Identity area
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Title
Date(s)
- 1835-1848 and 1850 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
62 pp.
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
The Cratloe and Meelick Dispensary was formed on 6 January 1835 to provide healthcare for the underprivileged in East Clare within the Limerick poor-law union. The Dispensary’s work was supported partly through private subscriptions and partly through public funding. Surgeon Thomas Kane of Cecil Street, Limerick acted as the medical attendant. Initially, treatment was provided free of charge to patients in receipt of vouchers distributed by subscribers. However, the voucher system was vulnerable to abuse and from 1840 onwards a small fee was charged from all except the most destitute. The Dispensary remained active throughout the famine years, but by 1850 struggled to find funding. Its subsequent fate is unknown.
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Scope and content
Bound softback volume containing on the first pages minutes of the Dispensary committee meetings between 1835 and 1846 and statistical reports from 1843 and 1850. The latter report reveals that the Dispensary struggled to continue its activities at this time because of the lack of resident subscribers. It also notes that ‘Population now much reduced 2/3s of census of 1841’. The minutes of the first meeting, held on 6 January 1835 to form the Dispensary, includes a list of names of subscribers and of potential subscribers to be solicited. Minutes of the second meeting, held on 2 February 1835, incorporate the agreed rules and regulations of the Dispensary. Subsequent meeting notes revolve primarily around funding and accounts. The second part of the book commences upside down from the rear of the volume and comprises income and expenditure accounts, account summaries and lists of subscribers between 1835 and 1848. There are also pro forma notices and text to be used on receipts.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
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Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Available digitally on the University of Limerick Digital Library at https://doi.org/10.34966/uldl.yknb-8e30.
The National Library of Ireland holds a copy of this item in location N.6361, P.7363. A record of the copy can be found at http://sources.nli.ie/Record/MS_UR_080721.