Mallow workhouse Board of Guardians (BG116)

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

Mallow Board of Guardians

Ref. IE CCCA/BG/116

Descriptive List Cork City and County Archives

Table of Contents Mallow Board of Guardians ...................................................................................................................... 1 Ref. IE CCCA/BG/116 ............................................................................................................................ 1 Descriptive List Cork City and County Archives................................................................................... 1 Identity Statement ....................................................................................................................................... 2 Context ......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Creator(s): ................................................................................................................................................ 2 Archival History ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Administrative & Biographical History............................................................................................... 2 Content & Structure ................................................................................................................................... 4 Scope & Content .................................................................................................................................... 4 Arrangement ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Conditions of Access & Use ..................................................................................................................... 5 Allied Materials:........................................................................................................................................... 5 Archivist’s Note: ......................................................................................................................................... 6 List of Items and Descriptions ................................................................................................................. 7 1. Minute Books .................................................................................................................................. 7 BG/116/A Mallow Board of Guardian Minute Books ........................................................ 7 BG/116/AC/1 Agenda Book ................................................................................................ 16 2. Accounts ........................................................................................................................................ 16 BG/116/CJ/1 Clerk’s Statement of Union Accounts ........................................................ 16

Mallow Board of Guardians

IE CCCA/BG/116

Identity Statement

Reference Code:

IE CCCA/BG/116

Title:

Mallow Board of Guardians

Dates:

1839 – 1919

Level of description:

Fonds

Extent:

46 items

Context

Creator(s): Mallow Board of Guardians

Archival History The surviving records of the Mallow Board of Guardians were deposited in the Archives in the early 1980s, and in an accession of records from County Council Offices, Annabella, Mallow, in 2007.

Administrative & Biographical History The Mallow Board of Guardians was the governing body of Mallow workhouse and poor law union. Mallow 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. Mallow Board of Guardians first met on 19 April 1839. The Workhouse opened on 2 August 1842. The area of the union included the dispensary districts of Mallow; Monanimmy, Clenor, and Rahan; Kilshannig; Caherduggan and Doneraile; Liscarroll and Churchtown; Buttevant and Imphrick; Ballyclough; Ballinamona. There was much initial debate as to whether the workhouse should be located in Mallow or Buttevant, the Poor Law Commissioners favouring the latter as being more central. The guardians narrowly voted in favour of Mallow, resulting in three northern parishes (Charleville, Kilbolane, and Shandrum) being severed and added to the Kilmallock union. 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

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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. 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 in 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. Over time, the responsibilities of the guardians increased to encompass public health, including some medical relief for the destitute at the workhouse, ‘outdoor’ relief though a system of dispensary districts, and 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. These 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 Mallow Rural District Council, the latter assuming responsibility for labourers’ cottages . The board continued to administer the workhouse and its hospital, and to supervise some forms of outdoor relief. In 1915 the workhouse buildings were temporarily taken over by the British military, and inmates were in the main transferred to Millstreet workhouse. Some were also sent to Kilmallock workhouse and those of other unions. In 1921 Mallow workhouse received inmates from the Kanturk union who had been obliged to vacate the workhouse there following its occupation by the British military. Despite the Kanturk board of guardians continuing to function, its workhouse did not re-open, and Mallow workhouse continued to accommodate inmates from the Kanturk union. 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. Mallow General Hospital occupies the site of the former workhouse buildings.

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Content & Structure

Scope & Content The surviving archives of the Mallow Board of Guardians consist, apart from one related item, of 44 minute books containing minutes of full meetings of the board of guardians, 1839-1917 (with gaps). The ordinary minutes include statistical information on workhouse inmates and details of workhouse life and administration. From the 1850s the volumes contain minutes of proceedings under the Medical Charities Acts and, from the 1870s, the Public Health Acts, documenting the board’s increasing role in health and sanitation, and the work of dispensaries and medical officers in the dispensary districts. From the late 1880s, the minutes also record proceedings in connection with pr oviding labourers’ cottages to agricultural labourers and their families. From 1899, this work became a function of Mallow Rural District Council, and some labourers records created by the union were transferred to the RDC, and now form part of the Mallow RDC collection (RDC/116), also at this Archive. Another item present, an agenda book 1917-19, was kept by the clerk of the union, who also served as clerk of the RDC. The volume covers agendas for meetings of both bodies, but contains more Poor Law Union material, including lists of payments to be submitted to the board’s finance committee. The volume illustrates the close relationship between the two bodies, and also provides a partial record of the board’s activities up to Jul y 1919.

The only financial record present is a Statement of Union Accounts, prepared by the clerk, for the half year to March 1860, which gives an insight into the financial operations of the union.

Taken altogether, the records trace the provision and development of poor law services in the area, including the treatment of the sick and those with mental illnesses, arrangements for children, out door relief and medical treatment (including vaccination) in dispensary districts, the challenges facing public health and sanitary provision, and the beginnings of the provision of labourers’ cottages. The minute books also shed light on dealings with other bodies including the PLC/LGB, the Office of Public Works, Mallow RDC, Mallow Town Commissioners, and Cork County Council. Subjects such as the Great Famine (1845-49), the First World War (1914-18), and (intermittently) emigration are also documented. In addition, some resolutions provide a glimpse of local issues and politics, e.g., a police attack on demonstrators in Mallow on 22 May 1917 [see BG/116/A/120].

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Arrangement The collection consists of a series of minutes, and one related agenda book. 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 gaps occur.

Headings

1. Minute Books

A1- 135

Board of Guardian Minute Books Agenda Book (BG and RDC)

1839-1917 (44 items) 1917-1919 (1 item)

AC1

2. Accounts

CJ1

Clerk’s Statement of Union Accounts

1860 (1 item)

Conditions of Access & Use

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

Language: English

Finding Aids: Summary descriptive list.

Allied Materials:

Related Material

CCCA:

Board of Guardian records for other poor law unions in County Cork, esp Kanturk (BG/98) Cork County Boards of Health and Public Assistance records, 1921-66 Mallow Rural District Council records, 1899-1925 (including Labourers’ Cottages records, 1887 - 1925) Cork County Council records, 1899- (including rates valuation and later labourers’ cottages records)

Elsewhere:

National Archives of Ireland:

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

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

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List of Items and Descriptions

1. Minute Books

BG/116/A

Mallow Board of Guardian 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, administrative, financial, rates, and medical books were examined, officers’ reports and committee findings heard, correspondence read and considered, and applications for admission decided on. Matters arising with regard to the workhouse, staff, provisions, bills, rate collection, the Poor Law Commissioners/Local Government Board, and other issues, were also discussed. The minutes also include weekly statistics of admissions, discharges, and deaths in the workhouse, and of outdoor relief. Gaps are indicated where they occur.

Date : 19 Apr 1839 – 26 Oct 1917 (Gaps)

Level : Series

Extent : 44 volumes

19 Apr 1839 – 10 Feb 1843

The volume is indexed. [*binding required]

Includes:

19 Apr 1839 First meeting, William J Voules, Assistant Poor Law Commissioner, in attendance, bye laws passed.

15 July 1839 Special meeting held to ascertain the majority view as to the eligibility of Mallow or Buttevant for the union workhouse. A PLC letter read states ‘on the whole whil st admitting the importance of Mallow, the commissioners are satisfied of the superior eligibility of Buttevant’. Motion carried in favour of Mallow by 16 votes to 15. 29 Jul 1839 Poor Law Commissioners letter, acknowledging the board’s view that Mallow is preferable to Buttevant for the site of the workhouse. They ask that the guardians agree in writing to the severing of the northern parishes of Charleville, Kilbolane, and Shandrum from the union area, as being too distant from a Mallow workhouse. [Debated in subsequent minutes. Severed parishes added to Kilmallock Union; see 2 Dec 1841]

16 Nov 1840 Resolved, that the following places be vaccination stations:

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Mallow Town, Ballinamona and Rahan, Kilavullen (for Monanimmy and Carrig), Taur/Ballyclough, Glounthane (for Kilshannig), Doneraile (for Clenor), Buttevant (for Caherduggan and Imphrick), and Churchtown (for Liscarroll). 28 Dec 1840 Letters from the Poor Law Commissioners and the Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners regarding security on loan advances for providing the union workhouse. Particulars of payments to date forwarded by the board. 11 Jun 1841 Resolution expressing the boar d’s ‘conviction that the benevolent intention of the Poor Relief Act will... be impeded unless it is accompanied with a bill for the suppression of vagrancy with a view to remove the last traces of that moral pestilence as well as to afford the necessary protection to the rate payer from impositions’. 17 Sep 1841 PLC letter regarding justices in the union acting as ex-officio guardians; Workhouse master, matron, and porter appointed. 21 May 1842 Committee report on the building of the workhouse adopted, r eferring to ‘extravagant’ claims for works and ‘the defective state of the building’. The report includes resolutions , one of which addresses the PLC’s ‘very erroneous impression... as to many of the defects in the workhouse, preventing the admission of paupers, being ascribable to the late severe storm’. Another resolution refers to other workhouses nationally and calls for a ‘searching enquiry... as to the removal of the present PL Commissioners, should they be found (what we believe them to have been) incompetent or remiss in the execution of the trusts reposed in them’. 11 Jun 1842 Resolutions regarding taking possession of the workhouse, disputed accounts, ‘the very great distress prevailing in the district’, the ‘extravagant’ rate for some of the wor ks, and the interests of rate payers.

16 Jul 1842 Resolved, ‘that the workhouse be opened on Tuesday the 2 nd August 1842 for the reception of 100 paupers’.

2 Aug 1842 PLC informed that the dietary of the Bandon workhouse is to be adopted as outlined, ‘ch ildren under 9 years of age, aged and sick paupers dieted as the medical officer shall direct’. [See also 9 Sep 1842] Resolved, ‘the admission of paupers having been entered on, after a clear and long explanation by WJ Voules Esq, APLC, 16 paupers were adm itted’. 12 Aug 1842 Report of the Finance and Visiting Committee adopted, containing several strict resolutions, including ‘that the doctor be directed not to allow tea to any pauper except as a medicine and that he be particularly strict in his orders of admission to the hospital’. 26 Aug 1842 PLC letter refusing to permit the master’s children to reside with him in the workhouse, noting ‘the resident officers… have been dieted out of the workhouse stores to prevent their being exposed either to the temptation of misapplying the stores to their own use or to the suspicion of doing so…

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the objection… would apply with greater force to the admission of members of their families’.

9 Sep 1842 Res olved, ‘that the schools of the house be placed under the superintendence of the Board of National Education’.

23 Sep 1842 Resolved, that the board view as unjust the liability placed on them for a sum of £451 17s [relating to the debt of the late House of Industry in Cork] , adding ‘being now subjected to provide for this excess is well calculated to create distrust in the general administration of the Irish PR Act’. Resolved, ‘that paupers on the day of admission receive ¾ lb bread as their only ration’. 7 Oct 1842 Resolved, that a pauper ‘being guilty of insubordina tion and violence to the doctor and master and in the habit of using obscene language, be confined in the refractory ward for 24 hours and placed on an allowance of ¾ lb of bread and water’.

13 Feb 1843 Letter from the Royal Hospital of Chelsea regarding a pensioner of the 30 th Foot, his wife and child having been inmates of the house.

2. 3. 4. 5.

Missing

12 Oct 1844 – 27 Feb 1846 [*binding required]

Missing

23 Apr 1847 – 7 Apr 1848

The volume is indexed [*binding required]

Includes:

7 May 1847 Captain Flood, Government Inspector, states that the board is relieved from responsibility with respect to carrying out measures under the Temporary Fever Relief Act [fever hospital provision and the role of the relief committee a recurring subject (see also, eg, 28 May, 29 Oct and 3 Dec 1847)]; Resolved, ‘that from total want of funds to carry on the workhouse... it is absolutely necessary to raise £1500’ , PLC sanction to pay interest and to repay the loan out of the next rate is therefore requested; Order, ‘the following persons were ordered to be discharged not being proper objects of relief’. [List includes 39 names and 18 unnamed children] 6 Aug 1847 Letter from Secretary of the Board of National Education noting that its inspector has reported that the workhouse school has been closed since 1 Oct 1846 ‘owing to the crowded state of the house and prevalence of fever and other diseases’; PLC letter forwarding the attorney general’s opinion on questions relating to the chargeability of inmates arising out of the Irish Poor Relief Extension Act. 9 Aug 1847 Special meeting to appoint rel ieving officers to the Union’s eight districts: Mallow; Monanimmy, Clenor, and Rahan; Kilshanick [Kilshannig]; Caherduggan and Doneraile; Liscarroll and Churchtown; Buttevant and Imphrick; Ballyclough; Ballinamona.

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17 Sep 1847 Committee appointed ‘to consider in what manner additional workhouse accommodation can be best attained’.

8 Oct 1847 Circular from the Relief Commissioners informing the board that the Treasury has decided that all sums advanced for temporary fever hospitals ‘shall be considered entirely as a grant in aid of the rates’.

22 Oct 1847 Resolved, that the PLC be written to to clarify the situation regarding land taken from Mr Delacour for burial ground and fever hospital.

14 Feb 1848 Report by Mr Spratt, Guardian, regarding employment of paupers. He notes that many leave the workhouse soon after being put to work ‘proving that such persons entered the house not because they were really destitute but because they were idle and unwilling to work’. He recommends that land occupied by Michael Sheehan near the workhouse be taken and paupers put to work on it. 24 Mar 1848 Resolved, ‘the number of visitors to the pauper inmates having become a most serious nuisance ’, that the PLC be asked ‘to issue some stringent regulations on the subject’. [Total inmates this week: 1147]

31 Mar 1848 Response to PLC queries regarding inquest verdicts of death from ‘want and cold’ in two cases in the Mallow union district.

6. 7. 8. 9.

14 Apr 1848 – 30 Mar 1849 [*binding required]

7 Apr 1849 – 22 Mar 1850 [*bound, but requires strengthening]

29 Mar 1850 – 11 Apr 1851 7 Apr 1849 – 22 Mar 1850 22 Nov 1851 – 12 Jun 1852 19 Jun 1852 – 7 Jan 1853 14 Jan 1853 – 24 Jun 1853 1 Jul 1853 – 9 Dec 1853 16 Dec 1853 – 2 Jun 1854 9 Jun 1854 – 18 Nov 1854 25 Nov 1854 – 5 May 1855

10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19.

Missing

16 Nov 1855 – 9 May 1856 16 May 1856 – 7 Nov 1856

20. – 30.

Missing

31. 32. 33.

16 May 1862 – 7 Nov 1862 [*some mild water damage and flaking at edges]

14 Nov 1862 – 1 May 1863

15 May 1863 – 5 Nov 1863 [*Damaged binding, many pages coming away]

Partly indexed. Ordinary minutes are followed by a supplemental sheet for minutes of proceedings under the Medical Charities Acts and Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Acts, 1848 and 1849.

Includes:

15 May 1863 Resolution read from the Cork District Lunatic Asylum, expressing readiness to receive ‘all dangerous and urgent cases of lunacy without their passing t hrough the County Gaol’, provided unions receive ‘all

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harmless lunatics’. It is stated that the arrangement ‘will lighten the pressu re on this asylum, now so crowded, and place the harmless lunatics in the proper place for them’. The board, in response, pr otests against the ‘principle... that the workhouse is the proper place for harmless lunatics’, but agrees to provide for them until additional accommodation be provided at the asylum. 12 Jun 1863 Letter from the Education Office forwarding an extract from the report of its inspector on the union national school. [See also 30 October] Correspondence, recorded on the supplemental sheet, regarding the power of the management committee of Rahan Dispensary District to appoint medical officers and substitutes and to fix their remuneration. [a recurring matter] 11 Jul 1863 Master’s report stating that he attended Kanturk quarter sessions with five women, mothers of illegitimate children in the workhouse, and that decrees were obtained against four of the putative fathers. [See also 2 Oct] Schedule of rates for each electoral division agreed, the aggregate to realize £5792 10s 3d for the year ending 29 Sep 1864. 24 Jul 1863 Resolved, to write to Fermoy union regarding the cost of erecting the Turkish bath in Ferm oy workhouse, the bath understood to be ‘a very effectual curative agent under the management of the medical officer there’. 31 Jul 1863 Extract from the punishment book read, regarding a female inmate given three hours in the refractory ward ‘for creatin g noise in the dining hall and assaulting the schoolmaster’. She is also to be prosecuted. 14 Aug 1863 Memorandum regarding the master’s refusal to admit a lunatic forwarded from Cork workhouse having been removed by warrant from Scotland. It is noted ‘th is case of removal of a lunatic pauper from England or Scotland is the first which has occurred as regards the Mallow Union’. 2 Oct 1863 Resolved, that a room in the female probationary ward be appropriated for use as an office for the registry of births and deaths pursuant to the provisions of new legislation. 16 Oct 1863 Letter from the Management Committee, Mallow Dispensary District, applying for an increase of salary for the medical officer, noting that the number of cases attended in the year previous to his appointment was 626 and that in the year to October 1862 he attended 1762 cases. [See also 23 October, a letter from some ratepayers protesting against an increase in the salary of the medical officer of Ballyclough Dispensary District]

34. 35. 36. 37. 38.

Missing

13 May 1864 – 4 Nov 1864 11 Nov 1864 – 5 May 1865

Missing

17 Nov 1865 – 4 May 1866

39. – 40.

Missing

41.

10 May 1867 – 1 May 1868

42. – 56.

Missing

57.

11 Feb 1876 – 18 Aug 1876

58. – 62.

Missing

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63. 64.

23 May 1879 – 28 Nov 1879 5 Dec 1879 – 4 Jun 1880

65. – 69.

Missing

70. 71.

24 Aug 1883 – 29 Feb 1884 7 Mar 1884 – 12 Sep 1884

72. – 76.

Missing

77. 78. 79.

13 May 1887 – 18 Nov 1887

Missing

15 Jun 1888 – 4 Jan 1889

Ordinary minutes are followed by supplemental sheets for minutes of proceedings under the Medical Charities and Public Health Acts, including proceedings of the board as a rural sanitary authority, and for proceedings as a rural sanitary authority under the Labourers (Ireland) Acts, 1883, 1885, 1886.

Includes:

15 Jun 1888 Extract read from the punishment book regarding ‘disorderly’ and ‘annoying’ conduct, including playing football, by several inmates. [See also, e.g., 31 Aug 1888] 29 Jun 1888 Minutes of meeting of the Union’s Public Health Committee. Topics discussed included the new cemetery, Chapel Lane sewerage, and the milk factory.

20 Jul 1888 Resolution of sympathy on the death of Sir Denham Jephson Norreys, a long-serving board member.

28 Jul 1888 Printed resolution that an improvement scheme ought to be made under the Labourers Acts for the Electoral Divisions of Kilmaclenine and Templemary, existing accommodation for agricultural labourers and their families having been found ‘unfit for human habitation’. [See also 22 &29 Jun 1888]; Correspondence between the clerk of the union and the LGB auditor regarding cleansing and scavenging of the town of Mallow, which the board has taken over from the Town Commissioners. 17 Aug 1888 Pursuant to notice, all children at nurse in the union, with three exceptions, were inspected at the workhouse by the visiting committee, which ‘reported favourably of them’. 7 Sep 1888 Relieving officer’s report of two women, one living in a ‘car - shed’, the other ‘in a miserable room without any friend to see after her’, bo th of whom ‘decline to come to the workhouse’. 14 Sep 1888 Letter from Philip McGovern, Glangevlin, Co Cavan, regarding his treatment of a boy from Shanballymore bitten by a dog [McGovern evidently treated patients bitten by suspected rabid dogs for various unions].

21 Sep 1888 Matron’s letter stating that an inmate reported to her that another inmate attempted to murder him, and that she allowed him ‘out on pass for

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the purpose of swearing informations’. Noted, Mr Brazier asked the board to obtain LGB sanction to the provision of relief outside the workhouse to Mrs Healy and her children, ‘as her husband is in gaol having received three months hard labour for desertion of his wife and children’. [See also 28 Sep 1888]

26 Oct 1888 Chairman refuses to accept a proposition congratulating the Rev Mr Kennedy of Meelin on his release from prison.

2 Nov 1888 Contractors declared for the erection of labourers’ cottages under the provisional order dated 31 Aug 1887, following examination of tenders. The list notes electoral division, townland, cost, number and type of cottages, and the contractor. [Related lists in later minutes, e.g., 16 Nov & 7 Dec 1888] 23 November 1888 Observations of the auditor read with regard to the clothing, establishment, emigration, Pu blic Health Act, and Labourers’ Acts accounts. Series of resolutions passed in respect of mortgages entered into for loans received from the Office of Public Works, for the new cemetery at Mallow (£150) and for labourers cottages (£12,601). [Re new cemetery and cemetery committee, see also, e.g., 5 Oct 1888] 14 Dec 1888 Noted: Two children named Ferdinand put out to nurse; notice of eviction by MJ Moriarty against J Daly, Ball Alley Lane; [recurring items]. Notice of motion that the board consider the applications for grants for clothing from three inmates who wish ‘to avail of the free emigration to the Argentin e Republic’. [See also 21 Dec 1888 and 4 Jan 1889]. 28 Dec 1888 Notice of motion by Patrick O’Brien, that the selection of tenants for labourers cottages be referred to dispensary committees, and that they ‘give preference to those persons whose houses are worst and whose families are largest, especially if young, thus avoiding the danger of doing injustice to those unfortunate and miserable persons who have no friends to support their claims at the board’. Letter from the clerk relative to payment made to him in connection with labourers cottages schemes, the balance of £335 unexpended by the clerk to be lodged with the board pending the further decision of the LGB. 4 Jan 1889 LGB letter stating that Col Spaight will hold a local inquiry into the application of Mallow Town Commissioners regarding the extension of the boundaries of the town on 15 January.

80. – 89.

Missing

90. 91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96.

18 May 1894 – 23 Nov 1894

Missing

14 Jun 1895 – 20 Dec 1895 3 Jan 1896 – 3 Jul 1896 10 Jul 1896 – 15 Jan 1897 22 Jan 1897 – 30 Jul 1897 6 Aug 1897 – 11 Feb 1898

97. – 98.

Missing

99.

23 Feb 1900 – 8 Mar 1901

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100. 101. 102. 103. 104. 105. 106. 107. 108. 109.

Missing

21 Mar 1902 – 17 Apr 1903

Missing

2 Jun 1904 – 28 Apr 1905 12 May 1905 – 7 Jun 1906 22 Jun 1906 – 19 Jul 1907

Missing

11 Sep 1908 – 1 Oct 1909

Missing

9 Dec 1910 – 16 Jun 1911

110. – 119.

Missing

120.

11 May 1917 – 26 October 1917

Minutes of ordinary meetings are followed by financial and statistical minutes, and minutes of proceedings under the Medical Charities Acts, including periodic notice of children at nurse reports [some of which contain sensitive information and are subject to 100 year closure].

Includes:

11 May 1917 Tables, numbers of persons in the workhouse on 5 May 1917: 193; number of persons receiving outdoor relief: 230. Application received from Killmallock Board of Guardians for remuneration for treatment of patients from Mallow ‘whilst the workhouse was in occupation of the military’. [See 8 June below and minutes of 14 Sep] LGB letter referring to the number of defaulters under the Vaccination Act for the quarter ending 31 Mar 1917, totalling 260 in the union area. 26 May 1917 Resolution from the Mourneabbey branch of Sinn Fein read, amended, and passed, protesting against the action of ‘the mock peace preservers known as policemen who were the sole cause of provoking an attack on an unarmed and peaceful people in the town of Mallow on Tuesday 22 nd May 1917 and that we demand a full public inquiry into the conduct of the police on the occasion’. 8 Jun 1917 Matron submits a list of eleven orphaned and deserted children to be boarded out, ranging in age from 6 weeks to 11 years. The guardians note ‘that as the present maintenance allowance was too low, the people would not take the children’. LGB letter regarding the shortage of sugar, stating that they should apply to their 1915 supplier or forward correspondence to the Royal Commission on Sugar Supply. They also suggest sweetened condensed milk and golden syrup as substitutes. It is stated in reply ‘the guardians had no contractor for sugar in 1915 as the inmates were in the Millstreet Union then’ [owing to military occupation of Mallow workhouse. See 31 August: ‘the proportionate number of inmates as between Mallow and Millstreet was practically two thirds Mallow and one third Millstreet’ . See also 6 July and 3 August] Election of a new master recorded. [on departure and pension of old master, see also, e.g., 20 July]

22 Jun 1917 Caretaker of children and a nurse both permitted to have their

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children reside with them in the workhouse during their holidays.

6 Jul 1917 LGB letter sanctioning the stated scales of rations for officers of the workhouse. Minutes of meeting of the house committee to consider the LGB inspector’s report as contained in a letter of 6 June 1917. 3 Aug 1917 LGB letter regarding a man who escaped from the idiot ward on 16 May last. A guardian responded ‘this man is now living among the farmers in Liscarroll and that he thinks he is now alright inasmuch as he is useful to them ’ . The Guardians consider no other action should be taken. Resolution passed calling on KB Williams, late landlord of Mrs Barrett, evicted tenant, to allow her to sell her interest in her former holding. 17 Aug 1917 Minutes of the Ladies’ Visiting Committee, which met on 25 June, making reference to the heavy duties of the night nurse, to an ashpit ‘emanating an abominable odour, injurious to the health of the children’, and to giving extra milk to old people in the infirm ward. The committee are invited ‘to attend at the kitchen and show the cook how to make proper and economic soup’. [See also 14 Sep and 26 Oct 1917] Application considered to send a child ‘who is idiotic’ to the Stewart Institute, Palmerstown, Chapelizod, Dublin. The board agreed to pay ‘the usual fee of £13 a year. The case is a very deserving one’. Children at nurse reports, including an LGB letter regarding a child who reported his nurse ill treated him. It is asked whether the nurse ‘is a suitable foster parent to have charge of the other workhouse child’. Under Medical Charities, an LGB letter was read sanctioning ‘the appointment of a lady doctor as temporary medical officer of the Buttevant Dispensary’. 31 Aug 1917 LGB letter forwarding the auditor’s report on the accounts of Mallow Union, making suggestions regarding the purchase of food and consumables, and noting errors and deficiencies in account keeping. 14 Sep 1917 Letter from the Naval and Military War Pensions Committee asking if there is space available for disabled soldiers. The board responds that there is no space at Mallow, but that ‘the workhouse buildings at Mitchelstown are al together empty’, and that there may be space at Millstreet. 28 Sep 1917 Resolution passed calling on ‘the government of all belligerent countries to note the inhuman treatment of the Irish political prisoners by the British government which professes to be fighting for the rights of small nationalities and demands that the gallant men be accorded the treatment of prisoners of war’.

12 October 1917 Notice of motion to seek a war bonus for the carpenter, tailor, shoemaker, and vanman ‘who are bearing the burden of all taxation’.

26 Oct 1917 LGB letter referring to a medical officer’s report regarding an attendant who forcibly struck a female inmate of the idiot ward, and stating that ‘this attendant must not be allowed to retain office any longer’.

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LGB lett er noting the Food Controller’s statement that ‘unless the consumption of bread stuffs is reduced compulsory rationing will have to be resorted to ’ [owing to ‘a world shortage of cereals’]. Notice of motion, that a telephone be installed at the hospital and Dr V aughan’s house, for staff convenience, ‘and for communication in urgent cases between Mallow and Buttevant and the Hospital’.

121. – 135.

Missing

BG/116/AC/1

Agenda Book

Scope and Content: Volume containing notices of meetings, agendas, and lists of payments, sent by the clerk of the union to board members prior to each meeting of the board. Many notices for meetings of Mallow Rural District Council are also contained, the same clerk serving both bodies. Some rough notes have been written onto some of the papers, and onto blank spaces, seemingly by the clerk, who evidently used the volume as a working record. Some newscuttings of relevance to the work of the union and RDC have also been inserted.

Date : 28 Jul 1917 – 4 Jul 1919

Level : Item

Extent : 1 volume

Accounts

BG/116/CJ/1

Clerk’s Statement of Union Accounts

Scope and Content: Statement of accounts prepared by the clerk and his assistant, noting debits and credits for union accounts, arranged by date, folio number, an d ‘Item’ (description). Accounts include the Treasurer, Maintenance and Clothing, Relief Refunded, Establishment, Relieving Officers, Election Law, Dispensary Districts, General Union, Unpaid Bills, and Electoral Divisions. The statement ends with a balanc e for the Treasurer’s Account for half -year ending 29 Sep 1860.

Date : Half-year ended 31 Mar 1860

Level : Item

Extent : 1 volume

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