What is recorded here

Mallow County Home opened in 1842 as a brutal Union Workhouse on a NE-facing slope, forcing starving families into H-plan corridors before a separate Fever Hospital appeared nearby in 1847. The state built that chambered cage because ordinary charity had collapsed, turning human desperation into architectural geometry. Much of the complex vanished during 1950s hospital works, yet the SW arm still stands with stairs climbing both end walls to first-floor doors. That surviving ribbon of stone still holds the shape of institutional despair, waiting for a person brave enough to imagine the hunger echoed inside its flat-arched windows.

On NE-facing slope, c. 1.5km NW of Mallow; site now occupied by Mallow County Hospital. Indicated on 1842 OS 6-inch map as complex with typical Union Workhouse layout: gatehouse and H-plan block within rectangular enclosure (c. 120m SW-NE; c. 70m NW-SE) (see McCullough and Mulvin 1987, 114-5), and named 'Union Work House'. Much of this plan survived to 1935 OS 6-inch map but a large part of it demolished in 1950s and replaced by large 2/3-storey block. Only surviving section of original plan is SW arm of H: long 2-storey gable-ended structure with irregular fenestration. Stairs rise along both end walls to 1st-floor doors. To rear (SW) is only surviving portion of boundary wall. Workhouse first opened in 1842 (Mallow Macra na Feirme 1985). Immediately NW of complex is 2-storey 'Fever Hospital' (long axis NW-SE); this was opened in 1847 (ibid.). It is 9-bays long; gable-ended; central bluntly-pointed door, one-storey outbuildings to rear. This replaced earlier Fever Hospital (14787) on opposing hill c. 800m to SE. Along SE side of complex is long 2-storey range (long axis NE-SW), over basement, 14-bays in length; random-rubble limestone construction; flat-arched window opes; mid-/late-19th century in appearance. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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