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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