Britain Applies Poor Law Act to Ireland 1838

Britain applies the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, to Ireland.

Designed to discourage paupers from seeking relief from the parish, the Poor Law forces people into workhouses, where the work and conditions inside are even worse than that facing the paupers on the outside.
Ireland is already in a desperate situation and the application of the Poor Law Act just adds to people’s hardship.

The result of this action was that it stimulated emigration abroad adding to the misery of poverty and famine, driving desperate families to seek work and some form of better life abroad.

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