FACSIMILES
1. WORKHOUSE PLAN
Birds Eye View of the Limerick Union Workhouse 1847, reproduced from the Thirteenth Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners & ground plan of a smaller and more typical workhouse, such as that built at Dunmanway, reproduced from the 5th Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners.
2. CORK UNION BOARD OF GUARDIANS MINUTE BOOK
Facsimile of page from Cork Union Board of Guardians minute book 31 August 1841 - 7 July 1847. This provides details of the proposed diet for inmates of the Cork Union Workhouse for 29 May 1847. It documents how much food each inmate should receive and the cost of same. It was often said that the prisoners in Cork County Gaol were better fed than the paupers in the workhouses. According to this record, children between five years and thirteen years were to be given stirabout (made from rice and Indian meal) and milk for breakfast, bread and porridge for dinner and bread for supper. The workhouse doctors, D.C. O'Connor and John Popham, complained that this diet was too low in sustenance to keep people in a good state of health.
3. EXTRACT FROM MIDLETON UNION MINUTE BOOK
Facsimile of page from Midleton Union minute book for 18 February 1846. Special business dealt with includes discussion of rates, paupers diet, deplorable condition of apartments in which children are housed and a complaint at the refusal of the Guardians to admit a pregnant servant girl into the workhouse.
4. EXTRACT FROM KINSALE REGISTER 4 December 1841 - 4 January 1848
Facsimile of pages from Kinsale Union Indoor Register. This provides details of those seeking relief at Kinsale Workhouse in September 1845. Previous occupations are given and these include fishermen, spinners, servants and labourers.
5. THE USE OF INDIAN MEAL AS AN ARTICLE OF FOOD
In the spring of 1846 Indian corn was imported into Ireland to be sold in Government depots as a food to replace the destroyed potato crop. This bright yellow, hard grain required special milling and cooking to make it edible. Posters advocating the use of Indian meal as an article of food were issued to encourage the proper use of this strange American import, that the poor had nicknamed ' Peel's Brimstone.' In May 1846, some 300 tons were sold weekly by the Government food depot at Cork.
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