitly linked to lifestyle factors. Consequently, health education material attempted to incorporate models of behavioural change. The initial release of anti-smoking publicity material in 1958 consisted of two leaflets highlighting the connection between smoking and lung cancer. As shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the first leaflet targeted adults, whilst the second aimed at reducing the smoking uptake amongst the young. Both publications employed visual techniques centred upon simplistic imagery, eye-catching colour usage and the juxtaposition of upper and lower case text to emphasise particular aspects of its composition to the reader. By adopting a question/answer format these leaflets provided concise and precise health information whilst removing medical jargon from their explanatory texts. Their basic function was to establish a specific mode of behaviour and correct health conduct in relation to cigarette smoking. Minister for Health, Séan MacEntee made the rationale behind the publication of these leaflets by the Department of Health exceedingly clear: ‘The reports of investigations into the death rates from lung cancer have ensured that the results must be brought to the notice of the public’.¹

                                                 

Fig. 2 Anti-Smoking Leaflet aimed at adults,
Department of Health and Children (NAI S16659A)

Efforts to reduce tobacco consumption amongst younger age groups remained a central objective of state-led health promotion initiatives. Consequently the “Smoking Kills Your Taste for Life” campaign centred upon the mantra ‘If You Don’t Smoke - Don’t Start, If You Do Smoke – Stop Now!’ which represented the principal component of the Department’s health education strategy for much of the 1970s. A series of health educational films, including the “Smoking Kills Your Taste for Life” filmlets, were shown in primary schools throughout the country, with Irish-language voiceovers for those schools situated in Gaeltacht areas and some others that requested the Irish version.²

The dangers of smoking were compiled in a booklet The Facts about Smoking and Health, anti-smoking posters were widely circulated and a series of shorts were aired on RTÉ television.³ The establishment of a poster competition on a non-smoking theme proved particularly popular.⁴ The competition itself was widely advertised using press, radio and television. Entry forms had themselves acted as advertisements, comprising a strong anti-smoking message. As displayed in Fig. 3, these provided educative information concerning the dangers of smoking whilst appealing to the public-consciousness to elicit a positive response: ‘Deep down you must know that smoking is bad for your health – but let’s face it, at your age lung cancer seems a remote possibility’.⁵  The use of a direct-address style in the accompanying text to this pamphlet only served to further foster a perception that confidence in curative measures was maintained within the visual expression of disease and illness.

       

Fig. 3 ‘Smoking Kills Your Taste for Life’ poster competition entry form
Department of Health Files (INACT 428227)

During the 1970s an emphasis on the harmful effects of tobacco smoking on the lungs became more overt. The utilisation of various shock tactics, specific medical knowledge and biological explanations became increasingly standard practice. Science was becoming as much a part of the various promotion techniques employed, as were those pleas to health consciousness. Increased biological knowledge facilitated the emergence of a series of intellectually founded anti-tobacco smoking campaigns, particularly those instigated by the Irish Cancer Society, such as “How Smoking Affects Us” reproduced as Fig. 4.⁶ The caption serves to draw the reader’s attention to the integral message of the leaflet thus preventing any possible misinterpretation.⁷ By combining text and illustration the pamphlet successfully attempts to heighten its educative purpose. Ultimately the use of a diagram coupled with numbered explanations serves to convey an otherwise complicated medical message in a concise and understandable format.

           

Fig. 4 Anti-Smoking Leaflet produced by the Irish Cancer Society,
Department of Health Files (INACT 428227)

The 1970s represented the era when persuasion media as a method of health education became central to public health campaigns. Analogous to Britain, state expenditure on health promotion increased dramatically reaching £110,000 for the year 1970-1971, thereby facilitating the application of new-style advertising campaigns highlighting the tobacco and lung cancer risk.⁸ Campaigns developed a more scientific and biological character. The use of a series of precise anatomical diagrams designed to outline the effects of smoking on the body became evermore commonplace Whereas almost all anti-smoking propaganda produced during the late 1950s and 1960s had focused exclusively on the relationship between smoking and lung cancer, the 1970s was notable for widening the scope of the anti-smoking crusade. No longer was the lung perceived as the only body organ to be affected by the adverse effects of prolonged cigarette smoking, but rather its additional detrimental effects, as displayed in Fig. 5, Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, on the heart, brain, and nose and throat in particular were increasingly expounded.

Fig. 5, Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 The Better Health Pack Leaflets
on the bodily effects of smoking (NLI Ir614 h4)

Moreover, the focus altered somewhat with increased state interest in the effects of smoking on the pregnant woman. The dangers of smoking in pregnancy were highlighted in a special article entitled ‘You and Your Baby’ which was distributed nationally by the medical profession to expectant mothers.⁹ With the formation of the Health Education Bureau in 1975 and its greatly increased budget following the appointment of Charles Haughey as Minister for Health in 1977, state sponsored health campaigns adopted a more sophisticated composition.¹⁰ The tar and nicotine content of cigarettes was increasingly emphasised to create an anti-aesthetic surrounding the habit of smoking.¹¹ The promotion of anti-smoking material centred on the endorsement of behavioural change rather than on compulsion, with the media providing the key factor within a new style of health activism. 

The modification of individual behaviour through the initiation of highly stylised visual health campaigns became central to public and voluntary information programmes. As encapsulated by MacEntee, lifestyle choice and behavioural change became pivotal to the success of anti-smoking education campaigns centred upon the concept that ‘If you have never smoked, don’t take it up; if you are already a smoker, give it up, or at least do not smoke immoderately’.¹² By accepting the epidemiological argument for a connection between smoking and lung cancer both the state and voluntary organisations alike firmly aligned themselves to the implementation of a programme of preventative measures. This was achieved through the adoption of visual illustration as the main feature of health advertisement material. The promotion of anti-smoking material within Irish public health campaigns relied upon the efficacy of visual advertising in producing health responses on the part of the public. Ultimately this ‘visuality’ in promotion methods was key to the rise of a new health ideology based on individual responsibility for healthy lifestyles and behaviours.

Jane Hand is a doctoral student at the Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick. Her PhD is entitled 'You Are What You Eat: Chronic Disease, Consumerism and Health Education in Britain since the Second World War' and she may be contacted at j "dot" hand "at" warwick "dot" ac "dot" uk

Author’s note:

The images reproduced in this post were sourced directly from the Department of Health with the permission of Fergal Flynn, Department of Health.

All other primary source material is held at the National Archives of Ireland.

---

1. Department of An Taoiseach, ‘Cancer: Publicity Leaflets etc.,’ 11^th February 1958, National Archives of Ireland, TAOIS S16659A. [Italics added by author].↩
2. Anon, ‘Radio programme on cigarette smoking’, 1973, Department of Health and Children, INACT 461262.↩
3. Minister for Health (Erskine Hamilton Childers), ‘Radio Programme on Cigarette Smoking 19/06/1973 – Written Answers’, Department of Health and Children, INACT 461262.↩
4. Minister for Health (Erskine Hamilton Childers), ‘Radio Programme on Cigarette Smoking 19/06/1973 – Written Answers’, Department of Health and Children, INACT 461262.↩
5. Minister for Health (Erskine Hamilton Childers), 'Address by Mr Erskine Childers, T.D., Táinaiste and Minister for Health at the Prize-giving ceremony in the anti-smoking poster competition in the Metropole Ballroom, Dublin, 6 January, 1971’, Anti Smoking Poster Campaign for School Children and Television Campaign, Department of Health and Children, INACT 422036.↩
6. The Information Services of the Irish Cancer Society, Smoking Burns You Up: How Smoking Affects Us, Leaflet Department of Health and Children, INACT 428227.↩
7. Cooter and Stein, ‘Coming into focus’, p. 186.↩
8. Coiste no gConnartha Rialtas, ‘A meeting of the Government Contracts Committee’, 6 August 1970, Department of Health and Children, INACT 422036; Minster for Health (Erskine Hamilton Childers), ‘Ceisteanna – Questions. Oral Answers – Health Educational Programmes’, Dáil Debates, vol. 254, col. 2249-2250, 23 June 1971; Berridge and Loughlin, ‘Smoking and the New Health Education in Britain 1950s-1970s’, pp 960-961.↩
9. Anon, ‘Radio programme on cigarette smoking’, 1973, Department of Health and Children, INACT 461262; ‘ “You and Your Baby”: A Family Doctor Publication by the Irish Medical Association in conjunction with the British Medical Association’, Department of Health and Children, INACT 461262.↩
10. Dwyer, Short Fellow, p. 152. ↩
11. Berridge and Loughlin, ‘Smoking and the New Health Education in Britain 1950s-1970s’, p. 961.↩
12. Irish Times, 5 Dec. 1959.↩