05/02/2026
GLENTIES WORKHOUSE MISCELLANY 1846-1856
Information on Glenties Workhouse is becoming more accessible these days and I have posted a few pieces this week from reports appearing in the first decade of its existence. Opened on May 1, 1846 it had just one inmate by September, as the worst of the Famine had yet to strike the district. This would change drastically as 1847 came round, with 1,200 being housed in both it and several auxiliary buildings by the winter of 1848.
Glenties Poor Law Union was formed on August 2, 1841. It was run by 23 elected members of the Board of Guardians representing 14 electoral divisions and three ex-officio Guardians. The areas represented were: Ardara (2 members), Derryloaghan, Dunglow (2 members), Fintown, Glenties (2 members), Kilcar (2 members), Kilgoly, Killybegs (2 members), Lettermacaward, Malinbeg (2 members), Menavally, Mullaghderg, Naran (2 members), and Rutland (2 members).
The first document I reference is the ‘Census of Ireland 1851: part V: tables of deaths, volume I; volume II (tables and index)’. It records the numbers of national deaths in workhouses or their auxiliary buildings from June 6, 1841 [Glenties itself opened in 1846] until March 30, 1851. The total deaths for Glenties in those five years is 530, the third highest of the eight workhouses in Donegal after Ballyshannon (1152) and Donegal (758).
The breakdown given (though the figures do not compute as stated) was as follows:
Female: Includes 1 (childbed) 1 (disease of bones and joints) 1 (scrofula or ‘the king’s evil’, called ‘mycobacterial cervical lymphadenitis’ today) 2 (cancer) 21 (infirmity, debility and old age) 134 (causes not specified; the Master stated that these persons did not die in the hospital, but in the Workhouse at large, as they are not recorded in the Medical Officer’s report); General total given: 272
Male: Includes 1 (rheumatism) 1 (ulceration); 1 (scrofula) 18 (infirmity, debility and old age) 1 (accidental or unspecified) 119 (causes not specified; the Master stated that these persons did not die in the hospital, but in the Workhouse at large, as they are not recorded in the Medical Officer’s report); General total given: 258
The next item is a report from the Relief Committee of Friends [Quakers] dated December 1846 which includes the following:
“…Nothing can describe too strongly the dreadful condition of the people. Many families were living on a single meal of cabbage, and some even, as we were assured, upon a little sea-weed." We were told that ‘the small farmers and cottiers had parted with all their pigs and their fowl; and even their bed-clothes and fishing-nets had gone, for the one object - the supply of food,’ and that ‘many families of five to eight persons subsisted on 24 lbs. of oatmeal per day, made into thin water gruel-about six ounces of meal for each! That there were at least thirty families in this little town [Dunfanaghy] who had nothing whatever to subsist upon, and knew not where to look for a meal for the morrow.
We visited the poorhouse at Glenties [county of Donegal] which is in a dreadful state; the people were, in fact, half starved, and only half clothed. They had not sufficient food in the house for the day's supply. Some were leaving the house, preferring to die in their own hovels rather than in the poorhouse. Their bedding consisted of dirty straw, in which they were laid in rows on the floor - even as many as six persons being crowded under one rug. The living and the dying were stretched side by side beneath the same miserable covering!"
The worst of the Famine had passed by 1849 and the reports of Agricultural Inspectors included this positive omen:
"In every instance, the green crops have succeeded, the early Swedes [potatoes] magnificently. It would be impossible to describe the change this part of the world has assumed. How cheering that the resolution has been formed and acted upon by the poor, no longer to place all confidence in the potato crop." The disease in that esculent [vegetable fit to be eaten] "has made its appearance in each locality."
After the Famine, the workhouse continued to operate to house the destitute of the Glenties Union. The next extract comes from the ‘Return of workhouse staff for the Poor Law District of Glenties’ for the year 1855.
Clerk, William Murray, £60
Protestant Chaplain, Rev. James Ovans [Ovens], £15, 2 visits weekly
Roman Catholic Chaplain, Rev. Patrick Gallagher, £25, 2 visits weekly
Master, Patrick Hanlon, £40
Matron, Isabella McCue [McHugh], £15
Schoolmaster, James Morrow [School struck off 28/12/1855; James Morrow classed as ‘incompetent’; re-opens 1857 with Isabella McHugh as teacher], £12
Schoolmistress, Catherine Raughton, £6
Medical Officer, John Carroll, £60, 8 visits weekly
Porter, John Quinn, £8
Infirmary Nurse, Catherine Cassidy, £8
Fever Hospital Nurse, Nelly Meehin [Meehan], £6
The final report quoted is worded in a manner which may be offensive to modern ears, but it is indicative of the language used in the early days of the study of mental health. It comes from the ‘Royal Commissioner of Inquiry into State of Lunatic Asylums in Ireland: part I: report, tables and returns; part II: minutes of evidence and documents.’ The portion I have included is titled ‘Lunatics in Glenties Workhouse January 1, 1857’.
Present in Glenties workhouse: 8 (4 male and 4 female)
Acute mania, chronic or acute: 3 male 1 female;
Congenital idiocy or congenital imbecility: 1 male 3 female;
Number of the above subject to epileptic fits: 1 male 1 female;
Number of “Insane Poor” in the Glenties Police District:
Total: 20 (None dangerous)
Insane: Male 5 Female 4
Idiotic: Male 6 Female 5
Troublesome: Male 2 Female 4
Harmless: Male 9 Female 5
For more on the Glenties Workhouse, one can check out the County Donegal Archive. It possesses Guardians' Minutes (1840-1922); Guardians' Rough Minutes (1848-1850); Admissions and discharges (1851-1867, 1884-1896, 1913-1921); Indoor Relief Register (1899-1907, 1914-1921); etc. [source: https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Glenties/]
Image: 'The Workhouses of County Donegal', a beautifully produced booklet produced by the County Council and available at the County Museum.
