Naas Workhouse Famine Fare. Black ’47
James Durney
During the Great Hunger it became the work of the Poor Law Unions to house and feed the destitute and starving millions in Ireland. The British government had earlier established a workhouse system as a possible solution to the problem of the able-bodied but destitute poor in Ireland. Based on the English workhouse system 130 Poor Law Unions were established across the country, Naas Union being the first one declared. The system was controlled by the Poor Law Commission based in Dublin and was administered by eight assistant commissioners who acted as inspectors over the activities of the unions. The Naas Union comprised of 23 electoral divisions. These were Naas, Kill, Bodenstown, Rathmore, Killashee, Carnalway, Gilltown, Kilcullen, Usk, Clane, Timahoe, Downings, Caragh, Kilmeague, Rathernan, Old Connell, Newbridge, Moorefield, Kildare, Ballysax, Ballymore-Eustace, Blessington, and Boystown. Naas was one of three unions established in the county, with the other two in Athy and Celbridge.
In September 1845 the first signs of potato blight began to appear in Ireland and by November the disease had reached County Kildare. From early in 1846 the Poor Law system began to feel the effects of the potato crop failure and its total inadequacy to handle the growing numbers of destitute people seeking relief. The Naas workhouse – built in 1839 – had a capacity for 550 inmates, but in 1846 there were 771 admissions. The following year – Black ’47 – admissions were much the same, but, because of the rising poverty, collectors in some of the poorer districts were finding it difficult to collect rates. The supply and quality of food in the workhouse depended on the number of paupers in the house and other external factors. In its early days the workhouse was comfortably able to provide enough fare for the inmates but, by 1847 this was not so and in December of that year a proposal to increase the quantities of food on Christmas Day was turned down by the board.
On the week ending 29 May 1847 there were 736 inmates in the Naas Poor Law Union workhouse. There were fourteen deaths or discharges and thirteen admittances that week. These inmates required 125 gallons of new milk daily; six gallons of buttermilk; 156 four pound loaves; and 186 lbs of meat weekly. The medical officer approved the following fare for that week:
Classes Breakfast Dinner Supper
Adults 3oz rice 8oz bread and 1 pint of None
3oz Indian meal soup made from 3oz
2 naggins buttermilk of meat on Sunday and
1 naggin new milk mixed Thursday each week
3oz Indian meal and 3oz
oatmeal with 2 naggins
buttermilk and 1 new
milk mixed for
remaining five days
9-15 years 2oz rice 6oz bread and 1 pint soup 4oz bread
2oz Indian meal two days as above
½ pint new milk 2oz Indian meal and
2oz oatmeal ½ pint
new milk remaining 5 days
2-9 years 1½oz rice 4oz bread and ½ pint new 3oz bread
1½oz Indian meal milk on 5 days
½ pint new milk soup instead of milk on
2 days
Infants ½ lb of bread and one pint of new milk for the day
under 2
years
Naas Workhouse Famine Fare. Black ’47. An article reproduced from the Naas Poor Law Union Minute Books. Our thanks to James.
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