The following information was provided by Mr Steve Dolan, Manager of The Irish Workhouse Centre, Portumna, Co. Galway
The Ballinrobe Poor Law Union was officially declared in 1839. The Workhouse was opened in 1842 at a cost of £8,400. It was built to house a maximum capacity of 800 inmates, but census records show that the true number of inmates reached as high as 1,963 in 1848. The Ballinrobe Workhouse was built to accomodate people from the areas of Ballindine, Ballinrobe, Burriscarra, Claremorris, Cong, Hollymount, Kilmaine, Kilmolara, Mayo, Partry, Robeen, and Shrule in Co. Mayo and Ballinchalla and Ross in Co. Galway.
Most of the main block was destroyed by fire in 1922 during the Civil War.
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Mayo County Council, through Mayo County Library, has digitised the records of the Ballinrobe Workhouse.
These records are now available online and will be of huge interest to researchers and genealogists.
They can be found here:
https://www.mayo.ie/library/MayoWorkhouses
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