Manifestations of Institutional Reform and Resistance to Reform in Ulster Workhouses, Ireland, 1838-1855
Int J Histor Archaeol
Manifestations of Institutional Reform and Resistance to Reform in Ulster Workhouses, Ireland, 1838-1855
Liz Thomas 0
0 School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast , Belfast BT7 1NN , Northern Ireland
The new Irish and English poor laws of the nineteenth century were based on ideologies prevalent during the period of Improvement. The workhouse was the central instrument of these new Acts. Through an archival and archaeological methodology, this paper investigates the physical manifestations of the governing ideologies of reform and improvement and the manifestations of resistance to this reform in one type of institution, Ulster's nineteenth-century workhouses (a province that spans Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland). It also reflects on how these once despised institutions are now used, through community efforts, as recreational and Breform^ centers.
Workhouses; Ideologies; Reform; Ireland
Introduction
The Ideology of Improvement had impacted on Ball spheres^ of society, including
implementing modern agricultural techniques, industrial advancement, landscape
design and civic Improvement (through the construction of model villages and new rural
housing) and ultimately, the reformation of the poor by the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth century
(Tarlow 2007)
. At this time in England and Ireland, Improvement
Bmeant both profit and moral benefit^
(Tarlow 2007: 13)
. In 1838, the Poor Law Act
(BAn Act for the more effectual relief of the destitute poor in Ireland,^ 1 & 2 Vic., c. 56)
was passed and proved to have the most conservative measures of any poor law act in
England, Wales, and Scotland because ultimately, in Ireland poverty relief was only
allowed when the recipient resided within the workhouse. The policy of the Workhouse
Test (only residents of the workhouse could receive relief) embraced the Btest of less
eligibility^ (conditions within the workhouse, where residents received relief, were
inferior to the conditions obtained through labour by the lowest class of worker). The
policies of the nineteenth - century poor laws enacted in Ireland (1838) and Britain
(1834) were based on the ideologies of Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, and Thomas
Malthus, who were undoubtedly influenced by the ideology of Improvement. The main
objective of the 1838 Poor Law Act (Ireland) was to remove pauperism and
simultaneously relieve destitution and improve the BIrish character^ through the introduction
of a universal workhouse system: The workhouses built in Ireland under this new act
were specifically designed as a visual reminder to reform both those resident and not
resident in the workhouses.
BThe very sight of a well-built efficient establishment would give confidence to the
Board of Guardians; the sight and weekly assemblage of all servants of their Union
would make them proud of their office: the appointment of a chaplain would give
dignity to the whole arrangement, while the pauper would feel it utterly impossible to
contend against it^
(Head in Jackman 1958: 63)
.
By 1842 Ireland was divided into 130 Poor Law Unions, and a workhouse was to be
built central to each of these. The Unions were to be based as in England, on a market
town, Bequally distributed over the country,^ equal in size and with a ten-mile radius.
The Poor Law Commissioners (Commissioners) favored larger Unions as they believed
that these were more economical and they tried to observe the preexisting local
boundaries, so as to make the Unions as Bcompact and complete as possible^ (Fifth
Annual Poor Law Report 1839: 23–25). Forty-three of these Unions were created in the
province of Ulster. By 1846 the 130 workhouses, one for each Union, were erected, just
in time to meet the Great Famine. However, the impact of the Great Famine made the
Commissioners resolve that further Unions and workhouses were required due to
severe overcrowding and mortality. Between 1847 and 1855 a further 33 new Unions
and workhouses were established across Ireland. Only one of these second-phase
workhouses, the Bawnboy Union, was constructed in Ulster.
There has been extensive research on the Poor Law Act in Ireland, ranging from
broad historical and economical accounts
(Crowley et al. 2012; Gray 2009; Purdue
2011)
to local historical studies on several workhouses across Ireland and Britain
(Crawford 2004; Crossman 2003; Lucas 1999; O’Mahony 2008; Scannell
2006)
. Historical archaeologists have established that institutional buildings reflect
ideologies, and identified the ritual and symbolic use of space
(De Cunzo 1995,
2001; Lucas 1999; McKee 1992; Piddock 2001, 2007)
. Various studies have used
archaeological and historical resources to uncover a landscape of power relations and
power dynamics that existed across and within institutions
(Baugher 2001, 2010;
Casella 2000, 2001; Spencer-Wood 2010)
. This paper will address, using
archaeological and archival methods, how ideologies of refor (...truncated)