Jamie Canavan completed her PhD on Foster care in Ireland 1862-1991 in 2025.

From the Abstract:

“This thesis explores the history of foster care in Ireland, spanning from the Irish Poor Law to the social work landscape of the 1980s. It discusses how the welfare measures of the 19th century shaped legislation and policy for child welfare deep into the twentieth century. It examines how cultural attitudes toward children and poverty allowed for Christian (predominantly Catholic) charities to grow their influence in the welfare sphere and how this reliance on private philanthropy and reluctance to make policy changes allowed for problems to persist in the foster care system without improvement until the 1970s. Foster care was then rapidly embraced in public discourse. Ireland worked to catch up with the developing social work field in the lead up to the 1991 Child Care Act, but adequate attention was not yet given to the root causes for intervention and inherent problems lingered in its welfare systems from over a century prior.”