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Archival description
With digital objects Records of Offaly Board of Health and Public Assistance
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Death Registers

Registers, slightly overlapping between the years 1932 and 1943, of deaths recorded as having taken place in the workhouse (1913-1921), the county home (1922-1947), and the hospitals (1932-1943) under the care of firstly Tullamore Poor Law Union and immediately succeeded by Offaly Board of Health and Public Assistance.

County Home Records

Several subseries of registers recording the admission and discharge of individuals to the county home in the period 1914-1957. The earliest register in this series was opened in 1914, and can also be viewed as the last register for the Tullamore Workhouse, which closed in 1921.

Indoor Registers (1914-1948)

Volumes recording details of residents admitted to the county home, the first of which dating from 1914, predates the establishment of the county home in 1921 and can therefore also be viewed as the last workhouse register for Tullamore Workhouse.

Data collected in this unbroken run of registers (Form 29) varied slightly from volume to volume but generally contained the following:

Admission number (and previous admission number if any)

Date of admission or birth

Name of inmate

Age, Sex

Description (Married, Single, etc.) or 'If adult whether single, married, widow or widower; if child, whether orphan, deserted, illegitimate or legitimate'

Religious denomination

Residence prior to admission

Name and address of nearest relative and description of relationship

Observations on condition of inmates when registered.

Employment or Calling

Number of dependents

Disease or other cause rendering admission necessary

Who gave recommendation for admission

Date of discharge or death

Minutes of the Tuberculosis Committee (1921-1935)

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).

Accounts and Financial Statements

A large and varied series of account books and financial statements, broadly reflecting the financial management of the Board of Health for the period 1922-1965. Includes abstracts of accounts, auditors statements, inventories of stock, travel expenses, and other records of daily cash transactions.

Indoor Assistance Lists (1924-1948)

Volumes recording details for 'Form 33', Indoor Assistance Lists. Columns and sub-columns record the following data:

Adults: Married Couples (Males/Females); Other Males, Other Females

Children under 15: Of Parents Being Inmates (Legitimate/Illegitimate); Orphans or other children relieved without their parents

Lunatics, Insane Persons and Idiots: Males, Females, Children under 15

No in register

Name of Inmate

Age

Number of days in house each month (for 6 months)

Total (for half-year)

Minute Books (1925-1942)

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.

Annual Reports

Series of annual reports with many gaps, compiled by the County Medical Officer of Health. The first extant report from 1929 focuses mainly on statistics gathered from inspections of the the national schools in the county. Topics covered include dental health, ophthalmic clinics, tonsil and adenoid operations, enlarged cervical glands, 'mental defectives', tuberculosis, malnutrition, vaccination, skin diseases, defective speech, rheumatism, deformities, open-air education, co-operation of parents, sanitation and environment of schools,

Later annual reports refer to the health and sanitary conditions in the county as a whole while also incorporating the school medical service report. This broadened report contains general statistics of the county, vital statistics, water and sewage reports, housing, lists of midwives, notification of births, notifications of infectious disease, diptheria immunisation, sanitary administration, food and drug samples, venereal disease scheme, school meals free milk scheme, welfare of the blind, district nursing associations, meat and milk inspections, bovine T. B. and the annual report of the clinical tuberculosis officer.

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