Dunmanway Board of Guardians
IE CCCA/BG/83
Each workhouse was managed by a staff and officers under the charge of a workhouse master, who reported to the board. Overall responsibility rested with the union's board of guardians, some of whom were elected, and some of whom were ex-officio members appointed usually from amongst local magistrates. The board appointed its own inhouse committees, and received reports from workhouse officers and from dispensary district committees and district medical officers. It also made resolutions on internal and poor law matters and, sometimes, on wider political or social issues. Poor law services were principally financed by a poor rate levied on propert y owners in the union’s districts, and collected by rate collectors appointed by the board. Central government also provided loans. From 1899 on, the newly-created Cork County Council collected rates and funded Cork boards of guardians based on an annual estimate and demand. Each union was under the central supervision of the Poor Law Commissioners up to 1874 and thereafter of the Local Government Board (later Local Government Board for Ireland). These government-appointed bodies received reports from the board and its officers, appointed inspectors and auditors, sanctioned or rejected proposed expenditure, appointments, and policies, and made the final decision on major administrative issues. On 15 June 1920 the board resolved to pledge allegiance to Dail Eireann, and not to submit minutes to the LGB. The responsibilities of the guardians increasingly encompassed public health, and to medical relief for the destitute at the workhouse and ‘outdoor’ relief though a system of dispensary districts were added other functions including overseeing smallpox vaccinations, the boarding- out of orphan and deserted children, monitoring contagious diseases in animals, and providing labourers’ cottages an d improved sanitation. The workhouse buildings included an infirmary and a fever hospital. The workhouse also provided nursery care and education to child inmates, and employed school teachers. Hospital and other medical services were available to all, not just the poor, although the latter received free treatment when inmates, or through the system of tickets issued by relieving officers and medical officers. The guardians’ changing responsibilities were governed by legislation, including the Public Health (Ireland) Acts 1874 and 1878, Medical Charities Acts, Vaccination Acts, Dispensary Houses Act, the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Acts (1848-49), Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1878, and Labourers’ Acts (1883 -86). While these acts tended to increase the role of the board, the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 saw rate collection and many of its public health functions taken over by the newly-created Cork County Council and the Dunmanway Rural District Council. The board continued to administer the workhouse and its hospital, and to supervise dispensary services, outdoor relief, and the boarding out of children. In 1895, the British Medical Journal reported on Dunmanway workhouse, following an inspection: ‘ When we see such a travesty of sick nursing as prevails in this Union we wonder why the guardians go through the form of providing the medical officer with drugs and an official called the "nurse." His only essential equipment is surely a book of death certificates and a pen with which to write them. In our opinion the sick department requires complete reorganisation; the wards are quite unsuitable, and the responsible officer, whatever work she may have done in the past, is now quite unfit for her duties, and should be superannuated. A. suitable infirmary and a staff of two trained nurses is our recommendation. Once more we plead for comforts for the aged, armchairs, better heating and lighting in the wards, a responsible attendant, and sanitary appliances which conduce to health and decency. There was a touch of humanity about the administration which we were pleased to note; the defects are those of an evil system more than of those who work it.’ ( http://www.workhouses.org.uk/BMJ/Dunmanway.shtml)
Cork City and County Archives 2011
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