A contract was signed for Ardee Workhouse in August 1840 and it opened its doors to the needy in 1845. It was built to accommodate six hundred poor people, but it came to have over eight hundred in difficult times. Some ended their days there and are buried on the site at John St. The accounts of the meetings of the 'guardians' who managed it are mostly intact and the story they relate is unremittingly sad. This photo, from some years ago, shows the building having been damaged by a fire.

The following account is from the Parliamentary Gazetteer 1845.

The Ardee Poor-law union ranks as the 65th; and was declared on August 21st, 1839. It lies partly in Co.Meath, but more extensively in Co. Louth; and comprehends an area of 95,039 acres, with a pop., in 1831, of 42,035. Its electoral divisions, with their respective pop., in 1831, are: