Synopsis
The narrative of middle-class decline sharpened in 1920s and 30s Ireland with an increasing concern that this cohort was losing social and economic ground. Public discourse, charities and society in general characterised these people who had ‘seen better days’ as intrinsically different to those that had been born into poverty. Through an analysis of thousands of begging letters written to the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, this paper explores how the poor themselves responded to these distinctions. In particular, it examines the ingredients of middle-class appeals for charity in comparison to those crafted by the habitually poor. Finally, this paper explores if this type of poverty elicited a different moral and material response from the purveyors of charity.