Cork Workhouse

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Cork City Workhouse on Historic 25 inch map (1897-1913)

Although government run poor relief was in existence in Cork City from the 1735, the Cork City Poor Law Union was not officially declared until 1839. The Workhouse was opened in 1841 at a cost of £20,800. It was built to house a maximum capacity of 2,600 inmates. The Cork City Workhouse was built to accomodate people from the areas of Ballincollig, Blarney, Carnavar, Carrigaline, Cork City, Cove, Glanmire, Grehagh, Inniscarra, Inniskenny, Kilquane, Monkstown, Rathcoony, and Whitechurch.

In 1924 the Cork City Workhouse became the county home.

The Cork City Workhouse site is now occupied by St Finbar's hospital with several of the original buildings still in use.

References

	For more information see here	Ireland	VIEW SOURCE
	County Cork Archives	Ireland	VIEW SOURCE

Type of Building:

Workhouse

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Comments

Hello - I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction. I suspect that the sister of my 2x great grandmother somehow ended up in the Cork Workhouse. Her name would have been Margaret Minogue, and she would have come from Feakle, Clare. There is a Margaret Mannix (known Minogue surname variant) who gave birth to a son, Charles, in the workhouse in 1894. Is there a way to access any information about this Margaret Mannix, and how she came to be in the workhouse? I have strong DNA connections to whom I believe is a descendant of Charles, Margaret's son. However, I cannot confirm this connection absolutely without more information or proper documentation. I would be grateful for any help anyone can provide!

mjz824

Thursday 9th April 2020 07:39PM

Hello,

Your best bet would be to click on the link above for the County Cork archives. By contacting them you may be able to find more relevant documentation. Also, have you created an Ancestor Chronicle for Margaret? If so then you can link her to the Cork Workhouse and hopefully get some advice from our wonderful team of volunteers.

As for a specific reason why she came to be in the Workhouse, this is a bit more difficult, as specific reasons were rarely recorded. However, a number of the Workhouse Infirmaries doubled as lying-in hospitals, so there are a lot of children who were born in the Workhouses even though their mothers were not inmates. Again, the Cork Archivist should be able to tell you this.

Please do create Ancestor Chronicles for Margaret and Charles as it sounds like a great story.

All the best

IrelandXO Team

Chronicles Editor

Friday 10th April 2020 08:53AM

My grandfather was born in the Cork Workhouse in 1886. His name was Jeremiah Donovan. His mother was Hanora (Nora) Donovan nee Lyons. His two older brothers, Richard and Daniel Donovan were there as well. They had to go there because his father was in America. Where would the baptismal and birth records for the work house be? Is there any information as to why they had to go into the workhouse? Thanks.