Dublin’s women street traders, 1882-1932

Susan Marie Martin

“Into her pamphlet Ms Martin packs a great deal of social and political history of a kind that is little known, often quite unknown to some I expect.” Peter Costello, The Irish Catholic, 06 November 2025.

“For all the recent uproar about the 'groping' of the Molly Malone statue in Dublin, it is striking how little attention we have paid to the street traders she represents. How ironic, for instance, that the bronze statue by sculptor Jeanne Rynhart was erected in 1988, just a few short years after a heavy-handed crackdown on Dublin’s casual traders. They fought back — with the memorable anthem, Stand by your pram — but with limited success. Susan Marie Martin makes that point in a fascinating new book which charts the resilience and determination of generations of street traders who faced similar struggles as they tried to make an honest living while being moved on, fined, or sometimes jailed in a city that considered them a blight on the cityscape ... The author keeps the focus on the women themselves, winkling out the few traces of their lives and struggles that remain in the historical record ... This is a rigorously researched history book, yet it has something of a cat and-mouse quality to it as Susan Marie Martin skilfully sums up the attempts by the Street Traders Act to corral and regulate traders, and how those affected fought back to protect their livelihood.” Clodagh Finn, Irish Examiner, December 2025