In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

New Hibernia Review 7.1 (2003) 158-159



[Access article in PDF]
Pre-Census Sources for Irish Demography, by Brian Gurrin, pp. 106. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002. $29.95. Distributed by International Specialized Book Services, Portland, OR.

To some people, a country's heritage is best revealed in its poems and eminent figures. To others, there are mechanisms that explain the state of society. For example, there was the Famine, but underlaying it, some would say, was the historic problem of the relationship between the land and the people of Ireland. Still another sensibility seeks insight by empirical means. It values the picture revealed in the censuses, a rich documentary source, especially for the period 1821-1911.

Brian Gurrin's book—called a "pamphlet" by the author and by the general editor of the Maynooth series, Mary Ann Lyons—addresses the challenge to understand precensus Ireland's demography. Gurrin focuses on methodology for local history, a situation made especially difficult by the loss of the centralized archive when the Four Courts burned in 1922. However, Gurrin's monograph has a broader interest than local history, and it discusses the range of documents still extant: poll tax and hearth tax records, religious surveys, estate surveys, and church records. The author points out the value of the spreadsheet, and guides the novice researcher away from genealogy as an entry point for demographic research. He warns beginners of the hazards of the arithmetic mean, and guides them into adopting the American style of recording dates.

Gurrin includes tables and figures from early sources. One figure presents sample data from 1660, in which we learn that Gortnapissy in Clonene parish had five residents who paid the poll tax, of whom four were Irish, and one was English. These data were developed by Sir William Petty from "Pender's census." Another informative item is a reproduction of a page from an estate survey in County Wicklow. Beyond presenting such items the book provides an excellent summary of pre-census demography in Ireland.

This small book has a useful set of four appendices that provide invaluable information on counties and their local sources for study of the hearth tax. [End Page 158] There is a good set of references organized as primary sources, secondary source guides, and miscellaneous. Unfortunately, the book lacks an index. Apart from providing a key to entering a text, indexing a work provides a content analysis vital to assessing a draft. Some think it an editorial responsibility to ensure that a book includes an index, if only as a way to connect authors' objectives to their texts. Still, in Pre-Census Sources for Irish Demography, Brian Gurrin has provided an authoritative guide to early demography in Ireland.

 



Thomas E. Jordan

...

pdf

Share