Fermoy Board of Guardians
IE CCCA/BG/89
Content & Structure
Scope & Content The surviving archives of the Fermoy Board of Guardians consist of minute books from 1870-71, 1899, and most of the years from 1905 to 1924 (BG/89/A/1-40). It is most unfortunate that nearly all 19 th century minute books have not survived, and that no records are thought to exist of Mitchelstown Union prior to its amalgamation with Fermoy in 1916. The minute books present, however, do document the provision of poor relief and rural dispensary services in the first quarter of the twentieth century, and are an important record, for instance, of the care of orphaned and boarded-out children, deserted families, and the disabled and mentally ill. The amalgamation of Mitchelstown Union, including districts from Co Limerick, with Fermoy Union was a significant late development in the Poor Law history of south Munster. The minutes also reflect national political developments and local experiences of them, and shed some light on topics such as the Great War, and the Influenza epidemics of 1919. The only other record present, a receipts and payments book (BG/89/CF/1: 1918-25), provides some useful background information on the financial operations of the union in a period also well documented in the surviving minutes. Arrangement The collection is arranged into two separate series, that of minutes containing most of the records (see table of contents). This arrangement 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
A10-40
Board of Guardian Minute Books
1870-1924 (13 items)
2. Financial Records
CF1
Guardians’ Receipts and Payments Books
1918-1926 (1 item)
© Cork City and County Archives 2011
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