Tuam Poor Law Union was officially declared on 9th September 1839 supervised by the Board of Guardians. The Workhouse building itself was built in 1841 and began receiving paupers in August 1842. According to the Galway Reader 1849, an outbreak of Cholera was reported in 1847 and the roads around Tuam were said to have been crowded with people trying to make their way to the Workhouse.
