Ireland, Sustainability Loan Fund, 1812-1868

This collection comprises records of loans provided to the industrious poor in Ireland during the years 1812 to 1868.

When Ireland suffered a severe famine in the early 1820s, some £300,000 was collected to distribute among victims of poverty. The Irish Reproductive Loan Fund provided loans at interest, provided borrowers had security in place in the form of guarantors. Records of the local associations, which administered the loans, survive for counties Cork, Clare, Galway, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo and Tipperary. After conditions subsided, the London relief committee decided to use the leftover money to set up a loan fund.

In addition to the notes of security (signed by the debtor and two guarantors), there are load ledgers, repayment books and defaulters' books.