ABSTRACT
The Republic of Ireland is said to be an exception within Anglophone penal history, whereby it resisted the punitive turn of the 1970s and a more pragmatic and dispassionate penal politics prevailed. In this respect, Irish prison policy was informed by not much at all, and instead tended to drift. Ireland became an independent state in 1922. From its inception as a nation, Irish cultural, political and social life was dominated by the Catholic Church, a colossal power bloc whose interests were reflected in legislation, policy and the machinery of social control. Religious regulation was most pervasive and censorious when it came to the family unit, which was considered the rudiment of a strong Irish Catholic society. In the face of chronic poverty and industrial and economic stagnation, in the 1960s the Irish government began to assume a greater responsibility for the health and well-being of its citizens and for the first time introduced welfare provisions.
