Fermoy Board of Guardians
IE CCCA/BG/89
Identity Statement
Reference Code:
IE CCCA/BG/89
Title:
Fermoy Board of Guardians
Dates:
1870 – 1924
Level of description:
Fonds
Extent:
14 items
Context
Creator(s): Fermoy Board of Guardians
Archival History The surviving records of the Fermoy 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 Fermoy Board of Guardians was the governing body of Fermoy workhouse and poor law union. Fermoy 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. Fermoy Workhouse opened on 4 July 1841. The earliest minutes to have survived are from 1870-71. At that time, the area of the union included the dispensary districts of Fermoy, Rathcormac, Kilworth, Ballynoe, and Ballyhooly. In November 1916, the Mitchelstown and Fermoy Unions were amalgamated. The enlarged Fermoy Union area included the Rural Districts of Fermoy, Mitchelstown I, and Mitchelstown II. The Mitchelstown districts included the dispensary districts of Mitchelstown, Kildorrery and Galbally (Co Limerick). Kilbehenny dispensary house, in Mitchelstown dispensary district, was also in Co Limerick. No separate records for Mitchelstown Union exist prior to the amalgamation. The Mitchelstown workhouse building was sold in 1919.
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
© Cork City and County Archives 2011
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