Macroom Board of Guardians
IE CCCA/BG/115
Scope & Content Unfortunately, many of the records of Macroom union have not survived, possibly owing to the fire which destroyed the workhouse in 1921. Only 22 volumes of minutes of board meetings, one indoor relief register of inmates/patients, and a few other volumes are in existence. There are no minutes prior to 1884 and many gaps thereafter up to the final volume for 1923-24. The early years of the union, and its experience of the Great Famine (1845-49), which is known to have made a grave impact on the region, sadly are not documented in the present collection. The present minutes do, however, shed light on the provision of poor law and public health services in this relatively remote area in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. Dispensary services, out door relief, and the boarding out of children are all extensively documented, for example. There are also many references to the need for district doctors to have a knowledge of Irish, owing to the large Irish-speaking population of the area. This became something of a political issue in 1920, as the board sought to increase its own use of Irish and to include a language requirement when making appointments, despite opposition from the LGB (BG/115/A/19). The board made many political resolutions, in particular calling several times for the release of political prisoners. In 1923 it voted not to sign a letter from the Local Government Department requiring that preference be given to former National Army members when making appointments. It was further resolved not to meet until political prisoners were released, although this was later rescinded (BG/115/A/22). Overall, the minutes provide a varied, if piecemeal, picture of the Poor Law at work, and of the development of local government and nationalist and republican politics, in the Macroom area. The three surviving letterbooks (BG/115/BA/1-3) supplement the minutes with sets of letters received, mainly from the Local Government Board and the Local Government Department, the first two volumes covering years (1901, 1918) for which no minutes have survived. The financial records present, including general ledgers (BG/115/CA), one receipts book (BG/115/CD), and a bank pass book (BG/115/CL) shed light on the daily operations and transactions of the union in the 20 th century. The Inchigeela Dispensary Medical Officer’s Return Book (BG/115/DF/1) is a rare example of a dispensary statistical record, and while it does not give names, it does give information on numbers of patients and the nature of their illnesses. It is also the earliest surviving record (1852- 54). The one remaining indoor relief register (BG/115/G/1) provides information on inmates and hospital patients in the period 1916 to 1921, and may be of interest for family history research, as well as providing a glimpse of workhouse life in the final years of the system. The matron’s requisition book (BG/115/HH), documenting purchases for the infirmary, adds a different perspective. The final two items present, the Boarded Out Children Contract Book (BG/115/IC) and the List of Boarded Out Children (BG/115/ID), both covering the early decades of the 20 th century, are rare examples of such records, which have not survived for other Cork unions. They document vital childcare services in the era before formal adoption, and, together with the minute books, shed light on the lives and experiences of orphan, founding, and deserted children at that time. They add a fascinating extra dimension to this incomplete but important collection of Poor law records.
Cork City and County Archives 2011
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