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As a result of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1838 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 56), a workhouse with a capacity for 800 people opened in the city on 10 November 1840 and was the first operational workhouse in Ulster. During the Irish Famine (1845-1849), the number of people who were poverty-stricken drastically increased and, like many other workhouses in ...
The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger (Irish: an Gorta Mór [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ]), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, [1] [2] was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole. [3]
Ennistymon: This was the first memorial in Ireland to honour those who suffered and were lost during the Great Famine. It is erected across the road from Ennistymon Hospital, built on the grounds of the local workhouse where an estimated 20,000 Irish died and a mass graveyard for children who perished and were buried without coffins. [1]
Aid relief was sent from various parts of the world during this period. The Quakers were among the most active in famine relief initiatives and they opened soup kitchens throughout Ireland. The Poor Law Union built a workhouse in Mountmellick in 1839. The workhouse was situated on the site where St. Vincent's Hospital now stands.
Roscommon was severely affected during the great famine, with one of the highest death rates per population recorded in the whole of Ireland, during this period the population of Roscommon suffered a 31.5% drop. The workhouse was designed for 700 paupers but housed up to 1,600 people during the famine years. [23]
In 1805 Sir John Carr in his Tour of Ireland described the workhouse as "A gloomy abode of mingled want, disease, vice and malady, where lunatics were loaded with heavy chains and fallen women bound and logged"; [9] and Parliament believed the House of Industry was a failure and "completely worthless". [10]
The workhouse was declared fit for the admission of paupers on 15 March 1841, and the first inmates entered the workhouse on 20 April. [1] By November 1846, the capacity at the Waterford Union Workhouse was almost full. [4] A statement dating from 1 May 1847 shows the amount of workhouse accommodation in Ireland.
In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (Welsh: tloty, [1] lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses .