| In a attempt
to combat the ever increasing numbers of destitute people in Ireland
the Poor Law was introduced in 1838, Ireland was divided into one
hundred and thirty districts called unions. Each union was controlled
by a Board of Guardians. Most of the guardians were elected from
local farmers, a magistrate was also appointed to each board. The
guardians had the right to place a tax on the union, the revenue
thus raised was used to build a workhouse and support the local
poor. It was generally believed by the middle and upper classes
that if people were poor it was because they were lazy. It is interesting
to note that these guardians were the first elected local bodies
in Ireland
When any person in the union area needed
help, they had to go into the workhouse. This was not a pleasant
prospect as conditions in the workhouse were very basic with two
meals a day consisting of breakfast of seven oz ( ) of oatmeal and
a pint of buttermilk and dinner of three and a half lb. of potatoes
and a pint of buttermilk, tea, alcohol and tobacco were not allowed,
and meals were to be eaten in silence
The most inhuman part of the system was that
families were segregated, husbands from wives and children from
parents, each living in separate houses. The workhouses were laid
out on similar lines to a prison. The theory was that the inmates
of the workhouse were to earn their keep, the men breaking stones,
the women by spinning and knitting. The workhouse was an option
people only resorted to when all else had failed, seeing it as a
means of survival. The old and sick were probably the exception,
finding it more comfortable there than outside. By 1845 eighty thousand
workhouse places were available half of which were occupied.
After the partition of Ireland the south
abolished the system, poor house's continued in use in the north
until 1946. |
