Irish Poor Law In Ireland

Introduced in 1838, the Poor Laws were Ireland’s first real attempt at government poor

relief. The laws were needed because of the large poor population depending on the kindness of others, usually volunteer services through religious organizations, i.e. ‘foundling hospitals and houses of industry.’ They set out to provide a stable home environment complete with morals and better conditions than those of the slums for Ireland’s poor children. From the age of two, children were separated from their parents. Once old enough, they were educated for three hours daily and taught various subjects including math, reading and writing, and religion. Although many Irish thought this was a necessary burden, many were afraid that the country was not

Those who have suffered are more likely to help the poor’s plight. Many of the supporters of the Poor Laws and their programs were women, who were at the time were facing their own struggles with independence and rights. It makes sense that the women, Cobbe and Hill, were more supportive of the efforts made by the Irish government than the men, Malthus and Hendrick. Speaking of, the opposition to the Irish Poor Law is best stated in John Robert Godly’s Observations on an Irish Poor Law, “The objections of the Poor Law are of two kinds, moral and economical. The former refer to its effect upon the character of the people, the later to that upon the resources of the country.” The moral objections shows the character and state of its country. For the Irish, if they had their morals, they had a solid country. It is incongruous that the Irish Poor Laws were created to instill morals in Ireland’s destitute children, but many with those same morals would later come to oppose the Poor Laws as immoral or unnatural. Nevertheless, the path to hell was paved with good intentions. Speaking on the economic drain of the Poor Law’s workhouses, in 1849, William Hogan observed that the children from the Dublin

Surviving children were generally very pale with weak limbs and eyes, stunted, and in many cases, deformed. For many the workhouses had a negative impact, they were expensive to run and maintain, diseases ran rapid, and infant mortality rates were higher in workhouses than anywhere else in Ireland. Wet-nurses were hard to find as the job did not pay well and had inadequate working conditions. Remarkably, for some individuals the workhouse held a positive effect. A mother and her children used the workhouse as a safe haven from her abusive husband and it was also used to nurse sick babies back to health. As a whole, many had negative experiences in the workhouses, but for few lucky individuals it changed their lives for the better. “What the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve at.” While the implementation of the Poor Laws hoped to ease the suffering of the poor, it hid many horrible aspects from the people. Consequently, decades after the end of the laws new tragedies and some successes are still being