St George’s Heritage and Visitor Centre on main street, Carrick-on-Shannon, houses an interesting display and DVD show on local history. Follow the brass plaque trail to the Workhouse Attic Memorial.

Informative displays recall the role of the workhouse during the famine era. Some 1,846 famine victims were recorded as living in these small, whitewashed quarters. The adjacent reading room provides an opportunity to look through reproduced copies of the Carrick Workhouse Board of Guardian’s Minute Books, 1843 to 1850, and to browse other poignant items of interest, including a selection of local emigration records.

A famine graveyard in the grounds is a further legacy of this dark chapter of Irish history. Access to the workhouse attic and reading room is by guided tour and can also be arranged with the St George’s Heritage and Visitor Centre staff.