The workhouse also appears to have functioned as a place of refuge for those travelling across the country either with trades or looking for work. The location of Magherafelt workhouse to the port of Derry and the city of Belfast would have been another factor for attracting visitors and ‘journeymen’ – trade and craftsmen who sought casual employment and to sell their wares.
These included James Lambert, a nailor ????? from Dublin who stayed one night in April 1863 and Thomas Power, harness maker from Enniscorthy, county Wexford. These men had obviously ventured northwards in search of work or carrying out temporary jobs and used the workhouse as a place to rest. They were not alone and in the same period William Henderson and John Hutchinson also from Dublin and described as ‘labourers’ also stayed in the workhouse for a night. There were some professions within this cohort who frequented the workhouse more often than others, with brogue makers from Galway and Monaghan amongst them.
Some entered the Magherafelt workhouse in search of family members, often from long distances, such as Anne Boylan who went there with her daughter, Nora, in search of her husband who had left them in Dublin.
It is interesting to note the number of people who used the workhouse after they left prison, often residing in the same building as policemen who came there for respite after medical procedures and which of course made for an interesting dynamic. They included Mary McBride, a twenty-year-old Prostitute who was ‘sent up’ from the Bridewell in Derry. Others were sent from the Derry Asylum.
