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(Irish Deaf Archives - Poor-Houses/Workhouses: The Backgrounnd)

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(Narrated by Shane Gilchrist)

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Hello. Today I will be talking about the Poor House, or Workhouse.

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“Poor House” is the old name. Today they are more commonly known as workhouses.

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In Ireland they were set up back in the 1700s, for example in Dublin and Belfast.

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Poorhouses then were for people who had no work and were poor.

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If they came, they would have food, but would be expected to go to work.

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(Something happened in 1703)

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In 1703 a “House of Industry” was established in Dublin by an Act of Parliament.

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This is akin to the Poor House, for poor people so they could go to work and so on.

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(Ireland and England had separate Poor Law Acts.)

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The government in England passed a law in 1834, which was their own law.

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Ireland followed suit four years later, and passed its own legislation.

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(Ireland Poor Law Act 1838)

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After following the English example, in 1838,

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the new law, the Irish Poor Law Act, came into force.

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Before the Act was passed, there weren't many Poor Houses,

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one here and one there, and so on.

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However, after 1838, Poor Houses became more numerous

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with about 150 or so built in places like Cork, Galway, and all around the country.

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(How the Poor-Houses helped)

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For example... erm...

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Today Dublin County Council would provide housing and so on,

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but back then they did not have this.

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Now we have charities like St Vincent de Paul, that people go to if they need help.

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Back then, they didn't have that.

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If they needed help, they had to go to the Poor House.

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(Belfast Poor-House)

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In 1790, the Belfast Poor House was established and funded by local people,

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without government assistance.

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This Poor House was near a Deaf school.

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The Poor House had a hospital, doctor, free food,

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so they went to the Poor House regularly.

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If a Deaf child was unwell, he would go there to the Poor House.

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Our sign for Poor is this, the Poor House eventually became a hospital.

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The Belfast City Hospital.

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This meant that local Deaf people would eventually use

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the same sign of “Poor” to mean “Hospital”.

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Note the ISL sign for hospital is this, but in Belfast, it is this.

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In England, it's yet again different.