Workhouse diet

Although often seen as a place of last resort, the workhouse provided safe haven from the harsh Irish weather. It also provided regular meals, although the diet in the workhouse varied from time to time and there many occasions when the ‘inmates’ were unhappy with their lot. On the eve of the Famine the diet was said to consist of 6  ozs of  oatmeal  and  half  a  pint  of  butter- milk for  breakfast,  3  lbs.  potatoes  and  half a pint  of  butter-milk  for  dinner,  and  for  supper, 3  ozs  oatmeal  made  into  gruel.  This was what  was  called  ‘house ‘  — for  men,  women and  children  above  nine  years.  There was little change to this diet, although bread was frequently used for those recovering from illness. An 1855 report for the government noted that Magherafelt workhouse was one of 48 workhouses in the country (out of 163) where the ‘inmates’ were given three meals a day. There were occasional times when with the consent of the guardians ‘extras’ were allowed such as Christmas when meat, peas and onions were provided in a soup for the ‘inmates’. Twenty years later Dr Vesey reported in a government report that there was little difference between the workhouse diet and that of the labouring man, and that both expected meat with their dinner. Even as late as the early 1920s there were quibbles amongst ‘inmates’ who wanted more potatoes in their diet rather than bread, which was often stale when served to them.