Telling the Story of the Workhouse Poor

The workhouse has been described as “the most feared and hated institution ever established in Ireland.” The Irish Workhouse Centre tells the story of the workhouse poor, remembering those who are often lost and forgotten to history’.

The workhouse was 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.