Rediscovering Forgotten Pasts at the Carlow Union Workhouse
As part of #ResearchWeek at Maynooth University, this blog is the second of a series written by Geography student researchers that focus on ‘Spatial Justice and Publicly-Engaged Geographies’.
Introduction: Landscape and Memory
The Irish Famine of 1845-1852 stands as one of the most difficult events in Irish history. During this time, Ireland was colonised by the British Empire and even though Ireland has since gained independence, the difficulties endured by ancestors during this time remain largely forgotten in the landscape. Magan (2022, pp.278–285) suggests that people are only recently coming to terms with our past and people are still haunted by the atrocities that their ancestors faced or did not face, explaining why this difficult past is not represented in the Irish landscape. Carlow Union Workhouse is one of many locations where people’s difficult pasts during the Famine remain alienated from the rest of the town. In the landscape, all that stands is a mostly hidden plot of land with three monuments, that most locals, including myself, are completely unaware of (Figure 1). This lack of visibility and public discussion is another geographical injustice to the hardships that were faced here. This blog reflects historical and landscape research I conducted about the workhouse as part of my GY249 Geographies of Justice module last semester. I chose this site because I am from Carlow, and I had never heard of this site before this year. I hope that my research might contribute in a small way to increasing awareness that is needed to advance the work of memory and decolonising the landscape in Ireland.
Historical Overview
Workhouses were established in Ireland during the 1800s as a place for impoverished people to earn food and lodging for their labour. Following an 1838 act for the ‘more effectual relief of the destitute poor in Ireland’ (POOR RELIEF ACT (IRELAND), 1838), the Carlow Union Poor Act was enacted in September 1840. Conditions were harsh to encourage people to leave when they no longer needed the service. These workhouses became crucial during the Famine as people’s main means of earning through farming was taken away due to changing land relations under colonialism. However, workhouses were used to confine and control marginalised populations (Cox, 2018). The common misconception of the Famine is that the potato crop failed due to blight which led to mass hunger, which is partly true in the short-term. The British Government, which had been solely responsible for managing Ireland, dramatically reduced relief efforts again in mid-1847, halfway through the Famine, meaning that fewer people in need were supported and that Irish taxpayers paying for the relief had reduced incomes (Dorney, 2016). This vicious cycle led to many desperate people making the difficult decision to endure the awful conditions of the workhouses.
The Carlow Union Workhouse was built between 1842 and 1844 on a 7.5-acre site by Poor Law Commissioners’ architect George Wilkinson (Brennan and Ireland Genealogical Projects, 1991) (Figures 2 and 3). An elected Board of Guardians, consisting of thirty members who represented each of the fourteen electoral divisions, oversaw the Carlow Poor Law Union’s operations (Higginbotham, 2002). In September 1844, the workhouse was deemed suitable to house paupers, and on the 18th of November of the same year, it welcomed its first residents. The Famine led to sheds being added during the mid-1840s to house 160 extra prisoners (Brennan and Ireland Genealogical Projects, 1991). There are 130 Minute Books in total that hold the information relating to the people and conditions in the workhouse during the time. These books are currently preserved in Carlow County Library which are available upon request. The books range from the 22nd of March 1845 to the 10th of March 1923.
For the residents, life at the workhouse was structured and controlled. Every morning at six a.m. the bell rang for the inmates to gather. They assembled for prayer led by the Master. They were inspected to make sure they were tidy. After that, they went to work in their assigned roles. Men would endure the physically demanding tasks such as agricultural work or construction and maintenance while women were assigned domestic work such as laundry, sewing and mending, cooking, cleaning and in some cases even nursing the ill and wounded. The labour was essential for the daily operation of the workhouses and was intensive to justify the relief provided to them. Later, the bell rang again to signify dinner. Every meal was consumed silently. After dinner, they return to work until supper and evening prayers, they went to bed and at nine p.m. when the lights were turned off (Burke, 1987).
Death and disease ravished the Workhouse especially when the Famine overcrowding began. According to Turtle Bunbury, a local historian, the Carlow Workhouse Master reported in 1847 that he had been denied permission to bury the dead in the nearby graveyards due to their extreme overcrowding (Figure 4). As a result, he had been secretly collecting corpses from the workhouse at night and burying them against direct orders. The Guardians determined that the deceased should be interred on workhouse grounds in trenches with three or four levels of coffins in each. Some of those who survived decided to emigrate to Australia after dealing with the hardships during this period and no sight of it getting better (Figure 5). In 1848 it was recorded that girls as young as fifteen had determined living abroad would be a better alternative to their current difficult lives (Carlow Union Workhouse, 1848, p. 139).
1849 was a difficult year for Carlow Workhouse as the Famine continued to destroy the crops and takeaway people’s income. The house was overcrowded and subject to frequent cholera outbreaks. Over 26,500 admissions were made during this year, the highest in Carlow Workhouses history. July 1849 was the most overcrowded in that period and the number and classes of residents housed there is depicted in Table 1 below.
In addition to these issues, the staff were also causing problems. Particularly the Matron, Mrs. Rose, was reported for assaults, allegations of indecent conduct, and evidence existed of drunken parties in her rooms. She also had taken a dislike to the Master and according to the minute books, they were often in disagreement. After an investigation it came to light that she was assaulting the Master. The porter, the Master, and the infirmary nurse had caused problems too. These staff members were dismissed in a mass held in the workhouse (Kelly and Carlow Heritage Archives, 1989). Undoubtedly these issues would have led to mistreatment to the residents at the time. Not only did the people get reprimanded by these leaders if they stepped out of line, but they were likely also caught amid the arguments of their leaders. It was likely difficult for the replacement staff to govern the prisoners after their previous leaders. This may be among the reasons why the staff is not honoured on this land or by the Carlow Institute of Technology as they were troublesome and do not fit into how Carlow’s history wants to be perceived.
A Forgetful Landscape
The workhouse buildings were taken over by the Free State Army in 1921, and the occupants were relocated to the town’s Old Barracks, which the Army cleared out until it was deemed unfit (Higginbotham, 2002). The building was then used by Carlow County Council for offices (ibid.) Since then the original buildings have been demolished and were replaced by South East Technological University (SETU) previously Carlow Institute of Technology. (Ask About Ireland, n.d.). Archaeological examinations conducted in 2021 on the site of the Carlow Union Workhouse, Kilkenny Road, Carlow, before the construction of a new SETU building, revealed mass burial trenches from the Great Famine (1845–52) (Figures 6-9). In total four, and possibly five, burial pits that were found containing eleven remains, three were infants and eight adults or young adults (O Drisceoil, 2024, pp.4–6).
The burial ground is all that remains today, according to a memorial plaque erected by Carlow County Heritage Society on National Heritage Day in 1993 (Figure 10). There are other stones with information about soup kitchens and a brief history of the site but not in-depth enough to portray just how destructive this place was for the individuals who had to endure experiences here. A tree is planted with a stone beside it giving information about who the Carlow Heritage Society are but that is the extent of all the information given on this site. While the memorial plaque indicates an attempt to commemorate this difficult past, from visiting the burial ground, there was very little information about the real day to day neglect shown to inmates of the workhouses. There is a sign with a brief history (Figure 13) and a few benches adjacent to a memorial cross enclosed by hedges (Figures 14-15). While these commemorative features are important, the landscape feels empty. If you did not know the history or that this plot was here, you would think it is simply a park that is no longer looked after. This site is a graveyard, but I am none the wiser of who these people were after visiting it. There are no names of the residents who spent their days labouring, there are no names of people who emigrated, there are no names of the deceased who were buried on this site. There are no names here whatsoever. This makes it difficult to see the gravity of the situation and just how difficult life was for these people. These people have been completely forgotten. People who were mistreated in the past are being mistreated again in the present-day due to the lack of acknowledgement in the landscape of this past injustice.
Acts of recollection take a significant amount of time and resources, not to mention the danger of emotional trauma, however, it can provide closure and awareness to the people affected (Shwartz, 2010, p. 37). Historical remembrance in an urban area that treats the memory of people in an ethical manner means that in the present-day, care of the landscape and respect to the people affected are needed. If the memorial was welcoming and it was clearly signposted, I believe people would take an interest and visit the place. Here, however, because there have been disagreements over the burial ground, the Carlow County Council have ceased mowing the grounds (Pender, 2023), which leads it to look even more abandoned and disregarded. In addition, I had difficulty finding the entrance as it is not signposted (Figures 16-17), and Google Maps does not lead you directly to it.
According to Father Smith, SETU’s Chaplain, there is an annual famine walk included in Féile na Beatha or Festival of Living that AFRI organise (Figure 18). However this annual commemoration may exclude younger adults growing up in Carlow, as neither I nor my peers have heard of this or seen it advertised. The wood blocking the gate from the SETU campus to the memorial creates another divide between the past and present (Figure 19). SETU is an educational institution, yet there is no regard to the past which is unsettling. On campus, SETU do not have any buildings named after any heroes of this time or show any recognition to this difficult period. It appears Carlow Council, and SETU want to keep that difficult past locked in the area by tall gates and walls as can be seen in the photographs.
Concluding Remarks
Analysing the present-day landscape, it appears that Carlow wants to forget these difficulties and move into a time where colonialism and the Great Famine never happened, but this cannot be the case. Typically, memorial landscapes are intended to convey an unambiguous message to everyone who view them, even if that message is contested (Dwyer and Alderman, 2008). However, no discussion about the past can begin if people are unaware of the memorial and the histories and people it claims to represent. This may relate to Magan’s (2022) sentiments mentioned in the introduction, as people are aware of how terrible the time was, yet the inherited guilt and trauma may be still too much for people to address even 200 years later. Nonetheless, this is a forgetful site that continues the geographical injustice and inherited oppression of the time. These were real people that suffered in life and death and have been forgotten. People were systematically oppressed by their social status during colonialism, and even though Ireland is now independent, the oppression remains if we do not acknowledge this past. There are lessons to be learned from the horrors and misconduct that occurred on this land that have been disregarded.
— By Aoife Foley
Aoife Foley is a third-year double honours student in the Department of Geography.
Acknowledgement: This paper is a slightly edited version of the final ‘Geographies of In/Justice at Home’ project submitted in April 2024 for ‘GY249: Geographies of Justice’, taught by Professor Karen Till. I would like to thank John Kelly from the Carlow Archaeological Society for providing detailed and valuable information from the archives, as well as Turtle Bunbury who gave me directions and provided me with contacts to follow up on research. I would like to thank Christopher Power from Carlow County Council who provided me with information on emigration rates during that time. I want to give my gratitude to the members of Carlow Library who invited me to see the Carlow Workhouse Minute Books and to gather my information. I would like to especially thank Professor Karen Till for her continued guidance and cooperation during every stage of this project. This wonderful opportunity would not be possible without her, and I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project under her guidance.
Reference List
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