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

GPL3/ Clifden Poor Law Union
10. 3 July 1849 - 27 March 1850 Includes:
- Details of the diet recommended by the Medical Officer (p19 & p79).
- PLC letter No 53133…‟stating in reference to the number of persons who can be
accommodated in the Bunowen Workhouse building, that Mr Bourke P.L. Inspector
considers them capable of accommodating about 600 persons‟ (p47).
- „The Master requires 500 yards of calico for immediate use, as all the materials in the
house are in the possession of the Sheriff, and many of the women are unclothed in
consequence, and unemployed, and a number of the men have not shirts‟ (p185).
- „Letter from John Mullin, Assistant Master, expressing his regret at having in a moment of
excitement been led into a breach of discipline by striking Mary Gilmore, a pauper, with a
stick, she having attempted to obtain more rations than she was entitled to – appealing to
his former good conduct and praying that he might be re-instated in his office‟ (p207).
- „The Master would call the attention of the Board to the daily increasing number in the
house with the view of checking the issue of admission tickets to the Workhouse and at
the same time to mention that the accommodation for Females and Children is quite
insufficient. He has been obliged to appropriate one of the Male wards exclusively for
Females and to remove the beds and bedding from another of the Male wards which is at
present particularly unoccupied, as the bedding, blankets, etc which are in the store are in
the hands of the Sherriff and cannot be applied to any immediate use‟ (p215 104 ).
- „That Inishbofin Island being so distant and inaccessible except in fine weather it would be
most dangerous that the Clifden Relieving Officer should take charge of it. We therefore
continue of opinion that a person should be appointed for that Division but at a small
salary not exceeding £20 a year, and that Tenders be received on the 26 th instant (p220,
see also p271)‟.
- Transcript of a letter from Anthony Kearns, Relieving Officer, Clifden to the Chairman of
the Board stating “Knowing your humanity and the moral responsibility which rests upon
me as Relieving Officer of the district, I feel it my duty to state to you as Chairman of the
Board, that if I am kept another week out of supplies I fear very much that some people in
my district will die of want, while others will be driven to crime‟ (p237).
- „The Master of the Workhouse having complained that Mr Redmond Joyce accompanied
by certain strangers did on the evening of Friday at a late hour enter the kitchen of the
W.house and make use of language to the female paupers there present likely to lead to a
breach of discipline and which did end in an assault upon Mr Joyce and those persons
with him, and that Mr Joyce subsequently went up with the said persons to the female
dormitories while the women were in bed, all which is totally destructive of discipline, and
Mr Joyce on the other hand having charged the Master amongst other things, at coming at
if not encouraging, the insults offered to him by certain paupers while in the discharge of
104
At that time, 8 November 1849, there were 710 able-bodied females and 330 males, and 396 boys and 396 girls.
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’
3.