Workhouses in Ireland discussion

jonniebgood1

There is something about workhouses in Irish history that has a sense of dread about it. Most of us are aware of this even though they are long since closed. In some areas the former workhouse buildings are still in existence. We have touched on aspects of individual workhouses recently on this forum but I would like to use this thread to look at a series of different aspects of the workhouse such as the following (not necessarily in the order shown so apologies in advance for not doing this chronologically):
1. Reasons for the workhouses. i.e. what created the large number of paupers in Ireland.
2. Ideas for dealing with the poor.
3. Physical construction of the workhouse buildings. This was a massive undertaking with approx 130 complex of buildings built over a 3 year period.
4. Typical layouts for the workhouses, I believe there were only 3-4 different types.
5. Management of the workhouses, staff, etc.
6. Diet of the paupers when in the workhouse.
7. Clothing.
8. Daytime activity/ work/ rules for people in the workhouse.
9. Famine period.
10. Post famine period.
11. Closure of the workhouses.

This is obviously a non exhaustive list so any suggestions of important aspects that I have not listed can also be discussed and are welcome. All assistance in discussing these different issues involving the workhouses are welcome. Some of the statistics availiable show how prominent these institutions were in their time. Towards the end of the famine approximately 250,000 people were estimated to be in the Irish workhouses (with over 770,000 on outdoor relief) although figures are hard to get in this period. At that rate it is likely that many people in Ireland today are descended from former workhouse inhabitants.
If people have information on individual workhouses please post it.

jonniebgood1

2. Ideas for dealing with the poor.

The ideas for dealing with the poor in Ireland were based mainly on what had been already taking place in England (and Wales). The poor law ammendment act of 1834 set in motion the construction of workhouses in England but Ireland was excluded. In fact some of the proponents of the poor laws blamed the Irish for widespread poverty:

James Kay-Shuttleworth, an Assistant Commissioner, supported the implementation of the PLAA in the north because he thought that pauperism there was caused by the 'recklesness and improvidence of the native population [and the] barbarism of the Irish immigrants' http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/antipoor.html

To deal with the poor in Ireland one of the poor law commissioners, George Nichols, was sent to Ireland to analyse what the best method would be. The instruction to Nichols and his reply to the British home secretary can be seen here
It is interesting in parts but overall quite condescending and his conclusion that the workhouses would be suitable was predictable given he was supportive of them in England. One of the more interesting conclusions he reaches is along the lines of, the property of Ireland must pay for the poverty of Ireland, (I think this was a later quote in famine time) in other words the funds for his proposal would be locally sought from the landlords and large farmers.

Some points: One of the basic principles of the workhouses in England was that the conditions inside the buildings was worse than outside, as a deterrent to seeking help from them. Given that Nichols identified the irish paupers were living in very poor conditions he does not seem to have recognised that it would be a problem delivering on this principle.
Also the system in England & wales was designed to persuade people to take employment which was in the most part widely availiable. This was not the case in Ireland where the people did not have work to go to.

shanew

Useful website with details of Workhouses in England, Wales and Ireland : http://www.workhouses.org.uk/

see 'Workhouse Locations' on the left menu, then 'Irish Poor Law Unions', for details of the various Irish Unions and Workhouses


Shane

jonniebgood1

8. Daytime activity/ work/ rules for people in the workhouse.

This sign is from an english workhouse but the rules were similar. There was silence in the dining room and mixing sexes was not allowed.

zagmund

This report from the BMJ in 1895/6 gives a good idea of the way things worked back in the day. It also describes the building layouts, general provisions, etc . . . I'm sure there are equivalents for other workhouses. I just have an interest in theBailieboro one as a relative was medical officer there for a long period.

http://www.workhouses.org.uk/BMJ/Bailieborough.shtml

Thess quotes will give you an idea -
"As the dinners were being served a few old men came in at one door, a few old women and children at another; they stood around the feeding troughs out of which they took the food, presumably porridge. Our illustration shows the feeding troughs, but in this case the inmates were standing to take their meal. No grace was said, no officer appeared to be present; it was like the feeding of animals, and not of human beings."

"As we entered the male ward an old man, hearing a strange voice, stood up, and saluting in military fashion said, "Can you tell me why I am shut up in prison? I have served my Queen and country well, I have my discharge and pension, but my liberty is taken from me as though I were a felon. Will you please tell me why it is?" The doctor, in explanation, told us that the man is a pensioner, but being friendless and old he has no other refuge than the house; that he pays his pension to the guardians, and he has a few indulgences — extra tobacco, tea, etc. — but since by the general orders he cannot go beyond the small yard attached to the infirmary, he is, in fact, that which he states himself to be — a prisoner. And this is the condition of all the aged, infirm, and sick, who are forced by stress of circumstances into the workhouse; they are worse fed, clothed, and housed, than criminals."

z

jonniebgood1

zagmund wrote: »

This report from the BMJ in 1895/6 gives a good idea of the way things worked back in the day. It also describes the building layouts, general provisions, etc . . . I'm sure there are equivalents for other workhouses. I just have an interest in theBailieboro one as a relative was medical officer there for a long period.

Very interesting zagmund. Do you know any more about the role of your relative. I am also very interested in the Bailieborough workhouse. You will probably know that the workhouse structure is totally gone now with a nursing home built in its place. There is a plaque marking the place on the stone wall that continues in front of the town lake I think. A local website details an outline of the Bailieborough workhouse including a figure of 1200 people during famine time which is hard to believe

During the Great Famine as many as twelve hundred poor men, women and children crowded into its shelter and within its walls many of them died buried in the famine mass graves (site 8). The Workhouse closed in the 1920's having previously served as a fever hospital. In 1922 the Free State Army occupied the Workhouse. Following the Free State Army's Occupation it became one of the first Technical Schools in the country. It's use changed again in 1936 when the building became a manufacturing base for shoes and boots produced by the George Earl Company. http://www.bailieborough.com/history/details.php?History_ID=2

I have also seem some pictures that are from the bailieborough workhouse possibly from the time of the report quoted in previous post. I will try and find them again. With regard to your relative it may be possible to look at records from the Bailieborough workhouse in Cavan County councils archives in the Johnston Library. Some are damaged but it seems from this document that quite alot of the records are availiable and that they contain staff details -

Staff and officers of the workhouses are often named and the names of
Guardians who attended the weekly meetings are supplied.

Please let us know on the forum here how you get on if you look at these records or if you find any more info on this workhouse.

The Bailieborogh workhouse was shut down with the following local government act http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1923/en/act/pub/0009/sched1.html

zagmund

Small world, Jonnie.

I have a plan to hit the workhouse records in Cavan at some stage to get more details, but I have no firm dates for that. It will probably be next Spring before I get to it.

I was up in Bailieboro a few weeks back and there is indeed a small plaque on the wall in front of the lake. If this link works correctly, you will see the layout of the workhouse ~1907 - http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V1,667255,796898,7,9

I'll let you know how I get on with the research, but it could be a while.

z

jonniebgood1

7. Clothing.

Given that many of the people who came to the workhouse had few clothes it was difficult to abide by Nichols theory that the inhabitants were to be worse off inside than the poorest people outside. People coming into the workhouses were to hand in their own clothing for storage while they were in the workhouse. This was then returned when they left. John O'Connor in 'The workhouses of Ireland' describes the female uniform as "a striped jerkin, a petticoat of 'linsey-woolsey' and another of stout cotton, a cap, a shift, shoes and stockings" (pg 102). He also states that often the workhouse did not have any supplies during the famine.
http://grandmastitches.blogspot.com/2009/04/stillwell-workhouse-nottinghamshire.html
The stripes are interesting with similarities to convicts uniforms.

jonniebgood1

Leading on from the section on clothing is a slight tangent involving the treatment of unmarried mothers who were looked upon with disgust and disdain in the era of the workhouses. From pg 99 of the 1939 poor law commissioners report is the following section:

The Poor Law Commissioners are informed that in several Union workhouses single women, mothers of children or pregnant, are compelled to wear a dress of a peculiar colour as a mark of disgrace.

The Commissioners are aware that such a regulation has originated solely in a desire on the part of the Guardians to repress vice; and it is only because they are convinced that principles of considerable importance are involved in this practice that they feel called on to express an opinion on the subject. pg.98 http://books.google.ie/books?id=b2ouAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=Ignominious+Dress+for+Unchaste+Women+in+Workhouses&source=bl&ots=YDAR7LQf8U&sig=fqhcnDwN9_KI1mtgW0XQkSGbA5w&hl=en&ei=9ZbbTtCZBIa7hAeZ6rneDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CFIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

The report goes on to say that this is not treatment that they have prescribed.

jonniebgood1

3. Physical construction of the workhouse buildings.

The actual contruction of the first series of workhouses was a massive undertaking in a short period of time from 1839 onwards. The poor law commissioners appointed an English Architect, George Wilkinson, to oversee the building of the workhouses. He had previously designed some workhouses in England. The Irish workhouses were to be mainly based on 3 layouts depending on the number of inhabitants to be catered for

The workhouse building designed by Wilkinson consisted of three main parts. In front was a separate building referred to as "the front building". Some distance behind this was the main building of the workhouse, with a spine extension at the back at right angles, which contained the utility rooms. Together these formed "the body of the house". The infirmary building completed the basic H plan of the main part of the workhouse, although it was not possible to pass from the body of the house to the Infirmary without going outside. Around the buildings was a complex of exercise yards each surrounded by a high wall. This basic layout can clearly be seen on aerial photographs of those workhouses still remaining intact.

...It has been possible to prepare detailed plans for each part of the workhouse and to determine the original function of most of the rooms: the functions of the various rooms often changed in later years.

...The entrance building was placed some 150 feet in front of the main workhouse and contained (a) the board room on the first floor, (b) the clerk's office and porter's room, (c) probationary and vagrants' wards (on first and ground floors respectively ), (d) outhouses including privies, washing rooms and refractory (punishment) cells. Sometimes there was a fumigation room for clothing, and (e) a small gatekeeper's annex.

Although not detailed in Wilkinson's reports, in several Unions the front building was split into two smaller units. Presumably this was done at the request of the respective Boards who felt that an open view of the main building would form a more impressive frontage. Ballycastle, Castlederg and Gortin were all of this type. http://freespace.virgin.net/mp.hearth/Workhouses.html

Overseeing these nationwide works was a large undertaking.

It is well to
remember that the work had to be done in the face of tremendous
difficulties. When he undertook the task, there were no
railways available in Ireland. Passenger travel was by coach or
canal-boat. The buildings were all built in masonry and the discovery
of suitable quarries and the transport of the stone
presented many problems. Many of these buildings are stil in
use to-day and the solid walls and much of the timber work remain
to show us the quality of the work done. The erection of
100 workhouses in less than three years was an achievement
which would be difficult to surpass to-day with all the modern
inventions and labour-saving appliances to help in the work http://limerickcity.ie/media/Media,3942,en.pdf

The buildings were basic with little comfort desired by the commissioners:

One plan is for 400 inmates, and shows the additions which will be requisite for increasing the accommodation to 600. The other plan is for 800, and shows in like manner the mode of extending the accommodation so as to fit the house for the reception of 1000 inmates. The style of building is intended to be of the cheapest description, compatible with durability; and effect is aimed at by harmony of proportion and simplicity of arrangement, all mere decoration being studiously excluded http://books.google.ie/books?id=_Y0SAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA59&dq=The+style+of+building+is+intended+to+be+of+the+cheapest+description&hl=en&ei=YILeTvGXIIK2hQeMsL2XBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

jonniebgood1

4. Typical layouts for the workhouses, I believe there were only 3-4 different types.

As the Irish workhouses were built in such a relatively short period of time alot of them were similar in plan. This link shows the courtyard layout of Bawnboy's workhouse. Bawnboy was part of the 2nd phase of workhouses.

The sligo wokhouse layout seems similar and is seen here

It is quite easy to recognise the prominence of the workhouses as they are immediately visible when viewing maps of the towns that contained them.

The plans developed by the Architect, Wilkinson were developed from those contained in the 1939 poor law report. Illustrations in this show what was envisaged prior to the construction. Reference page 144 http://books.google.ie/books?id=_Y0SAAAAIAAJ&dq=The%20style%20of%20building%20is%20intended%20to%20be%20of%20the%20cheapest%20description&pg=PA144#v=twopage&q&f=true
The images are not in correct order.

moonstruck

what did they do all day in them?

Fuinseog

until the eighties if you were old and poor with no family you were sent to a mental hospital. times have not change much.

Jolly Red Giant

Workhouses were established under the Poor Law Guardians after the Poor Law Report in 1835 - but similar institutions did exist prior to these.

Houses of Industry was established in Dublin in 1775 and Limerick and Coleraine in 1776. These Houses were to deal with 'mendacity and vagrancy'.

Fever and famine in 1771 created a critical situation in Ireland for the sick poor and underlined the need for the provision of medical relief. Rev. Dr. Woodward's writings on poverty provided the second reason for the setting up of these houses.

Pressure on these institutions forced them to extend their services and the Dublin House built its own fever hospital in 1801, and opened for patients in 1803. 'Lunatics' were also accommodated in these houses in special cells and over 230 'lunatics' could be housed between Cork, Dublin, Waterford and Limerick in 1804. Overcrowding in the Houses of Industry gave the impetus for the setting up of 'lunatic asylums' for the poor.

In April 1804 the House of Industry in Limerick ran out of funds to support the poor of the city. Worried about the potential for rioting in the city and suburbs on the eve of Mayday, as had happened in the past, the Magistrates had discussed how to quell any potential problem and organised “an army of citizens” to patrol the city in event of disturbances.

On 4 May 1805 the Limerick Chronicle congratulated the Mayor for “the example made by him on Thursday, in ordering two notorious prostitutes and pick-pockets, to be shaved, and carted through the city” the Chronicle hoped that this would “cause many of their associates to desert this City, or betake themselves to honest industry”. In September the Mayor and Magistrates resolved to clear the streets “of the groupes(sic) of Beggars which have long infested it”. The beggars were to “fly the city or be lodged in the House of Industry”

In relation to the Poor Law Report of 1835 - this makes very interesting reading. The Poor Law Report for Calre can be found here -
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/history/poverty/introduction.htm

What I found most interesting were the highly critical comments made by the labouring poor at their treatment by local Irish Catholic tenant farmers.

jonniebgood1

moonstruck wrote: »

what did they do all day in them?

Apologies- I lost track of this thread.

8. Daytime activity/ work

The most common work in the first era or years of these workhouses saw stone breaking being the most common daytime activity. It was called a workhouse and the people had to work for their upkeep. This was the same for Britain and Ireland although conditions were worse in Ireland. The work day of an example from Llandeilofawr Workhouse in Wales read as follows:

The daily routine laid down by the Poor Law Commission was as follows:

Wake 6 am
Breakfast 6.30-7 am
Start work 7.00 am
Dinner 12-1 pm
Finish Work 5 pm
Supper 6-7 pm
Bed 8 pm

In the winter inmates had the luxury of rising an hour later at 7 am. http://www.llandeilo.org/workhouse2.php

After Stone breaking another common work was 'Oakum picking', description of which:

Oakum-picking was one of the most boring ever. It is also the most famous of all workhouse jobs. It’s really the stereotypical workhouse job, you might say. Long, boring, pointless…

But what is ‘oakum’ anyway?

Oakum is rope. Or more precisely, rope-fibres. If you were in a workhouse and you were given the task of picking oakum, you were given a hunk of old rope which once belonged to a sailing-ship, and you were told to ‘pick’ it. This meant ripping the rope apart, breaking it down from the cable to the rope to the yarn to thread, right down to the tiny, itsy-bitsy little fibres of hemp! While on the surface, this sounds pretty easy, it gets trickier the smaller you go, since you need to dig your nails into the rope-fibres to pull them apart. Once the rope was all broken down, you were given a new piece to start on.

The other common jobs are also listed:

Stone-breaking

Stone-breaking involved smashing and hitting lumps of rock such as limestone, with sledgehammers and pickaxes. The stones were smashed, pummelled and whacked until they shattered into tiny pieces, each one about the size of a small to medium-sized pebble. The smashed rocks were used in roadbuilding and the smashed rock-fragments were passed through a mesh or a grille in a special storage-room in the workhouse, to determine whether the smashed rocks were of the correct size. If the pebbles didn’t pass through the mesh, they had to be smashed again and again until they did. Stone-breaking was a job performed by male inmates due to the physically demanding nature of the task. Vagrants and wanderers (travellers, in other words) might be forced to do stone-breaking in return for a night’s bed and board at a workhouse, on their journey.

Bone-grinding

Another common workhouse chore was bone-grinding or bone-breaking. Bones, typically from cattle or sheep, were delivered to the workhouse where the inmates smashed them up over and over and ground them up until they were a powdery consistency. The grinding and crushing of the bones was necessary because the ‘bonemeal’ powder was used to manufacture fertilisers for farmers to use on their crops. In one particular workhouse in Andover, England, in 1846, the mishandling of funds and the general brutality of the workhouse master had reduced many of the paupers to sucking the marrow out of the bones that they were supposed to be crushing for fertiliser. The master, a man named M’Dougal, was fired for his treatment of his charges. Bone-crushing was banned as a workhouse chore shortly after the Andover Scandal.

Wood-chopping

Before gas-stoves, before electricity, before central heating, firewood was essential to everyday life. This being the case, it’s probably not surprising that one of the other main jobs in the workhouse was the splitting and chopping of firewood. http://scheong.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/please-sir-i-want-some-more-the-horror-of-victorian-era-workhouses/

P. Breathnach

Coolnabacky1873 posted a good link in the genealogy forum: http://www.thegreathunger.org/TheCollection/KillarneyMinutes/. This shows us minutes of the Board of Guardians of the Killarney Workhouse for the years 1845 to 1848.

I found it interesting that they had great difficulty in dealing with the Anglican curate in Killarney, the Rev. Robert Hewson, who seemed bent on proselytising in the workhouse, and more or less went to war with the Board of Guardians.

jonniebgood1

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Coolnabacky1873 posted a good link in the genealogy forum: http://www.thegreathunger.org/TheCollection/KillarneyMinutes/. This shows us minutes of the Board of Guardians of the Killarney Workhouse for the years 1845 to 1848.

I found it interesting that they had great difficulty in dealing with the Anglican curate in Killarney, the Rev. Robert Hewson, who seemed bent on proselytising in the workhouse, and more or less went to war with the Board of Guardians.

Good stuff, A look at how religuous institutions were involved with Irish workhouses would be worthwhile. I forgot it on my initial list!

pedroeibar1

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

Good stuff, A look at how religuous institutions were involved with Irish workhouses would be worthwhile. I forgot it on my initial list!

Another active Kerry proslytiser at that time was the Rev. Denis Mahony of Dromore (near Kenmare). He had a soup kitchen & chapel at his castle and was very nearly burned out by the locals as a result. Local legend has it that he was saved by Kenmare's RC parish priest.
P.

thadiisgirl

Funny how things carry on through the years - only the other day, my 82 yr old Mother was talking about people from way back in her childhood in the 1930s - and she said "My Dad used to tell me that that family 'took the soup'" - and she was advised to avoid socialising with them - this was 1930s England by the way.

Doing a bit of research on the saying, it appears to be quite a well-known insult - yet I'd never heard my Mum mention it before last week.

Just shows how these feelings can be passed won through the generations..

jonniebgood1

thadiisgirl wrote: »

Funny how things carry on through the years - only the other day, my 82 yr old Mother was talking about people from way back in her childhood in the 1930s - and she said "My Dad used to tell me that that family 'took the soup'" - and she was advised to avoid socialising with them - this was 1930s England by the way.

Doing a bit of research on the saying, it appears to be quite a well-known insult - yet I'd never heard my Mum mention it before last week.

Just shows how these feelings can be passed won through the generations..

I have read previously that it is a term of abuse (those who took the soup) that was given to people who agreed to change their religon in return for getting soup. Given that most soup kitchens were run by Quakers during the famine I am not sure how widespread such attempts at converting people were.

Fratton Fred

I've also hear, but with nothing to back it up, that Irish people who moved to England and dropped the O' were called soupers as well.

thadiisgirl

Interesting Fred. Another one of my Irish forebears, on his daughter's wedding certificate in 1857(Lancashire, England) states his name as William Aharin - yet by 1911, that surname had morphed into Heron, varying through the previous 60 years as Herring, Ahern, Hearn, Harrins etc etc. This was not because anyone dropped any 'O' as such, but is more likely down to the fact that he couldn't read or write and (I'd imagine) the authorities having problems understanding his presumably thick accent. (This branch of my family were in and out of the workhouse here in England, poor devils.)

Oh, if anyone has any info on this surname and its variants I'd appreciate it - we have no idea whereabouts in Ireland this William Aharin came from. (Supect Mayo, but nothing to back this up. We assume he must have arrived in England around the time of the famine/shortly after, as this 1857 wedding is the first appearance of this family.)

P. Breathnach

thadiisgirl wrote: »

Interesting Fred. Another one of my Irish forebears, on his daughter's wedding certificate in 1857(Lancashire, England) states his name as William Aharin - yet by 1911, that surname had morphed into Heron, varying through the previous 60 years as Herring, Ahern, Hearn, Harrins etc etc. This was not because anyone dropped any 'O' as such, but is more likely down to the fact that he couldn't read or write and (I'd imagine) the authorities having problems understanding his presumably thick accent. (This branch of my family were in and out of the workhouse here in England, poor devils.)

Oh, if anyone has any info on this surname and its variants I'd appreciate it - we have no idea whereabouts in Ireland this William Aharin came from. (Supect Mayo, but nothing to back this up. We assume he must have arrived in England around the time of the famine/shortly after, as this 1857 wedding is the first appearance of this family.)

Here's the main Ahern resource: http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~aherns/#toc

Fratton Fred

There's a branch of Aherns from Drumcondra I believe. I think one of them benefited from the odd "Dig out" as well....

thadiisgirl

Many thinks to PB & to Fred for this info. Not sure what 'Dig out' is mind...

Thing is, we can't even be sure Aharin IS Ahern really - I was thinking it could be O Hara too. Don't know where to start with this research so it tends to stay on the back burner - our other 6 Irish G-Grandparents we've dealt with much more successfully as they either told English census enumerators where they came from in Ireland or we already have strong info with known family history.

pedroeibar1

thadiisgirl wrote: »

Oh, if anyone has any info on this surname and its variants I'd appreciate it - we have no idea whereabouts in Ireland this William Aharin came from. (Supect Mayo, but nothing to back this up. We assume he must have arrived in England around the time of the famine/shortly after, as this 1857 wedding is the first appearance of this family.)

The Ahern site linked by P Breathnach is a really good one; I've Ahern's in my maternal line, from Cork. Ahern and its variants are heavily concentrated in Munster, with pockets of Aherns in Cork, Limerick and Tipperary. Nothing to prevent your William from being a Mayoman, 'tho.

P. Breathnach

thadiisgirl wrote: »

Many thinks to PB & to Fred for this info. Not sure what 'Dig out' is mind...

Fred was joking.

Thing is, we can't even be sure Aharin IS Ahern really - I was thinking it could be O Hara too....

I think Ahern is the best bet, given the variants you listed.

thadiisgirl

Many thanks - hey pedroeibar1, we may be related..

My William Aharin DID marry Honoria Glynn of Co Clare extraction, so a comforting Munster link may be reason for that marriage...

Stanley62

The word "souper" brings me back over 50 years to a row after school in Tralee when a senior post primary pupil called a younger pupil a "souper". I didn't know what he meant but when I enquired at home it was explained to me. I thought it was particularly disgusting but of course it only reflected what we were generally blackmailed into in the the 50s and 60s.

whisky_galore

A number of former workhouses, or at least the sites where those workhouses once were, are local hospitals today.

You can draw a few apt HSE parallels right there....

robp

There was a great interview on RTE's the History Show of a man John Horan who experienced one in his childhood while they were still open. It is a petty brief interview though. It was on the following episode.
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/the-history-show/programmes/2014/0504/614578-the-history-show-sunday-4-may-2014/?clipid=1567160

byhookorbycrook

I did a coursework in my final year in college on the school in Mallow workhouse (which is still used as a hospital.) I actually got to handle the minute books of the board of guardians. There was a strong emphasis on the "workhouse test" -making the place so grim that only those in the direst straits would go there.
One story that stuck with me was that a door was left open between the women's yard and the children's area. A mother was punished for seeking out her child and had rations cut as a result.

PhoenixParker

For those interested in workhouses generally, the book Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse is also worth a read.

It's a follow on from the book on which the TV series is based. The author was a district nurse in 1950s East End London. Many of the elderly in the area, who she was caring for, had direct experience of the workhouse and she tells some of their stories.

Meso Harney

Another very good account of the Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow workhouse was 'From Shadow to Sunrise?' by Kevin Byrne.