offers some interesting insights into the early dispensary system. Irish Times Sept 2004 Laid out in a clear and accessible manner, this book shows a highly enlightened cross-section of Irish society over four or five generations encompassing all classes from the very rich ... to the upper and lower middle class ... to the ... Read morepropertyless of every kind ... Every table-even something as simple as the gender breakdown of admissions to county infirmaries 1841-51-gives us hitherto unavailable insight into Irish life, health and family economies ... an invaluable resource on the history of pre-Famine Ireland, and will become an essential textbook for the period. Irish Studies Review 13 (2) 2005 Laurence Geary has written an important book on the development of Ireland's hospital and dispensary services ... The book is an administrative history but enlivened by Geary's attempt to make the story of the dispensary and charitable hospital a history of Ireland's poor. Greta Jones, University of Ulster Irish Economic and Social History 2005 The documentary sources for this work are used to good effect ... includes a comprehensive bibliography that is a useful supplement to Geary's fluent and persuasive prose, and will be appreciated by the many future researchers who consult this book. New Hibernia Review Vol 11, No 1 Spring 2007 Show Less