Trinity Talks: Dublin’s Hidden Histories – Episode 5 – Shelby Zimmerman

Paul May 26, 2025

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Dublin’s Hidden Histories is the latest series of ‘Trinity Talks’ from the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute and Near FM. In this series of talks and radio programmes, we feature an exploration of sites in Dublin which are the subject of ‘difficult’ histories, from asylums to prisons. The series presents experienced researchers and compelling storytellers in their subject areas for this exploration of ‘history in the shadows’. The stories are accompanied by live performances by An Góilín Traditional singers.

Episode five – The horror of being left with no choice but the poorhouse lingered long in the Irish psyche and in this episode we hear about the reality of death and dying in the poorhouse. To discuss this, we welcome Shelby Zimmerman, a Social Historian of Medicine, Institutions and Death.

The conversation, led by Near FM’s Ciarán Murray, will explore how by the end of the nineteenth century, the workhouse functioned as Dublin’s largest and most accessible medical institution. We will examine death and dying in the South Dublin Union from 1872 to 1920 with an emphasis on the role the workhouse played in Dublin’s medical landscape for the sick and dying poor. Ciarán will ask Shelby about the profile of the deceased and how the workhouse managed and mismanaged the dead. The discussion will also focus on the burial of those who died in the workhouse.

The songs are gratefully provided by Mick Keely from An Góilín Traditional singers.

Dr Shelby Zimmerman completed her PhD with Trinity’s School of Histories and Humanities in 2024, where her research looked at the medicalisation of death in the Dublin City workhouses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As a social historian of medicine, institutes and death, Dr Zimmerman also was the programme coordinator for the Medical and Health Humanities Initiative at TCD.

The episode is presented by Ciaran Murray. Produced by Dorothee Meyer Holtkamp. Sound design by Paul Loughran. Recorded by Gay Graham and Gabor Zajzon. Thanks to Mercedes Lopez for the production assistance. Thanks to Aoife King, Christin Hamilton and all the team in Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute.

The series is made with the support of Coimisiún Na Meán’s Sound and Vision scheme, with the Television License fee.

The Trinity Long Room Hub is Trinity’s research institute for the Arts and Humanities. For more visit https://www.tcd.ie/trinitylongroomhub/about/

For more on An Góilín Traditional singers please visit https://goilin.com/