Workhouse No. 2
A personal project I took on quite a while ago but only getting to post now in 2024!
A local & personal set of images for me here. When my photography changed a number of years ago, from just only shooting dog shows & sunsets, I started to appreciate my locality more & how it has changed over the years, notwithstanding the old buildings around it & their history … My hobby now included trying to document these old buildings and ruins before they were potentially lost or changed forever …
St Felims was one of those buildings that captivated me. One, which had a personal connection, whereby I remember as a child visiting old neighbours out there. Many people scared us with tales of ghosts & even banshees having been ‘seen’ around that area!! An aunt of mine was born there & many people of a certain generation just had one wish ‘not to die in the workhouse’ or ‘in the county home’ as it was known to me growing up.
Whatever your memories, I hope you enjoy this set of images if you’re local & if you’re looking from afar, here’s a little snippet of history:
Workhouses were described as “the most feared and hated institution ever established in Ireland.” An institution which operated in Ireland for a period of some 80 years, from the early 1840s to the early 1920s. There were 163 workhouses in total.
If people could not support themselves, they could come into the workhouse. Here they would do some work in return for food. People had to stay and live in the workhouse and so the system was known as indoor relief.
Designed to accommodate 1200 people, Cavan was the largest workhouse in Ulster and amongst the earliest in Ireland. The workhouse, which later became known as the County home/St Felim’s hospital was completed only three years before the onset of the catastrophic Great Famine, in which the workhouses played a notorious central role in providing poor relief but also in the disastrous spread of disease.
Following that, there were many uses of these buildings including a hospital, a mother & baby establishment, to the back there was a Fever/TB/Infectious hospital with a small block to the rear which was used as an isolation ward. A chapel & a convent stand as part of the grounds. A walled garden with a fish pond for patients back in the day. There was also a ‘dead house’ or mortuary at the very back which the original slab still remains.
A sad aspect to me is the large burial ground or graveyard at the very back known locally as ‘Bullys Acre’ stands with only one lone headstone. No names…. it simply reads:
“In Memory of those interred here. 1842-1962.”
Whether you have a personal connection to the building or just a passing interest, I hope that you enjoy this set of images!
A local & personal set of images for me here. When my photography changed a number of years ago, from just only shooting dog shows & sunsets, I started to appreciate my locality more & how it has changed over the years, notwithstanding the old buildings around it & their history … My hobby now included trying to document these old buildings and ruins before they were potentially lost or changed forever …
St Felims was one of those buildings that captivated me. One, which had a personal connection, whereby I remember as a child visiting old neighbours out there. Many people scared us with tales of ghosts & even banshees having been ‘seen’ around that area!! An aunt of mine was born there & many people of a certain generation just had one wish ‘not to die in the workhouse’ or ‘in the county home’ as it was known to me growing up.
Whatever your memories, I hope you enjoy this set of images if you’re local & if you’re looking from afar, here’s a little snippet of history:
Workhouses were described as “the most feared and hated institution ever established in Ireland.” An institution which operated in Ireland for a period of some 80 years, from the early 1840s to the early 1920s. There were 163 workhouses in total.
If people could not support themselves, they could come into the workhouse. Here they would do some work in return for food. People had to stay and live in the workhouse and so the system was known as indoor relief.
Designed to accommodate 1200 people, Cavan was the largest workhouse in Ulster and amongst the earliest in Ireland. The workhouse, which later became known as the County home/St Felim’s hospital was completed only three years before the onset of the catastrophic Great Famine, in which the workhouses played a notorious central role in providing poor relief but also in the disastrous spread of disease.
Following that, there were many uses of these buildings including a hospital, a mother & baby establishment, to the back there was a Fever/TB/Infectious hospital with a small block to the rear which was used as an isolation ward. A chapel & a convent stand as part of the grounds. A walled garden with a fish pond for patients back in the day. There was also a ‘dead house’ or mortuary at the very back which the original slab still remains.
A sad aspect to me is the large burial ground or graveyard at the very back known locally as ‘Bullys Acre’ stands with only one lone headstone. No names…. it simply reads:
“In Memory of those interred here. 1842-1962.”
Whether you have a personal connection to the building or just a passing interest, I hope that you enjoy this set of images!
