Those who entered the workhouses were not just Catholics - they were poor people of all religions. There was only one recognised religion in Ireland and it has to be remembered that no matter what religion you practised if you were not Church of Ireland you were in the same boat as the Catholics. This is not just true of Ireland at that time, it is also true of England. Anyone in England who was not Church of England fared as badly as did Catholics in Ireland if they were poor to start with. What is written here can be compared with other parts of the world today - India with all her poverty and other countries such as Romania where so many children were kept in orphanages in the past. Here in Ireland - we have children living on the streets today - as you do whoever you are and whatever part of the world you live in. Jane ------------- The Foundling Hospital: was part of the Dublin workhouse. It was so named in 1730. Children received into it were foundlings and all illigitimate. There were not supposed to be babies amongst them, as children under the age of 6 supposed to be cared for by their own parishes. In each parish Churchwardens employed a woman. the 'lifter' and it was her job to go round the Parish at night 'lifting' any babies she found lying about. She brought them to the next Parish and dumped them! Sometimes she placed a lump of narcotic called diacodioum in the mouth to stupify the child and stop it from crying There were also times that the 'lifter' in the second parish found the child and dumped it somewhere else if not back in its own. One woman had 'lifted' 27 children one year, and 7 died in her hands. These women knew nothing of what happened the chldren once they dumped them.... Babies were brought to the Foundling Hospital in Dublin and they were fed on Panda..(bread and milk)...At an inquiry in 1797 the matron said the diet was unfit to sustain life! The feeding of panda to children had been carried out for 67 years Ghastly happenings were reported from the Foundling Hospital: once 13 babies bodies found buried in a pit. A workman found two dead infants wrapped in a cloth, these were identified by the marks on their arms,. Babies were 'branded' before being sent out of this place to nurses around the city to be minded. Children from all over the country were brought to this workhouse, carried by women in baskets, just thrown into the basket, up to 8 at a time. Some found dead on arrival or seriously injured. At an inquiry 1797:it was reported that corpses were thrown into a hole and covered with quick lime. From 1750-1760: 7,781 admitted; 3,797 died..and 3,932 put out to nurse. Mothers often tried to get their children back, usually they didn't. Older workhouse children were fed: Breakfast: 1/4 lb porridge and a pint of milk Dinner: pint of milk porridge Supper: 1/4lb bread, spread with fresh butter 3oz cheese twice a week Older children still: 1/2 pint beer & 1/4 lb bread (beer not very strong) Comments from inmates and experts or people who had anything to do with it in later years. Food always bad, cockroaches, crickets, earwigs. Stirabout thin and watery full of lumps. Maggots in bread,, meat often stinking. Clothes: for girls very scanty. One petticoat, which was last years frock. Neither frocks nor coats worn by boys were lined. No waistocats. Children in the infirmary slept on straw, thrown on the bed. One thin underblanket and another thin blanket for covering. When a child died, it's boots and stockings and linen weren't buried with it but passed on to other children. Overcrowding was dreadful. 4-8 to one bed. The windows in the room where children assembled in the morning were broken. Childrens feet covered with sores, and their hands were often so swollen that they could not draw the thread sewing. They were afflicted with the 'itch'. (Today the 'itch' would refer to scabies which does occur on the hands) The children were savagely punished at times: one boy complained about badness of bread and he got 20 lashes with cat of 9 tails. Children were stripped to waist and lashed, a 7-8 yr old got 8-9 lashes for being slow to go to bed. An older offender got 60 lashes and had an iron weight tied to his leg. One part of house was known as 'Bedlam'..reserved for lunatics. Children were sent there for complaining (considered refractory): this place even dustier, darker and more generally uncomfortable. The children dreaded confinement in this place. Two old women, both infirm, minded 60 sick children under 8 years of age in the infirmary. The beds were filthy. The 'dead hole' was a step or two from the infirmary door. A carpenter once told someone that he had seen three dead children in a bed. One witness declared that he had seen 30-35 dead children come away for burial at one time.