Workhouses in Ireland

7/25/2019 Workhouses in Ireland

1/15

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The Workhouses of IrelandAuthor(s): Malachy PowellSource: University Review, Vol. 3, No. 7 (Spring, 1965), pp. 3-16Published by: Edinburgh University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25504718Accessed: 21-01-2016 21:22 UTC

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2/15

MALACHY POWELL

THE

WORKHOUSES

OF

IRELAND

'

THROUGHOUT

IRELAND,

outside

most

county

towns,

there are

buildings

something

like

hospitals, something

like

prisons,

something

like

courthouses.

They

havfe the

characteristic

stamp

of

British rule in

Ireland

They

are of

course

the workhouses.

They

were

built

in

opposition

to

the

declared

wishes of the

Irish

people

of

all classes and

religions; throughout

their

history they

were

cordially

hated

by

the

whole Nation

and

indeed

the

workhouse

system

itself

was

founded

on

a

gigantic

mistake.

The

series of

happenings

which

finally

established the workhouse

system

in

Ireland

surely

Began

with

the

Legislative

Union

between

Ire

land

and Britain.

There is

no

doubt

that

the

presence

of

a

House of

Lords and House of Commons in Dublin contributed greatly to: the

prosperity

of

the

people

and

there

is

equally

no

doubt

that

as

a

result

of

the

Union and

the

consequent

falling

off

of

industry

in

Ireland

the

people

of

Ireland

fell

into

a

pitiable

state.

Poverty

was

stark,

housing

wretched,

trade

inadequate,

agriculture

backward,

yet

the

population

was

multply

ing

rapidly.

Over

two-thirds

of

the

population depended

on

the

land,

not

for

profit

but for

the

bare

necessities

of

life,

and

almost

half

the

farms

in

the

country

were

less

than

5

acres

in

extent.1

In

fact

most

of

the

people

depended

on

a

little

patch

of

land

to

grow potatoes.

There

was

little

or

no

work

to

be

had and

as

a

consequence

when

their

store

of

potatoes

was

exhausted

these

cottiers

had

to

tramp

eastward

in

search

of

work.

Their

families

supported

themselves

by

begging

until

the Autumn

when

the

men

returned and

the

potatoes

were

dug.

This

system,

bad

as

it

was,

could

never

reach

stability

because

of the

rapidy

increasing

population

all

demanding

land

to

grow

potatoes.

The

rate of

increase

of

population

was

staggering, just

a

million

each

10

years,1

and

the

destiny

of

population

would amaze

us

at

present.

On

average

throughout

the

country

there

was

a

density

of

over

200

people

to

the

square

mile

and

in

many

areas

there

were

over

400

to

the

square

mile,

particularly in North Mayo, Sligo, Dublin of course, and some parts of

Ulster.1

As

a

consequence

of this

state

offairs

beggars

were

universal. All

over

the

country

a mass

of

filth,

nakedness

and

misery

constantly

moved

about,

entering

every

house,

addressing

itself

to

every

eye

and

solicting

Paper

read

to

the

Graduates

Club,

February

14,1964.

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3/15

4

UNIVERSITY

REVIEW

from

every

hand.2

These

swarms

of

beggars

were

characteristic of

the

Irish

scene

and

are

prominent

in

contemporary

prints.

In

Clare

over

a

hundred

thousand

people

subsisted

on

charity

from

hour

to

hour;

in

Cork

there

were

120,000

in

the

same

situation,

and

in

the

City

of Limerick

there

were

twenty

thousand

unfortunates

"who

had

not

a

morsel

to

eat

save

what

pity gave".3

Sir

Walter

Scott,

who

toured

Ireland

in

1825,

said

of

the

Irish:

'They

are

on

the

extreme

edge

of

human

misery;

their

cottages

would

scarce

serve for

pig

sties-^-even

in

Scotland?and

their

rags

seem

the

very

refuse

of

the

rag

shop".4

How

many

hundreds

or

thousands

of those

wretches

were

there

throughout

the

country? Altogether

it

was

estimated

that there

were

over

2

million

of

these

destitute

creatures,5

"who seemed

to

spring

out of

the

ground

at

every

turn

like

swarms

of vermin"

according

to

John

Gibson

Lockhart.4

Because of the instability of the country and the obvious wretchedness

of

the

people,

it

was

clearly

necessary

to

make

some

change.

But

there

was

no

easy

solution.

It

apparently

never

occurred to

anyone

to

question

the landowners'

titles

to

their

estates,

yet

the

very

preservation

of

the

landlord

system

imposed

a

formidable barrier to

even

a

theoretical

solution

of

this

difficulty.

Even

the

finest

of landlords

could

not

have

solved the

problems;

if

they

made

larger

farms,

the

dispossessed

had

a

grievance;

if

they

assisted

emigration, they

were

breaking

up

the

life of

countryside;

if

they

established

farming

societies,

they

were

encourag

ing

improvements merely

to

get

larger

rents.

But

"these

monsters in

human

shape",6

the

Irish

landlords,

were

discredited,

alienated

from

the

people

in outlook and

religion

and

held

to

be

responsible

for

the

misery

of

multitudes.7

Not

only

was

there

this

difficulty

of

finding

a

theoretically

acceptable

over-all

solution

to

the

problem

of

the

economic

development

of

the

country.

There

was

the

immediate

difficulty

of

the

swarms

of

poor

wandering

all

over

the

countryside.

There

was no

form of

organised

State

or

local

assistance

for

the

able-bodied

poor,

and

such

infirmaries,

dispen

saries and

fever

hospitals

as

did

exist

were

solely

for

the

sick.

In the 18th century, because land clearance had increased the number of

the homeless

poor

and

because

these

had availed

themselves

of

the

new

steam

navigation,

the number

of

Irish

labourers

in

England

began

to

increase.

If

they

could not

get

work

they

sought

Poor

Relief

and

became

a

charge

on

the

Poor

Rates

(for

there

was a

system

of

Poor

Relief

in

England).

Even if

they

did

get

work

they

were

a

nuisance because

they

undercut

the

English

labourer

and

forced him into

Poor

Relief.8 In

either



4/15

The

Workhouses

of

Ireland

5

case

the

effect

of

the

Irish

influx

was

to

increase the

financial

burden

on

the

English

property

owner

and

the

cry

went

up

"Irish

property

should

support

Irish

poverty."

A

fierce

controversy

arose

throughout

the United

Kingdom

about tfr.s

problem

of

the

Irish

poor.

Economists,

politicians,

Poor

Law

experts,

philantropists,

theorists

and

divines

all

rushed

in,

each

waving

his

wordy

pamphlet

full

of

rhetorical

questions

and

lofty

sentiments

to

suggest

a

solution,

and

the

most

popular

was

the

extension

of

the

English

Poor

Law,

or

some

form

of

it,

to

Ireland.

England

had had

a

Poor

Law since

the

time

of

the

first

Elizabeth

but

by

the

end

of

the

18th

century

it

had

degenerated

into

an

allowance

system

which,

it

was

alleged,

completely

degraded

the

labourers

and

spoiled

the

labour market.

So

in

1834

an

Amending

Act

was

passed

which

was

chiefly

the

work

of

one

Edwin

Chadwick.

He

was

the

personification

of

what

the

public

imagine

the

civil servant to

be. He

was

a

positive, dogmatic

and

narrow-minded advocate of his own opinions and though he was con

cerned

with laws

for the relief of

the

poor

he had

no

humanity,

compas

sion,

or

sympathy

with the

individual

sufferer.

He

was

in fact

a

humour

less

industrious

prig.6

He

produced

a

typical

solution?a

theoretically

acceptable

solution

which

was

in

its

operation

brutal and

inhuman.

Chadwick's

idea

was

to

build

workhouses

all

over

England.

The

pauper

would

work

for

the

parish

but

he

would do

so

under

conditions

that

he

would

accept

only

if

he

were

destitute.

He would work

in

a

workhouse

?a

well

regulated

workhouse,

a

place

of

strict

discipline, sex-segregation

and

low

diet?so

that

his

condition would be

"less

eligible"

than

that of

the

independent

labourer

of

the lowest

class.

The

workhouse,

according

to

Chadwick,

was

the

great

filter

and

the

"workhouse

test"

attained

the

status

of

an

exact

formula. This

test

was

held

to

be

a

self-adjusting

and

foolproof

device to

sift the

deserving

from

the

non-deserving.

If

the

applicant

for

relief

riid

not

comply

with

the

invitation

to

enter

the

work

house,

"he

gets

nothing"

said

Chadwick.

If

he did

accept

the

spider-like

invitation,

he

accepted

such

poor

conditions

that

it

proved

the

truth

of

his

claim that

he

was

really

destitute.

This

was

the

workhouse

test.

The

workhouse

solution

even in

England

was

founded

on

a

mistaken

assumption. The whole fallacy about the workhouse scheme was that

work

was

obtainable

and

that

there

was a

free

labour market into

which

the

indolent worker

could be

forced

by

the

workhouse

test.

But

however

true

this

was

in

some

parts

af

England

it

was

not

all

applicable

to

Ireland,

where however

industriously

inclined the

population

was,

there

was

just

no

work

to

be

had.

But the

Royal

Commission

on

the

Poor

Laws

in

England

had

produced



5/15

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Documents

Workhouses in Ireland