Macroom Board of Guardians
IE CCCA/BG/115
Identity Statement
Reference Code:
IE CCCA/BG/115
Title:
Macroom Board of Guardians
Dates:
1852 – 1924
Level of description:
Fonds
Extent:
40 items
Context
Creator(s): Macroom Board of Guardians
Archival History Most of the surviving records of the Macroom Board of Guardians were deposited in the Archives in the early 1980s. One item, BG/115/DF/1, the Inchigeela Dispensary Medical Officer’s Report Book, was deposited separately, and originally had the reference code U337. There are many gaps in the series of minute books, and it is likely that records were destroyed in the fire at the workhouse in 1921. Administrative & Biographical History The Macroom Board of Guardians was the governing body of Macroom workhouse and poor law union. Macroom 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. Macroom Union was declared by the Poor Law Commissioners on 20 December 1939 and an order declaring its workhouse fit to receive paupers was issued on 1 October 1842. The first admissions occurred on 13 May 1843. A PLC order dated 3 October 1849 altered the area of the union somewhat. Unions were divided into electoral divisions (EDs) for electoral and rate collection purposes. Over time, larger dispensary districts and relief districts, consisting of several EDs, came into being. The Macroom Union consisted of the Dispensary Districts of Macroom, Cannaway, Clonmoyle, Inchigeela, and Slievreagh. Each district had a medical officer and dispensary. The workhouse also had a medical officer.
Cork City and County Archives 2011
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