ABSTRACT
Two factors dominated Irish housing history from the eighteenth century to the present: firstly, the agricultural base of the economic, social and political life of Ireland; secondly, the dominance of Dublin as the major centre of Irish cultural and urban development. The loss of rent and cost of poor relief under famine conditions combined to make them far less prosperous. Wages in Dublin were significantly lower than elsewhere in Britain; a rising proportion of the population was unskilled and, in spite of intense over-crowding, constant exodus to Britain undermined any incentive to build working-class housing. The policy of compensation made slum declarations and clearances, carrying obligation to rebuild after the 1890 Housing of the Working Classes Act, doubly expensive. It also rewarded the worst landlords when they were taken over. Irish cities in the nineteenth century changed from being administrative and trading centres of international importance to being staging posts in one of the most massive exoduses of modern history.
