Museum shines light on lost lives

Lifestyle – The impressive and austere Portumna Workhouse opened its doors in 1852 and accommodated thousands of poverty-stricken and starving people until it closed in the early 20th Century. It now houses the Irish Workhouse Centre, a visitor attraction that tells the story of these institutions and of those who used their services. This community-based project is now entering a new phase with the opening of a museum which will allow a glimpse into the daily life of this bleak place and others like it. Donations of items relating to Portumna and other workhouses would be most welcome, as the Centre’s volunteers explain to JUDY MURPHY.

Three plain, unremarkable buttons, grey in colour – it’s difficult to imagine anybody getting too excited over them. But as David Broderick turns them over in his hand in the newly-created exhibition room at the Irish Workhouse Centre in Portumna and explains their significance, it all makes sense. These items offer a glimpse into the daily life of Victorian-era workhouses like this one which opened in 1852 and provided thousands of destitute people with an alternative to starvation – albeit a harsh one – until it closed in the early 20th Century.

The buttons, most likely from the uniforms of female inmates, were found in different areas of this large complex by David and Christy Cunniffe, both historians who volunteer with the Irish Workhouse Centre – a community enterprise set up in 2012. They and fellow volunteer, genealogist Clare Doyle, supported by the Centre’s manager, Dónal Burke, are now creating a dedicated museum in the Centre, so they can give a picture of life in the 163 workhouses that operated in Ireland from the 1840s to the early 20th Century. The one in Portumna was designed to cater for 600 inmates, men, women and children, on a site of just over eight acres.

The group has made a good start on finding items already – these include enormous Famine soup pots, medicine bottles and a cast-iron infirmary heater.

But this is a work in progress, so they’re appealing to people who might have artefacts relating to Irish workhouses. They’d love if people would donate or loan those items to the new museum.

It’s the latest initiative by the Workhouse Centre as part of its remit “to tell the story of the workhouse and aspects of the famine”, Christy explains.

In normal times, Centre staff and volunteers offer guided tours which have gained it top ratings on Trip Advisor. But lockdown has stopped those for now. So, all involved are focusing on future developments – including the museum. It’s a project “that must be done with respect for the place and the people who were here”, Christy says.

David Broderick, who has written a book about Henry Ogle, a Master of Portumna Workhouse who absconded under strange circumstances in 1865, nods. “It’s to look after people’s memory and tell their story.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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