Frances Finnegan
Dr Frances Finnegan was born in England and read Modern History at the University of York (1967).
Her D.Phil. (1976) from the same university was on the Irish community in York in the Victorian period, and was based on a detailed survey of the census enumerators’ notebooks and other primary and rarely used sources.
Before she moved to Ireland in 1979 she was Research Fellow at the University of York, and later became Lecturer in Social History at Waterford Institute of Technology, a position she held until her retirement.
She lectured extensively on the Irish workhouse system, on Magdalen Asylums in England and Ireland, and on the subject of her most recent book — Dorothea Herbert.
She lived in Piltown, near Carrick-on-Suir, close to her two daughters and three grandsons, and spent much of her time in Venice.
Dr Finnegan died on 4 June 2022 and is buried in Piltown.
In 1998 she was historical consultant for the Channel 4 documentary Sex in a Cold Climate, and wrote an article in its defence which The Irish Times declined to publish. She gave evidence to the Inter-Departmental Committee on the Magdalen Laundries in 2011.