Personalities of the Workhouse-Bridget Corbett
The exact window from whence Bridget ended her life The story of Bridget Corbett is one of the saddest to come out of Portumna workhouse. Her experiences call into question just how 'free' a person really was to leave the workhouse if they had any sort of physical impediment. In our current era of trying to increase accessibility, this story is especially sobering. We are lucky to have the details of the case from a newspaper report dated November 1872 which tells us about Bridget's plight. The elderly widow lay confined to a bed for 12 months, in extreme discomfort from the effects of rheumatism. On November 10 th of that year Bridget made the first attempt on her own life but was stopped. Not to be deterred, Mrs Corbett must have had her mind made up a...