Mallow Board of Guardians

Context

Creator(s): Mallow Board of Guardians

• Administrative History ↴

  Mallow Board of Guardians first met on 19 April 1839. The Workhouse opened on 2 August 1842. The area of the union included the dispensary districts of Mallow; Monanimmy, Clenor, and Rahan; Kilshannig; Caherduggan and Doneraile; Liscarroll and Churchtown; Buttevant and Imphrick; Ballyclough; Ballinamona. There was much initial debate as to whether the workhouse should be located in Mallow or Buttevant, the Poor Law Commissioners favouring the latter as being more central. The guardians narrowly voted in favour of Mallow, resulting in three northern parishes (Charleville, Kilbolane, and Shandrum) being severed and added to the Kilmallock union. 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 whom were elected, and some of whom were ex-officio members appointed usually from amongst local magistrates. The board appointed its own inhouse committees, and received reports from workhouse officers and from dispensary district committees and district medical officers. It also made resolutions on internal and poor law matters and, sometimes, on wider political or social issues. Poor law services were principally financed by a poor rate levied on property owners in the union’s districts, and collected by rate collectors appointed by the board. Central government also provided loans. Each union was under the central supervision of the Poor Law Commissioners up to 1874 and thereafter of the Local Government Board (later Local Government Board in Ireland). These government-appointed bodies received reports from the board and its officers, appointed inspectors and auditors, sanctioned or rejected proposed expenditure, appointments, and policies, and made the final decision on major administrative issues. Over time, the responsibilities of the guardians increased to encompass public health, including some medical relief for the destitute at the workhouse, ‘outdoor’ relief though a system of dispensary districts, and other functions including overseeing smallpox vaccinations, the boarding-out of orphan and deserted children, monitoring contagious diseases in animals, and providing labourers’ cottages and improved sanitation. The workhouse buildings included an infirmary and a fever hospital. The workhouse also provided nursery care and education to child inmates, and employed school teachers. These changing responsibilities were governed by legislation, including the Public Health (Ireland) Acts 1874 and 1878, Medical Charities Acts, Vaccination Acts, Dispensary Houses Act, the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Acts (1848-49), Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1878, and Labourers’ Acts (1883-86). While these acts tended to increase the role of the board, the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 saw most of its public health functions taken over by the newly-created Cork County Council and the Mallow Rural District Council, the latter assuming responsibility for labourers’ cottages. The board continued to administer the workhouse and its hospital, and to supervise some forms of outdoor relief. In 1915 the workhouse buildings were temporarily taken over by the British military, and inmates were in the main transferred to Millstreet workhouse. Some were also sent to Kilmallock workhouse and those of other unions. In 1921 Mallow workhouse received inmates from the Kanturk union who had been obliged to vacate the workhouse there following its occupation by the British military. Despite the Kanturk board of guardians continuing to function, its workhouse did not re-open, and Mallow workhouse continued to accommodate inmates from the Kanturk union. The Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act 1923 led to the abolition of the workhouse system, and its replacement with the formation of the county boards of health and public assistance. Mallow General Hospital occupies the site of the former workhouse buildings.

• Archival History ↴

  The surviving records of the Mallow 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.

• Immediate Source Acquisition ↴

  Official Transfer