County home (Ireland) explained

In the Irish Free State and Republic of Ireland, the county home [1] [2] was an institution which replaced workhouses from 1922 onwards.[3]

County homes were total institutions housing a wide variety of people, mostly poor: the elderly, the chronically ill, the mentally ill, children, the intellectually disabled and unmarried mothers.[4] [5]

History

The county homes were founded in the early 1920s after the formation of the Irish Free State. After the abolition of the existing system of workhouses, administration was centralised under thecounty councils, with the following model:[6]

These reforms were retrospectively legalised by the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923. The county homes were generally run by Catholic religious orders and financed by the state.[8]

Girls and women pregnant outside of marriage were sometimes sent to Magdalene asylums and Mother and Baby Homes, where they were required to perform heavy labour and often received substandard care; they were often forced to place their children for adoption. Women who kept their children were often not wanted by their families and struggled to find employment or housing, so a large number of unmarried mothers were forced to live in county homes.[9] Orphans and illegitimate children were often placed in county homes for a long period of time; they were used as "dumping grounds" until children could be transferred to other institutions like industrial schools. A report of 1947–48 notes that many children were abandoned in the county home by their mothers.[10]

A Poor Law Commission's report of 1927 stated that County Homes were unsuitable for unmarried mothers and babies.[11]

In 1943, about 8,000 people were living in county homes.[9]

From the 1950s onwards, county homes were reformed and standards of care improved. By the 1990s, they had been abolished, with the buildings now serving as normal hospitals.[12]

List

There was one in each of the twenty-seven counties of the Republic of Ireland (Tipperary was at that time divided into North and South), except that there was none in County Louth and three in County Cork.

Cultural depictions

As a symbol of the failure of the newly independent state to provide for the needs of its people, the county home has occasionally featured in fiction.

Sebastian Barry's 1995 play The Steward of Christendom takes place in a county home, depicting the fractured memories of a mentally-ill former policeman.[21] [22]

The expression "Goodnight Ballivor, I'll Sleep in Trim", famous in County Meath, is possibly a reference to the Trim county home.[23]

In Colm Tóibín's 2009 novel Brooklyn, the main character notes that New York's "forgotten Irish" remind her of "men from the County Home;" she is a native of Enniscorthy, where the Wexford county home was sited.[24]

Niamh Boyce wrote Kitty, a sequence of poems about her grandaunt, a seamstress in the Athy county home.[25]

John MacKenna mentions the "county home" in a poem in his 2012 collection Where Sadness Begins.[26]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Bunreacht na hÉireann: a study of the Irish text. Micheál Ó. Cearúil. Máirtín Ó. Murchú. November 15, 1999. Oifig an tSoláthair. 9780707664002. Google Books.
  2. Web site: electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB). electronic Irish Statute. Book (eISB). www.irishstatutebook.ie.
  3. Web site: The Irish Law Times Reports: Comprising Cases Argued and Decided in the Courts of Justice in All Ireland. August 28, 1966. A. Thom. Google Books.
  4. Book: Lucey, Donnacha. The end of the Irish Poor Law?: Welfare and healthcare reform in revolutionary and independent Ireland. March 2, 2016. Manchester University Press. 9781784996116. Google Books.
  5. News: Inquiry report into mother and baby homes may be delayed. Patsy. McGarry. The Irish Times.
  6. Book: Medicine, Disease and the State in Ireland, 1650-1940. Greta. Jones. Elizabeth. Malcolm. August 28, 1999. Cork University Press. 9781859181102. Google Books.
  7. Book: Medicine, Disease and the State in Ireland, 1650-1940. Greta. Jones. Elizabeth. Malcolm. August 28, 1999. Cork University Press. 9781859181102. Google Books.
  8. Web site: National Archives. Survey of Hospital Archives in Ireland.
  9. News: County homes took harsh toll on 'unmarried mothers'. Dr Sean. Lucey. The Irish Times.
  10. Book: Maguire, Moira. Precarious childhood in post-independence Ireland. July 19, 2013. Manchester University Press. 9781847797599. Google Books.
  11. Web site: Mayo's Bon Secours inmates. Mayo Advertiser.
  12. What the Tuam Oral History Project tells us about Ireland's past. Sarah-Anne. Buckley. July 30, 2020. www.rte.ie.
  13. Web site: The County Home. www.askaboutireland.ie.
  14. Web site: BOOKS 'The Flame and the Candle', by Dominic Price. www.mayonews.ie.
  15. Web site: The workhouse cemetery: "Clonakilty, God help us". November 30, 2022.
  16. Web site: Handbook of Tuberculosis Schemes for Great Britain and Ireland. National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis (Great. Britain). August 28, 1937. National Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis. Google Books.
  17. Web site: The Workhouse in Mallow, Co. Cork. www.workhouses.org.uk.
  18. Web site: Workhouse Registers | Wicklow.ie. www.wicklow.ie.
  19. Web site: Residents of 27 County Homes unable to give evidence to Mother and Baby Homes Commission. June 20, 2016. Irish Examiner.
  20. Web site: The Workhouse in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. www.workhouses.org.uk.
  21. Book: The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary Irish Playwrights. Martin. Middeke. Peter Paul. Schnierer. May 28, 2010. A&C Black. 9781408132685. Google Books.
  22. Web site: Fools and madmen. www.newstatesman.com. 2020-08-28. 2020-08-09. https://web.archive.org/web/20200809122944/https://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008/05/barry-roseanne-scripture. dead.
  23. Web site: Goodnight Ballivor. RTE.ie. 30 October 2018.
  24. Web site: Book thoughts: Brooklyn, by Colm Tóibín. April 2, 2015.
  25. Web site: Writer's Block with Niamh Boyce. May 3, 2019.
  26. Web site: salmonpoetry.com | Where Sadness Begins by John MacKenna. Salmon Poetry.

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