Birr Workhouse |
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Some pictures of Birr Workhouse
Aerial view of Birr Workhouse
Front block |
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Brief on Birr Workhouse An intact example of the original pre-famine Irish workhouses designed by George Wilkinson, Birr Workhouse is relatively unaltered, being used mostly for light industry after it was closed in 1921. Opened 1842 as Parsonstown Union Workhouse, closed 1921. One of only 9 Irish Poor Law Unions whose records were analysed for the National Famine Research Project in the 1990s. Educational potential is immense. Myths abound about workhouses and should be challenged with experience and facts. Potential to interpret aspects of politics, local government, poverty, welfare, medicine, education, emigration, administration, 1842 to 1921. Of national importance: Irish architecture, history, heritage, social, culture, poverty, medical, emigration, etc. In the UK, Southwell Workhouse was recently restored for about £4.5 million which included a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund of £2.25m. Medical Officer, Dr Woods submitted articles to a medical journal. In pre-antibiotic days, his treatments there included blisters to the temple, bleeding, bichloride of mercury, nitrate of silver, lotions of acetate of lead, etc. for sore eyes – standard medical practice of the 19th century - and some still in use. Human interest stories: opening up in 1842, ordering equipment, famine problems, medical problems, building problems, orphan girl emigrants, a missing little boy, political disputes, closure during the War of Independence in 1921, occupation during the Civil War ... other stories from newspapers printed in the town. A workhouse museum would substantially supplement Birr’s tourist attractions: beautiful Georgian town, Birr Castle Demesne, monastic heritage at Birr Library, proximity to the Shannon River, wetlands, boglands and to the Slieve Bloom mountains. A workhouse museum would be an attractive destination for the Irish diaspora, said to number over 70 million persons, mostly descendants of the impoverished in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. |
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Front door
Stairs to girls' dormitory
Stairs - another view
Girls' dormitory in the attic Birr Workhouse For several years this building was the main source of social welfare for an area from Clonmacnoise to near Borrisokane, from the Shannon to the Slieve Bloom. Ireland was still part of the UK when the Poor Law (Ireland) Act of 1838 led to the setting up of 130 workhouses in Ireland. A further The workhouse was funded by rates levied on local property A meeting of the Board of Guardians was held every Saturday upstairs in the front building. The workhouse staff comprised a clerk, master, matron, Detailed and very interesting statistical records survive of admissions, discharges, births, deaths, as well as accounts and details of petty cash transactions. Very few names survive and the records have minimal value for tracing family history. The names and addresses of 65 orphan teenage girls aged 14-18 who were granted free passage to Australia in 1848-50 do survive in shipping registers and some of their descendants have visited Birr. See http://www.workhouses.org.uk/ for comprehensive general information on workhouses in Ireland, England, Scotland and
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Original George Wilkinson plan for an Irish workhouse Workhouse building Front building. Recommended inmates were admitted by the porter They might be washed, deloused, fumigated, given workhouse clothes and admitted to the main building. They could reclaim their own clothes when leaving. Main building. The master and matron's quarters were in the centre. Separate quarters for females and males and for adults and children. Connecting block: dining room which doubled as a chapel on Sundays. Rear block: infirmary for males on the right and for females on the left. Small building at rear: mortuary - called the 'dead house' on the plans. Cemetery behind the workhouse. Over 3,000 people were buried in the cemetery at Birr. Entering & leaving Relieving officers gave tickets for entry to the workhouse. The whole family had to enter together—especially the father. Clothes were taken, washed, fumigated and parcelled. Candidates washed, deloused and given ‘workhouse garb’. Males, females & children had separate accommodation. People could leave if they gave notice . It was not a prison. They reclaimed their own clothes— most described as rags. The vast majority of inmates left Birr Workhouse alive . Female Orphan Emigration Scheme The Female Orphan Emigration Scheme was designed during the Famine to send orphan girls from Irish workhouses to Australia. The experiences of 4,175 Irish girls who took part in the scheme are interpreted at Hyde Park Barracks Museum in Sydney and commemorated by a monument there. 65 orphan girls left Birr (then Parsonstown) Workhouse during the scheme which lasted from October 1848 to August 1850. During the Famine there were more than twice as many able-bodied females as males in Irish workhouses. These girls had very limited employment and marriage prospects and local ratepayers who supported the workhouse foresaw years of expensive payments for their support and those of the children they might produce. In Australia, on the other hand, white males outnumbered white females by at least two to one and by eight to one in some districts. The British government devised a scheme under which girls aged 14 to 18 would volunteer to emigrate to Australia on an organised and supervised scheme. Lieutenant John Henry attended at the workhouses, inspected the girls who volunteered and selected those he considered healthy-looking and well-behaved. The Poor Law Union had to supply each chosen girl with a large box containing a generous set of requirements for the long voyage. The girls, with their new possessions, set off under supervision in horse transport for the nearest Irish port from where they sailed to Plymouth on the south coast of England, and thence to Sydney - a voyage of several weeks by sailing ship. At Sydney, they were brought to Hyde Park Barracks (restored as a museum in 1998) where the Sydney Orphan Committee supervised them, investigated prospective employers and dealt with subsequent problems. The girls were soon recruited as domestic servants and snapped up as wives. They married at nineteen years on average, most had large familes and now have many descendants who have traced them through genealogical programmes and reunions, exchanging details and photographs of those who survived into the early twentieth century.
Part of Birr Workhouse order list
*A cholera epidemic swept Ireland in 1849 when vast numbers were weakened by starvation. Of the 59 who died that week in Birr Workhouse, 48 were children. Old people and children were the most vulnerable. |
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