In a winter 1936 special on the domestic plight of the country’s underclass, the Irish Press published a damning photograph of a supposed family home within the pitiful slums of Suirside.

Headed “FOURTEEN IN ONE WATERFORD ROOM”, the picture (below) was captioned: “In one of the topmost rookeries in this slum quarter in Waterford live Mr. and Mrs. Sheehan and their twelve children in one small room… New Street houses 51 Waterford families, numbering 228 persons. Its domestic conditions rival even the worse slum conditions of Dublin. At the present rate of rehousing in Waterford it may take 15 years before [the couple] and those of their class have a chance to get a home fit for human habitation, according to official statements” recently published by the newspaper.

On the same page was a description of this life of squalor which Mrs. Sheehan had sent to the editor. A representative from the paper called to her tiny home to verify the facts, finding that “the family are just carrying on the best they can. One of the children appears almost bloodless and is attending a doctor”.

This wasn’t surprising as the place, a room up five flights of stairs, was “in a terrible condition,” he reported back, “though it carries a rental of 3/- a week”.

Her letter asked that their circumstances be highlighted “as an act of Christian charity” by a paper noted for its “deep interest in the welfare of the poorer classes. It is very little use in boasting of being a great Catholic nation if we are going to allow the cancerous slums ably exposed in the Irish Press to remain.

“We are not Communists, but, sir, it is indeed terrible hard to live good lives under the terrible conditions prevailing in the slums,” she added. “You have printed things about Waterford that have made your paper the talk of the city. Everyone is praising it. But, as yet, I have not seen a case as bad as my own.”

Her children ranged in age from one to seventeen, all sleeping together. “You can imagine how terrible it is when a confinement takes place in the room. “Why send money to Spain and other foreign lands when it’s so badly needed in Ireland?” Mrs. Sheehan wondered.

Top photo: New Street tenements of yesteryear.