Cork workhouse Board of Guardians (BG69)

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Identity Statement

Reference Code:

IE CCCA/BG/69

Title:

Cork Board of Guardians

Dates:

1839-1925

Level of description:

Fonds / Series / Item

Extent:

308 items

Context

Creator Cork Board of Guardians (governing board of Cork Poor Law Union and workhouse) Archival History

The vast majority of collection ref. BG/69 was transferred to the Archives in c.1982 by the Southern Health Board from St.Finbarr’s hospital, Cork. A n accrual, consisting 14 account/stores books plus 1 minute book (No. 146), was received in 2009 from the Health Service Executive. Additional records such as later admission and discharge books were located at the Archives and included in the list in 2025. Administrative & Biographical History Cork Poor Law Union was established under the Poor Law (Ireland) Act, 1838, by an official order dated 3 April 1839 to cater for Cork City and its immediate hinterland. It was one of 15 Unions in the overall County Cork area. Each union was centered 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. In the case of the Cork Union, the Cork House of Industry, a charitable 'workhouse', adjacent to the South Infirmary Hospital, was designated as the temporary union workhouse catering for Cork City and its hinterland and it opened on 1 March 1840, with the withdrawal of the former House of Industry Governors. A new purpose built workhouse, located at Douglas Road, Cork, with an attached infirmary, opened in late 1841/early 1842. Each workhouse was managed by a staff and officers under the charge of a workhouse master. Overall responsibility within the union rested with the Board of Guardians, most of whom were elected, and some of whom were ex-officio members appointed usually from amongst local justices of the peace /magistrates. The electors were owners and occupiers of property liable to pay the poor rate. The boards of guardians were vested with wide statutory powers and were under the direction and control of the Poor Law Commissioners and from 1872 of the Local Government Board. The boards of guardians were financially maintained by a poor rate levied on occupiers of property in the union district, and tenants could deduct half of the rates from their rents.

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