Carlow
Town Centre Map c1844
D
etail from a pre-ordnance survey map of
Municipal Boundary changes in Carlow Town, executed by
Thomas A. Larcom, Lieut Royal Engineers. It accompanies a
"Report upon the proposed municipal Boundary of Carlow" by
Thomas R. Mould. This detail shows Carlow Goal, R.C.
Cathedral (R.C. Chapel), Courthouse, St Patrick's College
and Lunatic Asylum. Workhouse site is marked on the map with
an X, beside land owned by Mr. Carey. The Kilkenny Road is
shown close to the workhouse site and the River Barrow can
be seen on the other side of the Kilkenny Road. Source:
Carlow County Library
The Carlow
Workhouse
The impact of the great famine of 1845-1849 on the western and
south-western seaboards has been described in a number of
historical studies and its tragic manifestations in these
areas are generally well known. Considerable less is known
about the conditions of the period in the Irish midlands. In
the course of collecting material for a broader study I had
occasion to examine the original records for these years of
the Carlow Board of Guardians as well as some Poor Law
Commission papers relating to the board. They show how the
famine affected Carlow Workhouse and reflect the conditions
prevailing outside it. The following account is based
largely on the board's minute books and to a lesser extent
on the extant papers of the Poor Law Commissioners.
The account is necessary selective and does not attempt to do
anything other than briefly describe some of the more
interesting facts recorded in them .
The Commissioners who had inquired into the conditions of the
Irish poor during the years 1833 to 1836 had estimated that
the number of persons who were destitute in Ireland for at
least thirty weeks of the year was not less than 2,385,000.
Yet after the workhouse system had been created following
the passage of the Irish Poor Relief Act of 1838 the vast
majority of the pauper population were prepared to suffer
destitution rather than to accept the shame and indignities
of the workhouses. Even during the early part of 1846, with
famine conditions rapidly developing. There were only about
50,000 people in the one hundred and thirty workhouses that
had been opened throughout the country.
Attitudes in Carlow were no different from elsewhere. Carlow
workhouse had been built to accommodate 800 paupers. The
Union it served comprised the whole of County Carlow and a
small portion of the then Queen's County. Early in 1845 it
had only about 250 inmates of whom about half were children.
There was as yet no hint of the terrible conditions which
lay ahead. The inmates appeared happy with their conditions
and in August of that year the visiting committee was
gratified "to hear many of the inmates testify their
gratitude to the Master and Matron for their great
kindness." When the poor rate was struck in September
1845 it varied between 2½d and 5d for the electoral
divisions of the Union and although it is unlikely that the
Poor Law was welcome to the ratepayers of Carlow, there was
no reference in the minute books to any resistance to the
collection of the rate.
During October came the first omen of the pending famine, the board
of guardians received only two tenders for the supply of
potatoes both "at an extravagantly high price" and
rejected them. After consultation with the Poor Law
Commissioners it was decided to give the inmates a diet of
oatmeal, rice and bread. Later the rice was omitted from the
dietary. Yet despite the conditions which were developing
outside. There was as yet no significant influx into the
workhouse.
In January 1846 there were about 350 inmates and in April the
guardians anxious to accept further inmates, asked the Poor
Law Commissioners to allow individual members of a family to
be admitted and to waive the regulation that obliged all
members of a family seeking relief to enter the workhouse
together. The Commissioners refused the request. By
September the guardians were grieved to learn about great
distress throughout the Union particularly in the Carlow,
Ballon and Myshall areas. But to the hungry peasants the
workhouse was still anathema and on 26th September it had
only 380 inmates of whom 213 were children. The guardians
recognising that the workhouse would not in any event remedy
the widespread destitution urged the Board of Works to
undertake the immediate draining of the Barrow as a relief
scheme but the board refused. The guardians then sent a
memortal to the Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Bessborough
requesting his intervention with the Board of Works but he
appears to have ignored them.
By the end of 1846 the widespread hunger was breaking down
resistance to the workhouse system and many people were
reluctantly seeking its modicum of relief.
At the end of January 1847 there were nearly 1,200 persons crammed
into the accommodation meant for 800. The guardians had two
sheds built urgently in the yards as temporary dormitories
and a further 250 persons were admitted to these. All others
seeking admission were turned away without any assistance
for, as the law stood, there was no provision for outdoor
relief and once the workhouse was full the responsibilities
of the guardians were ended. In all parts of the Union many
starving people now awaited hopefully a place in the
workhouse, their original destination of the system overcome
by their terrible plight. In the Queen's County divisions of
the Union alone there were in mid February, 1847 over 900
persons awaiting a place and towards the end of that month
the guardians decided to build further temporary
accommodation for 600 In. mates.
This accommodation did not
appear to have been provided, probably because the number
seeking admission fell once the harsh months of winter and
early spring had passed. Yet In March the Board reported
that fever and Infectious diseases were
"increasing to an
alarming extent" throughout the Union and fever
hospitals which had been established at Mill Lane in Carlow
Town and at Doonane were unable to accept further patients.
In April, Dr. Porter the medical officer informed the
guardians that fever was also present in the workhouse and
was increasing rapidly, particularly amongst the women. He
blamed this situation on the overcrowding and on the
pestiferous effluvia issuing from a cesspool lying
contiguous to the female department.
"The visiting
committee which made a tour of the institution at this time
were nevertheless incredibly complacent. They found the
inmates "in a highly satisfactory state"
and were
"happy to say that the fever appears mitigatory."
In the middle of 1847 the government was compelled to accept that
its inflexible attitude towards outdoor relief could not be
maintained as long as so many starving people in all parts
of the country were unable to secure admission to the
over-crowded workhouses. The Poor Relief Extension Act (10 &
11 Vic. C. 31) empowered guardians at their discretion to
grant relief outside the workhouse to the aged infirm and
sick and to poor widows with two or more dependent children.
The act also empowered the Poor Law Commissioners to allow
local guardians to give out door relief in the form of food
to ablebodied persons for limited periods. But the Carlow
guardians set themselves firmly against the grant of
out-door relief expect in the most exceptional cases and as
the winter of 1847 approached the numbers being admitted to
the workhouse and its ancillaries steadily increased. During
the week ended 25th September there were 1,135 inmates - of
whom 561 were ill.
Dr. Porter who was receiving a salary of
only £100 a year for looking after the sick in both the
work- house and the local fever hospital complained about
the inadequacy of his salary for such "hazardous"
duties. The guardians determined to keep down the poor rate
were unsympathetic. In October the master reported that all
the neighbouring graveyards were so over- crowded that he
had been refused permission to bury the workhouse dead in
them. He had nevertheless been removing bodies from the
workhouse in the dead of the night and burying them by
stealth. The guardians were not prepared to condone this
practise and decided that the dead should be buried within
the workhouse grounds in pits which would contain three of
four tier of coffins.
As 1847 drew to a close the cost of the Poor Law was becoming an
intolerable burden for the ratepayers, many of whom were
themselves close to destitution. There was determined and
widespread resistance to the collection of the rates. In
Ballickmoyler property seized by the collector was rescued
from him. Matthew Farrell the collector for the Queen's
County divisions, reported that “a determined resistance
to the payment of rates is observable in the middle class of
farmer which comprise the majority of the ratepayers in the
barony" Property was being removed out of the area to
prevent it being served. In Arles and Shrule districts
seized property was rescued from collectors and the
guardians wrote to the Poor Law Commissioners asking for a
force of military and police to protect the collectors.
The guardians, intimidated by the ratepayers, set the harshest of
standards for the grant of outdoor relief. When Pat Daly a
coa1miner in the Shrule area had his back broken in the pit
a doctor certified that he could not be removed from his
home "without imminent peril to his life" Yet the
guardians decided that he would be granted relief only if he
and his whole family entered the workhouse.
The policy of the guardians in regard to outdoor relief aroused the
wrath of a number of local Catholic clergymen, particularly
Father Maher, parish priest of Graiguecullen, and another
clergyman named Fitzgerald, who publicly condemned the
guardians for their unyielding insistence on admission to
the workhouse. Although the population of County Carlow was
predominantly Catholic the majority of the guardians were
Protestant a fact which made the workhouse suspect where the
Catholic clergy were concerned. It was of course a period
when religious passions ran high. The bible societies well
organised and with an abundance of preachers and pamphlets
were active. In all parts of the country and there were many
Catholic clergymen who feared that workhouses in areas
controlled by Protestant guardians would be used as centres
of proselytism.
It must be said to the credit of the Pour
Law Commissioners that they generally succeeded in curbing
the activities of both Catholic and Protestant proselytisers
in the workhouses of the period. There is no evidence that
the Carlow guardians ever attempted to Influence the
religion of those under their care but nevertheless their
minute books and extant correspondence of the Poor Law
Commissioners show that throughout the famine years the
local Catholic Clergy were extremely hostile towards them.
At the beginning of January 1848 there were about 1.600 Inmates In
the workhouse nearly 500 of whom were ill. On 27th January
the relieving officer for Carlow Town reported that 100
starving paupers had arrived by train from Dublin their rail
fare having been paid by Dublin Unions anxious to rid
themselves of the burden of country paupers. They were
unwelcome visitors to the Carlow for they were not of local
origin but were natives "of various counties In the South
of Ireland" but the relieving officer felt obliged to
provide them with food since otherwise many of them would
have died from hunger. The guardians were having the
greatest difficulty in providing for their own and about
this time acquired additional accommodation in a Starch
Works on Athy Road and in an adjoining malt house. By mid
February the various premises were sheltering about 2,100
persons of whom half were children. In addition the
guardians were giving out door relief to a further 4.100
persons for faced with such widespread wretchedness they now
had no choice but to grant out- door assistance on a large
scale.
On 1st April 1848 there were 1,845 persons in the workhouse and its
auxiliaries and 5,307 on outdoor relief. Nearly 700 of those
in the workhouse were ill and Dr. Porter complained as he
had done often before, of the lack of assistance. He wrote “I
have no hesitation in stating that many must necessarily be
consigned to an early grave from my inability to reach on
their wants how- ever desirous I may be to prevent it.”
Despite the conditions now prevailing throughout County Carlow it
is clear from the minute books of the guardians that there
was no breakdown of prevailing local prejudices and social
attitudes. When in April 1848 a subcommittee of the
guardians was asked to look into the question of sending
persons from the Shrule. Graigue and Arles electoral
divisions to the fever hospital at Doonane it reported -
“We beg to state that the greatest unwillingness and
strongest prejudice exists in the minds of the poor people
residing in the lowland portion of these electoral divisions
against being sent up to the mountains of Doonane and placed
among people of very different habits when suffering from
illness. These people will suffer every privation and
neglect rather that have recourse to the benefits of Doonane
Hospital."
The committee suggested that fever accommodation might be provided
for these people at Ball1ckmoyler but when the guardians
decided to build a number of sheds there to accommodate 100
patients their decision gave rise to a vehement protest from
the Catholic priests of Ballickmoyler who claimed to speak
on behalf of the local inhabitants.
They wrote to the
guardians in May 1848 “We have just heard with very great
pain that the board of guardians of this Union intend to
have sheds erected for the accommodation of 100 patients in
Ballickmoyler. Now. sir, we beg leave most emphatically to
assure you and the other members of the board that in this
district there does not exist at present nor has there
existed to our knowledge for a considerable time back 10
fever patients in the rank of life which would entitle them
to accommodation contemplated or who would avail themselves
of it if at present existing in Ballickmoyler. This district
has always been remarkable healthy thank God!! a resident
gentry and rich farmers affronting a fair share of
employment which if it did not remove altogether at least
tended greatly to alleviate the distress of our poor and
thus preserved them form those diseases consequent of
famine".
The accommodation if executed will either remain idle or have to
be supplied with patients from Carlow or from the Colliery
district. We cannot think it is intended to bring patients
form Carlow therefore it must be supposed the supply is from
the Collieries Now. Sir it is really shocking to think of
introducing the malignant type of fever that at all times
prevails amongst the colliers (whose habits. occupations.
mode of living and disease are in great measure peculiar to
themselves). it is we assert shocking to think of
introducing this form of disease among the healthy
agricultural population of this district: a great means of
diffusing it through all ranks will be the frequent visit of
the half naked starving friends of the colliery patients
Faced with this opposition the guardians dropped the
proposal to build the fever sheds. But it did not prevent
fever reaching Ballickmoyler. Later with the rest of the
country, it was swept by cholera.
By the middle of 1848 the board of guardians was providing relief
either within or without the workhouse for nearly 10.000
persons. The mortality rated was high and in the one-week
both the Catholic and the Protestant workhouse chaplains
died from fever. In the overcrowded workhouse it was
impossible to keep the great numbers of inmates occupied but
some of the men and boys were sent out daily to sweep the
streets of the town. The resistance of the ratepayers to the
collection of the poor rate grew stronger as the rate
increased. In August 1848 the collector for the Queen's
County divisions reported that when goods seized by him were
publicly auctioned there was not a single bid. Another
collector succeeded in collecting rates from one ratepayer
only. The harassed Guardians struck off nearly 3.000 persons
from the outdoor relief lists during the same month and in
October the chairman of the board Mr. Fishbourne informed
the Poor Law Commissioners that if, in consequence
injustices arose the Commissioners themselves would have to
accept the blame.
By Christmas Eve 1848 when there were 1,972 persons in the
workhouse and its ancillaries the numbers on outdoor relief
had been reduced to 37 and the total expenditure by the
guardians on outdoor relief during Christmas week was only
£16 / 5s ½d. There were other troubles for the guardians. It
is clear from the minute books that as in many other
workhouse of the period some of the workhouse staff were
disreputable or incompetent individuals. But early in 1849
there was general indiscipline both amongst the staff
themselves and the paupers. The position was not improved by
the local Catholic clergy who were hostile towards workhouse
officers, particularly Mrs. Rose the matron. Allegations
were made by them to the Poor Law Commissioners and the
guardians about her lack of humanity in dealing with inmates
and about her anti-Catholic bias.
For a period the charges
made against her were ignored or rejected. But the charges
persisted, as did allegations about other workhouse staff.
Finally the guardians harassed by allegations and counter
allegations from the workhouse master, matron, schoolmaster,
porter and the Catholic and Protestant chaplains appealed to
the com missioners to send one of their inspectors to carry
out an investigation. His subsequent report in November 1849
revealed a state of near anarchy amongst the officers
responsible for the care and discipline of the inmates. The
inspector found that the matron. Mrs. Rose had assaulted the
workhouse master on a number of occasions. She had also been
involved in “proceedings of an improper nature” in
the laundry of the workhouse when on a number of occasions
some of the female inmates extracted money from contractors
visiting the workhouse.
The Commissioners in transmitting
the inspector's report did not attempt to decide as to the
precise degree of impropriety, which may have attended these
proceedings. The matron had also held drunken parties in her
room and the workhouse master himself had been seen in an
intoxicated state on a number of occasions. The assistant
schoolmaster was shown to have been guilty of “various
acts of impropriety including the giving of whiskey to
workhouse girls”. The porter had conducted his own
drunken parties and there was evidence of other acts of
immorality. The infirmary nurse had allowed male and female
inmates to meet together for the purpose of drinking tea and
punch and the assistant clerk appeared to have been in a
frequent state of inebriation. All were dismissed. A
temporary committee was established to manage the workhouse
until new officers were appointed.
It was a formidable task. Within a few days of their appointment
the female paupers rioted. Stones were thrown and the
windows of the infirmary were smashed. The outburst was
quelled only after the local constabulary intervened and
removed six of the women to the county gaol. A few days
later there was another riot and a further five women were
imprisoned. In the meantime the workhouse horse died as a
result of “hard driving" by the medical officer. Dr.
Porter who in the prevailing conditions must have been over-
whelmed by his duties. Nevertheless the guardians decided
that he should refund to them the price of the horse - £7.
12s 6d - a last straw, which led to the prompt resignation
of Dr. Porter. Later he withdrew his resignation despite
frequent subsequent indications from the minute books that
he regarded himself as inadequately remunerated and harshly
treated by the guardians.
The great famine is generally regarded as having faded out towards
the end of 1849. Yet at the time there were still through
tout the country over one million people in the workhouses
or on outdoor relief and for several years afterwards social
conditions kept large numbers dependent on the Poor Law
system for their subsistence Carlow was no exception. In
February 1850 there were over 2,500 inmates in the workhouse
and its ancillaries of whom about 1,300 were children many
of them orphaned by the famine. Cholera was prevalent in the
workhouse throughout that year. Dr. Porter complained
frequently about the extent of his duties in the various
buildings and fever hospitals and the inspector from the
Poor Law Commissioners was critical of the manner in which
he was treated by the guardians.
The schoolmaster was reprimanded by the guardians in June 1850 for
giving the boys their dinner and supper together in order to
save himself trouble. In November of the same year he was
threatened with dismissal after taking a young Protestant
boy to Mass. As elsewhere the large number of children now
under the care of the guardians created the greatest
workhouse problem.
In May 1851 there were 1,275 children under sixteen years in the
workhouse and its ancillaries many of them of very tender
age the workhouse environment was clearly unsuitable to them
but as yet a boarding-out system had not been introduced.
Here as In other workhouses the child mortality rate was
high and Dr. Porter reporting on 21st
May. 1851 about the deaths of children noted -
"The mortality
existing in the house and its auxiliaries has been
altogether in a class either completely broken of
constitution or in a state of delicacy from exposure to
privations before their admission.”
The young there are contradictory entries. In the Union minute
books about the quality of the care the children were
receiving in the workhouse. When sixty-seven workhouse boys
and girls were taken to a service in the local Catholic
cathedral in June 1851 the bishop drew the attention of the
congregation to the cleanly and well-fed appearance, which
they presented. He complemented the workhouse staff and
recommended the shelter of the workhouse to any paupers in
his congregation. The bishop's attitude did not reflect that
of some of his clergy, A week later Dr. Porter complained
that many boys being sent from the workhouse to the fever
hospital were “in a most weakly state and much emaciated”
because of the inadequate workhouse diet. He continued to
agitate, both about the manner in which the children were
being treated and about his own conditions, Two months later
the guardians decided to dismiss him and to advertise for a
wholetime medical officer to the workhouse fever hospital
and other Union buildings, The Poor Law Commissioners would
not agree to Porter's dismissal but suggested that his
duties at the fever hospital be assigned to another doctor.
Porter at first refused to resign from his post at the
hospital but eventually acquiesced in the suggestion of the
Commissioners.
During the next few years, as social conditions became more normal,
the numbers of workhouse inmates particularly the adult
population, rapidly dwindled. As a group the famine orphans
were slowest to free themselves from the workhouse
environment. Many had been admitted to the workhouse as
infants or very young children and had no choice but to
remain there until they grew old enough to secure employment
as domestic servants or farm labourers. Then with a suit of
clothes presented by the guardians they went out into a
world for which they were often ill prepared.
Workhouse
education and training during these years was often
non-existent or entirely inadequate and the minutes of
Carlow Board of Guardians do not suggest that the children
there fared any better than those in other work- houses of
the period. According to an entry in the minutes during July
1853 the Carlow boys were employed in cleaning out the
workhouse cesspools. The work was so repulsive that they
were given an allowance of tobacco and whiskey to encourage
them to do it! This entry epitomises not only the atmosphere
of the early workhouse but the attitude of those in
authority towards the workhouse child.
When the famine had passed, its consequences to County
Carlow had been extreme. According to the census taken in
1841, the population of the county was the 86,228. The
census held In 1851 revealed that it had dropped to 68,078.
When one allows for natural increase in population it is
clear that about one quarter of the population had perished
or emigrated during the terrible intervening years.
