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Perrott wheel, invented by a Cork man. The wheel, operated by over
one hundred inmates, was deemed inhumane and its use discontinued
after the famine.

Crimes in the workhouse were largely reactionary to the institutional
environment and often against property. The workhouse master
noted in his punishment book such misbehaviours as obscene
language, unnecessary noise, assault, refusal to work, refusal to
comply with regulations, gaming, smoking tobacco, absconding from
the house, feigning illness, and disturbance during religious practice.

Dormitory bedding in the workhouse was made from straw and wood
and each bed accommodated four to six people.

The inmates’ diet was comprised of bread, water, milk, and Indian
meal (cornmeal). Inmates in Cork received one pound of Indian meal
daily, which became the main substitute for potato. Once cooked,
the meal increased in bulk to about four pounds, which may have
satiated the inmate but lacked the nutritional value of the potato.
Its economic value, however, was appreciated by the cash-strapped
guardians, who regularly advertised tenders for cheaper meals.

As conditions deteriorated, meat was replaced by beef heads, which
were used to make soup-like dinners. Indeed, the nutritional value of
the inmates’ diet diminished in accordance with the worsening famine
conditions. In 1842 – the early years of the workhouse – potatoes
were standard fare in the diet for the inmates. Just like the wider Image is courtesy of Cork City and County Archive
community in Ireland, workhouses also relied on the potato and in fact, over-relied. The diet in the early years,
though sparse, contained three pounds of potatoes for breakfast alone for four days a week for able bodied
men and women, and milk and oatmeal for the other three days. Dinner on the pre famine menu was also
potatoes and supper consisted of bread.
Remember that this was in pre-famine times. In the famine years, it is easy to understand how the system
failed to adjust and secure new food contracts. Much of the constraints were led by cost effectiveness and
bureaucracy – all of which were the overriding elements of the system. There was a notable absence of basic
vegetables, fruit and meat. This absence is more glaring to us today than it was in the mid-1840s. Scurvy often
took hold and preceded many of the famine fevers. For the average Irish pauper, the potato was the antidote
to scurvy, rich in complex carbohydrates and rich in vitamin C.

The failure of the potato saw a consequential decline in vitamin C in the population, with a consequential
rise in scurvy, other illnesses associated with impaired immune function, and mortality. The potatoes in the
workhouse diet were replaced with Indian Meal in a type of porridge.

The early batches of Indian meal were very difficult to soften and often contributed to additional illness,
being (a) of no nutritional value, and (b) the kernels and hard corn often punctured the intestines of the
starving inmates. Some reports state that the Indian Meal in terms of initial batches received into the country
accelerated mortality and death. Research I undertook verified this; I located medical reports that confirmed
these findings.

Conditions such as these also aided the spread of diseases including cholera, which broke out in Cork in April
1849. The workhouse physicians described the cholera they witnessed in Cork as of a very malignant type and
they ordered a night-watchman to bring paupers with signs of cholera to the fever sheds in an attempt to halt

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