Dublin by Lamplight

The three classes that inhabited Dublin during the early 1900′s resided in very different locations and had very different standards of living.

•  The Upper class: Many didn’t live in Dublin because they preferred to reside in the suburbs or out of Ireland all together. Because of the transport system, the upper class could afford to commute into Dublin and therefore chose to live in the suburbs where the cost of living was cheaper and living conditions were more favourable than that of the city. The flight of the wealthy to the suburbs deterred Dublin from progressing economically and created the cities incapacity to deal with the housing issue. (Dickson, 2007)  
• The Middle Class: Many middle class families started moving to townships outside of Dublin. The working class members of society who did reside in Dublin lived in houses that were transformed residences of the working class who could no longer afford to continue living there. There was a very limited amount of middle class housing thus suggesting the scarcity of middle class inhabitants in Dublin. (Crowley, 1974).
• The Working Class: Working class Dubliners lived in tenements and slums which were overcrowded, unsanitary and generally substandard forms of housing. (Valiulis, 1997) Tenements were transformed into the housing for the working class from the houses of the elite after they moved from the city to the suburbs. (Daly, 1995) Dublin’s housing was so poor because of the migration of the middle and upper class to London or the suburbs which left the city void of support from the wealthier classes. (Valiulis, 1997)  An influx of rural Irish trying to escape the great famine of 1845-50 also contributed to the overcrowding and added to the demand for low-income housing. (Kearns, 1982) Large families often lived in small one or two room tenements. Rent was higher in Dublin then in any other province in London, and therefore the majority of working class person’s income went to paying for rent. And given the rampant underemployment of the working class, this was a cost they could scarcely afford – many families lived on less than fifteen shillings per week. (McManus, 2003) Living conditions in the tenements were downright squalid. The working class’ diet consisted of predominantly bread and tea with the occaisional vegetable or meat, and several families would have to share one water supply and toilet. Writes McManus: “Death rates in Dublin were higher than those in Calcutta.” (2003)

There were different classifications of accomodation and rent varied depending on how much one could afford.

• Fourth class accomodation – consisted of 1 room and 1 window.
• Third class accomodation – between 2-4 rooms with more than one window.
• Second class accomodation – between 5-9 rooms and multiple windows.
• First class accomodation – anything larger than those listed above.

It was very rare to just have one family occupy a second, third, or even fourth class home on their own. Usually multiple working class families shared these types of living arrangements. Although it is unclear what type of housing the characters in Dublin by Lamplight lived in, the setting descriptions emphasize that the spaces are not clean or luxurious, thus ruling out the option that these characters live in first class homes (Daly 1984, 278). 

These pictures depict the conditions of tenement housing in Dublin. 

Pictures taken from: http://multitext.ucc.ie/viewgallery/937

 -Sacha Brown, with additions by Adam Wray and Michelle Kelly