A view of the old Workhouse at Loughrea Lake

This building was used during the Great Famine, (An Gorta Mór). These workhouses were deliberately unattractive, so that only the truly destitute would approach for relief. The diet was deliberately monotonous. Families were segregated by sexes (as if in their deprived state they would procreate!). The philosophy was that poverty was the fault of the individual!
Nationally, workhouses were only capable of handling 1% (i.e.. 100,000 people) of the poor and starving.