The Cratloe and Meelick Dispensary Collection

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.

This small collection provides valuable information about the founding of the establishment and its subscribing members, ethos, funding and finances primarily between 1835 and 1848. It also contains statistical information about the parish and the volume of patients treated, and provides insights into which leading local families contributed or did not contribute to the funding of the Dispensary. It should be noted that the documents are purely of administrative nature and contain no names of individual patients or the nature of ailments and illnesses treated at the Dispensary.