17th November 2009

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Dr Leanne McCormick

Residents living on the affluent Lisburn Road may be surprised to learn that it was once well known for all the wrong reasons - as the home of prostitutes in Belfast.

This is just one of the fascinating details revealed in a new book by University of Ulster lecturer, Dr Leanne McCormick, which will be launched this week.

‘Regulating Sexuality – Women in Twentieth Century Northern Ireland’ is a groundbreaking examination of the attempts to regulate female sexuality in the province from the 1900s to the 1960s.

Dr McCormick, a lecturer in Modern Irish Social History at the Coleraine campus, spent 10 years researching this previously neglected area of our past using a wide variety of new and underused archive material.

The study explores a wide range of women’s experiences, from those involved in prostitution and suspected of having Venereal Disease, to the anxieties generated by the behaviour of girls and young women in general, particularly with the arrival of troops during the Second World War.

“The politics and political violence in 20th century Northern Ireland overshadowed its social history in general and women’s history in particular,” explained Dr McCormick.

“This book aims to further develop this by considering some of the ways in which female sexuality was regulated in Northern Ireland in the 20th century including the experiences of women involved in prostitution, who lived in rescue homes as well as those who interacted with US troops and accessed family planning.

“In the book the role of the Catholic and Protestant churches is considered and it is argued that there was considerable unity across the religious and political spectrum in relation to female sexuality.

“The image of the ideal Irish woman, a morally pure homemaker and mother, was used to help develop the image of what the Irish nation should be – pure and morally upright, particularly in comparison to its secular and immoral English neighbour.

“The same rhetoric was also expressed in Northern Ireland. In the years that followed partition, both Protestant and Catholic leaders were vocal in their exhortations that young women should dress modestly, not frequent dance halls or cinemas and behave in a morally upright manner.

“However, it is apparent that Northern Irish society was not as upstanding as the rhetoric suggested. Belfast had a high proportion of women in the workforce and a wider variety of jobs available than simply domestic work yet women were still entering prostitution. It is difficult to identify the reasons for this given the restricted available material.”

In the chapter, ‘Dirty Girls and Bad Houses – prostitutes and prostitution’, Dr McCormick reveals that “women who entered the Belfast Union workhouse who were identified as prostitutes were obviously struggling economically or were destitute.

“The dread of having to go ‘up the Lisburn Road’ – where the workhouse was located – hung over the poor and the stigma of pauperism was something to be avoided.”

In conclusion, Dr McCormick points out that “even today debates surrounding issues such as contraception, teenage pregnancy, sex education, sexually transmitted diseases and homosexuality in Northern Ireland is still overwhelmingly dominated by religious and moral rhetoric, as it was a century ago.”

The hardback book, published by Manchester University Press, will be launched on Wednesday evening at No Alibis book store, Botanic Avenue, Belfast at 6pm.

For further information, please contact:

Press Office, Department of Communication and Development
Tel: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk