Making tough choices: Experiences of hygiene poverty in Ireland

This article examines hygiene poverty as an under-recognised dimension of material deprivation in Ireland. Presenting four in-depth biographical case studies, the study explores how limited resources constrain access to essential hygiene goods across diverse household contexts. Situating hygiene within social policy debates on relative deprivation, dignity and decommodification, the article argues that hygiene poverty is not reducible to income poverty alone but operates through embodied mechanisms of stigma, respectability and social participation. The findings reveal gendered patterns of sacrifice; cumulative pressures associated with incomplete healthcare universalism and the market dependence of essential bodily goods. The article concludes by outlining structural policy reforms, including enhanced measurement, income adequacy review and movement toward universal basic provision of hygiene essentials.