Throughout the Famine period, and indeed for some years after, both the guardians and the inhabitants of the poor law union frequently petitioned government on a number of matters relating to their locality and the country as a whole. Indeed, a glance at the British parliamentary papers from the 19th century reveals a host of petitions sent from the Magherafelt guardians seeking a change or modification to laws which government had passed or were proposing. These included in 1849 objection to the governments ‘Rate in Aid’ policy which would see more financially viable unions supporting the destitute ones elsewhere; in 1859 Grand Jury Cess changes; in 1865 relief from certain taxes; in 1878 opposing the sale of intoxicating liquors on a Sunday, and in 1882 the governments superannuation bill. This example from March 1846 is worth citing at length:
Members of the Board of Guardians of the Magherafelt Union, unanimously adopted at a special meeting of the said board, held on Thursday the fifth day of March 1846.
Respectfully sheweth, that your Petitioners, in the administration of the laws for relief of the destitute poor in Ireland, have observed the great necessity there exists for a Vagrant Act, or a law for the suppression of mendicancy, and the many impediments which the absence of such a law produces to the efficient working of the poor law system. That comparatively few of the wandering mendicants of the union have become inmates of the workhouse, preferring still their vicious and demoralising life, perpetuating all the evils of mendicancy, and extorting from the people -principally the poorer classes, by working on their fears and superstitions-contributions which should not be withdrawn from their own limited resources; and that frequent and general complaints are received from the ratepayers throughout the union of the small effect which the poor law has had from the absence of the compulsory powers conferred by a Vagrant Act in relieving them from the solicitations and contact of the beggar. That your Petitioners would humbly suggest the expediency of remitting the payment of the loans advanced from the Treasury for the provision of the union workhouses. That the taxation required for the other expenditures of the union is as much as the ratepayers can bear. That, with the prospect of scarcity and accumulating destitution, the effects of which may extend over many years, it would be impossible that funds could be levied to meet the repayment of the workhouse loan instalments in addition to the immediate expenses of relief. That disaffection and unwillingness, interfering with the proper administration of relief, will always exist so long as the instalments are called for, and that these unpleasant feelings will be increased in the unions in Ulster by the knowledge that in many unions in other parts of Ireland no instalments have yet been paid, nor in all probability ever will be paid. That your Petitioners consider a law of settlement for Ireland similar to that recently introduced by Her Majesty’s Government for England would be necessary. That a law empowering the guardians to affiliate illegitimate children under a certain age, whose mothers are in the workhouse, on the putative father, and conferring on the guardians the right of recovery of the cost of relief of such children from the reputed father, is urgently called for; that the number of women in the workhouse of the Magherafelt union having illegitimate children with them is very considerable, and exhibits a disposition to increase; that this arises from the mother of such children preferring to take relief in a workhouse to proceeding against the father by the ordinary law process for the maintenance of the child; and that, independent of a serious expense being entailed on the country thereby, the cause of morality must suffer, and an impetus be given to vice and profligacy. That the present medical charities and dispensary arrangements are in a most defective state; and your Petitioners consider that it would be extremely advisable that the Act framed upon the Report of the Poor Law Commissioners in fact should become a law, as it embraces all the improvements necessary in so important a system as the medical relief of the sick poor of Ireland. Your Petitioners would therefore pray that your honourable House would take the foregoing subjects into your consideration and pass a further amendment on the Irish Poor Law Act, which will provide for the suppression of mendicancy, the remission of workhouse loans, a law of settlement, the affiliation of illegitimate children on the reputed fathers, and an improved system of medical charities. And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c. ROWLEY MILLER, Chairman; ROBERT A. DUNCAN, Clerk to Union.
