Clifden Poor Law Union, Minute Book, 1876-1877
Includes
-‘Master reports that Pat Walsh of [ ___ Lane] offered service to a boy named Thomas Kerigan at 7 shillings per quarter.
To be allowed 8 shillings to buy clothes’ f44).
-‘An inmate named Stephen Laffey absconded from workhouse on the 2nd inst. he being clad in a suit of union clothes.
Information to be made before a Magistrate if Laffey does not return’ (f44).
-‘Read letter from Michael Mellet an able bodied inmate of the workhouse stating that if given a trousers, shirt and vest, his own being mere rags previous to his admission he would endeavour to earn a livelihood in future…’(f45).
-‘The general population of the poorer classes do not usually wear shoes and the medical officer has not made any representation to the effect that the absence of shoes interferes in any way with the health of the inmates’
The Master has no doubt been somewhat inaccurate in his manner of keeping the Provisions account but the Board are glad to say that they have noticed an evident improvement in this respect, they have reprimanded him in reference to his want of supervision of the privies and he has promised increased attention in this respect as well as to his general discharge of duty’ (f66).
-‘Read draft deed for £1,200 for Burial purposes, which was duly signed by the Chairman and two Guardians, counter signed by the Clerk, and Seal of the Union affixed’ (f85).
-‘Ordered that a sum of £80 be expended in painting the House inside and out with two coats of paint. The outside with mineral patent paint, the inside with best oil paint in conformity with the specification in Mr Burke’s (Clerk) possession’ (f105, see also f155).
-‘The Master was directed to look after the workhouse cemetery and a letter was read from Mr Beauchamp Solicitor relative to the transfer of Ardbear grave yard and Mr Edwin J Eyre undertook to have it completed in a few days’ (f166, see also f245).
-Letter to the LGB advised ‘It is true that there has not been any neglect by the Clerk reported as that officer is most efficient and attentive to the discharge of his duties and in reference to the failure of the Guardians to form a quorum for the discharge of business so frequently. The LGB should be reminded of the peculiar nature of the district, the great distances between the workhouse and the residences of the Guardians and the difficulty of travelling long distances in the country in tempestuous weather.
The Visiting Committee’s report forms no accurate data of the amount of visiting work discharged by the Guardians in-as-much as (how) many visits are made through the House by the Guardians and suggestions and directions given to the Master and other officers in reference to the comfort and health of the poor inmates, but of which no record is made.
The reference to the paragraph which comments upon the inmates not being provided with shoes. The Guardians beg to say that persons of a similar class to those referred to who are maintaining themselves outside the workhouse do not wear shoes and the Guardians consider it inexpedient to supply shoes to such as never have worn shoes when maintaining themselves, but in every case of an infirm or delicate person being recommended shoes by the Medical Officer, shoes are at once supplied….’(ff215-216).
-‘The position of the intended sewer pipes is the present bed of the open drain which takes the sewage of a portion of the Town of Clifden to the low water mark of the Owenglen River, which at that part of its course is an estuary of the sea, and not therefore a stream or watercourse within the meaning of Sec. 11 of the Sewage Utilization Act, 1865, but on the contrary as the same has been always used for the conveyance of sewage from the town of Clifden it is of the character comprised in the description contained in Sec. 22 of the Nuisance Removal Act, 1855 (f245).