Industrious Poor and Rolling Vagabonds - in conversation with Francis Thackaberry

In this episode, from the Dublin Festival of History 2023, Francis Thackaberry explores the  attitudes and responses to poverty in eighteenth-century Dublin. The citizens of prosperous Georgian Dublin, associated poverty with idleness, disease and moral decay and sought ways to prevent ‘foreign’ vagrants from ‘infesting’ the city. One response was to found Dublin’s first tax-funded workhouse in James’s Street in 1703. 


Francis Thackaberry is a former teacher, journalist, and arts administrator.  


This episode was recorded at 14 Henrietta Street, on October 9, 2023.


The Dublin Festival of History is brought to you by Dublin City Council, and organised by Dublin City Libraries, in partnership with Dublin City Council Culture Company.




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