As Ireland prepares to commemorate the centenary of the Easter Rising, I've been reading about some of the events leading up to the 1916 insurrection against the British government. I subscribe to weekly 'Letters from Ireland' in which Mike Collins often shares nuggets of Irish history. In his latest letter, Collins writes about the 1801 Act of Union and its impact on business and trade in Ireland, how the Dublin middle class prospered and moved to southern suburbs. Dublin was "hollowed out," and the vacant Georgian mansions began a slide into tenements. Then the famine of the 1840s devastated rural areas of Ireland and drove millions of Irish either to emigrate or to move to cities like Dublin looking for steady work. In Dublin they crowded into the inner city, "living in some of the worst tenement slums in Europe," according to Collins' letter. His statement is supported by History Ireland's four-part series entitled "The Tenements." A century ago, approximately 20,000 families (one-third of the Dublin population) lived in single rooms. You can read more about the series here:  In 2013 the "Dublin Tenement Experience" demonstrated the stories of tenement living. Sanitation was poor and death rates high, with infant mortality at nearly 50%. A comprehensive website provides more details:

 The 1911 census tells a lot about conditions in Dublin. The house at 7 Henrietta Street, built in the 1730s, was home to 104 residents in 1911! A house nearby, at 14 Henrietta Street, included 17 households! I can't even imagine the horrific squalor. Thinking about families living in crowded and dirty cities, my eyes were drawn to a recent Twin Cities Public Television ad for a series "Filthy Cities":

...Historian Dan Snow goes back in time to medieval London, revolutionary Paris and 19th-century New York. What he reveals is that the story of our epic battle against filth through the ages is also the story of the birth of the modern metropolis. In three parts.  TPT 2, Mondays, February 15-29, 9 p.m. Every Irish family line I've researched emigrated. None moved to Dublin or Belfast. They were all farmers by occupation, and they assiduously avoided cities as they migrated west across America before settling in Minnesota. My non-Irish ancestors also came from rural areas in Europe and went directly to farming communities in the Midwest. Consequently I've paid little attention to tenement stories before now. Life certainly wasn't easy for immigrants in rural areas, but the challenges were different. My consciousness was raised by last Sunday's 'Letter from Ireland'. By the way, Michael Collins' weekly letters are free! "Bring your Irish ancestry to life" and sign up: https://youririshheritage.com/letterfromireland/. While you're on his website, check out the blog and podcast, too.