ABSTRACT
It would have been surprising if the publication ofRowntree's celebrated ftrst survey had gone unnoticed in Ireland. At that time Ireland as a whole was an integral part of the United Kingdom, although in practice still having the status of a colony, and levels of poverty were exceptionally high even by UK standards. However at the tum of the twentieth century Ireland had its own preoccupations.lt was already in ferment with a renaissance of nationalism: the Irish language, national games and the folk music of the country were being rediscovered and celebrated, and there was a burgeoning in literature and drama. This national movement also had a political side to it, represented by political and militant organisations continuing what they saw as a centuries-old struggle: the two major campaigns were for the reform of land ownership and for Home Rule, an independent parliament for Ireland. The nationalist struggle culminated in the establishment in 1921 of the Northern Ireland parliament for the six north-eastern counties and the conclusion of a treaty in that year which led to independence for the other 26 counties, to be called initially the Irish Free State (see Appendix 2, Chronology of Irish Independence).
