Irish poor laws

{{Short description|Acts of Parliament to address poverty and social instability in Ireland}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=July 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}} [[File:WorkhouseatDunfanaghy.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Former workhouse located in Dunfanaghy, County Donegal]]

The '''Irish poor laws''' were a series of acts of Parliament intended to address social instability due to widespread and persistent poverty in Ireland. While some legislation had been introduced by the pre-Union Parliament of Ireland prior to the Act of Union, the most radical and comprehensive attempt was the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1838 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 56), closely modelled on the English Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. In England, this replaced Elizabethan era legislation which had no equivalent in Ireland.

==Pre-Union== {{further| Foundling hospitals}}

In 1703, the Irish Parliament passed an act, 2 Anne c. 19 (I), for "Providing the erection of a workhouse and for the maintenance and apprenticing out of foundling children" establishing the House of Industry in Dublin.

By 1771, there were Houses of Industry in every county and by 1833, the total cost was £32,967.<ref>George O'Brien, the Economic History of Ireland From the Union to the Famine, 1921, p.168</ref>

==Post-Union== Until 1838, the use of 'Houses of industry' was on a much smaller scale than in England and Wales.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{Cite web |url=http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/Ireland/Ireland.shtml |title=Poor Law Unions in Ireland |access-date=8 September 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080529014333/http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/Ireland/Ireland.shtml |archive-date=29 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Poor law unions=== {{main|Poor law unions}}

The report of the Royal Commission on the Poorer Classes in Ireland 1833 led to the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act 1838 (1 & 2 Vict. c. 56), under which three "poor law commissioners" divided Ireland into poor law unions, in which paupers would receive poor relief (either workhouse or outdoor relief) paid for by a poor rate based on a "poor law valuation".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1838/act/56/enacted/en/print|title=Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1838|work=Irish Statute Book|access-date=6 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/poor-law-union/poor-law-unions-and-their/the-union/|title=History & Heritage > Poor Law Union > Poor Law Unions and their Records > The Union|work=AskAboutIreland|publisher=An Chomhairle Leabharlanna|access-date=6 May 2016}}</ref> The name "union" was retained from the English "union of parishes" model although the Irish union boundaries diverged greatly from those of the civil parishes. A union was named after the town on which it was centred, where its workhouse was located. Unions were defined as groups of poor law electoral divisions, in turn defined as groups of townlands. Electoral divisions returned members to the board of guardians, with voters who paid higher rates having more votes.<ref>{{cite journal|last=O'Brien|first=Gerard|date=November 1982|title=The Establishment of Poor-Law Unions in Ireland, 1838–43|journal=Irish Historical Studies|publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=23|issue=90|pages=97–120|doi=10.1017/S0021121400017545 |jstor=30008402}}</ref><ref name="Nicholls1856">{{cite book|last=Nicholls|first= George|author-link=George Nicholls (commissioner)|title=A History of the Irish Poor Law: In Connexion with the Condition of the People|url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryirishpo00nichgoog|page=[https://archive.org/details/ahistoryirishpo00nichgoog/page/n442 423]|access-date=6 May 2016|year=1856|publisher=J. Murray}}</ref> During and after the Great Famine, boundaries in the impoverished west were redrawn to create more and smaller union for easier administration. When the Irish General Register Office was established in 1864, each union became a superintendent registrar's district, with groups of electoral divisions forming a dispensary or registrar's district.<ref name="askaboutireland_est"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.histpop.org/ohpr/servlet/TOC?path=Browse/Census%20(by%20date)/1871/Ireland&active=yes&mno=429&tocstate=expandnew&display=sections&display=tables&display=pagetitles|title=Browse > Census > 1871 > Ireland > Alphabetical index to townlands of Ireland, 1871|work=HISTPOP.ORG|access-date=6 May 2016}}</ref> The Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 divided administrative counties into urban and rural districts, with each rural district corresponding to the non-urban portion of a poor law union within the county.

===Emigration=== {{further|Great Famine (Ireland)}}

During the Great Famine, workhouses became so overwhelmed that large numbers of paupers were assisted to emigrate. This had the effect of permitting more to enter the workhouse in the hope of escaping starvation and disease. In response, Guardian-assisted emigration was reserved only for those who had received indoor relief for over two years.<ref>[http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/exhibitions_talks_and_events/19th_century_emigration_to_the_north_america_online/helping_hands/the_irish_poor_law.htm ''The Irish poor law''] Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.</ref>

==After partition== Following the Partition of Ireland, in the independent Irish Free State, poor law unions and rural districts were abolished in 1925 and the powers of boards of guardians transferred to the county councils' County Boards of Health or County Boards of Public Assistance.<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1925/sro/950/made/en/print|title=27/05/1925: Adaptation Of Children's Act, 1908, Order, 1925.|work=Irish Statute Book|access-date=6 May 2016}}</ref>

In Northern Ireland, poor law unions survived until the Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Service in 1948.<ref name="askaboutireland_est">{{cite web|url=http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/poor-law-union/poor-law-unions-and-their/the-establishment-of-the-/|title=History & Heritage > Poor Law Union > Poor Law Unions and their Records > The Establishment of the Poor Law System|work=AskAboutIreland|publisher=An Chomhairle Leabharlanna|access-date=6 May 2016}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|2}}

==Further reading==

===Contemporary accounts=== *Nassau William Senior – [https://archive.org/details/alettertolordho00senigoog/page/n7  ''Letter...on a legal provision for the Irish poor''] (1831) * Poulett Scrope, George [https://archive.org/details/principlesofpoli00scrorich/page/325  Necessity of Poor Law for Ireland] in ''Principles of political economy'' (1833) * [https://archive.org/details/irelandinajourn00inglgoog/page/n38  English tourist, EG Inglis, visits Dublin's Mendicity Institute, House of Industry and Foundling Hospital] (1834) * [https://archive.org/details/selectionparoch00irelgoog  Selection of Parochial Examinations Relative to the Destitute Classes in Ireland ] Royal Commission of Enquiry (1835) * George Nicholls – [https://archive.org/details/poorlawsireland00offigoog  ''Poor laws—Ireland: Three reports''] (1838) * Torrens, Robert [https://books.google.com/books?id=otsNAAAAQAAJ&q=Torrens ''Plan of an association in aid of the Irish Poor Law''] (1838) * Poulett Scrope, George – [https://books.google.com/books?id=MZ0uAAAAYAAJ ''Letters to the Right Hon. Lord John Russell, on the expediency of enlarging the Irish poor-law to the full extent of the poor-law of England''] (1846)

===19th century=== *O'Connor, John [https://archive.org/details/workhousesofirel00ocon  ''The Workhouses of Ireland: The Fate of Ireland's Poor''] 1995 : {{ISBN|978-0-947962-71-5}} *Crossman, Virginia [https://books.google.com/books?id=-327AAAAIAAJ&q=irish+poor+law ''Politics, Pauperism and Power in Late Nineteenth-century Ireland''] : 2006 : {{ISBN|978-0-7190-7377-9}} * Burke, Helen [https://books.google.com/books?id=CdqwAAAAIAAJ&q=the+people+and+the+poor+law+helen+burke ''The people and the poor law in 19th century Ireland''] : 1987 : {{ISBN|978-0-905223-94-0}} * *Butt, Isaac [https://archive.org/details/poorlawbillfori00nichgoog ''The poor-law bill for Ireland examined, its provisions and the report of Mr. Nicholls contrasted ... (1837)''] at Internet Archive. *MacDonagh, Oliver : [https://web.archive.org/web/20070321144234/http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/wwwopac.exe The Poor Law, Emigration and the Irish Question 1830–'55] : in ''Christus Rex – Studies in Irish History'' : January 1958 *Gray, Peter [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-1815-43-Studies-Popular-Culture/dp/0719076498 The Making of the Irish Poor Law, 1815–43] MUP 2009 {{ISBN|978-0-7190-7649-7}} *Collison Black, R.D – [https://books.google.com/books?id=Tks7AAAAIAAJ&q=ECONOMIC+THOUGHT+AND+THE+IRISH+QUESTION+1817-1970 ''Economic Thought and the Irish Question 1817–1870''], 1993 (reprint of 1960) {{ISBN|978-0-7512-0124-6}}

===20th century=== * Anderson, James [http://www.libraryireland.com/articles/PauperismIrelandsHope/index.php ''Pauperism: Poor Relief in Ireland—Some Suggestions''] (from "Ireland's Hope: A Call to Service"), 1913 Kely, G O, Donnell, A Kennedy, P Quin, S Irish Social Policy In Context:(1999) Dublin University College Dublin Press

==External links== {{External media | float = right| image1 = *[http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/archdeacon/famine/plu.html Map of Poor Law Unions 1842–49]}} *[http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Ireland/ The Workhouse in Ireland] *[http://kilmoregenealogy.com/hidden_wexford_genealogy/ Hidden Wexford Genealogy – births in the Wexford Workhouse 1851–1893] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220522080101/http://kilmoregenealogy.com/hidden_wexford_genealogy/ |date=22 May 2022 }} *[http://thuthuatmarketingz.blogspot.com/ Elements of Irish Poor Law Repealed] Irish Statute Book *[http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/history-heritage/poor-law-union/poor-law-unions-and-their/index.xml Irish Poor Law Union and their Records] from Ask About Ireland, an Irish government sponsored portal. *[https://archive.today/20061005072715/http://www.nationalarchives.ie/research/poorlaw.html Guide to the records of the Poor Law] from the National Archives of Ireland. *[http://www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers3/Gray.pdf The Irish Poor Law and the Great Famine] *[http://pdf.library.soton.ac.uk/EPPI/297-1.pdf Condition of the poorer classes in Ireland: first report: appendix A and supplement 1835] Whately report (1218 pages) available through EPPI. *{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081006115450/http://www.institutions.org.uk/workhouses/ireland/irish_unions.htm |date=6 October 2008 |title=List of Irish Workhouse Unions }}

Category:Irish Poor Laws