Keady Technical School / Fever Hospital  

The effects of the Famine (The Great Hunger) on Keady and Armagh areas.

After researching much about Keady History, we still have little about The Famine (aka. The Great Hunger) and its affect on the Armagh, Keady and surrounding areas. So with some searching I have found more, the best seems to be at jstor under a document entitled, “Some Aspects of the Great Famine in County Armagh. A lecture by James Grant from 1977.” – Read more at this link.

However, the then people of Keady were scared to face up to or discuss The Famine, thus tried to hide its true affects. Due to the large amount of information, I have placed it on this sub-page to make it easier to read.

By the beginning of May 1847, fever cases in the area were getting out of hand. As a result, temporary fever hospitals were opened in Armagh City, Keady, Loughgall, Markethill and Middletown. providing altogether about 250 extra beds.

Keady Technical School (now the site of Crossmore Downs) was built first half of the 19th century but it wasn't always a "Tec". Older folk called it the "Fever Hospital" and that was the purpose for which it was originally built. During the Famine it was used as a temporary workhouse and as a hospital for the Famine fever victims. It was sometimes called Meeper's Hospital after Dr. Leeper who was for sometime the doctor in charge. The fact that it was found necessary to erect another if smaller hospital on the site where Mr McSorley now lives at Iskeymeadow to cater for those whom the Keady couldn't accommodate, would suggest that the area had been pretty severely affected. There is a hill in the Crossmore district locally known as Skull Hill and the story of how it got its name would lead to the same conclusion.

Armagh Workhouse Graveyard was at 1 Tower Hill, Armagh BT61 9DW (nearest).

The Great Famine (aka Great Hunger and Potato Famine) was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1849. During this time a million died and over a million fled the country. By 1855 over 2.1 million had left Ireland for a new life. Many died on their journey or soon after they arrived in a new land. The Famine was the result of “potato blight” which caused the potato crop to fail. The blight also affected Europe where c100,000 died. The reason Ireland was affected so badly was partly due to dependence on one crop and partly due to how land was owned and managed. Most was owned by English and Anglo-Irish families, many of which lived in England. Irish tenant farmers had only small holdings, very few rights and were easy to evict.

According to https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1886/aug/25/tenant-farmers-ireland-evictions-from:

“… Between 1847 and 1851 some 263,000 families were evicted in Ireland. It's not that there wasn’t enough food to feed everyone, the rich landowners continued to export cereals and livestock for their own profit. The population of the island was affected greatly. In 1841 the census recorded 8.18 million people, by 1861 it had dropped to 5.8 m. Many continued to leave and by 1931 the figure was just 4.21 m. It then began to recover, but even by 2022 the total was just 7.1 m and well below that of 1841. One consequence is c80 million people around the world (outside Ireland) claim they are of Irish descent…”

There is a second Workhouse Burial Ground at Grid Ref. H 88354 45440.

According to www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC23H41_the-paupers-graveyard?guid=7cd7887a-a3b3-46ca-8ddd-6d37681dd417:

“The Armagh workhouse, was built in 1840, and occupied a 7-acre site at the north-east of Armagh and could accommodate 1,000 inmates. It was declared fit for the admission of paupers on 14 December 1841, and admitted its first inmates on the 4 January 1842.

The workhouse was considered a place of last resort for people who were destitute. Men, women and children were completely segregated, families were split up, rules were harsh and food was plain and meagre.

Although Armagh workhouse was the biggest in Ulster, within a few years of opening, it was unable to accommodate all those seeking help when in 1845 the potato crop failed and famine spread. Many died of contagion within the house, more than 500 from October 1846 to March 1847.

Many of those who died in the workhouse are buried on two areas of consecrated ground, known as the Pauper's graveyards, their graves unmarked. A memorial now stands at the entrance to the burial ground to the south of the site. A lone cross marks the graveyard to the west of the site…

The workhouses continued in N Ireland until 1948 when they were closed with the creation of modern health and welfare services.

Armagh workhouse later became Tower Hill Hospital, now a community hospital and today also acts as headquarters for the SH&SSB. The entrance block, main block and fever hospital survive, together with part of the much-altered infirmary block…”

Videos:

1. “The Irish Workhouses” at YouTube (3.28 mins).

2. “The Great Irish Famine - Short History Documentary” at YouTube (16.19 mins).

3. Although not directly connected to the Armagh Workhouse, a video about the famine and one labour scheme of building walls on Slieve Gullion in South Armagh, is well done and narrated, “"Dragons in the Hills: Music and Myths 4 - with Seamus Murphy, Colleen Savage and Padraig Carragher" (37.58 mins).

Read more about:

1. The Great Famine at Wikipedia.

2. Armagh Union Workhouse at www.workhouses.org.uk/Armagh

Photos:

1. Armagh Workhouse Burial Ground Info Board, photo credit Dean W at FindAGrave.  

2. Some photos of Armagh Community Hospital at Geograph. The Armagh Union Workhouse is the best preserved in Ireland and is now Armagh Community Hospital.

According to a document entitled, “Some Aspects of the Great Famine in County Armagh. A lecture by James Grant from 1977.” at jstor:

“At the beginning of November 1845, the Armagh Board of Guardians reported to the Poor Law Commissioners on the failure of the potato harvest in their Union. Thirty-three samples of land, involving 299 acres in all, were reported on. In fourteen samples, involving 100 acres, half or more of the potatoes had failed. In the remaining nineteen samples, involving 199 acres, the failure was one-third or less. The final loss was probably somewhat more, for the figures were produced rather early in the season before storage of the crop was complete.

The effects of such a partial loss, reflected throughout the country, were slight in Ulster generally and in Armagh in particular. In virtually all workhouses, for example, the effect was on diet only. Potato contractors were soon unable or unwilling to assure long-term deliveries and were released by Boards of Guardians from their contracts, although, in some places, workhouse masters continued to buy sound potatoes in the markets well into the new year. In fact, in Armagh Union, the master was able to buy in market until May 1846, although supplies were extremely erratic. Short-term contract prices in Armagh rose from 3s. od. per cwt. in late November 1845 to 6s. od. per cwt. in late March 1846. The Guardians showed no interest in these March tenders, because the price in the markets was still as low as 4s. 4d. per cwt., or 5 d. per stone. However, from the end of 1845, the use of potatoes steadily declined in all workhouse dietaries, being replaced by bread or, more generally, by stirabout made first from

This article is the text of a lecture given to Cumann Seanchais Ard Mhacha on 27 March 1974. As the title suggests, it makes no pretence to comprehensiveness; for example, it deals with only one Poor Law Union in the county, Armagh Union, which, however, accounted for 46% of the population of the county in the 1840s.

The article is intended as a contribution towards establishing the facts about the Famine and its effects on the county.”

The signs were misinterpreted, and many believed all would pass. However, this was a huge misjudgement, and the results would have consequence.”

The Article goes on to say:

“Armagh Union Workhouse

As has already been noted, the only palpable effect of the partial failure of 1845 on the workhouses was in dietary arrangements. With the total failure of 1846, the workhouses, without exception, where deluged with applicants for admission, "no small evidence this," as Rev. James Disney noted, "of the destitution which exists, as the most unreasonable reluctance prevails, in these parts, .... to taking shelter in the (poor) houses. The deluge very quickly created major problems of accommodation; care of the sick, especially those suffering from fever; and finance.

The number seeking admission was added to, no doubt, by the severe winter, described by Mr James Stronge as "the only natural one we have had for years".

Armagh Union workhouse had been built to accommodate 1,000 paupers. By mid-December 1846, it had its full quota, but since the attic dormitories were still unoccupied and some others not full, the medical officer agreed that another 200 might be accommodated without overcrowding or danger to health. But by the end of the first week in January 1847, this number had been passed and the medical officer was distinctly worried because fever had appeared "in every part of the house" and the workhouse fever hospital was already overcrowded. Young children were dying in "great numbers weekly". The medical officer was given an assistant but, by the beginning of March, both were ill of fever; so, too. were the workhouse master by the beginning of March, both were ill of fever; so, too. were the workhouse master and both schoolteachers. The medical officer died before the end of the month.

To ease the pressure of accommodation, the Armagh Old Cholera Hospital, capable of housing eighty, was taken over and temporary dormitories to sleep a further one hundred were erected for those convalescing from fever.

The workhouse master also died of fever the following December.

To ease the pressure of accommodation, the Armagh Old Cholera Hospital, capable of housing eighty, was taken over and temporary dormitories to sleep a further one hundred were erected for those convalescing from fever.

By the beginning of May 1847, there were four hundred fever cases in the house. At this point, the guardians decided to apply to the Central Board of Health for requisitions for temporary fever hospitals. According to Sir William MacArthur, the medical historian of the Great Famine, this was an admission that the fever epidemic had got out of hand. As a result, temporary fever hospitals were opened in Armagh city, Keady, Loughgall, Markethill and Middletown. providing altogether about 250 extra beds. Further admissions to the workhouse were limited to cases of extreme urgency and all relief committees were urged to relieve destitution and not to depend on the workhouse until further notice. Meanwhile, the building of sheds in the workhouse grounds to accommodate yet another two hundred was quickly undertaken. Despite this, between mid-May and the end of July, "considerable numbers" of applicants were turned away each week "for want of room.” One can only wonder what the fate of these rejected wretches was, when one considers that the decision to apply to the workhouse was hardly preferable to death itself.

Thereafter, extreme pressure on accommodation eased, but the workhouse and fever hospital continued full, so that, in November and December 1847. the guardians were warned by both their own medical officer and the Poor Law Commissioners to avoid overcrowding. The Commissioners urged a maximum of 1.200 inmates, but agreed to the guardian’s insistence on 1.300, provided the Old Cholera Hospital were retained.

With renewed pressure in January 1848. three houses in the town had to be rented for extra accommodation, but they were needed for only two months. From April onwards, the problem eased considerably. By September, the fever had practically gone and in November the number in the house dropped to 832. Although in January 1849 the house was full again, extra accommodation was needed only for a short spell and crisis conditions never recurred.

The workhouse master also died of fever the following December.

Pressure on the workhouses from October 1846 onwards put a tremendous strain on the financial resources of Unions. In Armagh, this was shown in the continuing inability of the guardians throughout 1847 to meet current expenses, a novel situation, for hitherto, healthy balances had been easily maintained. The low point was reached in July, when Union debts amounted to £3,000. Return to solvency was slow - the Union was still in debt in February 1848 - but thereafter the situation improved.

The only way in which financial embarrassment could be relieved was, of course, by striking and collecting new rates. From 1847 to 1850 and even later, rates were struck in virtually all Unions on a scale unprecedented since the opening of the first Irish workhouses in 1841.

Collection of rates was a much more difficult task and while Armagh Union escaped the physical resistance to rate collection witnessed in some other Ulster Unions, from late 1847 through to 1849 it was a constant, one might say an obsessive, problem. Guardians, continually harassed by the Poor Law Commissioners, themselves harassed the rate collectors, encouraging them to use every legal means at their disposal to get ratepayers to pay up. It was hardly coincidental that in May 1847 the Poor Law Commissioners published The Collector s Manual, for the use of rate collectors, with a second edition in October of the following year. At one point, Armagh guardians were requiring collectors to get in two-thirds of their rate within three months and the remainder within a further month in order to be entitled to their commission.2 At another, and this illustrates the predicament of the collector caught in the middle, while a collector was under serious threat of legal action from the guardians, he was himself prosecuting 140 defaulters at one petty sessions.

Finally, the pressure of famine conditions on Irish workhouses resulted in a change in the poor law. By the Irish Poor Law Extension Act, which came into effect in August 1847, *ne principle of outdoor relief, so long considered inviolable, was conceded. Its concession was reluctant, and its operation was even more reluctant. At the same time, relief by food was ended and, from August 1847. the workhouse system became the sole official agency of relief.

The Armagh guardians had long been opposed to outdoor relief. However, with the change in the law and the continuation of intense pressure on workhouse accommodation, they agreed to give relief out of the workhouse. They willingly accepted the government's limitation of outdoor relief to the elderly, those permanently disabled by infirmity, whether physical or mental and those temporarily disabled by severe sickness or serious accident. But they excluded one group to whom the law conceded it, namely, poor widows with two or more legitimate dependent children. These were to continue to seek relief in the workhouse.

The guardians also responded well to appeals from the Poor Law Commissioners to keep as much room as possible in the house for able-bodied applicants to whom the workhouse test could be applied. So, from time to time, old and infirm paupers were removed from the workhouse and placed on outdoor relief.

The guardians disagreed strongly, however, with the government's insistence that outdoor relief should be given, as a rule, in cooked food. Their disagreement was based, first, on humanitarian grounds: "It is contrary to the spirit and intention of the Poor Relief Act that .... relief to the helpless and infirm poor should be made inconvenient or unpalatable .... to the recipients. They argued that, given only nine relief depots in the whole Union, many recipients would have to travel several miles frequently in inclement weather, wait for a long time at the depot and end up with "a distasteful meal of cold and unpalatable food.” Finally, they reduced the cooked food policy to the absurd by citing the hypothetical case of a family of eight - husband and wife and six children red - living a few miles from a depot, whose ration of cooked stirabout would weigh 681- lbs., which would be impossible to carry any distance. The guardians' second objection was on practical grounds. Unpalatable cooked food might well force those on outdoor relief to seek admission to the workhouse, thereby destroying the whole point of outdoor relief. There would also be unjustifiable expense in providing cooking equipment at nine depots in the Union and the experience of the previous winter had shown that, no matter how few people received soup rations, such large crowds gathered that the constabulary had to be called in. A repetition of such a situation should be avoided at all costs.3 In place of cooked food, Armagh guardians employed a flexible system based on rations of raw meal or small advances of money, depending on the circumstances of individual recipients.

Outdoor relief was introduced in Armagh Union on 10 October 1847 and continued in substantial use until the end of March 1848. Once pressure on workhouse accommodation eased in April, the use of outdoor relief slackened rapidly, although it continued on a limited scale until 11 August 1849. It was formally discontinued on 29 September of the same year.

To sum up then: the effect of the partial potato failure of 1845 on County Armagh was very slight. Not so the total failure of 1846. Particularly since it coincided with a slump in the linen trade.

The winter of 1846-7 brought great hardship, especially to the south and west of the county, where there was extensive use of public works relief schemes. These sustained about 14% of the population of those areas for five months. At the same time, there was considerable and, in places, intense activity by local relief committees. There was widespread fear and excitement in the county and some disorientation of the starving, who wandered in menacing groups in search of help.

The guardian’s disagreement with the government was not completely unanimous.  The government's defence of cooked food was that, although it would be more expensive initially, it would eliminate fraudulent practices and so be cheaper in the long run.

Altogether, between October 1847 and August 1849, 3,431 persons were relieved out of the workhouse. 3,000 of these were relieved between October 1847 and March 1848. The allowance was one lb. of raw meal per day (half a lb. to children under nine) or 1s. Per week to a single person and 1s. 6d. to a family of two or more.

A substantial maximum of 15% of the population in Armagh Union availed of relief by food at one point between April and August 1847 and 12 % were still being fed when the scheme ended.

Armagh Union workhouse was deluged throughout 1847 and for a time, from May to July, failed to cope. At the same time, it survived with difficulty a major fever epidemic. The use of the workhouses by the poor in nineteenth century Ireland can be taken as, at least, a general indicator of the social and economic condition of society. If this be accepted, then we must also accept that society in the Armagh Union area did not begin to return to normal until the spring of 1848 and that it was not until 1850 that the return to normality was completed.”