Witness to History: Life in Ireland in the early 1900s
History and English
Introduction
The following extract shows what life was like for an ordinary person living in Ireland in the early
1900s. Children can compare and contrast with their own daily lives. This activity will help pupils
to develop their skills in reading, writing and working as an historian.
Activity ‑ Reading Comprehension
Note to Teachers
Elements in blue are for younger pupils/those who may need additional support. Older and more able pupils
can use all elements.
“In 1911 housing conditions in Dublin were the worst in the United Kingdom. On Henrietta Street, on the north side of
the city, 835 people lived in just 15 houses. In Number 7 alone, there were 104 people sharing the house. Particularly in the
inner-city Dublin tenements, there was severe mortality, with losses of over 50% of children among many families.
A typical working-class diet in 1911 consisted of bread, rarely with butter, and stewed tea. Meat was a rarity, except for
cheap bacon, and vegetables, with the exception of cabbage and potatoes, were also rare. Fruit was a luxury and seldom
seen. Coal was too expensive for many to use, and scraps of wood, sometimes even their own floor and skirting boards,
were burned for heat and cooking.’’ Source: GPO Witness History Visitor Centre
Questions
1. Where was Henrietta Street?
2. How many people lived in number 7 Henrietta Street?
3. How many people live in your house?
4. What do you think it would be like to live in a house with so many other people?
5. In the early 1900s, what type of food did most people eat?
6. What type of food do you normally eat every day? How is it different to what people ate in the past?
7. Why do you think people sometimes burned their own floor and skirting boards for heating and cooking?
What other items do you think they may have burned for heating and cooking?
8. The new An Post, GPO Visitor Centre is called ‘Witness History’. Why do you think it is given this name?
Why is it important to know about how (rich and poor) families lived 100 years ago?
9. Explain the sentence which states that Dublin is in the United Kingdom. (Not Ireland).
10. Why do you think most people at this time ate very little meat, vegetables and fruit?
11. Explain the meanings of the following words:
(i) tenements (ii) mortality (iii) exception (iv) luxury (v) seldom
Witness to History: Life in Ireland in the early 1900s
History and English
Life of an ordinary family compared with the life of a wealthy family in
Ireland during the early 1900s.
Illustration A: A Tenement Family in the early 1900s
Illustration B: A Wealthy Family in the early 1900s
Source: GPO Witness History Visitor Centre
1. Show your pupils Illustration A and Illustration B.
2. In pairs, ask them to discuss the similarities and differences between the two pictures.
3. Encourage them to focus on: the rooms in each house, the furniture, the condition, and the appearances of
the people, clothes and objects featured in each illustration.
4. Have a whole-class discussion about the differences between how ordinary and wealthy people lived during
the early 1900s – focusing on homes, clothes and food.
5. Then ask the pupils to discuss how life in the early 1900s compares with their own lives. You can record their
answers on the board within two columns ‘The Early 1900s’ and ‘Today’.
Witness to History: Life in Ireland in the early 1900s
History and English
Write about it!
For younger classes
Discuss the part of the extract on the first page, referring to 104 people living in Number 7 Henrietta Street.
Ask your pupils to discuss how many people live in their homes and how they think life would have been
different with 104 people in the same home. Then ask them to copy and complete the sentence below,
illustrating it. First and Second class pupils can write 3-4 extra sentences describing what life was like living
at Number 7 Henrietta Street
___ people live in my home. (Junior and Senior Infants)
For older classes/more able students
Using the extract above, ask your pupils to imagine they are newspaper reporters in the early 1900s. Ask
them to write a newspaper report about the living conditions of people living on Henrietta Street.
Ask them to consider the following:
•
conditions of the rooms and houses
•
materials used in the buildings
•
typical food eaten
•
how people kept warm during cold weather
Suggested additional activities
• Organise a visit to the GPO Witness History Visitor Centre where pupils can explore life in the early 1900s in
Ireland www.gpowitnesshistory.ie/visit/
• Ask the children to prepare questions for the visit.
• Ask your pupils to write about the life of a wealthy family during the early 1900s.
• Ask your pupils to write a diary entry from the point of view of a child living in a tenement building.
• Investigate, then write a shopping list for a tenement family living in the early 1900s.
• Enter the An Post/INTO Handwriting Competition. Use the writing activity above or get your pupils to write
their own composition in any genre using the theme ‘Life in the early 1900s.’ For more information, visit
www. anpostschoolbag.ie/competition
Witness to History: Life in Ireland in the early 1900s
History and English
Curriculum links
History
• Become familiar with the aspects of people’s lives in the past e.g. homes of people, food, etc.
• Develop an understanding of change and continuity by exploring similarities and differences
between the past and the present
• Make simple deductions from evidence
• Use evidence and imagination to reconstruct elements of the past
• Imagine and discuss the feelings and motives of people in the past
• Communicate understanding of the past in a variety of ways
• Study a range of people and events in the past in order to develop a balanced understanding of
national history
English
• Explore and develop ideas and concepts through talk, directed discussion and writing
• Organise, clarify, interpret and extend experience through writing
• Explore different genres of writing
• Write for different audiences
• Identify and evaluate the key points, issues and central meaning of a text
• Express intuitions, feelings, impressions, ideas and reactions in response to real situations
through talk, discussion and writing