The Workhouses Of Ireland

The workhouse was the most dreaded and feared institution in Ireland. The workhouse system of poor relief was imposed on the Irish people in spite of the opposition of Catholic and Protestant, landlord and labourer. Everyone predicted it would not work- and it did not work. During the famine years countless thousands died within the workhouse walls. Even more, denied admission, died outside. This book traces the workhouse system from its introduction to its phasing out. It makes an unique contribution to our understanding of the social history of Ireland. -- Publisher description.

With one million dead, and just as many forced to emigrate, the Irish Famine (1845-52) is among the worst health calamities in history. Because historical records of the Victorian period in Ireland were generally written by the middle and upper classes, relatively little has been known about those who suffered the most, the poor and destitute. But in 2006, archaeologists excavated an until then completely unknown intramural mass burial containing the remains of nearly 1,000 Kilkenny Union Workhouse inmates. In the first bioarchaeological study of Great Famine victims, Jonny Geber uses skeletal analysis to tell the story of how and why the Famine decimated the lowest levels of nineteenth century Irish society. Seeking help at the workhouse was an act of desperation by people who were severely malnourished and physically exhausted. Overcrowded, it turned into a hotspot of infectious disease--as did many other union workhouses in Ireland during the Famine. Geber reveals how medical officers struggled to keep people alive, as evidenced by cases of amputations but also craniotomies. Still, mortality rates increased and the city cemeteries filled up, until there was eventually no choice but to resort to intramural burials. Deceased inmates were buried in shrouds and coffins--an attempt by the Board of Guardians of the workhouse to maintain a degree of dignity towards these victims. By examining the physical conditions of the inmates that might have contributed to their institutionalization, as well as to the resulting health consequences, Geber sheds new and unprecedented light on Ireland’s Great Hunger.

The true story of the Kerry girls who were shipped to Australia from the four Kerry Workhouses of Dingle/Kenmare/Killarney and Listowel in 1849/1850, as part of the Earl Grey Scheme. From scenes of destitution and misery, the girls, some of whom spoke only Irish, set off to the other side of the world without any idea of what lay ahead. This book tells of their 'selection' and shipping to New South Wales and Adelaide, their subsequent apprenticeship, marriage and life in the colony.

This publication explores the impact of the Famine on children and young adults. It examines the topic through a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including literature, history, visual representations, folklore and folk-memory.

This book examines the provision of poor relief in Ireland from the immediate aftermath of the Famine in the mid-nineteenth century to the onset of the Great War in 1914, by which time the Poor Law had been replaced by a range of other policy measures such as the old-age pension and national insurance. The study establishes an empirical basis for studying poor relief in this period, analysing over time the provision of indoor and outdoor relief and expenditure levels, and charts regional variations in the provision of poor relief. The author goes on to examine a number of issues that highlight political and social class struggles in relation to the provision of poor relief and also considers in fascinating detail the broader role of the Poor Law and the Boards of Guardians within local communities.

What was it like in a Victorian Workhouse? Was the food really as bad as we imagine? Take a step back in time with Alan Gallop and ask yourself if you could have survived in such harsh conditions.

This book is a ground-breaking history of poverty and welfare in modern Ireland, in the era of the Irish poor law. As the first study to address poor relief and health care together, the book fills an important gap, providing a much-needed introduction and assessment of the evolution of social welfare in 19th- and early 20th-century Ireland. The collection also addresses a number of related issues, including private philanthropy, the attitudes of landowners towards poor relief, and the crisis of the poor law during the Great Famine of 1845-1850. Together, these interlinking contributions both survey current research and suggest new areas for investigation, providing further stimulus to the growing field of Irish welfare history.