The Generosity of Two Deaf Wexford Men

Deaf people in Ireland did not only receive charity - they contributed to it.

Painting is called "Heinrich XVII, Prince Reuß, on the side of the 5th Squadron I Guards Dragoon Regiment at Mars-la-Tour, 16 August 1870" by Emil Hünten, 1902. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mars-la-Tour

 

In 1870, Prussia and France went to war. The Franco-Prussian war was one of the moves towards a unified German Empire. But the world was shocked at some of the cruel behaviour of the Prussian troops in France. Collections were made around Ireland to assist the injured French troops.

Source: Wexford People 24 September 1870, p. 7

 

 Among those who contributed in Wexford - two Deaf men, William Hendrick and Nicholas Brien. They each contributed 1 shilling 6 pence. William had entered the Prospect School in Glasnevin in 1854. Nicholas entered St Joseph's in 1864.

Source: Wexford People 24 September 1870, p. 7

Old Lisnaskea Workhouse - Reluctant to Send the Deaf Children to be Educated?

 The old Lisnaskea Workhouse, Co. Fermanagh. It is now mostly derelict and surrounded by the Lakeview housing estate.

Lisnaskea workhouse - old entrance block

Not many deaf children were sent to Cabra from Lisnaskea Union - just four before 1914:

• Catherine Clarke (1895)
• Owen McCaffrey (1910)
• Rose A. Cosgrave (1911) - all paid for by the Lisnaskea Board of Guardians
  
• Ellen Murphy, sent by her family in 1899.

This may be because the Lisnaskea guardians may have been reluctant to pay for their local poor deaf children to educated. In 1905, a local Protestant churchman applied for the Lisnaskea Guardians to send young Henry Delmore to the Ulster Institution for the Deaf and Blind.

But one Guardian - named Plunkett - disagreed. He said that the Church should cover the costs, not the Union (although hundreds of deaf children had been sent and paid for by Poor Law Unions in the preceding decades). The Board finally agreed to pay just £5 a year for Henry's fees, and for a limited time.

A few years previously in 1899 Plunkett had raised a similar objection to another deaf child and again suggested the clergyman should pay.

Sources: Freemans Journal, 1 March 1899, p. 8; Fermanagh Herald, 5 August 1905, p. 8.
More information on Lisnaskea Workhouse: https://workhouses.org.uk/Lisnaskea/

Old Lisnaskea workhouse, old entrance block

Old Lisnaskea workhouse, side of old accommodation block

Old Lisnaskea workhouse, rear - old accommodation block

Old Lisnaskea workhouse, rear - old accommodation block

Old Lisnaskea workhouse, rear of old entrance block

Old Lisnaskea workhouse, between entrance and accommodation blocks