A lot of the Irish Workhouses fell into ruin or were burned down
in the years after the Famine, but one of the few remaining can
be found in the town of Carrick-on-Shannon. Today, it operates
as a geriatric hospital called St.Patrick’s and this year, from
the 3rd-5th of May, it will revisit the haunting past of its
workhouse days by offering 30 self-sponsored participants the
chance to stay overnight in the rooms of the original
whitewashed attic as part of The Famine Attic Experience.
Between the years of 1845 and 1854, a devastating two million
people were forced to emigrate from Ireland in search of a
better life. For those that remained, the last resort was to
enter a Workhouse but with the onset of the Famine, entire
families had no other choice but to do so. The Irish Workhouse
Centre in Portumna, Co. Galway writes that, as an inmate of a
workhouse, individuals would be packed into crowded sleeping
places with straw beds and ragged coverings with only a tub for
urination. Disease was rampant and deaths