Wedding Dress

During World War II the Irish Free State introduced rationing. The Emergency Powers Act (1939) allowed the Irish government to control supplies and services. As a result, food and materials for clothing were scarce. Ration books were allocated to households with coupons to purchase a share of food and other scarce provisions.

Mairead McCullough wore this wedding dress when she married Patrick Meenan in 1944. Their wedding took place in Rathmines in Dublin. Her family had pooled together all their clothing coupons to buy its rayon fabric and the bridesmaids’ dresses. Rationing persisted in Ireland until 1952.

Object number: DT:2013.9

More information about ‘The Emergency’:
Girvin, Brian, The Emergency: Neutral Ireland 1939-45, (2006, Macmillan, London)
Irish Statue Book, S.I. No. 172/1952 - Emergency Powers (General Rationing Provisions) Orders (Revocation) Order, 1952. https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1952/si/172/made/en/ [Accessed 22/4/2024]
Ryle Dwyer. Behind the Green Curtain: Ireland’s phoney neutrality during World War II.  (2010, Gill & Macmillan Ltd)
Brown, Terrance. Ireland: a social and cultural history, 1922–2002 (2010: Harper Perennial; Revised ed. Edition)
 D. MacMahon, Republicans and imperialists: Anglo-Irish relations in the 1930s (London and New Haven, 1984).