Mystery of the missing workhouse master

Lifestyle – Historian David Broderick has delved into the history of Portumna Workhouse and its strange Master, Henry Ogle, in order to give a voice to those forgotten people who were forced to seek shelter in this unforgiving institution. JUDY MURPHY hears about Ogle’s mysterious absconsion from Portumna and how David tracked him to his final resting place in New York.

Some people’s passion for history is ignited by dates and battles but it’s the stories of ordinary people – many of them long forgotten – that drive David Broderick.

They’ve inspired his first book, Finding Ogle: The Mystery of the Disappearing Workhouse Master, an account of the life and mysterious disappearance of Henry Ogle, who served as Master of Portumna Workhouse from 1850 until he absconded from his post and Portumna in June 1865.

Workhouses were harsh and hated institutions, the last resort of the penniless and starving. And, under Ogle’s watch, Portumna’s was one of the worst-run anywhere in the British Isles.

The building now houses the Irish Workhouse Centre and David, from nearby Lorrha in North Tipperary, spent two summers working there in 2017 and 2018.

While his day job is as a sports therapist, David is “an avid historian” in his spare time and has a Diploma in Local History from Maynooth University.

His interest stems from childhood. David grew up beside a 12th century tower house, Lackeen Castle, and it piqued his interest from youth.

“But we never knew who lived there; we knew nothing about it,” he says. That frustrated him, but on the Maynooth course, he learned about the resources available to people interested in researching local history.

His time as a guide in the Irish Workhouse Centre was a great experience, but David felt something was missing.

Large parts of the imposing and austere building, which officially opened in 1852 have been restored, giving visitors an insight into conditions in which inmates lived. However, when it came to information about those people, little was available.

“We have the building and a general history of workhouses in Ireland but we don’t have many of the records available to us,” he says referring to the records of the Poor Law Unions – the boards that ran the workhouses.

David researched newspapers of the day for accounts of inquests and inquiries relating to inmates – one of the most moving is that of Bridget Corbett, a 72-year-old widow who took her own life by falling from the top floor of the women’s block to the yard below, dying some days later.

It was “incredible” to read her story at first-hand, he says.

David has documented that and similar stories, thanks to his fascination with Henry Ogle, whose sudden disappearance from Portumna in 1865 left the area baffled.

“I zoomed in on Ogle because I felt through him, I could tell the smaller stories of people who had been less significant in terms of being recorded,” he explains.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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