Tag Archives: Scariff Workhouse

EFFORTS to conserve and enhance amenities in Scariff are stepping up a gear as we enter 2022.  Intensive work on the ground is paying major dividends as the community also celebrates the recent allocation of funding for regeneration of the heart of the town.  Added to this boost is news of the completion of a project funded by the National Heritage Council and focusing on the Workhouse Water Tower, which dates to the mid-1800s. Last May, Scariff Community Council was awarded funding to prepare a Conservation/Condition Report on the historic structure. The report has now been created by P Coleman & Associates and the Community Council are preparing to share the findings on their website and social channels. This conservation report now forms a vital record and assessment of the building and will be an essential tool in planning and carrying out any future works proposed to the structure and site. The report will also inform future funding applications to help conserve …

THE Annals of the Poor: Scariff Workhouse Union Counties Clare and Galway 1839-1851 will be launched this Sunday in Scariff by John Minogue, assistant principal of St Flannan’s College. The MC is Colm Madden. Gerard chose to conduct research and write this book because so little was known about the workhouse in Scariff and very little has been documented about it. Although he, together with Michael O’Gorman, published a book on workhouses in 1974, this book is a chronological account and references records that have only since been made available online in the last 15 years and, in particular, the work of Dr Richard Robert Madden. Dr Madden, no relation of Gerard’s, offered up a first-hand account of life in the Scariff Workhouse and his reports shed a lot of light on what was happening there, particularly with regard the diet of the inmates and mortality rates there. “His work was really important. He visited the actual workhouse; he visited …