Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Parsonstown (Birr) Poor Law Union
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1839 - 1925
History
Parsonstown’s Poor Law Union was established on the 8th of May 1839. It was formed from an elected Board of Guardians, with John Drought as chairman, comprising twenty-nine elected members and nine ex-officio Guardians with all members meeting weekly. Parsonstown Union’s area of operation covered 234 square miles from two counties: from Offaly (King’s) – Banagher, Drumcullen, Eglish, Ferbane, Frankfort, Kilcoleman, Kinnety, Lemanagan, Letter, Lusmagh, Seirkyrans, Parsonstown, Shannon Bridge, Shannon Harbour and Tissarin. From County Tipperary – Aglishcloghane, Ballingarry, Dorha, Lockeen, Lorha and Uskeane. The Union was abolished in 1925, with the Board of Guardians powers being transferred to the county councils' Board of Health.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Poor Law Unions were responsible for the provision and management of local workhouses, as well as duties relating to dispensaries, sewers, prevention of diseases, burial grounds, registration of births, marriages and deaths, and public health.
Mandates/sources of authority
Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1838