Includes:
Report by Surgeon Meaghar on the condition of the maternity wards: 'The attention of the Board has been so often called to the maternity department that it seems hopeless to complain further. These maternity patients are being subjected to conditions that are beastly and barbarous and incredible, and their continuance after public attention has been drawn to them so often and so forcibly leaves no excuse in the mouth of any man responsible.'
Ledgers containing Form 23 (Home Assistance List) and Form 24 (Assistance Officer's Expenditure Book showing amount paid weekly to each recipient) on double folio spreads.
Form 23 records names of patients assisted and contains the following categorising columns against each name:
Adult Males (Permanently disabled by old age or infirmity; Temporarily disabled by sickness or accident; Able bodied; Wife; Children under 15)
Adult Females (Married (deserted by husband/husband in jail); Unmarried; Widows; Children (legitimate/illegitimate)
Orphans and Children assisted without either parent
Lunatics, Insane Persons and Idiots (Males; Females; Children under 15)
Orphans and Deserted Children Boarded out
Form 24 records the names of persons assisted and the following categorising columns against each name:
Nature of Assistance (in Money/in Kind)
27 weekly columns for input of amount received.
A note at the footer of each page instructs that entries relating to assistance granted in cases of sudden and urgent necessity are to be made in red ink.
Ledgers containing Form 19 (Home Assistance Application and Report Book) on double folio spreads. These ledgers were to be kept by the Superintendent Assistance Officer for submission to the Board of Health.
Form 19 assigns a number to each registered applicant. It records names of applicants and contains the following categorising columns against each name:
Names of Applicants (Heads of families and other persons applying on their own account alone; Christian names of wives, and of children under 15 years dependent on them)
Age
If Adult (whether Single, Married, Widower or Widow); if Child (whether Orphan, Deserted, or Illegitimate).
Employment or Calling (By whom usually employed)
If Permanently Disabled (Nature of Permanent Disablement)
If Temporarily Disabled (state by what Sickness or Accident)
If Able-bodied, state cause of destitution
Present address (Where, with whom)
If in occupation of land, how much?
Present weekly earnings of self and family
Whether insured under the National Health or Unemployment Insurance Acts, or not - if not, state reasons
How much is applicant in receipt of from Insurance or Unemployment Benefits, Old Age Pensions, or other source;
Names of Relations liable by law and apparently able to assist Applicant
Other observations on the nature of the case
Date of application for assistance
Assistance ordered by the county board of health (if admitted to the county home; nature of assistance ordered; period for which ordered; date of the order; money value of assistance ordered each week; initials of chairman authorising; date of discharge or death)
This series has been further divided in to two sub-series representing the categories of records created for the administration of public health.
Subseries 1: Minute Books (1925-1942)
Subseries 2: Abstracts of Minutes (1936-1942)
Minutes of the proceedings of the Offaly Board of Health acting as the Sanitary Authority, recording executive decisions on matters of public health such as installation of sewerage schemes; installation of water pumps; condition of housing; registration of dairymen; reports of infectious diseases such as diphtheria, tuberculosis etc; vaccination defaulters; and other matters formerly overseen by rural district councils. Also includes reports from the medical officers of health in each district.
Includes:
Reports on the lighting of the town of Edenderry; petitions from the inhabitants of Moorestown for a water supply; sinking of Drumcooley well; diphtheria cases in Birr; burials at Banagher; water supply to Crinkle; arrears in rent by labourer’s cottage inhabitants; abolition of the Rural District Councils and the transfer of their functions to the Board of Health; new pumps at Daingean, Mount Bolus, Tubber; and a proposed water supply for ex-soldiers at Clara.