Wrens of the Curragh
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The Wrens of the Curragh were a community of women in nineteenth-century
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
who lived outside society on the plains of
Kildare Kildare () is a town in County Kildare, Ireland. , its population was 8,634 making it the 7th largest town in County Kildare. The town lies on the R445, some west of Dublin – near enough for it to have become, despite being a regional cen ...
, many of whom were
sex worker A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work is d ...
s at
Curragh Camp The Curragh Camp ( ga, Campa an Churraigh) is an army base and military college in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel ...
. Records date back to the 1840s of women living on the Curragh nearby the army camp. Many of the women were orphans because of the Great Famine, resulting in them using prostitution to provide for themselves. The women developed a lifestyle in which money, homes, belongings, food, and childcare were shared. The community of women was originally covered by
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
in his journal, later being covered in novels, a poem, music, a podcast, and art.


Etymology

The Wrens of Curragh were a community who lived on the
Curragh The Curragh ( ; ga, An Currach ) is a flat open plain of almost of common land in County Kildare. This area is well known for Irish horse breeding and training. The Irish National Stud is located on the edge of Kildare town, beside the ...
(plains) of Kildare. The women were called "wrens" because they slept in hollows in the ground which were half in banks or ditches, covered in
furze ''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are na ...
bushes, like the nests that birds in the
wren Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is commonly ...
family make.


History

Records of women living on the Curragh, close to the army camp, date back to the 1840s. The
Curragh Camp The Curragh Camp ( ga, Campa an Churraigh) is an army base and military college in The Curragh, County Kildare, Ireland. It is the main training centre for the Defence Forces (Ireland), Irish Defence Forces and is home to 2,000 military personnel ...
became permanent in 1856, which meant that the women's presence became continuous. The last records of their presence extend to the 1880s. Many of these women were orphaned during the Great Famine and used prostitution as a means to provide for themselves. Some of the women lived on the plains seasonally, with up to 60 women there in the summer months. Outside of harvest-time, unemployed agricultural workers may have raised the number.


Lifestyle

The women developed a lifestyle in which money, homes, belongings, food, and childcare were shared. There was no formal leader. Whilst the women were ostracised from the community in town, they also avoided contact where possible, for example, in terms of medical care the women administered remedies they made or bought. Whilst the women were mainly dependent on the soldiers for money, they also knitted garments which they sold at markets to gain some financial independence. Still, it was the Army that supplied them with fresh water and allowed them to buy goods at the camp market two to three times a week. This network of mutual aid may have been even stronger in some ways than the more traditional support networks in the surrounding areas. The women were unpopular locally and in 1855, one rate-payer complained that not only did the women cause moral corruption, they were paid for by rate-payer's taxes. In 1857, the Presbyterian chaplain of the camp wrote to ''The Times'' complaining about their presence around the camp.
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
also wrote about the women in his journal, '' All the Year Round'', in 1864.


Journalistic attention

In 1867, the journalist James Greenwood of the ''
Pall Mall Gazette ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed int ...
'' visited the Wrens and recorded their lifestyle. Before his visit, but in the same year, the situation of the "Wrens" and the soldiers was discussed in the ''
British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origi ...
''; in the article, some of the women are portrayed as thieves. Greenwood noted their poverty and the prostitution which funded their lives. In a later pamphlet, Greenwood stated that not all of the women were prostitutes. Some of the women were in common-law marriages with soldiers at the camp, but due to army regulations, they could not live with the men.


Impact of public attention

The '' Medical Times & Gazette'' featured a response to Greenwood's article, who focused on the moral debasement of the wrens, as well as discussing the lack of sanitation and the effects on public health. The impact of Greenwood's visit and the publication of his articles led to public discussion and the introduction of the Curragh of Kildare Act (1868). This introduced a " lock hospital" to treat the women for
sexually transmitted diseases Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral sex ...
. Treatment was poor and they were often blamed for incidents of sexually transmitted diseases amongst the soldiers.


Popular culture

The lives of the "Wrens of the Curragh" have inspired a range of creative responses:


Novels

In 1873, they are mentioned in a short story, "The Humby Election", by George Fraser. In 2010, author Martin Mallone wrote the novel ''The Only Glow of the Day'' about life on the Curragh. Likewise, Rose Doyle wrote the novel ''Friends Indeed'' in 2011. In 2018, novelist Orla McAlinden published ''The Flight of the Wren'', which re-imagined the lives of the women.


Poetry

In 2007, the poet Mebh McGuckian featured the Wrens in her volume ''The Currach Requires No Harbour''.


Music

The singer Jane McNamee composed a song, "The Curragh Wrens". Likewise, Ollie Kennedy wrote the song "The Curragh Wrens" from the perspective of a soldier at the camp; despite the title, the lyrics of the song do not directly refer to the women at all.
Lankum Lankum are a contemporary Irish folk music group from Dublin, consisting of brothers Ian and Daragh Lynch, Cormac MacDiarmada and Radie Peat. In 2018 they were named Best Folk Group at the RTÉ Folk Music Awards, while Radie Peat was named Bes ...
's song "Hunting the Wren" alludes to the Wrens of the Curragh.


Podcasts

In 2019, the first episode of the podcast ''Historical Whores'' discussed the Curragh Wrens.


Visual arts

In 2019, artist Lisa Freeman created a site-specific performance; ''Green Skies, A Double Rhythm'' on this history. This took place on the Curragh, Kildare funded by
Kildare County Council Kildare County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Chill Dara) is the authority responsible for local government in County Kildare, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housin ...
and Creative Ireland, produced by Riverbank Arts Centre. In 2020, the artist Amanda Coogan continued her work on a project about the women.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrens of the Curragh 19th-century Irish women Irish sex workers Sex worker organisations in the Republic of Ireland People from County Kildare Women in Ireland