The Mendicity Society Movement and the Suppression of Begging

Between 1809 and the early-1840s more than fifty mendicity societies were established throughout Ireland. These charities focused on the suppression of street begging and the relief of the destitute poor. Mendicity societies took their lead from earlier societies located in Britain and mainland Europe, and in Ireland the Dublin association acted as a parent body for this movement. While playing a prominent role in the welfare landscape in the first half of the nineteenth century Ireland’s mendicity societies largely disappeared within a short space of time, largely on foot of the introduction of the Poor Law system.

Protestant Approaches to Begging and Alms-Giving

This chapter analyses the disparate views and responses towards beggary and alms-giving within Irish Protestantism. The significant role played by evangelicalism in framing approaches towards mendicancy is discussed. Themes which are explored, and which mirror the discussion in the previous chapter on Catholic approaches, include the ‘deserving’ / ‘undeserving’ distinction, the morality of indiscriminate alms-giving, and the role of Protestant commentators and churches on the Poor Law question.

Begging and Alms-Giving: Perceptions and Motivations

Perceptions of begging and beggars were not universally shared in pre-Famine Ireland. Fears of the spread of disease and frustration at the inconvenience caused by beggars coloured many hostile reactions to the soliciting beggar. Yet, for some, the itinerant mendicant was an accepted part of (urban and rural) life. Solicitations for assistance provided people with the opportunity to engage in an act of Christian charity (the giving of alms), foregoing any distinctions between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor.

Measuring Begging and Alms-Giving

Attempts to measure the extent of beggary and the amount doled out in alms to mendicants was part of a desire among the ‘respectable’ middling classes to understand the ‘problem’ of mendicancy. Merchants and social commentators sought to reduce the financial burden of beggary, and the Poor Law debates of the 1830s devoted much energy to the impact of indiscriminate alms-giving. The casual giving of alms far outweighed the amount subscribed to anti-begging charitable societies, yet the significance placed on the monetary impact of beggary was not shared by all social classes.

Introduction

Beggary was seen as a threat to society on a number of fronts, yet, the practices of mendicancy and alms-giving were also framed by a universal sense of Christian obligation amongst all classes of society to assist those poorer than themselves. The example and teaching of Christ, as expounded in the New Testament, was intrinsic to the language of private and public charity in this period and deeply influenced how individuals and corporate bodies perceived and responded to begging. The long-held distinction between the ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor coloured approaches to beggary. Begging and alms-giving were central features of the public discourse on the question of the poor of Ireland and their relief. This discourse was shaped by wider social and economic factors, and in line with these fluctuating forces societal perceptions and responses varied.

Conclusion

Contemporary discourse on the poor and on beggary was beset with the difficulties of defining just who and what was being discussed. Definitions of begging and vagrancy were imprecise, shifting and problematic. Begging was part of the ‘economy of makeshifts’ which the poor negotiated on a daily basis. Mendicancy in nineteenth-century Ireland was also a practice which involved and enforced gendered attitudes and roles.

Roman Catholic Approaches to Begging and Alms-Giving

This chapter analyses distinctions in how Catholic teachings on charity and good works were understood by Catholics and Protestants, with both sides perceiving disparate moral consequences for both giver and receiver in the alms-giving transaction. The exploration of Catholic approaches to poverty, mendicancy and alms-giving are presented in two sections – the first analysing discourses, the second examining actions. Case studies are presented of the views and actions of Archbishop Daniel Murray, and Mary Aikenhead and the Religious Sisters of Charity, while the question of indiscriminate alms-giving is also considered.

Civil Parishes’ Responses to Begging

The decades immediately before the Great Famine witnessed a significant shift in the civil role of the parish vestry in Ireland and a related transformation in how communities managed beggary in their locality. From the seventeenth century parishes throughout Ireland oversaw systems of licenced parochial badging for local ‘deserving’ beggars, yet this practice was largely phased out by the mid-nineteenth century. Parochial officials included officers of health, whose responsibilities included the removal of iterant beggars from local thoroughfares for the purpose of mitigating the spread of epidemic disease.

Defining Begging and Alms-Giving

This chapter examines the challenges inherent in defining what precisely constituted begging in pre-Famine Ireland and who were considered beggars. For many poor persons, begging was just one of a number of survival strategies in the ‘economy of makeshifts’ and was resorted to according to fluctuating family circumstances. The giving of alms, meanwhile, was undertaken in various guises and oftentimes was undertaken as much to relieve genuine distress as it was to be rid of an unwanted mendicant.