The Irish Workhouse Museum

June has two very exciting events happening at the Irish Workhouse Centre. The first is our Annual Landed Estates Conference and the second is the opening of a permanent exhibition devoted to Paul Strzelecki (A Forgotten Polish Hero of the Great Irish Famine). Landed Estates Conference At the beginning of the 19th century there were over 4,000 ‘Big House Country Estates’ in Ireland. Today there are less than 100.  These estates, and attached mansions, symbolized the economic strength and social standing of different landed families. However, estates were about far more than just the ‘Big House’, they were also an intrinsic part of  tenant and labourer lives, and are a vital part of understanding Ireland's  economic history.  In essence, the story of the big house is the story of Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries. Our special guest speakers this year are Dr Karol Mullaney-Dignam and Dr Marion McGarry. Itinerary: 10:00     John Joe C...

A group  of Transition Year students, namely  Jessica Madden, Keeva Duffy, Maria Quinn, Cerys Porter, Shauna Fahy and Sean Power, have reached out to Portumna workhouse. As a group they  designed and painted a series of boards for the workhouse infirmary. Here are their own words about the project. "We got inspiration mainly from what life would be like if you lived in a workhouse.  The boards consist of four scenes which are now in the places where the original infirmary doors and windows were missing.  A family entering the workhouse The paintings tell the story of a person's life in the workhouse, from our own perspective. We decided to have a main focus throughout the works; a man in red. He became our main character in the story.  The first board shows him entering the workhouse with his family. We tried to depict the fact  that the family had no other option if they wanted a chance of survival.  Seperation scen...