"They carved the date above the gate "Eighteen Forty-Nine," When they build the workhouse on the hill of limestone tall and fine. The people came to drink the soup Ladled from greasy bowls, They died in whitewashed wards that held A thousand Irish souls." So wrote author M. J. McMANUS of the workhouse in Carrick on Shannon where he was born. It was, in fact, built in 1841 at a cost of over 11,000 pounds and it was (unfortunately) to play a big part in the life and death of the town in the following years during the Great Famine. It was one of three workhouses built in Co. Leitrim as a result of the passing of the Poor Law Act of 1838. The other two were at Manorhamilton and Mohill. Both of these buildings have since been demolished. The workhouse was built to accommodate 800 inmates. The Poor Law Union of Carrick administered the following areas. In Co. Leitrim, the parishes of Kiltoghert and Kiltubrid, parts of Annaduff, Drumreilly and Mohill. In Co. Roscommon, the parishes of Aughrim, Kilmore and portions of Ardcarne, Clooncraff, Creeve, Killukin, Killumod and Tumna. The administration was under the control of the Board of Guardians. Half of the members of this Board were made up of Justices of the Peace resident in the Uni! on area. The other members were elected by the Union's rate-payers and property owners. The day-to-day running was left in the hands of the Master, who received a salary of 50 pounds per annum. He was assisted by the Matron who received half that. There was also a porter, a medical officer, two school teachers, a Roman Catholic chaplain, a Church of Ireland chaplain and the Clerk of the Union who recorded and maintained the records. Only the destitute were meant to avail of the Poor Law system. Conditions were to be as miserable as possible. Families were not allowed to live as a single unit, husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters were all assigned different quarters. Parents were admitted to see their children on Sundays only. Despite some problems, conditions at Carricks' workhouse in the early years were reasonable, but workhouses and the Poor Law were hopelessly inadequate to deal with the tragedy of the Famine that was just a few years away. A succession of "small famines" in the early part of the 19th century had led to crop failures throughout Ireland and eventually to what became known as the Great Famine. In 1845 blight caused partial failure to the potato crop in Co. Leitrim. There were shortages of food in the workhouse and towards the end of the year the number of deaths rose significantly. The reaction of the government to the food shortages was to repeal the Corn Laws which led to a fall in the price of home-grown crops. Indian corn was imported into the country from the U.S. Local Committees were set up to identify the worst hit areas and to allocate relief accordingly. Public work schemes were introduced to give employment. Many of the fine cut-stone public buildings and bridges date from these mid 1840 schemes. In 1846 the blight reappeared and there was a complete failure of the potato crop. A change in government saw the end of the relief measures introduced by the previous administration under Rob! ert PEEL. This was done so as not to interfere with what the new cabinet felt was the right of the suppliers to a "fair profit." The task of coping with the now worsening situation in the country was in the hands of the Poor Law Unions, local voluntary relief committees and the Society of Friends also known as Quakers. In November 1846, William FORSTER of Norwich and James TUKE of York, both Quakers, arrived in Carrick on Shannon. The scenes of poverty and suffering witnessed by them had a profound effect. There were 110 applicants for the workhouse, all destitute, for which there were on 30 vacancies. Starvation and disease were everywhere. Forster purchased all the bread available in the town and distributed it. Conditions in the workhouse were deplorable. There was no sanitation and clothing was scarce. Inmates were idle. Suppliers were profiteering. Build to accommodate 800, the workhouse was trying to cope with over a thousand, 170 were in the hospital suffering from typhus and dysentery. Inmates were dying at a rate of 12 per week. There was no bedding and nothing to lie on but straw. In January 1847 the government finally saw the folly of its earlier policies, and direct relief which included soup kitchens were introduced. It reduced starvation but it did not prevent the spread of d! isease. A Temporary Inspector, Capt. Edmund WYNNE was appointed in an effort to administer the workhouse more efficiently, but the Board of Guardians refused to cooperate with Wynne and they were disbanded and replaced by Vice-Guardians, James O'REILLY and Robert DUNCAN. Although there was initial success, WYNNE was replaced by Capt. Philip HAYMES, the Board of Guardians were reinstated. A special committee of the Board of Guardians was set up following a visit to the workhouse by the District Inspector, William CLARKE. All officers of the workhouse except the clerk were dismissed. Various charges were made against Captain WYNNE and the Vice-Guardians for abuses and irregularities which included placing a Catherine FOLEY, with whom Capt. WYNNE was allegedly having a relationship, on an emigrants' list with financial assistance from the Union to enable her to emigrate. The story of the Great Famine was one of poverty, suffering and disease. Thousands died, many of them children. Foodstuffs were being exported out of Ireland while the families were too poor to purchase it themselves. The country's workhouses struggled with the crisis but more often than not they did not succeed. The workhouses, poorhouses, were seen by the poor as a last refuge and many wished rather to die than enter their grey walls; they were viewed worse that the gaol (jail). The workhouse in Carrick closed in the early decades of the 19th century. It was closed in the 1930s, then re-opened as a geriatric hospital. At the rear of the hospital is a destitute graveyard in which hundreds of victims of the Famine were buried in unmarked graves. It was hoped in 1994, to have the area turned into a Garden of Remembrance with a monument to the people who were buried there. -- Excerpts, annual "Leitrim Guardian" magazine.