Clifden Poor Law Union archive collection, Descriptive List, GPL3.pdf

Clifden Poor Law Union
assist this insolvent Union, and further that if possible they would see their way to a reduction
of the present rate’ (GPL3/57, f164). Following this appeal the LGB granted £900 for the
distressed districts towards the reduction of the rate. The Guardians expressed their gratitude
for the grant but asked the Board ‘…to take into consideration the improvished state of our
Union and assist us with a further grant for the relief of the Union’ (GPL3/57, f194). Ongoing
appeals were made for grants and financial assistance. Despite the Rate Collectors making
progress with their collection the „…depressed and unsettled condition of the small farmer’
meant it was ‘...next to impossible to bring in the rate to the extent of clearing off the Balances
due, and meeting the current requirements’ (GPL3/58, f75, March 1884).
In July 1884 the liabilities of the Union were £2,800 (GPL3/58, f185), and the Board again
called on the LGB to „…press on the Government the necessity of coming to our aid with a
grant to enable us to tide over the current year...’ (GPL3/58, f195).
In March 1886, during yet another period of great distress, the Board of Guardians urged the
Local Government Board to establish public works immediately, stating, „To the poverty of the
Union we need scarcely refer. The rates are already ruinously high and consequently people
are unable to meet any further addition to them, and nothing but the immediate inauguration of
works can save the people from starvation, and we earnestly and respectfully beg the LGB to
recommend to her Majesty’s government the construction of a Light Railway from Galway to
Clifden which would open up the country and give employment in this period of dire distress‟
(GPL3/61, p409).
Following a subsequent appeal the LGB authorised outdoor relief, but the Board of Guardians
advised that due to its „bankrupt‟ condition it was unable to provide such relief and urged that
„…a good portion of the £40,000 granted would be put at once at our disposal to carry out the
requirements of the LGB’ (GPL3,61, p469).
The passing of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1886 afforded some assistance, enabling relief
works. The Board submitted a schedule of works proposed to be carried out in the Union
under the Act.
260 individuals were in receipt of outdoor relief by January 1887 (GPL3/63, p181).
A review by the Local Government auditor, Colonel O‟Hara, of the Union‟s accounts in early
1887 found that „The exceptional relief given under Relief of Distress Act 1886 in this Union
appears to have been given not strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Act but to have
been given as temporary relief by Relieving Officers and subsequently sanctioned by
Guardians’.
‘There can be no doubt there was great pressure both on Guardians and Relieving Officers,
and much distress existing at the time. This will account for some irregularities and I do not
Cartlann Chomhairle Contae na Gaillimhe „…cuimhne dhoiciméadach Chontae na Gaillimhe a shealbhú, a chaomhnú agus a dhéanamh inrochtana’
Galway County Council - Archives „…to acquire, preserve and make accessible the documentary memory of county Galway’
xiii.