15/10/2026
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, October 20th, when we welcome local historian John Flannery for our first lecture of the 26/27 series: "'Might be better designated a slaughterhouse' - Auxiliary Workhouses in Ireland."
Drawing on reports from the Tipperary Vindicator in 1849, John will shine a light on the grim reality of Ireland's Auxiliary Workhouses. He'll look at the shocking conditions that earned Nenagh's Brewery Auxiliary Workhouse the chilling description of a "receptacle of woe".
The talk will also examine just how unsuitable many of the buildings used actually were, before turning to two harrowing tragedies reported in the Limerick Chronicle the following year which claimed the lives of fifty-six young girls and women in Killarney and Limerick.
John Flannery is a local historian with a strong interest in Irish Land Agitation, the Encumbered Estates, Irish Landed Estates and Irish Revolutionary History. He holds an MA in the History of Family from the University of Limerick, is a former President of the Ormond Historical Society, Nenagh, and a founding member of Tipperary in the Decade of Revolution.
Where; The Source Gallery, Thurles
When; 7pm (refreshments served from 6.30pm)
Free Lecture
All are welcome.
