Irish Poor Law Records
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PictureClick to enlarge (Original image NAI)
Peter Higginbotham's brilliant website has detailed pages on the Workhouse in Ireland.  Each individual page for a given Poor Law Union usually concludes with what information he has been able to find out regarding the survival, or not, of relevant records, so be sure to consult there first when formulating your research plan.

I also recently stumbled across digital record volumes for selected Irish Poor Law Unions on FamilySearch.  These are not conveniently grouped into one collection I'm afraid and I have found the links listed below only by dint of trial and error when interrogating the catalogue with "Poor Law" as a keyword in the Author field.  None of these digital resources are currently indexed on FamilySearch as far as I know, so you will have to settle in for some hard graft browsing the images, which is what you would be doing in any local archive anyway. 

Another thing to be aware of is that not all of the images are available to browse from the comfort of your own home.  Unfortunately if the camera symbol on the far right of the microfilm listing has a key symbol above it even when you have logged in to your free FamilySearch account, the images are only available to view at either LDS facilities or an affiliate library.  There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why some Poor Law Union records are locked like this yet others are freely accessible?


Each Poor Law Union has variable survival rates for the different sorts of documents associated with it e.g.
  • Admission or Indoor Relief Registers will obviously be the most useful if you are hunting kin who you think might have been admitted but their survival is very patchy.  Outdoor Relief may also have been recorded whereby payments were made to people staying in their own homes.
  • Births & Deaths Registers, again are very scarce.
  • Rate Books will be useful if your ancestors lived in the area and were required to contribute to the costs.
  • Board of Guardians Minute Books appear to be the documents that are most likely to have survived.  These detail the administration of the workhouse and are less likely to be rich in names or details but they still paint a vivid picture of life at the time.  You may find relatives mentioned, perhaps as guardians, workers or suppliers to the workhouse?
Free to browse online at FamilySearch;

Balrothery Poor Law Union  Co. Dublin
Dublin North Poor Law Union  City of Dublin
​Dublin South Poor Law Union  City of Dublin
Dunshaughlin Poor Law Union  Cos. Meath & Dublin
Kells Poor Law Union  Cos. Cavan, Meath & Westmeath
​Navan Poor Law Union  Co. Meath
Oldcastle Poor Law Union  Cos. Meath, Westmeath​ & Cavan
Rathdown Poor Law Union  Cos. Dublin & Wicklow
Trim Poor Law Union  Co. Meath
​Only available to browse at LDS or affiliate libraries;
​
​Ballycastle Poor Law Union  Co. Antrim
Ballymena Poor Law Union  Co. Antrim
​Ballymoney Poor Law Union  Cos. Antrim & (London)Derry
Belfast Poor Law Union - Cos. Antrim & Down  Cos. Antrim & Down​
​Downpatrick Poor Law Union  Co. Down
Enniskillen Poor Law Union  Cos. Fermanagh, Cavan & Tyrone
Granard Poor Law Union  Cos. Longford & Cavan
​Larne Poor Law Union  Co. Antrim
Lowtherstown Poor Law Union  Cos. Fermanagh, Tyrone​ & Donegal
​Mohill Poor Law Union  Co. Leitrim
​Nenagh Poor Law Union  Co. Tipperary
Strabane Poor Law Union  Cos. Donegal & Tyrone
​Thurles Poor Law Union  Co. Tipperary
FindMyPast (FMP) also has a range of Irish workhouse records, some indexed, others available to browse.  The cataloguing of these resources leads with county names but for some it's not immediately apparent until you delve deeper into each collection at what level the records are being presented - Poor Law Union (PLU) or County of the same name?  Therefore, as ever, check the source specific query page for a more detailed description of what exactly is included in the collection, and crucially what is not.  

Some county archives have also invested in digitising and publishing some of the poor law records deposited with them (check the relevant archive website for any others that can only be accessed in person on site.)  Remember, Poor Law Unions do not all fit neatly inside county boundaries so be sure to check neighbouring county archives for deposited records too.

Here are those I've found online so far;

Clare County Archives - transcripts to browse Wexford County Archive - free (huge!) PDF files to download & browse Wicklow County Archives - free PDF files to download and browse
*** More to follow
PictureLoan Ledger (c) TNA (Click to enlarge)
​Irish Loan Funds were another type of financial help in the form of very localised lending which had actually been a feature of the Irish economy from much earlier in the 18th century.  These were very small interest free loans for "the industrious poor" paid out from the rather strangely entitled Irish Reproductive Loan Fund i.e. seed money.  They were guaranteed by friends and neighbours, so you might find relatives involved as a recipient and/or a guarantor.  

The original records ended up at the National Archives in Kew, London and they have made their way onto both of the main commercial platforms, albeit curiously covering different time periods.
The records are mostly for before 1850 and are very limited geographically - check the collection description on each of the search pages very carefully before you start searching.  
Read Up...  Irish Poor Law Unions​
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2022