Minutes recording proceedings of meetings of the Hospital and Homes Committee containing various reports such as Superintendent's Report from the County Home; Superintendent's Report from County Hospital; and Sub-committee reports from Birr Rural District, Edenderry Rural District, Tullamore Rural District, and Roscrea No 2 Rural District on matters relating to dispensaries and hospitals in their respective areas. Also contains lists of 'Letters and Sanctions' from the Ministry of Local Government.

Issues covered by the various reports are concerned with the appointment and salaries of employees; the arrest and detention of members of the committee during the Civil War (see p5, 10 April 1923); building works at dispensaries and hospitals; compensation and pension claims arising from the winding-up of the poor law unions; matters arising with the TB hospital in Birr; commandeering of Dr Woods house at Kinnitty Dispensary by the military (p 43, 8 May 1923); tenders for the supply of provisions to the county home; details of patients at the hospital; proposal from Ministry of Local Government relating to the abolition of Hospital and Homes Committee and Substitution of the County Board of Health therefor under the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 (p59, 17 May 1923); remaining furniture from Birr Union being taken to Birr Castle on its requisition by Free State Army (pp62-63, 17 May 1923); the condition of Birr workhouse following evacuation by Free State Army (p 64, 2 June 1923); financial issues arising from failure to return 'inmates' in county homes to their counties of origin on amalgamation in 1921; and a proposal by the Ministry of Local Government relating to the appointments of Home Assistance Officers.

Includes report by the Visiting Committee (James O'Connor, J. Scally and Teresa Wyer) on condition of county home (p71, 10 July 1923) and remarks on unfulfilled recommendations from the previous year's report. Also includes extracts from the report of Dr Florence Dillon, medical inspector with the Department of Local Government on the condition of the hospitals at Tullamore, Birr and Edenderry, recommending the closure of the latter (p76, 22 June 1923) .

Contains lists of boarded out children, their foster parents and details of their accommodation, general health and condition in a report of the inspector of boarded out children. (p.87, 10 July 1923)

Letters and papers of the 4th Earl about Parsonstown/Birr: the Castle – his youthful recollections of it, extensions to it 1867-72 [see also M/25], a magazine portrait of his way of life there, 1898, and magazine obituaries of him, 1908; an incident which took place on the road between Banagher and Parsonstown and in which the 4th Earl and his party were stopped and temporarily put in gaol by a drunken R.I.C. man, 1868; the Parsonstown Barracks, 1869, 1899 and N.D.; the Parsonstown Town Commission and Commissioners, 1870 and 1885; admissions to the demesne of privileged locals, 1876-1910; and one of the bridges in the Birr Castle demesne, and the Rivers Brosna and Camcor, 1880 and 1896. The correspondents include Gladstone, W.E. Forster and Lords Strathnairn and Roberts. The sub-section also includes a small account book recording local subscriptions to the Parsonstown Defence Association, the Property Defence Association, the legal fund of the Irish Land Committee, and the Field and Rossmore Testimonials, c.1882.

Letters and papers, mostly of the 4th and 5th Earls and Dr Otto Boeddicker, concerning Parsons family history and genealogy, including information about the Oxmantown/Phoenix Park property, sold by the elder branch of the Parsons family to the crown in 1672. Of particular interest is a paper entitled ‘How the Parsons, Earls of Rosse, got the Titles of Baron and Viscount of Oxmantown’.

Contains lists of Irish Guards noting their name, regiment number, rank and where interned, including a separate listing of those from Birr; letters from Selfridge's & Co., Oxford St, London to Lois, Countess of Rosse, in relation to the contents of nine parcel types assembled for sending to the Irish Guards Prisoners of War; correspondence from Mary Britton, Rosfaraghan, Ferbane and Col. Douglas Proby, in relation to subscriptions collected in her village on behalf of Private B. Anderson (Reg No 3220), who is interned in Limburg; and correspondence between Major de Vesci, Regimental Adjutant, Irish Guards to Lady Rosse, mainly in relation to the movement of Irish Guards prisoners between POW camps in Germany so that parcels can be sent to them. Also includes ephemeral material such as newspaper cuttings relating to the Irish Guards, a packet of jam jar covers, and a copy of an illuminated address presented to Queen Mary from the Women of Ireland in July 1911, and distributed by Lady Aberdeen, the head of war relief in Ireland.

Preprinted acknowledgment postcards sent by return by prisoners-of-war in German camps on receipt of relief parcels organised by the Birr Castle scheme. Personal details recorded include name, rank and internment camp.

Probate (1919) of the will (1918) of the 5th Earl, together with legal papers and costs in connection with the will and later accounts relating to the cost of repairing his memorial in St Brendan’s Church in Birr, and much later (2005-6) correspondence and accounts about having the memorial photographed in connection with the War Memorial Projects.

Envelope of leases of ‘Samuel Abbott’s holding’ between Main Street and Back Lane, together with fields and parks on the outskirts of Birr. [In date order.]

Envelope of leases of premises in Chapel Lane or described as ‘near the Chapel’. [In date order.]

Leases of premises in Graveyard Street, which in the lease of 1857 is described as having been re-named ‘High Street’, [though this name did not stick. In date order.]