workhouse...

stairs leading from dormitories..workhouses were opened during the Great Famine 1845-1852 to house the most impoverished and desperate of people...once inside inmates gave up their personal clothing and donned workhouse uniforms...families were split up, males from females, children from their parents, they slept on straw mattresses and rags..toilets were large tubs in the dormitories..meals were eaten in total silence..at the height of the famine 180,000 people were in workhouses all over Ireland...
the Quakers were kind to the Irish during this time, setting up soup kitchens.