Census 1926 reveals similar pattern in Bandon, Bantry and Macroom districts.

By Peader King

THE joy of numbers. Or not. ‘Wherever there are numbers, there is beauty’ claimed the Greek philosopher Proclus (412-485).

That assertion may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But when it comes to numbers about our own place and our own people then it’s different. 

This, to borrow from the title of the book published by the Irish Academic Press in partnership with the National Archives of Ireland to mark the centenary of the publication of the 1926 Census, is because this is The Story of Us.

A more detailed analysis from the eastern, northern and western part of West Cork follows. Numbers are rounded for convenience of reading.

Bandon Rural

Bandon Rural consisted of 21 District Electoral Divisions (DEDs) that included Inishannon to the east, Kilbrittain to the south, Kilbonane to the north and Bengour to the west.

In 1926, Bandon Rural's population stood at 15,233, a decrease of 10% since the 1911 Census, when it numbered 16,888. 

Catholics (13,505, 89%) were in the majority although less than the national average (93%).

Over a thousand (1,394, 9%) were recorded as Protestant Episcopalian. There were 206 (1%) Methodist and 38 (0.2%) Presbyterian.

Under the category of “other” there were 90 (1%). 

Just 155 (1%) of the population was born outside Ireland and 23 (0.1%) were born in Northern Ireland. 

Agriculture (26%) was the main occupation followed by manufacture and trade at 6%.

Over one-third (34%) of the people of Bandon were recorded as ‘unoccupied persons’ reflecting the vulnerability of life in the still embryonic state. 

Six hundred (0.04%) identified as Irish only speakers while 2,635 (17%) spoke Irish and English. 

Bantry Rural

Bantry Rural consisted of 15 DEDs that included Douce to the east, Sheepshead to the west.

In 1926, Bantry Rural's population stood at 11,322, a decrease of 11% since 1911, when it numbered 12,733. The decline (17%) was greatest in Glengarriff from 1,015 to 840. 

Slightly above the national average, Catholics made up 94.2% of Bantry Rural's inhabitants. 

Protestants were second at 587 (5%). The highest concentration (158) was in Durrus West.

There were 69 (0.6%) Methodists. There was one (Kilcaskan) Presbyterian and one “other’ - location not specified. 

Just 174 (1.5%) of the population was born outside Ireland and 90 (0.1%) were born in Northern Ireland. 

Farming (3,307: 29%) again was the most popular occupation.

The total number ‘unoccupied’ (3,733: 33%) exceeded the number of those involved in farming.

Manufacturing and trade (468: 4%) was the second most popular occupation.

Given its location by the sea, it might be surprising to note that only 78 (1%) of the population fished for a living. 

Less than one per cent (100) identified as Irish only speakers while 3,634 (32%) spoke Irish and English. 

Macroom Rural

Macroom Rural consisted of 24 DEDs that included Gowlane to the east and Bealanageary to the west.

In 1926, Macroom Rural's population stood at 16,667, reflecting a decrease of 11% since 1911, when it numbered 18,701.

The biggest drop happened in Mashanaglass which lost 25% of its population down from 461 to 343. 

Close on 100% (99.2%) of the population were Catholic.

Fewer than one percent (121) were Protestants and 4 were Methodists. 

There were two Presbyterians and there were 5 “Others”.

The non-Catholic population (23) was highest in Magourney. Of the five “Others”, three lived in Warrenscourt. 

The vast majority 16,149 (97%) were born in Cork. Seventy-four (0.5%) were born outside of Ireland and 11 (0.1%) were born in Northern Ireland. 

Relative to Bantry and Bandon, more people (3,307 36%) were involved in agriculture in the Macroom area.

One third (3,733, 33%) were recorded as ‘Unoccupied’. Manufacturing and trade (622, 4%) was the second most popular occupation. 

Fifty-five (0.3%) spoke Irish only with the highest concentration (14) in Slievereagh while 6,750 (40%) spoke Irish and English. 

Women married at a much younger age than men.

By the age of 44, 72% of women were married while only half (50%) the men of that age were married.

Women were also more likely to be widowed –  78% of the 75+year olds were widowed whereas 45% of men in that age were widowed. 

Figuring out the meaning of numbers is a very subjective undertaking.

How one reads data is very much influenced by one’s own political and ideological perspective. 

Here is just one attempt to read that data. Here’s one perspective. 

Hardship

From all of this, we can garner that great hardship prevailed across West Cork in 1926.

Exhausted by both the euphoria (for some at least) of the war of independence and the devastation of the civil war, the drain on its population, the bulk of the population lived close to penury in what was an impoverished, close to bankrupt fledgling state.  

Across the three areas one-in-three were ‘unoccupied’.

Another third were dependent on agriculture that offered at best a precarious existence following the collapse of post-World War One prices. 

Famously, Northern Ireland’s first Prime Minister James Craig boasted that the six county state was a Protestant state for a Protestant people claiming at the same time that the southern state was a Catholic state for a Catholic people. 

With the exception of the Bandon area an overwhelming majority of the population of West Cork identified as Catholic in 1926.

If Protestant influence that marked 19th century Ireland Catholic hegemony would do the same in 20th century Ireland. Another kind of theocratic state was born. 

Under pressure from The Catholic Truth Society, the 1926 Committee on Evil Literature was established by the Cumann na nGaedheal Minister for Justice, Kevin O'Higgins, on February 12th 1926, while it did include one Protestant clergyman in its five-man committee eventually led to the Censorship of Publications Act of 1929 reflected a strident and exclusive Catholic orthodoxy. 

Among the banned were James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, Sean O'Casey, Liam O'Flaherty, Sean O Faolain, Frank O'Connor, Brendan Behan, Austin Clarke, Kate O'Brien, Edna O’Brien, Mary Lavelle, Maura Laverty, Oscar Wilde and Walter Macken. A list that went on and on. 

At the dawn of the 17th century, Irish was still the first language of nearly everyone on the island.

Centuries of British colonisation changed all of that.

While significant numbers in the three locations claimed to speak both Irish and English, the extent to which they did remains hidden. 

What is clear is that Irish only speakers were few and far between. Irish language advocate and activist Dubhghlas de hÍde, who went on to become Ireland’s first president warned against the loss of language in The necessity for de-Anglicising Ireland.

His warning was borne out by subsequent events. 

The spoils of the new state were unequally shared by women and men.

Six years after the establishment of the new state feminist Hanna Sheehy Skeffington described it as a ‘masculine monopoly’.  

How would you describe it? 

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.

Freda takes a look back at Bantry family roots

NONAGENARIAN and Castletownshend village elder, Freda Salter-Townshend, was born Freda Hurst on a farm at Beach House, Bantry in 1935 where she lived with her sister Hazel, her mother Ida and father Edwin. 

Freda Salter-Townshend. Photo; Anne Minihane.

Ten years previously, on the night of the 1926 Census, Freda’s mother Ida Merrick, then aged 29, was a boarder in the home of Kathleen (46) and Edward Brooks (55) at 7 Marino Street, Bantry.

Edward’s occupation was recorded as a bookkeeper and Kathleen’s under home duties.

Their daughter, Effie (22) single, occupation dressmaker, was recorded as deaf and dumb.

Ida learned to communicate with Effie through sign language, a language she taught her daughter Freda who in turn three generations later taught her son Mark.

A 100-year-old language gifted through the generations. 

Others in the house that Census night were two sons James Ernest Brooks (12) and Samuel Oswald Brooks (8).

Another boarder John Lynch (29) single, shop assistant completed the household.

This was an ecumenical household long before ecumenism became a social and cultural norm.

The Brooks were Methodists; John Lynch was a Roman Catholic and Freda’s mother Ida was a member of the Church of Ireland. 

Both Freda and her mother Ida were primary school teachers and between them they taught for 76 years at St. Brendan’s National School, Bantry in what very well may be a record that stretched from the foundation of the state in 1922 until Freda retired in 1998. 

Now in retirement in Castletownshend, Freda reflects on her life and her teaching life. ‘I loved teaching. What with Mummy being a teacher, it was probably what I was meant to do.’

History of Cork man and links to Turkey

Blood-Dark Track: A Family History is a story by Irish writer Joseph O’Neill like no other but then again few, if any, Irish writers have an Irish and a Turkish grandfather.

His, born in Cork in 1964, raised  in The Netherlands, educated at Cambridge  and now a university professor in New York and theirs are unlikely stories. 

Few, if any, Irish writer’s grandfathers were simultaneously in prison in their respective countries for their opposition to British imperialism.

Turkish grandfather Joseph Dakad was imprisoned by the British in Palestine in 1942 while his Irish grandfather, James or Jim O'Neill was imprisoned in Mountjoy in 1940, and subsequently  interned at the Curragh camp with other republicans. 

The 1926 Census revealed further details.

On that year, Jim was aged 15 and lived at home in Ardkitt, near Enniskean, along with his farmer (50 acres) father and head of household Peter (51), his mother Anne (50) “home duties’.

They had seven children. Margaret (20), ‘home duties’, Pat (19) assisting on the farm, Peter (18) a motor mechanic in Bandon, Mollie (17) a domestic servant, Hanna (14) and Nora (13), both at school.  Anne Flynn (57) step-sister and single ‘home duties’ also lived here.  

Jim was 12 years of age when he left school.

Two generations later, The New York Times described Netherland one of his grandson’s books and a Barack Obama favourite as ‘the wittiest, angriest, most exacting and most desolate work of fiction we’ve yet had about life in New York and London after the World Trade Center fell’.  

Who would have thought?