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Belfast’s ‘dirty girls’ exposed

The Lisburn Road area of south Belfast was once notorious for being home to the city’s prostitutes, a new book has revealed.

In a chapter titled ‘Dirty Girls and Bad Houses’, Dr Leanne McCormick has written about a previously neglected part of the Belfast’s social history.

The University of Ulster lecturer spent 10 years delving into the archives to produce the book which examines female sexuality in NI from 1900 to 1960.

It will be launched on Wednesday.

Dr McCormick, who is lecturer in Modern Irish Social History at the university, has accessed new and “underused” historical records to product her book, “Regulating Sexuality – Women in Twentieth Century Northern Ireland’.

Stigma

It explores a wide range of local women’s experiences and examines the social, political and economic forces which contributed to changing attitudes towards female sexuality.

It documents the fortunes of prostitutes, specifically those who entered the Belfast Union workhouse, who the author said were either destitute or obviously struggling economically.

“The dread of having to go ‘up the Lisburn Road’ – where the workhouse was located – hung over the poor and the stigma of pauperism was something to be avoided,” the author said.

The book also looks at the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases and the anxieties generated by the behaviour of girls and young women in general, particularly with the arrival of troops during World War II.

The author said: “The politics and political violence in 20th century Northern Ireland overshadowed its social history in general and women’s history in particular.”