26/06/2025
In my research on workhouse emigration, I found an article that gave a detailed account of a discussion during a special meeting of the Cork Board of Guardians. They figured that the paupers in the workhouse would eventually become criminals, so they might as well send them to Australia sooner rather than later, thereby saving tax payers money. They did not think, however, that simply teaching the inmates of the workhouse marketable skills would lend them to a better life in Ireland. Most inmates did not receive an education, and those who did (children up to 14 years old) often were lacking in actual instruction. To an outsider, the problems of the workhouses seem blatant. However, I have found instances where a workhouse taught inmates marketable skills, and those people were able to leave the workhouse and support themselves. This goes to show that they were not destined for criminality but instead were conditioned to it by the very system that was supposed to help them.
Transcription:
"They had a number of those unfortunate people, who would, unless removed now, merely crowd the gaols, and who would have to be sent to the colonies, at a future time, at the expense of the government (hear, hear). The question was whether it would not be the wiser course to send them out to the colonies at once...
He was therefore fearful lest the continuance of these young papers in this county might tend to produce crime, and therefore was most anxious that they should, as there did not appear to be any employment for them in Ireland, be removed to the colonies, for it is better to send them out as emigrants than criminals."
-The Cork Southern Reporter, 17 June 1852, pg 2 (images obtained from The British Newspaper Archive)
