The Workhouse and The Unwanted | The Great Famine XVI

Irish History Podcast

Fin Dwyer

Ireland, Irish History, Norman Invasion, Great Hunger, Vikings, Interviews, History, War Of Independence, Great Famine

4.7 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 November 2017

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The crumbling ruins of workhouses are one of the last visible reminders of the horrors of the Great Hunger in the Irish landscape. During the Great Famine they became home to the unwanted in Irish society. Ultimately over 300,000 people Irish people died in these institutions during the Great Hunger.

While they may have been unwanted by the late 1840s very few of the so called 'inmates' of workhouses were born unwanted. The show begins by looking at how people found themsleves in such a position by following the journey of one 14 year old boy, Patrick Duignan from Co Leitrim.

This is his story.

I also look at an often forgotten aspect of workhouses: the bitter and sometimes violent struggles for control of the running of these institutions which explains why so many died.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	May I have your attention please you can now book your train tickets on Uber and get
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0:16.5	Trains now on Uber. T's and C's apply. Check the Uber app. I go by Little Sims. I'm always listening to music.
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0:26.7	I need to feel it.
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0:45.0	bows sound is power Hello and welcome to the Irish History Podcast. My name is Finn Duwara and this is the
0:59.0	workhouse and the unwanted. While little remains of many aspects of famine-era Ireland the of the great famine in the Irish landscape.
1:13.0	These bleak institutions became the primary source of famine relief in Ireland from September
1:18.0	1847 onwards, and they quickly became overwhelmed as the unwanted in Irish society, the starving poor with nowhere else to turn, flocked to their doors.
1:28.0	The cramped and filthy conditions inside were appalling, and by the time the great famine had run its course over 300,000 Irish people
1:37.2	have perished within the walls of these buildings.
1:40.2	This podcast is their story.
1:49.1	Very few people are born unwanted, but by December 1847, Ireland's workhouses were full of such people.
1:54.8	Each of them had their own story about how they had found themselves in this position. While there are too many to tell, this podcast opens by following one family whose misfortune
2:00.3	saw them join the ranks of the unwanted. So the show begins in the northwest of Ireland and county litram.
2:06.2	Then the episode takes an unconventional look at workhouses by focusing on the bitter
	...

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