Ireland breathes sigh of relief because, like our children, we deserve better
It’s high over the town. The stones have been fashioned into a tiny Marian grotto, and the grass around it is carefully tended by local people.
The stones are all that remain of the Shillelagh Union Workhouse. It’s hard to find out much about its history, although it is known it was “declared fit for the reception of paupers” in 1841, and that an “idiots’ ward” was added in time for the Famine. It didn’t close down until 1921, the year of our civil war. I visit the field often because my grandson, who lives nearby, likes to play there.
