The Clifden Workhouse in 1847
by Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill
The following is a description of conditions in the Clifden
Workhouse on Christmas Day 1847, taken from a report by John Deane, Poor
Law Inspector for the Clifden Union, to the Relief Commission dated 25th
December, 1847 and reproduced in Connemara's own Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill's book "Patient Endurance: The Great Famine In Connemara."
"The inmates of the house are crowded together in a day-room
breathing a tainted atmosphere. There is an insufficient supply of bedding
and clothing. The rain pours down through the ventilating turrets into
the rooms and the paupers are thus subjected to increased liability
of infection. Directions have been given to provide increased accommodation,
such as can be obtained. The contractor has been directed to supply
additional bedding. A minute appears on the proceedings of the Guardians
directing advertisements to be issued for tenders for the keeping in
repair of the house according to the printed specifications furnished
to me. All this has been formally done and yet I can tell the Commissioners
from the experience I have obtained since my residence here, that it
will be no easy matter to determine when these orders shall be completed.
The contractor for clothing must be paid a portion of his debt before
he gives any additional credit. The slatier, carpenter, mason, etc.
will urge the state of the weather as being against their respective
operations and while this delay is being experienced pestilence rages
among the wretched inmates. On visiting the house a few days ago I was
disgusted at learning that the dormitories (particularly those appropriated
for children) are not supplied with night buckets. I forbear to describe
the abominations consequent to this. The buckets had been long since
ordered by the Guardians but the idle laziness of the tradesmen occasioned
a delay in the execution of the order and the result was as I have stated.
Now setting aside that the Guardians have no visiting committee, bearing
in mind that they had actually ordered these articles, had also directed
their contractor to supply bedding and had issued advertisements for
tenders, I cannot attach blame to them since my official connection
with their Board. The Commissioners will, I trust, agree with me that
the difficulties I have to meet are associated with and almost inseparable
from the locality in which the workhouse is placed in the Union; so
distant as it is from towns where the Guardians could supply themselves
with materials and contractors for executing necessary works. I regret
to state that Dr. Bodkin's brother who accompanied him to the workhouse
hospital about a week since, for the purpose of assisting him in his
medical duties, died today of malignant typhus fever. I mention this
fact with the view of assuring the Commissioners that I shall now find
it still more difficult to induce the Guardians to visit the house.
Within the last week the weather has been most inclement and has brought
with it a vast increase of disease and misery".
(This article first appeared in the Nov.'97 edition of the Connemara Press)
See also
Using St Mary's Church, Clifden's first Roman Catholic Chapel, and the nearby graveyard, as a focal point,
Kathleen Villiers-Tuthill traces Clifden's history from 1812 right up to the present day.
written by himself, on Jürgen Kullmann's
Irelandman.de site.
"...built on land that had been farmed by the Whelan family who were tenants on the D'Arcy estate and resident in the area since before the famine." From
coastguard-station.com.