On this Day… 2 March

On this day, 2 March, 1842, the Galway Workhouse opened its doors. The first person to be admitted was an old and infirm man.

By Ian Brophy

The new workhouse, built in 1839-1841, was built on an 8-acre site at the west side of the Newcastle Road in Galway; a site in front of and partly occupied by the present University Hospital, Galway.

Designed by architect George Wilkinson, the building was based on one of his standard plans to accommodate 800 ‘inmates’.

The Poor Law Act had previously come into effect in 1838, placing the workhouse as its central component. Its purpose was to provide for those who could not provide for themselves. These people were the most vulnerable in society; the old, the infirm, sick, orphans, and those who had no job, money, or food. Here in the workhouse, in return for work they received food. The inmates, who were fit to do so, were required to work. The able-bodied men worked in the fields or at tasks such as breaking stones; the women did housework,laundry, helped in the kitchen or looked after the orphan children or the patients in the infirmary. Even the old and infirm were required to mend clothes and spin wool.

Entire families had to enter the workhouse together. To qualify for admission, people had to give up any land they had. On entering the workhouse, family members were split up into separate quarters, sometimes never to see each other again. Children up to the age of 2 years could stay with their mothers. If by some chance the father absconded, the mother and children were likely to be thrown out of the workhouse.

Construction cost £8,162 plus £1,637 for fixtures and fittings. The main block was in the form of an H. There was a male side and a female side. The grounds were completely enclosed by high stone walls. Only the hospital section was supplied with beds. Elsewhere, along the walls of dormitories, raised 12 inches above floor level were wooden platforms on which the paupers slept on straw. Blankets were provided and the inmates were required to wear workhouse dress, consisting of rough grey frieze suits for the men and calico gowns and petticoats for the women. There were no closets in the dormitories and the inmates had to use night buckets, which often overflowed and soiled the floors. The building was prison-like in appearance and the regime was deliberately harsh and intended to discourage people from seeking admittance.

The diet was poor and unvaried, mainly consisting of stirabout. The workhouse included an infirmary intended for sick paupers but which, in truth, became the hospital for the city’s poor. On 16 March, 1842, Dr. Browne, the Medical Officer, reported that the first pauper admitted had sadly died from old age and destitution. The number of people seeking refuge gradually increased to 313, including 13 fever cases by May 1845.

With the potato crop failure in 1845, things changed drastically. The number of inmates increased from 460 in June 1846 to 1,302 in November 1847. In December 1846 Rev. John Darcy, a Protestant clergyman, set up the first soup kitchen in Back Street in Galway. Other religious orders set up more soup kitchens; feeding some 7,500 people each day. The winter of 1846/47 was the most severe with the number of deaths from hunger in the city averaging between 25 and 30 each week. In December 1847 it was reported that 313 paupers were seeking admission, but the workhouse was already overcrowded. Epidemics of cholera, typhoid fever, and dysentery broke out; and by May 1847, these fevers were accounting for 100 deaths a week. During 1847-1848, 11,000 inmates died in the Galway workhouse. Auxiliary workhouses were opened elsewhere in the town of Galway and in the surrounding hinterlands.

On a bitterly cold morning in early 1848, 2 children were found naked and dead on High Street in Galway; and another child nearby.For many, the only escape from this miserable state was emigration.On Census night, March 30, 1851,there were 4,353 inmates in the workhouses of the Galway Union and 13,536 in the workhouses of the rest of the county; a total of 17,889 for the entire county; 5.5% of the population.

In all, there were 163 workhouses operating in Ireland from early 1840 to the 1920’s. After the formation of the Irish Free State in 1921, the destitute in the Galway workhouse were transferred to the County Home in Loughrea.The Central Hospital was established on the workhouse site. In 1956 the new Regional Hospital was built nearby. Today the University Hospital Galway occupies this site. The workhouse system was abolished in the 1920’s after Ireland gained independence.

On this day, 2 March, 1842, the Galway Workhouse opened its doors. The first person to be admitted was an old and infirm man.