workhouses

[M. McNamara]

For those interested in the history of the workhouse in GB & IRL, see Peter Higginbotham's extensive web site: http://www.workhouses.org.uk. He has included photos and maps and descriptions of individual workhouses, including those of Co. Clare.

[Paddy Casey]

There is a lot of material on Irish workhouses, some of it specific to Clare, on the EPPI (Enhanced Parliamentary Papers on Ireland 1801 - 1922) website at http://www.eppi.ac.uk/eppi/digbib/home Entering "Clare workhouse" (for example) into the search facility turns up quite a list of papers. More imaginative search terms will presumably unearth more.

Some of the material listed on the EPPI site has also been published in the CLASP book entitled "Poverty in County Clare in the 1830s" which is based on information extracted from one of the reports of the Royal Commission of Enquiry into the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland which was set up in 1833.

Paddy

[Clare Admin]

"Poverty Before the Famine" mentioned by Paddy above is available online on the History section of the library website. Also online here is "A Guide to Ennistymon Union 1839 -1850" and "Ennistymon Union Minute Books 1839 -1850" - both donated by the North Clare Historical Society. "Kilrush Union Minute Books 1849" are also available online, as are "Deaths and Staff in Kilrush and Ennistymon Workhouses 1850-51" and "Reports and Returns Relating to Evictions in the Kilrush Union 1849" - the latter all donated by Clare Local Studies Project (CLASP). "An Act for the more Effectual Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland" was passed in April 1838. As a result, the country was divided into 160 unions, four of which were in County Clare. Each union had to provide a workhouse for the relief of the destitute poor of that union; a compulsory rate was to be levied on the union to finance the administration of the poor law; and a board of Guardians was to be elected in each union to administer the poor law. Minute Books of meetings of these Boards of Guardians give an insight into the workings of the workhouse system in Clare during the worst days of the Great Famine.

[smcarberry]

Galway Mercury reported in The Freeman's Journal 31 Mar 1853
“Every week is adding to the numbers who are flocking away to America and Australia from this part of Ireland. Not a day passes that large bodies of emigrants do not leave Galway by the trains; while from the lower part of the country, as well as from Mayo and Roscommon, hundreds and thousands are wending their way by various routes to Liverpool. Nearly the whole population of the extensive and lately populous district west of Galway are leaving; while from Ballyvaughan on the opposite shore of Clare, four hundred persons, whose friends in Australia have lately supplied them with funds, are upon the point of starting for the gold fields. The influx of money from Australia and America is enormous - every post bringing orders for large sums to the peasantry. Even the paupers in our workhouse are not forgotten, for we are informed that scarcely a day passes over in which some inmate does not receive a money letter from relatives to enable the recipient to join them.”

posted by Sharon Carberry USA