Athy Workhouse Admission and Discharge Register 1875-1878 now online following conservation work
Kildare County Archives holds the surviving Athy Poor Law Union Admission and Discharge Registers for Athy Workhouse which cover the years from 1875 to 1920. The majority of these are in fragile condition and require conservation. Sixteen of the registers and one index volume (PLUA/R/2-18) were microfilmed in 2007 with funding from The Heritage Council under the Archives and Museums grant scheme. These were made available online in 2022 and can be searched on the Kildare County Archives Online webpage here. However, the earliest surviving volume (PLUA/R/1) which covers the period 21 September 1875 – 19 September 1878 was not microfilmed as it was too fragile. Following extensive conservation work by the conservator at Muckross Bindery, supported as part of a Creative Ireland Kildare project, PLUA/R/1 has now been digitised and can be accessed via the Online Archives page here.
Unfortunately, the survival of poor law records is sparse throughout the country. These registers are unique in Kildare County Archives as there are no surviving Admission and Discharge registers for Celbridge Workhouse and only two for Naas. The registers contain the full name of the individual together with identifying details, including sex, age, trade or calling, marital status, religion, spouse’s name, the number of children, the electoral division of residence before entering the workhouse, the date of admission and the date of death or of leaving the workhouse.
As part of the Creative Ireland Kildare project in 2023 the archivist delivered an interactive workshop in the boardroom of the former Athy Workhouse, Using Archives in your Creative Practice, to encourage creative practitioners to explore the Archives’ holdings. Arising from this successful project, the County Archives was invited to photograph the unused part of the former Workhouse/County Home to ensure there was a record of this unique building. It engaged Brian Cregan Photography to create a digital archive which traces the transformations of Athy Workhouse over time from an institution that symbolised oppression and despair to a hospital providing care for older people. In 2024 Brian developed a further Creative Ireland Kildare project designed to enhance wellbeing through creative participation from the local community. A key element of the project was a series of photography workshops at Athy Library with Athy Photographic Society and with a local national school, Scoil Phádraig Naofa, where participants and pupils learnt about composition, exposure, lighting and editing techniques.
