Anne MacLellan
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Alone among neutrals
Ireland’s unique experience of tuberculosis during the Second World War
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This chapter examines how and why Ireland’s tuberculosis problem exacerbated during the Emergency. It demonstrates that 1942 saw 4,300 tubercular deaths across the country, an incidence rate not seen since the late 1920s. After the war, Marc Daniels of the British Medical Research Council compiled a comparative study of deaths from tuberculosis across Europe comparing pre- and post-war death rates. Daniels pinpointed England, Wales, Belgium, France and Ireland as countries which experienced a rise is tubercular deaths in the first years of the war. Importantly, he noted that Ireland was the only neutral European country to suffer from rising incidence rates. This chapter investigates the key reasons for Ireland’s singular experience of tuberculosis during the Emergency, suggesting that the Irish experience was unique within the British Isles. The author also explores the country’s relatively limited anti-tuberculosis infrastructure, the absence of an effective anti-tuberculosis vaccination strategy and the new exigencies brought about by global conflict including shortages of food and pharmaceutical supplies. Other neutral countries such as Sweden fared better than Ireland during the conflict. At the heart of this study lies the important question of how efficiently Irish voluntary and government initiatives responded to the increased visibility of tuberculosis.

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