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The workhouse was contracted for on August 4th, 1840, to be completed on October 10th, 1841, to cost £5,175 for building and completion, and £1,375 for fittings and contingencies, to occupy an area of 5 acres, 3 roods, 24 perches, obtained for £50 of compensation to occupying tenant, and an annual rent of £18 4s. 4d., and to contain accommodation for 600 paupers.

The date of the first admission of paupers was May 13th, 1842; the expenditure thence till February 6th, 1843, amounted to £2,497 18s. 5d.; and the total amount of previous expenses was £426 5s. lOd. Six dispensaries within the union are situated at Ardee, Collon, Castle-Bellingham, Dunleer, Drumcondra, and Syddan; and in 1839-40, they expended £778 6s., and administered to 7,759 extern patients. No fever hospital relief is given in the union.

The Ardee dispensary house is partly the residence of the medical officer, and partly disposed in two good fever wards, which are designed for the domestics of the gentry; but, in spite of the prevalence of fever, both in the town and in the surrounding country, have not for many years been used.

The Taaffe family are thought to have come to Ireland in the twelfth century. The first mention of the family m the annals, though, is 1284. The first record of the family in Smarmore is in 1320 The oldest part of the castle dates from around this time, and the extensions are late seventeenth and early elghteenth century additions. The oldest part of the castle is built in stone, eight feet thick, and built without courses.

Smarmore Castle was once the centre of a large estate and the home of one branch of a family who owned much land in County Louth and elsewhere. The property has passed out of the hands of the Taaffe family and it is now a leisure centre, with facilities for accommodation and dining.

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