This thesis explores the complexities of the issue of injury for children and young people in Ireland. It looks at Irish quantitative data on mortality and morbidity, qualitative data drawn from Coroner's records, interviews with practitioners and reviews policy issues presented by injury. The rationale for the study stems from concern that injury is the principle cause of death for children and young people aged 1-19yrs. It argues that injury and unintentional injury in particular does not receive sufficient attention, in research and policy terms. A Sociological position informs the exploration of injury from theoretical frameworks on childhood and risk. A pragmatic worldview has informed the study methodology. The study focuses on unintentional injury in the context of all injuries and determines the gendered patterns and priorities for four age groups for a 10 year period. Findings show that external injury mortality rates are underestimated. Transport-related injury death has sharply declined but is still the most relevant factor for all age groups, followed by poisoning and drowning for the 15-19yr olds age group for whom the mortality burden is largest. Falls, being struck or pierced, transport and poisoning injuries are the main causes for hospitalisations across all age groups and 0-4yr olds have the highest rates. 10% of all hospital discharges result from unintentional injury. There are knowledge gaps in significant areas such as sport and recreational injuries. Injury practitioners were found to have important potential as injury prevention stakeholders. Injury prevention policy directions are proposed. These include establishing a comprehensive child death review process and a coordinated dedicated child injury prevention approach at government level. It is believed that focussed attention on the issue will help to reduce injury incidence and strengthen the commitment to children's rights

During the period 1850-1913 the landscape of Irish childcare witnessed significant changes. The Famine left thousands of children orphaned or deserted in Irish workhouses and Ireland was forced to confront the question of how best to raise these children of the poor to be respectable and self-sufficient adults. The period was defined by attempts to answer this question and by 1913 a new system for such care was in place. This was a system dominated by a belief in institutionalisation, mainly in industrial schools, of children as beneficial both to the children and to Irish society, and driven by a fear and mistrust of the poor as parents. The developments during 1850-1913 have not previously been examined in a coherent and cohesive manner. This thesis aims to do so, thus adding to the understanding of the attitudes and approaches to childcare for the poor in Ireland. The thesis will also make use of quantitative analysis in a manner not previously done in order to understand the evolution and development of childcare institutions. The first chapter focuses on the Irish Poor Law, its relation to children, and the development of voluntary, charitable childcare institutions. The second chapter examines the increasing criticism against workhouse care through two case studies. The third chapter explores the rejection of foster-care in Ireland in the form of boarding out from workhouses. The fourth chapter analyses the rise of the reformatories and industrial schools managed largely by the Catholic Church. The final chapter explores how the increasing interest and concern for the children of the poor resulted in the development of an increasingly extensive framework of legislation that, by 1913, touched on almost all aspects of the lives of the children of the poor and their families.