Kilkenny workhouse like so many workhouses has a dark history. During the great famine (1845-51) over 1,000 people died from the horrific conditions, 800 of whom were buried in the grounds of the workhouse.
Bizarrely however, in 2007 a €300 million shopping centre was opened in the workhouse. Claiming to have “sensitively and beautifully” restored the workhouse, the shopping centre perversely built a food court in the plaza surrounded by the workhouse called “workhouse square”. The fact that a mass grave of 800 famine victims was found during construction of the shopping centre seems to have been lost along the way.
