Osteoarchaeological and archaeological insights into the deaths and intramural mass burials at the Kilkenny Union Workhouse between 1847-51 during the Great Famine

Mass burials containing skeletal remains of a minimum of 970 individuals dating to the Great Famine were discovered at the former union workhouse in Kilkenny City in 2005 and made the subject of an archaeological excavation the following year. The find, through archaeological and osteoarchaeological methods, has provided a unique opportunity to study the human experience of the Great Irish Famine. The research has revealed a population that was suffering greatly from scurvy and indicates that the disease was likely to have been misdiagnosed by the workhouse physicians in Kilkenny during the Famine