Castlebar Workhouse

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The following information was provided by Mr Steve Dolan, Manager of The Irish Workhouse Centre, Portumna, Co. Galway

The Castlebar Poor Law Union was officially declared in 1839. The Workhouse was opened in 1842 at a cost of £7,600. It was built to house a maximum capacity of 700 inmates, but census records show that the true number of inmates reached as high as 1,521 in 1848. The Castlebar Workhouse was built to accomodate people from the areas of Addergoole, Balla, Ballintubber, Ballyhean, Breafy, Castlebar, Drum, Islandady, Strade, and Turlough.

The Castlebar Workhouse site is now occupied by the Regional Sacred Heart Hospital

References

For more information see here

Ireland

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Type of Building:

Workhouse

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Are there any records of inmates who resided in the Castlebar workhouse? My great-grandmother and her sister were born in Castlebar in the 1830s, and were "orphaned when young" (I have no idea how old they were when this happened). I've theorized that their parents may have died in the workhouse; the girls may have been sent to live with relatives in Belfast before they emigrated to the U.S. around 1850.

I'm hoping someone may have some suggestions about resources I might check. Thank you in advance.

Amy Patterson O'Keefe

Monday 11th November 2019 03:38PM

Hi Amy,

Thanks for getting in touch. Your best bet to find out more information would be to post in our Message Boards as more people will see it there. Also, if you contact Mayo County Council directly they might be able to help you out with sourcing more records. There is a Mayo County local history website here http://www.mayolibrary.ie/en/LocalStudies/ that might be of some use, and here is a link to the archives that howl the Castlebar Workhouse Board of Guardians Minute Books from 1845 to 1847 https://archives.lse.ac.uk/

Good Luck!

Valerie - IrelandXO Team