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

(Narrated by Shane Gilchrist)

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

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

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

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

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

(Something happened in 1703)

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

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

(Ireland and England had separate Poor Law Acts.)

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

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

(Ireland Poor Law Act 1838)

After following the English example, in 1838,

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

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

one here and one there, and so on.

However, after 1838, Poor Houses became more numerous

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

(How the Poor-Houses helped)

For example... erm...

Today Dublin County Council would provide housing and so on,

but back then they did not have this.

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

Back then, they didn't have that.

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

(Belfast Poor-House)

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

without government assistance.

This Poor House was near a Deaf school.

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

so they went to the Poor House regularly.

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

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

The Belfast City Hospital.

This meant that local Deaf people would eventually use

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

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

In England, it's yet again different.