The Irish Workhouse Museum

The two adult woman are: on the left May Conway (Gortanumera) and on the right Kitty Hayes (Al Hayes mother) The young girls from left to right are : Rita Conway, Josephine Conway, Mary Conway, Maeve Hayes, Esther Hayes and Ann Conway A few days ago, two ladies brought in a photograph taken at Portumna Workhouse in c.1964. The  occasion was the annual Portumna Show and in the background is a glimpse of the workhouse laundry building. The snapshot got us all talking about Portumna workhouse after it closed in 1921 so I decided to dig out our newspaper cuttings and see what I could find. Photo by  Rishabh Sharma  on  Unsplash The closure of Portumna Workhouse was announced in March 1921. Not every Galway workhouse is scheduled to shut. Galway, Tuam and Loughrea will stay open. Ballinasloe and Clifden are retained as District Hospitals.  (03 March 1921, The Irish Independent) Photo by  Cristina Gottardi  on  Unsplash B...

The Irish Workhouse Centre is very proud to have recently hosted a selection of paintings by Killeen native Mary Conroy. The works had been created over the past 12 years and represent the first solo exhibition by the Fine Arts graduate. Mary currently resides in Cork but retains strong ties with her family in Portumna. Indeed, she attended Portumna secondary school long before she attended Crawford College of Art and Design (Cork) where she graduated with a BA in Fine Art in 2008, and a H. Dip in Art Design in 2010. The exhibition vividly showcases Mary's love of nature. Her oil paint depictions of sea splashed rocks show a perfect match of medium and subject. Sparkling light and restless waves brings life to the dark colours of her Irish seascapes. Vibrant watercolours glow with warm, welcoming shades that draw you into their country scenes. Detailed depictions of flowers show a keen botanical eye yet keep a fluid carefree style. This is not the first...

Heritage Week already! It feels like we've only just finished cleaning up craft supplies and tea lights after last year's events when it's time to get ready again.  This year National Heritage Week runs from 17-25 August with events literally in every county. The Irish Workhouse Centre has lots to offer with children's workshops, a Gaeilge Day and loads of free talks.  The theme this year is Pastimes & Past Times, exploring the links between history and hobbies. On Saturday 17th bring the kids to a craft session called 'Communicating in the Past'. The session is on at Portumna workhouse and run by local artist Paula Byrne  (cost 2 euro per child & booking essential).  Let the whole family explore the link between the ancient Irish alphabet called Ogham and Celtic tree-lore. For instance, did you know that we all have a tree linked to our name? Each child will craft their own special book mark to bring home. Start time is 12 o'clo...

The Famine was a seismic event in 19th century Ireland, and is probably the most universally known point in Irish history. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that  historical fiction set in Ireland has been dominated by this event. However,  The Hunger House branches out in a new and widely neglected direction by exploring a different facet of life in 19th century Ireland; the workhouse. We are delighted at the Irish Workhouse Centre to be stocking this inspiring novel by Mayo writer, journalist and artist, Conor McGuire which is already an Amazon No. 1 Bestseller. The novel tells the story of intelligent Bridget Hennigan, who takes up the post of Matron at Ballina workhouse. Her quick mind and professional nature are a challenge to the all male administration which makes up the Board of Guardians. To make matters worse, the resident medical officer Dr Whyte is a nasty piece of work. Bridget realises that only she can stop him but at what price? Conor McGuire...

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...