An assessment of health in post-medieval Ireland: ‘One vast Lazar house filled with famine, disease and death’

Three indicators of health and diet were selected to examine the health status in three socioeconomic groups in post-medieval Ireland. The aim was to examine the reliability of traditional skeletal markers of health in highly contextualised populations. The link between socio-economic status and health was examined to determine if traditional linking of poor health with poverty was evident in skeletal samples. The analysis indicated that this was indeed the case and that health was significantly compromised in populations of low socio-economic status. Thus it indicated that status intimately influences the physical body form. Sex was also found to be a major defining factor in the response of an individual to physiological stress. It was also evident that contemporary populations may suffer from different physiological stresses, and their responses to those stresses may differ. Adaptation was a key factor here. This has implications for studies of earlier populations that may lack detailed contextual data in terms of blanket applications of interpretations. The results also show a decline in health from the medieval through to the post-medieval period, which is intimately linked with the immense social changes and all the related effects of these. The socio-economic structure of post-medieval Ireland was a direct result of the British policies in Ireland. The physical form of the Irish may be seen to have occurred as a result of those policies, with the Irish poor in particular suffering substantial health problems, even in contrast to the poor of Britain. This study has enriched the recorded historical narrative of this period of the recent past, and highlights more nuanced narratives may emerge from the osteoarchaeological analysis when sound contextual information is available. It also examines a period in Irish history that, until very recently, had been virtually untouched in terms of archaeological study.

Health in the medieval world: Regionality and the bioarchaeology of Ireland and Britain

This study assesses regional health patterns in early medieval Ireland and Britain by analysing and interpreting palaeopathological indicators of stress. This was achieved by incorporating the results of demographic and palaeopathological study into the specific historical contexts. Although relatively small islands, both are home to unique and diverse cultural, physical, and political landscapes, which could potentially affect the general health of the population in different ways. To accurately answer the research question, a bioarchaeological survey of six regions within both islands was carried out, specifically analysing and comparing the demographic profile and general health trends within each region with one another. Results from the analysis have demonstrated statistically significant differences within and between the islands. Inferring that even the more subtle differences observed within the cultural, physical, and political landscapes, such as in the case of Ireland and Britain, can and do affect general health trends. The health of early medieval Ireland and Britain appears to be significantly affected by the physical landscape, specifically a north/south divide. The most northerly regions, Scotland South and Ireland North, manifested higher levels of stress indicators when compared to the more southerly positioned regions. Although it can only be hypothesised what factors within these regions are causing, enhancing or buffering stress, the study has established the potential and necessity for regional work to be continued when interpreting the historical past of these two islands.

Diphtheria, the public health response and the origins of the childhood immunisation programme in Ireland

In common with most countries, the childhood immunisation programme in Ireland was founded on a successful public health response to diphtheria. The success of the antidiphtheria public health intervention in Ireland has meant that no case of the disease has been recorded in the state for almost fifty years. This is a significant achievement considering that diphtheria continues to appear annually in many European states, albeit in much reduced numbers on former years. For parents and children of nineteenth, and early twentieth-century Ireland, diphtheria represented the ‘most dreaded disease of childhood’, however, for their modern day counterparts diphtheria is no more than an obscure disease mentioned in leaflets promoting the benefits of childhood immunisation. In Ireland, diphtheria has been consigned to history, and so too have the horrors and mass fatalities once associated with it. But how was this achieved? Was active immunisation received with open arms by public health authorities, the wider medical community, and the general public? This study tackles these questions by undertaking the first historical examination of the issues which underpin the origins of active immunisation in Ireland. It explores the driving forces that shaped the national childhood immunisation programme, and those that opposed them. In addition, it examines the complex social implications attendant on the introduction of this mass public health intervention in an Irish context.