The Union

Tenement in Leitrim

The valuations carried out to find the poor rate to finance the poor law in 1838 was an unfair system that did not take into account the state or value of the actual land and holding of the tenements. This particular illustration of a cottage is a good example of the kind of tenement that the poorer classes in Ireland lived in. Taken from Hall’s book, Ireland, Its Scenic Characteristic, the cottage could be found in Leitrim in the 1840’s. The author describes the house as a ‘cabin by no means of the worst class’. Its walls are made of sod or mud, its roof is thatched and in disrepair with a basket for a chimney. It has no window, its only light getting into the cabin through the badly fitted door. Outside the door, as was the custom, there was a hole in the ground for slops and manure. Indeed all the land that could possibly be used for tillage was planted with the potato crop including the fertilised land in front of the doorway. This tenement cabin would have held up to 6 people and a pig or a cow under the same roof, with one bed for the eldest, usually a grandparent. All the other occupants would have sat and slept on the floor. The later Griffith valuations were much more accurately calculated whereby all property in Ireland had a value placed on it, and only those that exceeded four pounds were liable to pay the poor rate taxes.

Copyright managed by the Library Council

Tenement in Leitrim
Copyright managed by the Library Council

Tenement in Leitrim

The valuations carried out to find the poor rate to finance the poor law in 1838 was an unfair system that did not take into account the state or value of the actual land and holding of the tenements. This particular illustration of a cottage is a good example of the kind of tenement that the poorer classes in Ireland lived in. Taken from Hall’s book, Ireland, Its Scenic Characteristic, the cottage could be found in Leitrim in the 1840’s. The author describes the house as a ‘cabin by no means of the worst class’. Its walls are made of sod or mud, its roof is thatched and in disrepair with a basket for a chimney. It has no window, its only light getting into the cabin through the badly fitted door. Outside the door, as was the custom, there was a hole in the ground for slops and manure. Indeed all the land that could possibly be used for tillage was planted with the potato crop including the fertilised land in front of the doorway. This tenement cabin would have held up to 6 people and a pig or a cow under the same roof, with one bed for the eldest, usually a grandparent. All the other occupants would have sat and slept on the floor. The later Griffith valuations were much more accurately calculated whereby all property in Ireland had a value placed on it, and only those that exceeded four pounds were liable to pay the poor rate taxes.

Copyright managed by the Library Council

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The most basic administrative unit of the Poor Law system was the Union. When the Poor Law was first introduced in 1838, the Commissioners found the existing administrative units of the barony and parish unsatisfactory because of their unequal size. New divisions, Poor Law Unions, were created. Initially the country was divided into 130 Unions but it soon became apparent that some of these were too large. One additional Union was created in 1848 and 32 more in 1850 making a total 163 after the Famine. Each of these was centred on a market town in which was located a workhouse where relief would be administered. The identification of a market town as the centre of the Poor Law Union was of some local importance.

Economically the poor relief system generated business for local traders who could bid for contracts to supply the workhouse. The building of the workhouse also provided an outlet for local labour. The intention was that the Board of Works would build workhouses but this proved impossible and so, a competition was held to select an architect to design the workhouses.

A site for Milford Workhouse

Minutes of the board of guardians of Milford Union relating to the search for a site for the workhouse. This extract gives letter stating that it is unlikely that the board of Trinity College will agree to the terms on which Lord Leitrim offered a site for the workhouse.

Copyright of Donegal County Archives. No reproduction without permission.

A site for Milford Workhouse
Copyright of Donegal County Archives. No reproduction without permission.

A site for Milford Workhouse

Minutes of the board of guardians of Milford Union relating to the search for a site for the workhouse. This extract gives letter stating that it is unlikely that the board of Trinity College will agree to the terms on which Lord Leitrim offered a site for the workhouse.

Copyright of Donegal County Archives. No reproduction without permission.

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An English architect, George Wilkinson, who had built a number of English workhouses, was selected and he prepared a standard set of plans that could be modified to suit local circumstances. This usually comprised a 'front building' some distance away from the main workhouse containing administrative buildings and an 'H' shaped building to the rear comprising the residential wards and school. Behind this were two exercise yards, one for men and another for women, and finally an infirmary.

This basic plan was slightly modified in the 1850s but remained recognisable. A large collection of architectural drawings made in connection with the building of the workhouses is preserved in the Irish Architectural Archive, Merrion Square, Dublin. Many of these buildings later became hospitals and some are still recognisable today.

In 1838 it was enacted that there should be a poor rate based on a tenement valuation (1&2 Vict., c. 56), which meant that all property owners would be assessed for poor rate. In 1846 such a valuation was arranged for part of the country (9&10 Vict., c. 110). It was not until 1852 that Griffith was instructed to make a valuation of all property in Ireland (15&16 Vict., c. 63). This was completed by 1865 and is more generally known in its printed form as the second or tenement valuation, or more commonly 'Griffith's valuation'

On the basis of this valuation local Unions decided how much was required to run the Union each year and a rate was struck sufficient to raise that amount of money. The rate books, which still survive in some collections of Poor Law Union records, describe and value each tenement and record its holder as well as setting out the assessments. These were collected by the rate collectors.