Schull workhouse Board of Guardians (BG145)

Descriptive list of the archive of Schull workhouse/poor law union Board of Guardians. Items are in hard copy and may be accessed by appointment.

Schull Board of Guardians

Ref. IE CCCA/BG/145

Descriptive List

Cork City and County Archives

Table of Contents Identity Statement .............................................................................................................................................. 2 Context ................................................................................................................................................................2 Creator(s): .......................................................................................................................................................2 Archival History ............................................................................................................................................2 Administrative & Biographical History......................................................................................................2 Content & Structure ..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope & Content ...........................................................................................................................................4 Arrangement ..................................................................................................................................................4 Conditions of Access & Use ............................................................................................................................4 Allied Materials: .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Archivist’s Note: ................................................................................................................................................ 5 List of Items and Descriptions ........................................................................................................................6 1. Minute Books .........................................................................................................................................6 BG/145/A Schull Board of Guardians Minute Books ................................................................6

Schull Board of Guardians

IE CCCA/BG/145

Identity Statement

Reference Code:

IE CCCA/BG/145

Title:

Schull Board of Guardians

Dates:

1920 – 1924

Level of description:

Fonds

Extent:

3 items

Context

Creator(s): Schull Board of Guardians

Archival History The surviving records of the Schull Board of Guardians were deposited in the Archives in the early 1980s.

Administrative & Biographical History The Schull Board of Guardians was the governing body of Schull workhouse and poor law union. Schull Poor Law Union was established under the Poor Law (Ireland) Act, 1838. It was one of 16 unions in the overall County Cork area. Each union was centred on a city or market town and its hinterland, and this union area sometimes ignored existing parish or county boundaries. In this central town was situated the union workhouse (usually built between 1838 and 1852) which provided relief for the unemployed and the destitute. Schull Poor Law Union was created on 3 October 1849, and the Workhouse opened on 19 January 1850. The Schull area formed the western part of the Skibbereen union area before this time. Unfortunately no records for Skibbereen Board of Guardians have survived. The area of the Schull Union included the dispensary districts of Schull and Goleen. The Schull district included a dispensary depot at Ballydehob, while the Golleen district included a depot at Ardravinna. 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 property owners in the

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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 31 August 1921 the board resolved to send minutes to the Local Government department of Dail Eireann, instead of 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 most of its public health functions taken over by the newly-created Cork County Council and the Bantry Rural District Council. The board continued to administer the workhouse and its hospital, and to supervise some forms of outdoor relief. On the night of 25 June 1921 the workhouse was burned down. It appears many of the records of the board were destroyed in the fire. Remaining inmates were boarded out or sent to other institutions, including workhouses and hospitals in Bantry, Clonakilty, and Cork. The board continued to administer out door relief. In late 1923 a house belonging to the union was occupied by the national forces. Several houses in the town came to be used as offices for the conduct of union business. The Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act 1923 led to the abolition of the workhouse system, and its replacement with the formation of the county boards of health and public assistance. The last recorded meeting of Schull Board of Guardians took place on 28 April 1924.

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Content & Structure

Scope & Content The surviving minutes of Schull Board of Guardians (BG/145/A) cover only the last four years of its existence. It would appear that earlier minutes and other records were lost when the workhouse burned down in June 1921. As no records for Skibbereen board of guardians have survived, the history of poor relief in this large area of west Cork is sadly largely undocumented. The Great Famine (1845-49) is known to have had a catastrophic impact on the region, but information on this period may only be gathered from other sources, such as the records of the Poor Law Commissioners. The development of poor relief and public health services in the Schull area in the later part of the nineteenth century, and the changing structures which followed the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, are also not recorded in the present collection. The surviving minutes, for the period from May 1920 to April 1924, do shed light on the last days of the workhouse, and on out door relief and the dispensary district system. The boarding out, or fostering, of children is a recurring subject. The changing relationships with the Local Government Board, the Local Government Department of Dail Eireann, Cork County Council, and other unions and institutions are also recorded. Dealings with Bantry, Clonakilty, and Cork unions, in the context of the proposed amalgamation of unions, and the loss of workhouses, first in Bantry and later in Schull, are particularly interesting. The minutes also reflect the politics of the time. Many selections from the minutes for this final period in the union’s history are included in the list below. Arrangement The collection consists of a series of minutes of meetings of the board of guardians. The arrangement of Board of Guardian records is based on that devised for Poor Law records nationally by Sean McMenamin of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (see Appendix 2 to McMenamin’s article in Irish Archives Bulletin Vol 1, No 2, October 1971). Please note that minutes prior to May 1920 are not present.

Headings

1. Minute Books

A1- 3 Board of Guardian Minute Books

1920-1924 (3 items)

Conditions of Access & Use

Access : Open by appointment to those holding a current reader ’ s ticket.

Language: English

Finding Aids: Descriptive list.

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Allied Materials:

Related Material

CCCA:

Board of Guardian records for other poor law unions in County Cork, especially Bantry (BG/43), Clonakilty (BG/65), and Cork (BG/69) Cork County Boards of Health and Public Assistance records, 1921-66 Schull Rural District Council records, 1919-1922 Cork County Council records, 1899- (including rates valuation books)

Elsewhere:

National Archives of Ireland:

Archives of the Poor Law Commissioners Archives of the Local Government Board for Ireland Archives of the Department of Local Government

Archivist ’ s Note: Timmy O Connor Local Government Archivist, CCCA June 2011

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List of Items and Descriptions

1. Minute Books

BG/145/A

Schull Board of Guardians Minute Books

Scope and Content: A record of meetings and decisions made by the board of guardians in administering the workhouse and poor relief generally. At meetings, officers’ reports and committee findings were heard, correspondence read and considered, and applications decided on. Matters arising with regard to the workhouse, staff, provisions, bills, finance, the Poor Law, the Local Government Board and the Local Government Department, and other issues, were also discussed. The minutes also include weekly statistics of admissions, discharges, and deaths in the workhouse, and of outdoor relief.

Date : 13 May 1920 – 28 Apr 1924

Level : Series

Extent : 3 volumes

13 May 1920 – 17 Oct 1921

Minutes of ordinary meetings are followed by supplemental sheets for financial and statistical minutes, and for proceedings under the Medical Charities Acts mainly relating to dispensary district medical services.

Includes:

13 May 1920 Total inmates: 36. Outdoor relief cases: 66 persons.

17 Jun 1920 Resolved, ‘that no lists of ratepayers for information of British agents be drawn up in these offices nor any facilities given for copying or taking extracts from rate or valuation books for above, and we ask the officials c oncerned to abide by this resolution’. LGB letter forwarding extracts from their inspector’s report on dispensary districts, drawing attention to deficiencies in the buildings, the small number of midwifery cases, and vaccination defaulters. He states in the case of Schull that ‘there are too many defaulters’, and notes that the magistrate in Ballydehob last year adjourned cases against defaulters ‘owing to bad wording of the summonses… this has had a very bad effect on vaccination in the neighbourhood’.

15 Jul 1920 Visiting committee report noting good conditions generally but

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adding ‘we find general dissatisfaction among the male inmates in the body of the house and we presume their treatment is bad’. [See also 27 Dec 1920] Resolution acknowledging ‘the a uthority of Dail Eireann as the duly elected government of the Irish people’. 9 Aug 1920 Relieving officer’s letter regarding a boarded out child whose foster-parents refuse to have returned to the workhouse. The officer is ordered to find out ‘is he [ie, the foster-father] inclined to keep him, if so, how

much per week he is willing to give him as wages’. Copy of auditor’s report dated 22 July 1920 read.

Resolution passed revising the dietary to include beef four days a week ‘and fish (when procurable) fo r the other 3 days for each inmate for dinner’.

23 Aug 1920 Order fixing the weekly charge for old age pensioners in the workhouse hospital at seven shillings and six pence. Ordered, that tenders be invited for the oat crop in the workhouse farm. 6 Sep 1 920 Resolution ‘protesting against the inhuman and tyrannical treatment meted out to the brave and self-sacrificing lord mayor of Cork and the other hunger strikers’. [Meeting adjourned in protest to 20 Sep] 20 Sep 1920 Order stating that the guardians wi ll ‘do their best to comply with the request’ from the Dail that ‘certain facilities be given to the RIC members who have resigned’. [The meeting also approved a resolution received from Sinn Fein on the boycotting of goods from north east Ulster.] 4 Oct 1920 Letter from clerk of Bantry Union read, stating ‘we are thinking of taking on Bantry House for an infirmary and will have to send the other inmates elsewhere as we are now put out of all the main workhous e buildings’. It is added ‘Mrs L eigh-White has objected to admit cancer consumptive or fever cases into the wing of the Bantry House which she is giving’. The board agree to take in patients, once beds and equipment is provided. 13 Oct 1920 Resolution sending two representatives to a meeting in Cork ‘ re a general scheme of amalgamation of workhouses’. [See also 22 Nov 1920 and 16 May 1921] 18 Oct 1920 Resolved, ‘that we the members of the Schull union authorise the clerk to forward minutes of all meetings to the Local Government of Dail Eireann [sic] in future instead of the British LG Board’. [See 28 Mar 1921, when officials were notified that communication with the LGB ‘will be deemed a treasonable practice and dealt with accordingly’.]

22 Nov 1920 Appointments made to permanent Conciliation Board.

14 Feb 1921 Letter from Cork County Council asking the board to reconsider its estimate and demand for the coming year ‘with a view to eliminating therefrom all classes of expenditure not of an urgent nature or absolutely

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necessary’. The board notes ‘there is no possible chance of reducing same’. Allowances granted to a number of applicants for burial expenses.

14 Mar 1921 Relieving officer’s letter regarding relief for the family of a woman ‘in possession of a small farm of land but in very poor circumst ances. The family are almost naked and I saw no appearance of food in the house and from inquiries made I believe food cannot be purchased’. Relief refused. 2 May 1921 LG Dept letter directing the board not to order new drugs until they hear from the General Council of County Councils, which has entered into an arrangement with a firm at a 20% discount on current prices. [See 13 Jun]. Letter from Edward Shipsey, brother of the medical officer of Schull dispensary district regarding the latter’s absence on sick leave and substitute arrangements . He notes ‘Schull is the largest dispensary district in the county except one and it would be impossible for any medical man non-resident to perform the duties of it and the hospital and another district unless he had the use of a motor car’. 13 Jun 1921 Resolution passed appointing chairman and vice- chairmen ‘but should Mr Jerh McCarthy, who is in jail at present, come home in the meantime, Mr Wilcox must forego the chairmanship’. 30 Jun 1921 Special meeting: ‘The clerk reported that on the night of the 25 th or morning of the 26 th inst, the workhouse was almost completely burned. There were some mattresses, bedclothes, chairs, provisions and necessaries, books etc saved’. It is resolved that fit inmates be boarded out and that the Cork and Bantry unions and Cork Blind Asylum be written to ‘to know if they would take the other inmates that may be left’. [9 inmates remaining on 3 July, 3 on 30 July, and none on 22 August. On 12 July, the clerk read a letter from Miss Rycroft threatening legal action unless the trespass in a house owned by her ceases. The inmates were removed to this unoccupied house (p389). House officials other than the clerk had their posts abolished at this meeting (regarding their compensation and superannuation see, eg, 6 Mar 1922 below)]. 30 Sep 1921 Letter from Dr Neville, Goleen, stating ‘I neither stole or removed the missing midwifery forceps or ear syringe from Ballydehob dispensary depot. As a matter of fact I never even saw them there or damn little else’.

17 Oct 1921 Inmates: 0. Out door relief: 80 persons.

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1 Nov 1921 – 15 Oct 1923

Includes:

27 Nov 1921 Inmates: 0. Out door relief: 80 persons. Letter from the clerk of Bantry union stating ‘we have no room for the child mentioned in your letter. We are packed up and are going to send out three children who were taken in under similar circumstances. We cannot take in any of the hospital p atients referred as it is full up’. 12 Dec 1921 LG Dept letter including an extract from an answer received from the vice- guardians of Cork union setting out ‘the basis of calculation on which the charge of £1 : 1 : 0 per head is made for maintenance of inmates in Cork Union Workhouse’. The board are ‘not satisfied to pay this extra - ordinary charge for a healthy mother who is working in the institution and a child of 18 months old’. [See also 16 Jan 1922, where the Cork union threatens to return Schull inmates and not to take any more unless amounts owed are paid.] LG Dept letter pointing out that medical officers are entitled to vacation and to have their substitutes paid out of the rates. It is added ‘other unions have been similarly circumstanced regarding financial difficulties and have not thought it necessary to economise at the expense of their officers’ rights’. 16 Jan 1922 Clerk’s letter submitted the board’s annual estimate and demand to the County Council for the year to 31 March 1923, ‘total amo unt £2339, which shows a decrease of £2247 on the current year’s estimate’. 17 Apr 1922 Letter from the medical officer, Schull dispensary, stating that no fire has been lit this year in Ballydehob depot, adding ‘it is like a prison -camp in this weather’. [See also, eg, 15 Oct 1923. In a letter read on 15 May 1922 he complains that medicines ordered three months ago have only now arrived]. 12 Jun 1922 Clerk’s letter reporting that he was put out of his room in Mr Roycroft’s house on the o rders of Mr Connolly, IRA officer, Skibbereen, and that he has since gotten a room from Michael Sullivan, to which he has removed the union books ‘and am having my office in that room since’. LG Dept letter including reference to a relieving officer’s report on boarded out children, calling attention ‘to the irregular attendance of such children at school’ and stating that foster -parents should be warned that unless an improvement is effected children will be removed to other homes. 17 Jul 1922 Letters from Cork County Council: the first states that arrangements are being made for the reception of aged, infirm, and other inmates at the new home in Clonakilty [for the unions in the western part of the county]; the second states that a religious order has taken the mansion at Bessborough. Blackrock , and will ‘devote their attention towards the reformation of unmarried mothers and their children and for deserted and

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orphan children; but no girl who had a second child will be accepted under any circumstances ’ .

16 Oct 1922 Report of committee appointed to visit old people boarded out read, noting ‘[we] found them well cared for and in good health’.

27 Nov 1922 LG Dept letter regarding the large number of unvaccinated children in the county, noting ‘energetic measures to carry out vaccination’ are particularly needed owing to ‘something approaching an epidemic of smallpox in England and Wales’. 15 Jan 1923 Letter from Commissioners for Public Works stating that the department of Finance will waive claim for penal interest on arrears of loan instalments, ‘provided the local authority discharge same without unreasonable delay’. 5 Feb 1923 Letter from LG Inspector regarding compensation due to Dr Shipsey, medical officer at the time the workhouse was destroyed. It is noted that the matter was postponed pending the adoption of the scheme for amalgamating unions, but ‘as there does not appear to be any immediate prospect of the scheme being put into operation’, it is requested that the matter be considered at the next meeting. 8 Jun 1923 Relieving officer’s letter regarding an unknown child, a month old, found and removed to Clonakilty Hospital ‘where it was very reluctantly admitted’. He includes a letter from the medical officer stating ‘it has come to my knowledge that days and even weeks have lapsed in some recent cases between the date of my order and the date of the actual removal to hospital of poor law patients... it may develop into very serious business amounting to a charge of manslaughter for the person responsible for the delay’. 9 Jul 1923 Letters regarding the maintenance of a boy at the Stewart Institution in Dublin and his discharge and return home. The board resolve to pay travel expenses to his father, ‘a very small and poor farmer’, but ‘disclaim all responsibility for cost of maintenance as they at any time did not acknowledge responsibility’. [No meetings held from 23 Jul to 10 Sep] 10 Sep 1923 LG Dept letter ordering that Dr Shipsey be paid by the board for certifying three dangerous lunatics, noting that ‘th e liability of payment is not limited to the case of a poor or destitute person’. [The board had argued that the families of the three men were liable.] 15 Oct 1923 Letter from the Blind Asylum, Cork, regarding maintenance of an inmate. It is stated ‘regarding self support I might say the most efficient blind person... does not exceed 50% of the efficiency required for self su pport’. The board maintain that ‘the blind pension... along with that he does at his trade ought to keep him’. [See also 4 Feb 1924 below]

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12 Nov 1923 – 14 Apr 1924

Includes:

12 Nov 1923 Out door relief cases:60. Persons: 110 Orders, the first stating that £49 9s 9d owed to Bantry union for maintenance of ten patients be paid, the second stating that the board ‘have already discharged their responsibilities to the Cork Union and are not responsible for the aforesaid amount’ [£172 9s 10d . See also, eg, 31 Mar 1924]. LG Dept letter forwarding extracts from returns made by the medical officers of the Schull and Goleen dispensary districts, referring to vaccination defaulters, deficiencies in the dispensary buildings, and inadequacies in the relief ticket system. LG Dept letter declining to approve of the use of the waiting room of Ballydehob dispensary by the Ballydehob Dramatic Corps. 26 Nov 1923 Letter from the clerk of Clonakilty union referring to money owed and also stating ‘all the cases you send to the Home are hospital cases and the Home is not intended for these’. [See also relieving officer’s letter read on 10 Dec describing how a sick person was refused admission to hospital in Clonakilty ‘on account of the maintenance of the Schull patients not being duly paid up’. The patient was subsequently admitted.] 10 Dec 1923 Letter from John Corbett stating that he has removed his cattle from the workhouse farm and that John Newman is ‘at liberty to enter into possession’. A resolution appoints Corbett caretaker of the workhouse premises ‘at remuneration of one penny a week’. [See also 4 Feb 1924] Medical officer’s letter argu ing against allowing boarders or lodgers at Schull dispensary. [He claims the house is used by the local customs and excise officer. See also 4 Feb 1924] Clerk ordered to advance a claim to the military authorities for payment for goods now missing from the house occupied by national troops. 21 Jan 1924 Clerk submits the annual estimate and demand to Cork County Council for the year to 31 Mar 1925. The amount is £3378. The board resolves to reduce this by £312 under the heading of repayment of loans.

4 Feb 1924 Prosecutions to be instituted against vaccination defaulters on or after 1 May 1924. [Total defaulters: 319. See also 3 Mar.]

28 Apr 1924 ‘There was no meeting held on the above date for want of a quorum’. [Final entry.]

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