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This is a large set of records which broadly reflects the evolution of local authority health and welfare provision in Offaly. It contains minutes of committees established to oversee public health and public assistance, as well as administrative records detailing the admission and discharge of individuals into the County Home or the County Hospital. While the bulk of the records derived from the County Board of Health, there are a few outlying records from 1912-21 relating to transitional periods in the health service, or where registers were taken over from the preceding health system and incorporated into the new Board of Health. Likewise some county home and county hospital administrative records, particularly admission and discharge registers and financial ledgers which were kept by record-creators in an unbroken series, post-date the County Board of Health's executive function which ceased in 1942.

RECORDS RELATING TO MOTHER AND BABY HOMES AND BOARDED-OUT CHILDREN:
The main series of records which record unmarried mothers and/or decisions relating to the boarding-out of children are to be found in the Public Assistance Minute Books (Series 3) and the Admissions and Discharge registers for the County Home (Series 5).

While Offaly did not have a designated ‘Mother and Baby Home,’ the records show that unmarried mothers were regularly admitted to the County Home to give birth until the late 1940s, many staying for a significant period of time in the home with their children. In some instances, both mother and child were transferred from the home after the birth to other institutions such as Sean Ross Abbey, Roscrea, Co Tipperary, or Manor Home, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath.

From the late 1940s, it appears that unmarried mothers were either admitted directly to institutions in other counties (these records are held by other bodies) or transferred from the County Home to mother and baby homes outside Offaly before or after giving birth (these instances, which are infrequent from the late 1940s are recorded in the county home registers in this collection). Children entered in the registers of the county home are recorded as having been born there, or have been transferred into the county home from another institution before being 'placed' or 'boarded-out' in Offaly. It is possible to trace children by surname, noting the limitations of the records in terms of completeness and the date span.

In general terms and from an overview of the records, the incidence of names of unmarried mothers and their children decreases significantly over time. This is most likely due to unmarried mothers from Offaly entering institutions outside the county before the birth of their children. By the 1950s, there are only sporadic instances of births to unmarried mothers and of 'boarded-out' children recorded in the county home registers. This particular record series ends in 1957.

Minutes of the Offaly Board of Health in relation to obligations under the Tuberculosis Acts, initially held under the auspices of the Hospital and Dispensaries Committee from 10 March 1921. From October 1925 to July 1928, Commissioner for Offaly, David O'Keefe, chaired the committee, now known as the Offaly Board of Health Tuberculosis Committee. On the departure of Commissioner O'Keefe, the committee reverted to the chairmanship of members of the county council presiding in rotation.

All meetings from inception in 1921 attended by the Tuberculosis Medical Officer (TMO). Minutes record patients recommended for institutional, sanitorium or dispensary treatment, and contains extensive lists of patients' names, addresses and type of treatment, and what level of financial assistance is required for each patient. Also contains some in-depth reports on individual cases, including patients who refuse sanitorium treatment. Includes statistical reports from the TMO reporting number of cases attending at dispensaries; number of new cases; number of deaths reported; number of patients visited at home by TMO; number of visits by the Birr nurse; the number in Birr T.B. Hospital; the number in County Hospital (Tullamore); and the number of patients in extern hospitals such as Newcastle and Peamount. Includes reports from the hospitals, both in Offaly and extern hospitals such as Peamount, Newcastle, Mercer's, Coole, Royal National Hospital for Consumption, City of Dublin Hospital, and Cappagh Children's Hospital.

Initial years of minutes (1921-1923) reflect the transitional period following 'Amalgamation' when tubercular patients previously resident in the various poor law union workhouses, were now centralised with 'chronic' destitute cases residing in the Tuberculosis Hospital in Birr, at a significant cost to the Tuberculosis Committee. Minutes also contain administrative reports for the hospitals in relation to employment of personnel and maintenance of buildings; claims to British Ministry of Pensions in respect of treatment of ex-British Army service men and their dependents; and decisions in relation to the transfer of the T.B. Hospital from Birr to Roscrea Sanitorium, and the subsequent closure of the T.B. hospital at Birr (1931).