Thurles Poor Law Union

[2] There were 41 members of its Board of Guardians (which met on Tuesday each week), of which 10 were ex officio and 31 were elected to represent the 21 electoral divisions in the union.

A workhouse for the union was built in 1841–1842, at a cost of £5,840 plus £1,260 for fittings, on a 6.5-acre (2.6 ha) site to the north-west of Thurles town, in the townland of Gortataggart.

[3] It was designed by George Wilkinson, the Poor Law Commissioners' architect, and was based on one of his standard plans, with the intention that it accommodate 700 people.

The Poor Law Commissioners had the power to dissolve any Board of Guardians that was "failing to provide sufficient funds, or to apply them efficiently in relieving the destitute" and to install their own officers.

[2] On 29 June 1849, Henry William Massy, former chairman of the Board of Guardians for Tipperary Poor Law Union told the Select Committee on Poor Laws (Ireland) at Westminster that the "sealed orders for the dissolution of the Board of Guardians came down on the 9th of January 1849",[4] so it is possible that the Thurles board was dissolved at the same time.