Treatment of Unmarried Mothers & babies in Co Tipperary in the 19th Century

I have been looking through the parish records of baptisms and marriages now online at The National Library of Ireland site

My ancestors came from Thurles and Inch, so I have been going through the records of surrounding parishes. I have started from the earlist available dates usually around 1800.

It being a tedious task my eye has been taken by anything unusual. The high number of illegitimate births and the priest's comments about these births stand out. The priests kept a close eye on the morals of their parishioners and their disapproval of unmarried mothers is very obvious. Although the extent of their outrage depended a lot on the personality of the priest. But the majority labelled the birth as illegitimate and in some parishes the record was marked with the word "Bastard" often in caoitals. Another thing I noticed was that often there was only one godparent at these baptisms and wondered if this was because it was such a shameful event.

As I was coming across these records I was wondering how these women and their children were viewed and treated by their families and the community at large. With the recent revelations about the Home for unmarried mothers and illegitimate children in Tuam in Co Galway and their treatment I wonder if anyone can enlighten me as to what was happening in the 19th century??

I also came across foundlings and wonder what happened to these babies? were there orphanages or did other families adopt them? Was there a lifelong stigma attached to being illegitimate?

In these records some couples are listed as "strangers". What constituted a stranger in 19th century Ireland?

Where the couples labelled "Travellers" gypsies?

regards

Kathleen Fanning