The Irish Workhouse Museum

Our inaugural plaque, designed and hand-painted by Paula Byrne The Irish Workhouse Museum is officially open! The opening on Saturday 18th was launched by Minister of State Sean Canney TD and marks a new, exciting era for the Irish Workhouse Centre (IWC). The museum is located in a former womens' workroom and houses the centre's collection of artefacts. These range from the shaft of a workhouse cart to the tiny, blacksmith made nails which were used in workhouse construction. The impact of the museum is succinctly described by long-term supporter of the project, Dr. Christy Cunniffe, Community Archaeologist for Galway.   'Artefacts and personal objects can tell big stories. The workhouse tour brings the building to life, and the museum will do the same for their objects. Just look at the pauper shoes we have discovered at Portumna. Nothing expresses the sadness of workhouse children like those reminders of tiny feet.' A case of enamelware and bo...

Mangel Wurzel-a popular vegetable grown in Irish workhouses   For a long time, the 'work' in Irish workhouses was thought to exclude farming. However, recent research shows that many Irish workhouses had farms. Due to irregular or no account keeping, it is hard for us to piece together a picture of what farming was like in a workhouse setting. However, what we can do is look at a snap shot of figures from parliamentary documents.* These documents reveal a surprising fact. Out of the 163 workhouses across Ireland, only 37 had no land under cultivation. Over half of these 37 are from the second wave of building. Workhouse building in Ireland took place in two waves. There were the first 130 which were planned as a complete set to provide relief for 1% of the Irish population. Then the crisis resulting from potato blight led to 33 extra workhouses being hastily built. These were needed due to chronic overcrowding and it seems that acquiring farmland was the least ...