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| Womens' dormoitory |
Members
enjoyed their lunch at Portumna Golf Club in October. We also got a
guided tour of Portumna Workhouse. The workhouse or poor house has
been described as “the most hated institution ever established in
Ireland”. After the ‘famine’ years the workhouse became an
institution for people society did not have a place for; orphaned and
abandoned children; single mothers; the old and the infirm;”
lunatics and idiots”.
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| Solitary punishment cell - stone slab bed |
While
the system was abolished in the early 1920s, the fear and stigma
attached to the workhouse, remained in minds for
generations. In Portumna
workhouse their expert guides give you an authentic Irish history
experience of what life in the workhouse was really like. It is well
worth a visit.
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| Trunk given to inmates on leaving the workhouse. |
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| Contents of the trunk. |
