Ireland
From LoveToKnow 1911
IRELAND, an island lying west of Great Britain, and forming with it the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It extends from 51° 26' to 55° 21' N., and from 5° 25' to 10 30' W. It is encircled by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the east is separated from Great Britain by narrow shallow seas, towards the north by the North Channel, the width of which at the narrowest part between the Mull of Cantire (Scotland) and Torr Head is only 132 m.; in the centre by the Irish Sea, 130 m. in width, and in the south by St George's Channel, which has a width of 69 m. between Dublin and Holyhead (Wales) and of 47 m. at its southern extremity. The island has the form of an irregular rhomboid, the largest diagonal of which, from Torr Head in the north-east to Mizen Head in the south-west, measures 302 m. The greatest breadth due east and west is 174 m., from Dundrum Bay to Annagh Head, county Mayo; and the average breadth is about 110 m. The total area is 32,531 sq. m.
Ireland is divided territorially into four provinces and thirtytwo counties: - (a) Ulster (northern division): Counties Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, Monaghan, Tyrone. (b) Leinster (eastern midlands and southeast): Counties Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, King's County, Longford, Louth, Meath, Queen's County, Westmeath, Wexford, Wicklow. (c) Connaught (western midlands): Counties Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo. (d) Munster (southwestern division): Counties Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford.
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Physical Geography
Ireland stands on the edge of the European " continental shelf." Off the peninsula of Mullet (county Mayo) there are ioo fathoms of water within 25 m. of the coast which overlooks the Atlantic; eastward, northward and southward, in the narrow seas, this depth is never reached. The average height of the island is about 400 ft., but the distribution of height is by no means equal. The island has no spinal range or dominating mountain mass. Instead, a series of small, isolated clusters of mountains, reaching from the coast to an extreme distance of some 70 m. inland, almost surrounds a great central plain which seldom exceeds 250 ft. in elevation. A physical description of Ireland, therefore, falls naturally under three heads - the coasts, the mountain rim and the central plain.
The capital city and port of Dublin lies a little south of the central point of the eastern coast, at the head of a bay which marks a. sudden change in the coastal formation. Southward from i ts northern horn, the rocky headland of Howth, the coast is generally steep, occasionally sheer, and the mountains of county Wicklow approach it closely. Northward (the direction first to be followed) it is low, sandy and fringed with shoals, for here is one point at which the central plain extends to the coast. This condition obtains from 53° 25' N. until at 54° N. the mountains close down again, and the narrow inlet or fjord of Carlingford Lough separates the abrupt heights of the Carlingford and Mourne Mountains. Then the low and sandy character is resumed; the fine eastward sweep of Dundrum Bay is passed, the coast turns north again, and a narrow channel gives entry to the island-studded lagoon of Strangford Lough. Reaching county Antrim, green wooded hills plunge directly into the sea; the deep Belfast Lough strikes some 10 m. inland, and these conditions obtain nearly to Fair Head, the north-eastern extremity of the island. Here the coast turns westward, changing suddenly to sheer cliffs, where the basaltic formation intrudes its strange regular columns, most finely developed in the famous Giant's Causeway.
The low land surrounding the plain-track of the Bann intervenes between this and the beginning of a coastal formation which is common to the north-western and western coasts. From the oval indentation of Lough Foyle a bluff coast trends north-westward to Malin Head, the northernmost promontory of the island. Thence over the whole southward stretch to Mizen Head in county Cork is found that physical appearance of a cliff-bound coast fretted with deep fjord-like inlets and fringed with many islands, which throughout the world is almost wholly confined to western seaboards. Mountains impinge upon the sea almost over the whole length, sometimes, as in Slieve League (county Donegal), immediately facing it with huge cliffs. Eight dominant inlets appear. Lough Foyle is divided from Lough Swilly by the diamond-shaped peninsula of Inishowen. Following the coast southward, Donegal Bay is divided from Galway Bay by the hammer-like projection of county Mayo and Connemara, the square inlet of Clew Bay intervening. At Galway Bay the mountain barrier is broken, where the great central plain strikes down to the sea as it does on the east coast north of Dublin. After the stern coast of county Clare there follow the estuary of the great river Shannon, and then three large inlets striking deep into the mountains of Kerry and Cork - Dingle Bay, Kenmare river and Bantry Bay, separating the prongs of the forklike south-western projection of the island. The whole of this coast is wild and beautiful, and may be compared with the west coast of Scotland and even that of Norway, though it has a strong individuality distinct from either; and though for long little known to travellers, it now possesses a number of small watering-places, and is in many parts accessible by railway. The islands though numerous are not as in Scotland and Norway a dominant feature of the coast, being generally small and often mere clusters of reefs. Exceptions, however, are Tory Island and North Aran off the Donegal coast, Achill and Clare off Mayo, the South Arans guarding Galway Bay, the Blasquets and Valencia off the Kerry coast. On many of these desolate rocks, which could have afforded only the barest sustenance, there are remains of the dwellings and churches of early religious settlers who sought solitude here. The settlements on Inishmurray (Sligo), Aranmore in the South Arans, and Scattery in the Shannon estuary, had a fame as retreats of piety and learning far outside Ireland itself, and the significance of a:pilgrimage to their sites is not yet wholly forgotten among the peasantry, while the preservation of their remains has come to be a national trust.
The south coast strikes a mean between the east and the west. It is lower than the west though still bold in many places; the inlets are narrower and less deep, but more easily accessible, as appears from the commercial importance of the harbours of Cork and Waterford. Turning northward to the east of Waterford round Carnsore Point, the lagoon-like harbour of Wexford is passed, and then a sweeping, almost unbroken, line continues to Dublin Bay. But this coast, though differing completely from the western, is not lacking in beauty, for, like the Mournes in county Down, the mountains of Wicklow rise close to the sea, and sometimes directly from it. Every mountain group in Ireland forms an individual mass, isolated by complex systems of valleys in all directions. They seldom exceed 3000 ft. in height, yet generally possess a certain dignity, whether from their commanding position or their bold outline. Every variety of form is seen, from steep flat-topped table-mountains as near Loughs Neagh and Erne, to peaks such as those of the Twelve Pins or Bens of Connemara. Unlike the Scottish Highlands no part of them was capable of sheltering a whole native race in opposition to the advance of civilization, though early customs, tradition and the common use of the Erse language yet survive in some strength in the wilder parts of the west. From the coasts there is almost everywhere easy access to the interior through the mountains by valley roads; and though the plain exists unbroken only in the midlands, its ramifications among the hills are always easy to follow. Plain and lowland of an elevation below 500 ft. occupy nearly four-fifths of the total area; and if the sea were to submerge these, four distinct archipelagos would appear, a northern, eastern, western and south-western. The principal groups, with their highest points, are the Mournes (Slieve Donard, 2796 ft.) and the Wicklow mountains (Lugnaquilla, 3 0 39) on the east; the Sperrins (Sawel, 2240) in the north; the Derryveagh group in the north-west (Errigal, 2466); the many groups or short ranges of Sligo, Mayo and Galway (reaching 1695 ft. in the Twelve Pins of Connemara); in the south-west those of Kerry and Cork, where in Carrantuohill or Carntual (3414) the famous Macgillicuddy Reeks which beautify the environs of Killarney include the highest point in the island; and north-east from these, the Galtees of Tipperary (3018) and Slieve Bloom, the farthest inland of the important groups. Nearer the south coast are the Knockmealdown (2609) and Commeragh Mountains (2470) of county Waterford.
It will be realized from the foregoing description that it is impossible to draw accurate boundary lines to the great Irish plain, yet it rightly carries the epithet central because it dis- Ceutrai tinctly divides the northern mountain groups from the southern. The plain is closely correlated with the bogs which are the best known physical characteristic of Ireland, but the centre of Ireland is not wholly bog-land. Rather the bogs of the plain are intersected by strips of low-lying firm ground, and the central plain consists of these bright green expanses alternating with the brown of the bogs, of which the best known and (with its offshoots) one of the most extensive is the Bog of rAllen in the eastern midlands. But the bogs are not confined to the plain. They may be divided into black and red according to the degree of moisture and the vegetable matter which formed them. The black bogs are those of the plain and the deeper valleys, while the red, firmer and less damp, occur on the mountains. The former supply most of the peat, and some of the tree-trunks dug out of them have been found so flexible from immersion that they might be twisted into ropes. Owing to the quantity of tannin they contain, no harmful miasma exhales from the Irish bogs.
The central plain and its offshoots are drained by rivers to all the coasts, but chiefly eastward and westward, and the waterpartings in its midst are sometimes impossible to define. Rivers. The main rivers, however, have generally a mountain source, and according as they are fed from bogs or springs may be differentiated as black and bright streams. In this connexion the frequent use of the name Blackwater is noticeable. The principal rivers are - from the Wicklow Mountains, the Slaney, flowing S. to Wexford harbour, and the Liffey, flowing with a tortuous course N. and E. to Dublin Bay; the Boyne, fed from the central plain and discharging into Drogheda Bay; from the mountains of county Down, the Lagan, to Belfast Lough, and the Bann, draining the great Lough Neagh to the northern sea; the Foyle, a collection of streams from the mountains of Tyrone and Donegal, flowing north to Lough Foyle. On the west the rivers are generally short and torrential, excepting the Erne, which drains the two beautiful loughs of that name in county Fermanagh, and the Shannon, the chief river of Ireland, which, rising in a mountain spring in county Cavan, follows a bow-shaped course to the south and south-west, and draws off the major part of the waters of the plain by tributaries from the east. In the south, the Lee and the Blackwater intersect the mountains of Kerry and Cork flowing east, and turn abruptly into estuaries opening south. Lastly, rising in the Slieve Bloom or neighbouring mountains, the Suir, Nore and Barrow follow widely divergent courses to the south to unite in Waterford harbour.
The lakes (called loughs - pronounced lochs) of Ireland are innumerable, and (apart from their formation) are almost all contained in two great regions. (I) The central plain by its nature Lakes. abounds in loughs - dark, peat-stained pools with low shores. The principal of these lie in county Westmeath, such as Loughs Ennel, Owel and Derravaragh, famed for their trout-fishing in the May-fly season. (2) The Shannon, itself forming several large loughs, as Allen, Ree and Derg; and the Erne, whose course lies almost wholly through loughs - Gowna, Oughter and the Loughs Erne, irregular of outline and studded with islands - separate this region from the principal lake-region of Ireland, coincident with the province of Connaught. In the north lie Loughs Melvin, close above Donegal Bay, and Gill near Sligo, Lough Gara, draining to the Shannon, and Lough Conn near Ballina (county Mayo), and in the south, the great expanses of Loughs Mask and Corrib, joined by a subterranean channel. To the west of these last, the mountains of Connemara and, to a more marked degree, the narrow plain of bog-land between them and Galway Bay, are sown with small lakes, nearly every hollow of this wild district being filled with water. Apart from these two regions the loughs of Ireland are few but noteworthy. In the south-west the lakes of Killarney are widely famed for their exquisite scenic setting; in the north-east Lough Neagh has no such claim, but is the largest lake in the British Isles, while in the south-east there are small loughs in some of the picturesque glens of county Wicklow.
Climate
The climate of Ireland is more equable than that of Great Britain as regards both temperature and rainfall. No district in Ireland has a rainfall so heavy as that of large portions of the Highlands of Scotland, or so light as that of several large districts in the east of Great Britain. In January the mean temperature scarcely falls below 40° F. in any part of Ireland, whereas over the larger part of the eastern slope of Great Britain it is some 3° lower; and in July the extremes in Ireland are 59° in the north and 62° in Kilkenny. The range from north to south of Great Britain in the same month is some 10°, but the greater extent of latitude accounts only for a part of this difference, which is mainly occasioned by the physical configuration of the surface of Ireland in its relations to the prevailing moist W.S.W. winds. Ireland presents to these winds no unbroken mountain ridge running north and south, which would result in two climates as distinct as those of the east and west of Ross-shire; but it presents instead only a series of isolated groups, with the result that it is only a few limited districts which enjoy climates approaching in dryness the climates of the whole of the eastern side of Great Britain. (0. J. R. H.) Geology. - Ireland, rising from shallow seas on the margin of the submarine plateau of western Europe, records in its structure the successive changes that the continent itself has undergone. The first broad view of the country shows us a basin-shaped island consisting of a central limestone plain surrounded by mountains; but the diverse modes of origin of these mountains, and the differences in their trend, suggest at once that they represent successive epochs of disturbance. The north-west highlands of Donegal and the Ox Mountains, with their axes of folding running north-east and south-west, invite comparison with the great chain of Leinster, but also with the Grampians and the backbone of Scandinavia. The ranges from Kerry to Waterford, on the other hand, truncated by the sea at either end, are clearly parts of an east and west system, the continuation of which may be looked for in South Wales and Belgium. The hills of the north-east are mainly the crests of lavaplateaux, which carry the mind towards Skye and the volcanic province of the Faeroe Islands. The two most important points of contrast between the geology of Ireland and that of England are, firstly, the great exposure of `Carboniferous rocks in Ireland, Mesozoic strata being almost absent; and, secondly, the presence of volcanic rocks in place of the marine Eocene of England.
The fact that no Cambrian strata have been established by palaeontological evidence in the west of Ireland has made it equally difficult to establish any pre-Cambrian system. The great difference in character, however, between the Silurian strata at Pomeroy in county Tyrone and the adjacent metamorphic series makes it highly probable that the latter masses are truly Archean. They form an interesting and bleak moorland between Cookstown and Omagh, extending north-eastward into Slieve Gallion in county Londonderry, and consist fundamentally of mica-schist and gneiss, affected by earth-pressures, and invaded by granite near Lough Fee. The axis along which they have been elevated runs north-east and south-west, and on either flank a series of " green rocks " appears, consisting of altered amygdaloidal andesitic lavas, intrusive dolerites, coarse gabbros and diorites, and at Beagh-beg and Creggan in central Tyrone ancient rhyolitic tuffs. Red and grey cherts, which have not so far yielded undoubted organic remains, occur in this series, and it has in consequence been compared with the Arenig rocks of southern Scotland. The granite invades this " greenrock " series at Slieve Gallion and elsewhere, but is itself pre Devonian. Even if the volcanic and intrusive basic rocks prove to be Ordovician (Lower Silurian), which is very doubtful, the metamorphic series of the core is clearly distinct, and appears to be " fundamental " so far as Ireland is concerned.
The other metamorphic areas of the north present even greater difficulties, owing to the absence of any overlying strata older than the Old Red Sandstone. Their rocks have been variously held to be Archean, Cambrian and Silurian, and their general trend has undoubtedly been determined by post-Silurian earth-movements. Hence it is useful to speak of them merely as " Dalradian," a convenient term invented by Sir A. Geikie for the metamorphic series of the old kingdom of Dalriada. They come out as mica-schists under the Carboniferous sandstones of northern Antrim, and disappear southward under the basaltic plateaux. The red gneisses near Tarr Head probably represent intrusive granite; and this small north-eastern exposure is representative of the Dalradian series which covers so wide a field from central Londonderry to the coast of Donegal. The oldest rocks in this large area are a stratified series of mica-schists, limestones and quartzites, with numerous intrusive sheets of diorite, the whole having been metamorphosed by pressure, with frequent overfolding. Extensive subsequent metamorphism has been produced by the invasion of great masses of granite. Similar rocks come up along the Ox Mountain axis, and occupy the wild west of Mayo and Connemara. The quartzites here form bare white cones and ridges, notably in Errigal and Aghla Mt. in county Donegal, and in the group of the Twelve Bens in county Galway.
Following on these rocks of unknown but obviously high antiquity, we find fossiliferous Ordovician (Lower Silurian) strata near Killary harbour on the west, graduating upwards into a complete Gotlandian (Upper Silurian) system. Massive conglomerates occur in these series, which are unconformable on the Dalradian rocks of Connemara. In the Wenlock beds of the west of the Dingle promontory there are contemporaneous tuffs and lavas. Here the Ludlow strata are followed by a thick series of barren beds (the Dingle Beds), which have been variously claimed as Upper Silurian and Lower Devonian. No certain representative of the Dingle Beds has been traced elsewhere throughout the south of Ireland, where the Old Red Sandstone succeeds the uptilted Silurian strata with striking unconformity. The Silurian rocks were indeed greatly folded before the Old Red Sandstone was laid down, the general trend of the folds being from south-west to north-east. The best example of these folds is the axis of Leinster, its core being occupied by granite which is now exposed continuously for 70 m., forming a moorland from Dublin to New Ross. On either flank the Silurian shales, slates and sandstones, which are very rarely fossiliferous, rise with steep dips. They are often contorted, and near the contact with the granite pass into mica-schists and quartzites. The foothills and lowlands throughout southern Wicklow and almost the whole of Wexford, and the corresponding country of western Wicklow and eastern Kildare, are thus formed of Silurian beds, in which numerous contemporaneous and also intrusive igneous rocks are intercalated, striking like the chain N.E. and S.W. In southeastern Wexford, in northern Wicklow (from Ashford to Bray), and in the promontory of Howth on Dublin Bay, an apparently earlier series of green and red slates and quartzites forms an important feature. The quartzites, like those of the Dalradian series, weather out in cones, such as the two Sugarloaves south of Bray, or in knob-set ridges, such as the crest of Howth or Carrick Mt. in county Wicklow. The radial or fan-shaped markings known as Oldhamia were first detected in this series, but are now known from Cambrian beds in otter countries; in default of other satisfactory fossils, the series of Bray and Howth has long been held to be Cambrian.
All across Ireland, from the Ballyhoura Hills on the Cork border to the southern shore of Belfast Lough, slaty and sandy Silurian beds appear in the axes of the anticlinal folds, surrounded by Old Red Sandstone scarps or Carboniferous Limestone lowlands. These Silurian areas give rise to hummocky regions, where small hills abound, without much relation to the trend of the axis of elevation. The most important area appears north of the town of Longford, and extends thence to the coast of Down. In Slieve Glah it reaches a height of 1057 ft. above the sea. Granite is exposed along its axis from near Newry to Slieve Croob, and again appears at Crossdoney in county Cavan. These occurrences of granite, with that of Leinster, in connexion with the folding of the Silurian strata, make it highly probable that many of the granites of the Dalradian areas, which have a similar trend and which have invaded the schists so intimately as to form with them a composite gneiss, date also from a post-Silurian epoch of earth-movement. Certain western and northern granites are however older, since granite boulders occur in Silurian conglomerates derived from the Dalradian complex.
This group of N.E. and S.W. ridges and hollows, so conspicuous in the present conformation of Donegal, Sligo and Mayo, in the axis of Newry, and in the yet bolder Leinster Chain, was impressed upon the Irish region at the close of Silurian times, and is clearly a part of the " Caledonian " system of folds, which gave to Europe the guiding lines of the Scottish Highlands and of Scandinavia.
On the land-surface thus formed the Devonian lakes gathered, while the rivers poured into them enormous deposits of sand and conglomerate. A large exposure of this Old Red Sandstone stretches from Enniskillen to the Silurian beds at Pomeroy, and some contemporaneous andesites are included, reminding us of the volcanic activity at the same epoch in Scotland. The numerous " felstone " dikes, often lamprophyric, occurring in the north and west of Ireland, are probably also of Devonian age. The conglomerates appear at intervals through the limestone covering of central Ireland, and usually weather out as conspicuous scarps or " hog's-backs." The Slieve Bloom Mountains are thus formed of a dome of Old Red Sandstone folded on a core of unconformable Silurian strata; while in several cases the domes are worn through, leaving rings of Old Red Sandstone hills, scarping inwards towards broad exposures of Silurian shales. The Old Red Sandstone is most fully manifest in the rocky or heather-clad ridges that run from the west of Kerry to central Waterford, rising to 3414 ft. in Carrantuohill in Macgillicuddy's Reeks, and 3015 ft. in Galtymore. In the Dingle Pro 'K. ' ? Lower Carboniferous Sandstone and Slate (latter in South) {? Devonian (Old Red Sandstone). I Silurian (and Cambrian?) "Dalradian" Metamorphic Series .Diorite and allied Basic Rocks '?-t =i=' Granite and allied Acid Rocks montory the conglomerates of this period rest with striking unconformity on the Dingle Beds and Upper Silurian series. Here there may be a local break between Lower and Upper Devonian strata. The highest beds of Old Red Sandstone type pass up conformably in the south of Ireland into the Lower Carboniferous, through the " Yellow Sandstone Series " and the "Coomhola Grits " above it. The Yellow Sandstone contains Archanodon, the oldest known fresh-water mollusc, and plant-remains; the Coomhola Grits are marine, and are sometimes regarded as Carboniferous, sometimes as uppermost Devonian.
In the south, the Carboniferous deposits open with the Carboniferous Slate, in the base of which the Coomhola Grits occur. Its lower part represents the Lower Carboniferous Shales and Sandstones of the central and northern areas, while its upper part corresponds with a portion of the Carboniferous Limestone. The Carboniferous Limestone, laid down in a sea which covered nearly the whole Irish area, appears in the synclinal folds at Cork city and Kenmare, and is the prevalent rock from the north side of the Knockmealdown Mountains to Enniskillen and Donegal Bay. On the east it spreads to Drogheda and Dublin, and on the west to the heart of Mayo and of Clare. Loughs Mask and Corrib are thus bounded on the west by rugged Silurian and Dalradian highlands, and on the east appear as mere water-filled hollows in the great limestone plain.
The Lower Carboniferous Sandstones are conspicuous in the region from Milltown near Inver Bay in southern Donegal to Ballycastle in county Antrim. In the latter place they contain workable coal-seams. The Carboniferous Limestone often contains black flint (chert), and at some horizons conglomerates occur, the pebbles being derived from the unconformable ridges of the " Caledonian " land. A black and often shaly type called " calp " contains much clay derived from the same land-surface. While the limestone has been mainly worn down to a lowland, it forms fine scarps and tablelands in county Sligo and other western regions. Subterranean rivers and water-worn caves provide a special type of scenery below the surface. Contemporaneous volcanic action is recorded by tuffs and lavas south-east of Limerick and north of Philipstown. The beds above the limestone are shales and sandstones, sometimes reaching the true Coal-Measures, but rarely younger than the English Millstone Grit. They are well seen in the high ground about Lough Allen, where the Shannon rises on them, round the Castlecomer and Killenaule coalfields, and in a broad area from the north of Clare to Killarney. Some coals occur in the Millstone Grit horizons. The Upper Coal-Measures, as a rule, have been lost by denudation, much of which occurred before Triassic times. South of the line between Galway and Dublin the coal is anthracitic, while north of this line it is bituminous. The northern coalfields are the L. Carboniferous one at Ballycastle, the high outliers of Millstone Grit and Coal-Measures round Lough Allen, and the Dungannon and Coalisland field in county Tyrone. The last named is in part concealed by Triassic strata. The only important occurrences of coal in the south are in eastern Tipperary, near Killenaule, and in the Leinster coalfield (counties Kilkenny and Carlow and Queen's County), where there is a high synclinal field, including Lower and Middle Coal-Measures, and resembling in structure the Forest of Dean area in England.
The "Hercynian " earth-movements, which so profoundly affected north-west and north-central Europe at the close of Carboniferous times, gave rise to a series of east and west folds in the Irish region. The Upper Carboniferous beds were thus lifted within eas3r. reach of denuding forces, while the Old Red Sandstone, and the underlying " Caledonian " land-surface, were brought up from below in the cores of domes and anticlines. In the south, even the Carboniferous Limestone has been so far removed that it is found only in the floors of the synclinals. The effect of the structure of these folds on the courses of rivers in the south of Ireland is discussed in the paragraphs dealing with the geology of county Cork. The present central plain itself may be regarded as a vast shallow synclinal, including a multitude of smaller folds. The earth-wrinkles of this epoch were turned into a north-easterly direction by the pre-existing Leinster Chain, and the trend of the anticlinal from Limerick to the Slieve' Bloom Mountains, and that of the synclinal of Millstone Grit and CoalMeasures from Cashel through the Leinster coalfield, bear witness to the resistance of this granite mass. The Triassic beds rest on the various Carboniferous series in turn, indicating, as in England, the amount of denudation that followed on the uplift of the Hercynian' land. Little encouragement can therefore be given in Ireland to the popular belief in vast hidden coalfields.
The Permian sea has left traces at Holywood on Belfast Lough and near Stewartstown in county Tyrone. Certain conglomeratic beds on which Armagh is built are also believed to be of Permian age. The Triassic sandstones and marls, with marine Rhaetic beds above, are preserved mainly round the basaltic plateaus of the north-east, and extend for some distance into county Down. An elongated outlier south of Carrickmacross indicates their former presence over a much wider area. Rock-salt occurs in these beds north of Carrickfergus. _ .i The Jurassic system is represented in Ireland by the Lower Lias alone, aid it is probable that no marine beds higher than the Upper Lias were deposited during this period. From Permian times onward, in fact, the Irish area lay on the western margin of the seas that played so large a part in determining the geology of Europe. The Lower Lias appears at intervals under the scarp of the basaltic plateaus, and contributes, as in Dorsetshire and Devonshire, to the formation of landslips along the coast. The alteration of the fossiliferous Lias by dolerite at Portrush into a flinty rock that looked like basalt served at one time as a prop for the " Neptunist " theory of the origin of igneous rocks. Denudation, consequent on the renewed uplift of the country, affected the Jurassic beds until the middle of Cretaceous times. The sea then returned, in the north-east at any rate, and the first Cretaceous deposits indicate the nearness of a shore-line. Dark " green-sands," very rich in glauconite, are followed by yellow sandstones with some flint. These two stages represent the Upper Greensand, or the sandy type of the English Gault. Further sands represent the Cenomanian. The Turonian is also sandy, but in most areas was not deposited, or has been denuded away during a local uplift that preceded Senonian times. The Senonian limestone itself, which rests in the extreme north on Trias or even on the schists, is often conglomeratic and glauconitic at the base, the pebbles being worn from the old metamorphic series. The term " Hibernian Greensand " was used by Tate for all the beds below the Senonian; the quarrymen know the conglomeratic Senonian as " Mulatto-stone." The Senonian chalk, or " White Limestone," is hard, with numerous bands of flint, and suffered from denudation in early Eocene times. Probably its original thickness Lough Neagh Tertiary Clays Eocene Basalt and Dolerite Cretaceous Trias, sometimes surmounted by Lower Jurassic Upper Carboniferous Carboniferous was not more than 150 ft., while now only from 40 to loo ft. remain. This chalk appears to underlie nearly the whole basaltic plateaus, appearing as a fringe round them, and also in an inlier at Templepatrick. The western limit was probably found in the edge of the old continental land in Donegal. Chalk flints occur frequently in the surface-deposits of the south of Ireland, associated with rocks brought from the north during the glacial epoch, and probably also of northern origin. It is just possible, however, that here and there the Cretaceous sea that spread over Devonshire may have penetrated the Irish area.
After the Irish chalk had been worn into rolling downs, on which flint-gravels gathered, the great epoch of volcanic activity opened, which was destined to change the character of the whole north-west European area. The critical time had arrived when the sea was to be driven away eastward, while the immense ridges due to the " Alpine " movements were about to emerge as the backbones of new continental lands. Fissure after fissure, running with remarkable constancy N.W. and S.E., broke through the region now occupied by the British Isles, and basalt was pressed up along these cracks, forming thousands of dikes, from the coast of Down to the Dalradian ridges of Donegal. One of these on the north side of Lough Erne is 15 m. long. The more deep-seated type of these rocks is seen in the olivine-gabbro mass of Carlingford Mountain; but most of the igneous region became covered with sheets of basaltic lava, which filled up the hollows of the downs, baked the gravels into a layer of red flints, and built up, pile upon pile, the great plateaus of the north. There was little explosive action, and few of the volcanic vents can now be traced. After a time, a quiet interval allowed of the formation of lakes, in which red iron-ores were laid down. The plantremains associated with these beds form the only clue to the postCretaceous period in which the volcanic epoch opened, and they have been placed by Mr Starkie Gardner in recent years as early Eocene. During this time of comparative rest, rhyolites were extruded locally in county Antrim; and there is very strong evidence that the granite of the Mourne Mountains, and that which cuts the Carlingford gabbro, were added at the same time to the crust. The basalt again broke out, through dikes that cut even the Mourne granite, and some of the best-known columnar masses of lava overlie the red deposits of iron-ore and mark this second basaltic epoch. The volcanic plateaus clearly at one time extended far west and south of their present limits, and the denudation of the lava-flows has allowed a large area of Mesozoic strata also to disappear.
Volcanic activity may have extended into Miocene times; but the only fossiliferous relics of Cainozoic periods later than the Eocene are the pale clays and silicified lignites on the south shore of Lough Neagh, and the shelly gravels of pre-glacial age in county Wexford. Both these deposits may be Pliocene. Probably before this period the movements of subsidence had set in which faulted the basalt plateaus, lowered them to form the basin of Lough Neagh, and broke up the continuity of the volcanic land of the North Atlantic area. As the Atlantic spread into the valleys on the west of Ireland, forming the well-known marine inlets, Europe grew, under the influence of the " Alpine " movements, upon the east; and Ireland was caught in, as it were, on the western edge of the new continent. It seems likely that it was separated from the British region shortly before the glacial epoch, and that some of the ice which then abutted on the country travelled across shallow seas. The glacial deposits profoundly modified the surface of the country, whether they resulted from the melting of the ice-sheets of the time of maximum glaciation, or from the movements of local glaciers. Boulder-clays and sands, and gravels rearranged by water, occur throughout the lowlands; while the eskers or " green hills," characteristic grasscovered ridges of gravel, rise from the great plain, or run athwart valleys and over hill-sides, marking the courses of sub-glacial streams. When the superficial deposits are removed, the underlying rocks are found to be scored and smoothed by ice-action, and whole mountain-sides in the south and west have been similarly moulded during the Glacial epoch. In numerous cases, lakelets have gathered under rocky cirques behind the terminal moraines of the last surviving glaciers.
There is no doubt that at this epoch various movements of elevation and subsidence affected the north-west of Europe, and modern Ireland may have had extensions into warmer regions on the west and south, while the area now left to us was almost buried under ice. In post-Glacial times, a subsidence admitted the sea into the Lagan valley and across the eastern shore in several places; but elevation, in the days of early human occupation, brought these last marine deposits to light, and raised the beaches and shore-terraces some 10 to 20 ft. along the coast. At Larne, Greenore and in the neck between Howth and Dublin, these raised beaches remain conspicuous. To sum up, then, while the main structural features of Ireland were impressed upon her before the opening of the Mesozoic era, her present outline and superficial contours date from an epoch of climatic and geographical change which falls within the human period.
See maps and explanatory memoirs of the Geological Survey of Ireland (Dublin); G. Wilkinson, Practical Geology and Ancient Architecture of Ireland (London, 1845); R. Kane, Industrial Resources of Ireland (2nd ed., Dublin, 1845); G. H. Kinahan, Manual of the Geology of Ireland (London, 1878); E. Hull, Physical Geology and Geography of Ireland (2nd ed., London, 1891); G. H. Kinahan, Economic Geology of Ireland (Dublin, 1889); A. McHenry and W. W. Watts, Guide to the Collection of Rocks and Fossils, Geol. Survey of Ireland (2nd ed., Dublin, 1898). (G. A. J. C.) Economics And Administration Population. - Various computations are in existence of the population of Ireland prior to 182 I, in which year the first government census was taken. According to Sir William Petty the number of inhabitants in 1672 was 1,320,000. About a century later the tax-collectors estimated the population at a little over 2,500,000, and in 1791 the same officials calculated that the number had risen to over 4,200,000. The census commissioners returned the population in 1821 as 6,801,827, in 1831 as 7,767,401, and in 1841 as 8,196, 597. It is undoubted that a great increase of population set in towards the close of the 18th century and continued during the first 40 years or so of the 19th. This increase was due to a variety of causes - the improvement in the political condition of the country, the creation of leaseholds after the abolition of the 40s. franchise, the productiveness and easy cultivation of the potato, the high prices during the war with France, and probably not least to the natural prolificness of the Irish people. But the census returns of 1851 showed a remarkable alteration - a decrease during the previous decade of over 1,500,000 - and since that date, as the following table shows, the continuous decrease in the number of its inhabitants has been the striking feature in the vital statistics of Ireland.
| 1841-1851. | 1851-1861. | 1861-1871. | 1871-1881. | 1881-1891. | 1891-1901. | |
| Leinster . | 15.25 | 12.86 | 8 II | 4'49 | 6.8 | 3'5 |
| Munster . | 22.47 | 18.53 | 7'93 | 4'98 | II .8 | 8.4 |
| Ulster. . | 15.69 | 4'85 | 4'23 | 5.11 | 7.07 | 2.4 |
| Connaught | 28.81 | 9'59 | 7.33 | 3'43 | 12.4 | 9'7 |
| Ireland | 19.85 | I I .50 | 6.67 | 4'69 | 9.08 | 5'3 |
The cause of the continuous though varying decrease which these figures reveal has been emigration. This movement of population took its first great impulse from the famine of 1846 and has continued ever since. When that disaster fell upon the country it found a teeming population fiercely competing for a very narrow margin of subsistence; and so widespread and devastating were its effects that between 1847 and 1852 over 1,200,000 of the Irish people emigrated to other lands. More than 1,000,000 of these went to the United States of America, and to that country the main stream has ever since been directed. Between 1851 and 1905 4,028,589 emigrants left Ireland2,092,154 males and 1,936,435 females, the proportion of females to males being extraordinarily high as compared with the emigration statistics of other countries. Between these years the numbers fluctuated widely-1852 showing the highest total, 190,322 souls, and 1905 the lowest, 30,676 souls. Since 1892, however, the emigrants in any one year have never exceeded 50,000, probably because the process of exhaustion has been so long in operation. As Ireland is mainly an agricultural country the loss of population has been most marked in the rural districts. The urban population, indeed, has for some years shown a tendency to increase. Thus in 1841 the rural population was returned as 7,052,923 and the urban as 1,143,674, while the corresponding figures in 1901 were respectively 3,073,846 and 1,384,929. This is further borne out by the percentages given in the above table, from which it will be seen that the greatest proportional decrease of population has occurred in the two provinces of Munster and Connaught, which may be regarded as almost purely agricultural. That the United States remained the great centre of attraction for Irish emigrants is proved by the returns for 1905, which show that nearly 80% of the whole number for the year sailed for that country. Ireland does little to swell the rising tide of Decrease per cent. of Population 1841-1901. Railways; ] emigration that now flows from England and Scotland to British North America.
Turning now to the census figures of 1901, we find that the population had diminished as compared with 1891 by 245,975. During the decade only three counties, Dublin, Down and Antrim, showed any increase, the increase being due to the growth of certain urban areas. Of the total population of 4,45 8 ,775, 2,200,040 were males and 2,258,735 were females. The inhabitants of the rural districts (3,073,846) decreased during the decade by over 380,000; that of the urban districts, i.e. of all towns of not less than 2000 inhabitants (1,384,929) increased by over 140,000. This increase was mainly due to the growth of a few of the larger towns, notably of Belfast, the chief industrial centre of Ireland. Between 1891 and 1901 Belfast increased from 273,079 to 349,180; Dublin from 268,587 to 289,108; and Londonderry, another industrial centre in Ulster, from 33,200 to 39,873. On the other hand, towns like Cork (75,978), Waterford (26,743) and Limerick (38,085), remained almost stationary during the ten years, but the urban districts of Pembroke and of Rathmines and Rathgar, which are practically suburbs of Dublin, showed considerable increases.
From the returns of occupation in 1901, it appears that the indefinite or non-productive class accounted for about 55% of the entire population. The next largest class was the agricultural, which numbered 876,062, a decrease of about 40,000 as compared with 1891. The industrial class fell from 656,410 to 639,413, but this represented a slight increase in the percentage of the population. The professional class was 131,035, the domestic 219,418, and the commercial had risen from 83,173 in 1891 to 97,889 In 1901. The following table shows the number of births and deaths registered in Ireland during the five years 1901-1905.
| Births. | Deaths. | |
| 1901 | 100,976 | 79,119 |
| 1902 | 101,863 | 77,676 |
| 1903 | 101,831 | 77,358 |
| 1904 | 103,811 | 79,513 |
| 1905 | 102,832 | 75,071 |
The number of illegitimate births is always very small in proportion to the legitimate. In 1905 illegitimate births numbered 2710 or 2.6 of the whole, a percentage which has been very constant for a number of years.
Railways
The first act of parliament authorizing a railway in Ireland was passed in 1831. The railway was to run from Dublin to Kingstown, a distance of about 6 m., and was opened in 1834. In 1836 the Ulster railway to connect Belfast and Armagh, and the Dublin and Drogheda railway uniting these two towns were sanctioned. In the same year commissioners were nominated by the crown to inquire (inter alia) as to a general system for railways in Ireland, and as to the best mode of directing the development of the means of intercourse to the channels whereby the greatest advantage might be obtained by the smallest outlay. The commissioners presented a very valuable report in 1838, but its specific recommendations were never adopted by the government, though they ultimately proved of service to the directors of private enterprises. Railway development in Ireland progressed at first very slowly and by 1845 only some 65 m. of railway were open. During the next ten years, however, there was a considerable advance, and in 1855 the Irish railways extended to almost l000 m. The total authorized capital of all Irish railways, exclusive of light railways, at the end of 1905 was £42,881,201, and the paid-up capital, including loans and debenture stock, amounted to £37,238,888. The total gross receipts from all sources of traffic in 1905 were £4, 0 43,3 68, of which £2,104,108 was derived from passenger traffic and £1,798,520 from goods traffic. The total number of passengers carried (exclusive of season and periodical ticketholders) was 27,950,150. Under the various acts passed to facilitate the construction of light railways in backward districts some 15 lines have been built, principally in the western part of the island from Donegal to Kerry. These railways are worked by existing companies.
The following table shows the principal Irish railways, their mileage and the districts which they serve.
| Name of Railway. | Mileage. | Districts Served. |
| Great Southern & | 2083 | The southern half of Lein- |
| Western | ster, the whole of Munster, and part of Connaught, the principal towns served being Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick and | |
| Sligo. | ||
| Midland Great Western | 538 | The central districts of Ire- land and a great part of |
| Connaught, the principal towns served being Dublin, Athlone, Galway and | ||
| Sligo. | ||
| Great Northern.. . | 533 | The northern half of Leinster and a great part of Ulster, the principal towns served being Dublin, Belfast, Londonderry, Dundalk, Drogheda, Armagh and |
| Lisburn. | ||
| Northern Counties' (now owned by the Midland | 249 | The counties of Antrim, Tyrone and Londonderry. |
| Railway of England) Dublinn & South Eastern' | 161 | The counties of Dublin, Wicklow, Wexford and |
| Waterford. | ||
| Donegal | 106 | The counties of Tyrone and |
| Donegal. | ||
| Londonderry & Lough | 99 | The counties of Londonderry |
| Swilly | and Donegal. | |
| Cork, Bandon & South | 95 | The counties of Cork and |
| Coast | Kerry. | |
| Belfast & County | 76 | The county of Down. |
| Down |
1 Formerly Belfast and Northern Counties.
Formerly Dublin, Wicklow. and Wexford.
There is no lack of cross-channel services between Ireland and Great Britain. Belfast is connected by daily sailings with Glasgow, Ardrossan, Liverpool, Feetwood, Barrow and Heysham Harbour, Dublin with Holyhead and Liverpool, Greenore (Co. Down) with Holyhead, Larne (Co. Antrim) with Stranraer, Rosslare(Co.Wexford) with Fishguard and Kingstown (Co. Dublin) with Holyhead.
Navigable Waterways
Ireland is intersected by a network of canals and waterways, which if efficiently managed and developed would prove of immense service to the country by affording a cheap means for the carriage of goods, especially agricultural produce. Two canals - the Grand and the Royal - connect Dublin with the Shannon; the former leading from the south of Dublin to Shannon Harbour and thence on the other side of that river to Ballinasloe, with numerous branches; the latter from the north side of Dublin to Cloondera on the Shannon, with a branch to Longford. The Barrow Navigation connects a branch of the Grand canal with the tidal part of the river Barrow. In Ulster the Bann navigation connects Coleraine, by means of Lough Neagh, with the Lagan navigation which serves Belfast; and the Ulster canal connects Lough Neagh with Lough Erne. The river Shannon is navigable for a distance of 143 m. in a direct course and occupies almost a central position between the east and west coasts.
Agriculture
Ireland possesses as a whole a soil which is naturally fertile and easily cultivated. Strong heavy clay soils, sandy and gravelly soils, are almost entirely absent; and the mixture of soil arising from the various stratifications and from the detritus carried down to the plains has created many districts of remarkable richness. The "Golden Vale" in Munster, which stretches from Cashel in Tipperary to near Limerick, probably forms the most fertile part of the country. The banks of the rivers Shannon, Suir, Nore, Barrow and Bann are lined with long stretches of flat lands capable of producing fine crops. In the districts of the Old and New Red Sandstone, which include the greater part of Cork and portions of Kerry, Waterford, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Mayo and Tipperary, the soil in the hollows is generally remarkably fertile. Even in the mountainous districts which are unsuitable for tillage there is often sufficient soil to yield, with the aid of the moist atmosphere, abundant pasturage of good quality. The excessive moisture in wet seasons in however hostile to cereal crops, especially in the southern and western districts, though improved drainage has done something to mitigate this evil, and might do a great deal more.
Irish political history has largely affected the condition of agriculture. Confiscations and settlements, prohibitive laws (such as those which ruined the woollen industry), penal enactments against the Roman Catholics, absenteeism, the creation for political purposes of 40s. freeholders, and other factors have combined to form a story which makes painful reading from whatever point of view, social or political, it be regarded. Happily, however, at the beginning of the 10th century Irish agriculture presented two new features which can be described without necessarily arousing any party question - the work of the Department of Agriculture and the spread of the principle of co-operation. Another outstanding feature has been the effect of the Land Purchase Acts in transferring the ownership of the land from the landlords to the tenants. Before dealing with these three features, some general statistics may be given bearing upon the condition of Irish agriculture.
Number of Holdings
Before 1846 the number of small holdings was inordinately large. In 1841, for example, there were no less than 310,436 of between 1 and 5 acres in extent, and 252,799 of between 5 and 15 acres. This condition of affairs was due mainly to two causes - to the 40s. franchise which prevailed between 1793 and 1829, and after that date to the fierce competition for land by a rapidly increasing population which had no other source of livelihood than agriculture. But the potato famine and the repeal of the Corn Laws, occurring almost simultaneously, caused an immediate and startling diminution in the number of smaller holdings. In 1851 the number between 1 and 5 acres in extent had fallen to 88,033 and the number between 5 and 15 acres had fallen to 191,854. Simultaneously the number between 15 and 30 acres had increased from 79,342 to 141,311, and the number above 30 acres from 48,625 to 149,090.
Since 1851 these tendencies have not been so marked. Thus in 1905 the number of holdings be tween 1 and 5 acres was 62,126, the number between 5 and 15 acres 154,560, the number between 15 and 30 acres 134,370 and the number above 30 acres 164,747. Generally speaking, however, it will be seen from the figures that since the middle of the 19th century holdings between I and 30 acres have decreased and holdings over 30 acres have increased. Of the total holdings under 30 acres considerably more than one-third are in Ulster, and of the holdings over 30 acres more than one-third are in Munster. The number of holdings of over 500 acres is only 1526, of which 475 are in Connaught. A considerable proportion, however, of these larger holdings, especially in Connaught, consist of more or less waste land, which at the best can only be used for raising a few sheep.
Tillage and Pasturage
The fact that probably about 1,000,000 acres formerly under potatoes went out of cultivation owing to the potato disease in 1847 makes a comparison between the figures for crops in that year with present figures somewhat fallacious. Starting, however, with that year as the most important in Irish economic history in modern times, we find that between 1847 and 1905 the total area under crops - cereals, green crops, flax, meadow and clover - decreased by 582,348 acres. Up to 1861, as the area formerly under potatoes came back gradually into cultivation, the acreage under crops increased; but since that year, when the total crop area was 5,890,536 acres, there has been a steady and gradual decline, the area in 1905 having fallen to 4,656,227 acres. An analysis of the returns shows that theydecline has been most marked in the acreage under cereal crops, especially wheat. In 1847 the number of acres under wheat was 743,871 and there has been a steady and practically continuous decrease ever since, the wheat acreage in 1905 being only 37,860 acres. In that year the wheat area, excluding less than 5000 acres in Connaught, was pretty equally divided between the other three provinces. Oats has always been the staple cereal crop in Ireland, but since 1847 its cultivation has declined by over 50%. In that year 2,200,870 acres were under oats and in 1905 only i,066,806 acres. Nearly one-half of the area under oats is to be found in Ulster; Leinster and Munster are fairly equal; and Connaught has something over ioo,000 acres under this crop. The area under barley and rye has also declined during the period under review by about one-half - from 345,070 acres in 1847 to 164,800 in 1905. The growing of these crops is confined almost entirely to Leinster and Munster. Taking all the cereal crops together, their cultivation during the last 60 years has gradually declined (from 3,313,579 acres in 1847 to 1,271,190 in 1905) by over 50%. The area, however, under green crops - potatoes, turnips, mangel-wurzel, beet, cabbage, &c., shows during the same period a much less marked decline - only some 300,000 acres. There has been a very considerable decrease since about 1861 in the acreage under potatoes. This is probably due to two causes - the emigration of the poorer classes who subsisted on that form of food, and the gradual introduction of a more varied dietary. The total area under potatoes in 1905 was 616,755 acres as compared with 1,133,504 acres in 1861. Since about 1885 the acreage under turnips has remained fairly stationary in the neighbourhood of 300,000 acres, while the cultivation of mangel-wurzel has considerably increased. Outside the recognized cereal and green crops, two others may be considered, flax and meadow and clover. The cultivation of the former is practically confined to Ulster and as compared with 20 or 30 years ago has fallen off by considerably more than 50%, despite the proximity of the linen industry. The number of acres under flax in 1905 was only 46,158. The Department of Agriculture has made efforts to improve and foster its cultivation, but without any marked results as regards increasing the area sown. During the period under review the area under meadow and clover has increased by more than 50%, rising from 1,138,946 acres in 1847 to 2,294,506 in 1905. It would thus appear that a large proportion of the land which has ceased to bear cereal or green crops is now laid down in meadow and clover. The balance has become pasturage, and the total area under grass in Ireland has so largely increased that it now embraces more than one-half of the entire country. This increase of the pastoral lands, with the corresponding decrease of the cropped lands, has been the marked feature of Irish agricultural returns since 1847. It is attributable to three chief reasons, the dearth of labour owing to emigration, the greater fall in prices of produce as compared with live stock, and the natural richness of the Irish pastures. The following table shows the growth of pasturage and the shrinkage of the crop areas since 1860.
F One more table may be given showing the proportional areas under the various kinds of crops, grass, woods and plantations, fallow, bog, waste, &c., over a series of years.
Produce and Live Stock
With the decrease of the area under cereal and green crops and the increase of pasturage there has naturally been a serious fall in the amount of agricultural produce and a considerable rise in the number of live stock since the middle of the 19th century. Thus in 1851 the number of cattle was returned as 2,967,461 and in 1905 as 4,645,215, the increase during the intervening period having been pretty gradual and general. Sheep in 1851 numbered 2,122,128 and in 1905 3,749,35 2, but the increase in this case has not been so continuous, several of the intervening years showing a considerably higher total than 1905, and for a good many years past the number of sheep has tended to decline. The number of pigs has also varied considerably; from year to year, 1905 showing an increase of about 150,000 as compared with 1851.
The Department of Agriculture
By an act of 1899 a Department of Agriculture and other industries and technical instruction was established in Ireland. To this department were transferred numerous powers and duties previously exercised by other authorities, including the Department of Science and Art. To assist the department the act also provided for the establishment of a council of agriculture, an agricultural board and a board of technical instruction, specifying the constitution of each of the three bodies. Certain moneys (exceeding 180,000 per annum) were placed by the act at the disposal of the department, provisions were made for their application, and it was enacted that local authorities might contribute funds. The powers and duties of the department are very wide, but under the present section its chief importance lies in its administrative work with regard to agriculture. In the annual reports of the department this work is usually treated under three heads: (1) agricultural instruction, (2) improvement of live stock, and (3) special investigations.
| Cultivated | Crops (other | Meadow | |||
| Year. | Total Area. | Area (Crops and Grass). | than Meadow and Clover). | and Clover. | Grass. |
| 1860 | 20,284,893 | 15,453,773 | 4,375,621 | 1 ,594,5 18 | 9,483,634 |
| 1880 | 20,327,764 | 15,340,192 | 3,171,259 | 1,909,825 | 10,259,108 |
| 1900 | 20,333,344 | 15,222,104 | 2,493,017 | 2, 16 5,7 1 5 | 10,563,372 |
| 1905 | 20,350,725 | 15,232,699 | 2,410,813 | 2,224,165 | 10,597,721 |
| Year. | Cereal C Crops | Green Crops. | Meadow and Clover. | Grass. | Total Agricultural Land. | Woods. | Fallow. | Waste. |
| 1851 | 15.2 | 6.7 | 6.i | 43.0 | 71 0 | I .5 | 1 0 | 25.7 |
| 1880 | 8.1 | 5.5 | 8.1 | ' 50.5 | 72.2 | 1 7 | 0.0 | 22.8 |
| 1905 | 6.3 | 5.3 | 11.3 | 1'52.1 | 75.0 | 1 5 | 0.0 | 23.5 |
1. The ultimate aim of the department's policy in the matter of agricultural instruction is, as defined by itself, to place within the reach of a large number of young men and young women the means of obtaining in their own country a good technical knowledge of all subjects relating to agriculture, an object which prior to the establishment of the department was for all practical purposes unattainable. Before such a scheme could be put into operation two things had to be done. In the first place, the department had to train teachers of agricultural subjects; and secondly, it had to demonstrate to farmers all over Ireland by a system of itinerant instruction some of the advantages of such technical instruction, in order to induce them to make some sacrifice to obtain a suitable education for their sons and daughters. In order to accomplish the first of these two preliminaries, the department established a Faculty of Agriculture at the Royal College of Science in Dublin, and offered a considerable number of scholarships the competition for which becomes increasingly keen. They also reorganized the Albert Agricultural College at Glasnevin for young men who have neither the time nor the means to attend the highly specialized courses at the Royal College of Science; and the Munster Institute at Cork is now devoted solely to the instruction of girls in such subjects as butter-making, poultry-keeping, calf-rearing, cooking, laundry-work, sewing and gardening. In addition to these three permanent institutions, local schools and classes have been established in different parts of the country where systematic instruction in technical agriculture is given to young men. In this and in other branches of its work the department is assisted by agricultural committees appointed by the county councils. The number of itinerant instructors is governed entirely by the available supply of qualified men. The services of every available student on completing his course at the Royal College of Science are secured by some county council committee. The work of the itinerant instructors is very varied. They hold classes and carry out field demonstrations and experiments, the results of which are duly published in the department's journal. The department has also endeavoured to encourage the fruit-growing industry in Ireland by the establishment of a horticultural school at Glasnevin, by efforts to secure uniformity in the packing and grading of fruit, by the establishment of experimental fruit-preserving factories, by the planting of orchards on a large scale in a few districts, and by pioneer lectures. As the result of all these efforts there has been an enormous increase in the demand for fruit trees of all kinds.
2. The marked tendency which has been visible for so many years in Ireland for pasturage to increase at the expense of tillage makes the improvement of live-stock a matter of vital importance to all concerned in agriculture. Elaborate schemes applicable to horsebreeding, cattle-breeding and swine-breeding, have been drawn up by the department on the advice of experts, but the working of the schemes is for the most part left to the various county council committees. The benefits arising from these schemes are being more and more realized by farmers, and the department is able to report an increase in the number of pure bred cattle and horses in Ireland.
3. The special investigations carried out by the department naturally vary from year to year, but one of the duties of each instructor in agriculture is to conduct a number of field experiments, mainly on the influence of manures and seeds in the yield of crops. The results of these experiments are issued in the form of leaflets and distributed widely among farmers. One of the most interesting experiments, which may have far reaching economic effects, has been in the cultivation of tobacco. So far it has been proved (1) that the tobacco plant can be grown successfully in Ireland, and (2) that the crop when blended with American leaf can be manufactured into a mixture suitable for smoking. But whether Irish tobacco can be made a profitable crop depends upon a good many other considerations.
beyond all question one of the most hopeful features in Irish agriculture.
Perhaps the chief success of the society was seen in the establishment of creameries, which at the end of 1905 numbered 275-123 in Ulster, 102 in Munster, 20 in Leinster and 30 in Connaught. The members numbered over 42,000 and the trade turnover for the year was £1,245,000. Agricultural societies have been established for the purchase of seed, implements, &c., on co-operative lines and of these there are 150, with a membership of some 14,000. The society was also successful in establishing a large number of credit societies, from which farmers can borrow at a low rate of interest. There are also societies for poultry-rearing, rural industries, bee-keeping, bacon-curing, &c., in connexion with the central organization. The system is rounded off by a number of trade federations for the sale and purchase of various commodities. The Department of Agriculture encourages the work of the Organization Society by an annual grant.
| Classification. | No. Estates. | No. of Purchasers. | Purchase Money. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price. | Amount of Advances | Amount of Proposed | |||
| applied for. | Cash Payments. | ||||
| Direct Sales.. | 3446 | 86,898 | £32,811,564 | £32,692,066 | £119,498 |
| Sections 6 and 8 . | 54 | 3,5671 | 1,231,014 | 1,226,832 | 4,182 |
| Section 7.. . | 29 | 1,1741 | 383,388 | 381,722 | 1,666 |
| Sections 72 and 79 . | 67 | 5,6061 | 975,211 | 975,211 | . . |
| Total. .. . | 3596 | 97,245 | £35401,177 | £35,275,831 | £ 125,346 |
| Classification. | No. of Estates. | No. of Purchasers. | Purchase Money. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price. | Amount of Advances | Amount of | |||
| made. | Cash Payments. | ||||
| Direct Sales.. . | 925 | 16,732 | £8,317,063 | £8,226,736 | £90,327 |
| Sections 6 and 8 . | 40 | 3,047 | 1,048,459 | 1,047,007 | 1,452 |
| Section 7.. . | 29 | 1,174 | 383,388 | 381722 | 1,666 |
| Sections 72 and 79 . | 12 | 763 | 199,581 | 199,581 | - |
| Total. .. . | 1006 | 21,716 | £9,948,491 | £9,855,046 | £93445 |
Land Laws
The relations of landlord and tenant in Ireland have been a frequent subject of legislation (see History below). Under the act of 1881, down to the 31st of March 1906, the rents of 360,135 holdings, representing nearly 11,000,000 acres, had been fixed for the first statutory term of 15 years either by the land commissioners or by agreements between landlords and tenants, the aggregate reduction being over 20% as compared with the old rents. The rents of 120,515 holdings, representing over 3,500,000 acres, had been further fixed for the second statutory term, the aggregate reduction being over 19% as compared with the first term rents. Although the acts of 1870 and 1881 provided facilities for the purchase of holdings by the tenants, it was only after the passing of the Ashbourne Act in 1885 that the transfer of ownership to the occupying tenants began on an extended scale. Under this act between 1885 and 1902, when further proceedings were suspended, the number of loans issued was 2 5,3 6 7 (4221 in Leinster; 5204 in Munster; 12,954 in Ulster, and 2988 in Connaught) and the amount was £9,99 2 ,53 6. Between August 1891 and April 1906, the number of loans issued under the acts of 1891 and 1896 was 40,395 (7838 in Leinster; 7512 in Munster; 14,955 in Ulster, and 10,090 in Connaught) and the amount was £11,573,952. Under the Wyndham Act of 1903 the process was greatly extended., The following tables give summarized particulars, for the period from the 1st of November 1903 to the 31st of March 1906, of (1) estates for which purchase agreements were lodged in cases of sale direct from landlords to tenants; (2) estates for the purchase of which the Land Commission entered into agreements under sects. 6 and 8 of the act; (3) estates in which the offers of the Land Commission to purchase under sect. 7were accepted by the land judge; and (4) estates for the purchase of which, under sections 72 and 79, originating requests were transmitted by the Congested Districts Board to the Land Commission Agricultural Co-operation. - In 1894 the efforts of a number of Irishmen drawn from all political parties were successfully directed towards the formation of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society, which has for its object the organizing of groups of farmers on co-operative principles and the provision of instruction in proper technical methods. The society had at first many difficulties to con front, but after the first two or three years of its existence It will be seen from these two tables that though the amount of its progress became more rapid, and co-operation became advances applied for during the period dealt with amounted to over Estimated number of purchasers on resale.
£35, 000, 000 the actual advances made were less than £io,000,000. It will be seen further that the act operated almost entirely by means of direct sales by landlords to tenants. Of the total amount advanced up to March 31, 1906, almost one-half was in respect of estates in the province of Leinster, the balance being divided pretty equally between estates in the other three provinces.
Fisheries
The deep-sea and coast fisheries of Ireland form a valuable national asset, which still admits of much development and improvement despite the fact that a considerable number of acts of parliament have been passed to promote and foster the fishing industry. In 1882 the Commissioners of Public Works were given further powers to lend money to fishermen on the recommendation of the inspectors of fisheries; and under an act of 1883 the Land Commission was authorized to pay from time to time such sums, not exceeding in all £250,000, as the Commissioners of Public Works might require, for the creation of a Sea Fishery Fund, such fund to be expended - a sum of about £240,000 has been expended - on the construction and improvement of piers and harbours. Specific acts have also been passed for the establishment and development of oyster, pollan and mussel fisheries. Under the Land Purchase Act 1891, a portion of the Sea Fisheries Fund was reserved for administration by the inspectors of fisheries in non-congested districts. Under this head over £36,000 had been advanced on loan up to December 31, 1905, the greater portion of which had been repaid. In 1900 the powers and duties of the inspectors of fisheries were vested in the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction. Under the Marine Works Act 1902, which was intended to benefit and develop industries where the people were suffering from congestion, about £34,000 was expended upon the construction and improvement of fishery harbours in such districts.
For administrative purposes Ireland is divided into 31 deep-sea and coast fisheries and during 1905, 6190 vessels were engaged in these districts, giving employment to a total of 24,288 hands. Excluding salmon, nearly one million hundredweights of fish were taken, and including shell-fish the total money received by the fishermen exceeded £414,000. In the same year 13,436 hands were engaged in the 25 salmon fishing districts into which the country is divided. In addition to the organized industry which exists in these salmon districts, there is a good deal of ordinary rod and line fishing in the higher reaches of the larger rivers and good trout fishing is obtainable in many districts.
Mining
The mineral produce of Ireland is very limited, and its mines and quarries in 1905 gave employment to only about 6000 persons. Coal-fields are found in all the provinces, but in 1905 the total output was less than ioo,000 tons and its value at the mines was given as £43,000. Iron ore is worked in Co. Antrim, over 113,000 tons having been produced in 1905. Alum clay or bauxite, from which aluminium is manufactured, is found in the same county. Clays of various kinds, mainly fire and brick clay, are obtained in several places and there are quarries of marble (notably in Connemara), slate, granite, limestone and sandstone, the output of which is considerable. Silver is obtained in small quantities from lead ore in Co. Donegal, and hopes have been entertained of the re-discovery of gold in Co. Wicklow, where regular workings were established about 1796 but were destroyed during the Rebellion.
Woollen Manufacture
At an early period the woollen manufactures of Ireland had won a high reputation and were exported in considerable quantities to foreign countries. Bonifazio Uberti (d. c. 1367) refers in a posthumous poem called Dita mundi to the " noble serge " which Ireland sent to Italy, and fine mantles of Irish frieze are mentioned in a list of goods exported from England to Pope Urban VI. In later times, the establishment of a colony from the German Palatinate at Carrick-on-Suir in the reign of James I. served to stimulate the manufacture, but in the succeeding reign the lord-deputy Strafford adopted the policy of fostering the linen trade at the expense of the woollen in order to prevent the latter from competing with English products. An act of the reign of Charles II. prohibited the export of raw wool to foreign countries from Ireland as well as England, while at the same time Ireland was practically excluded by heavy duties from the English markets, and as the Navigation Act of 1663 did not apply to her the colonial market was also closed against Irish exports. The foreign market, however, was still open, and after the prohibition of the export of Irish cattle to England the Irish farmers turned their attention to the breeding of sheep, with such good effect that the woollen manufacture increased with great rapidity. Moreover the improved quality of the wool showed itself in the improvement of the finished article, to the great alarm of the English manufacturer. So much trade jealousy was aroused that both Houses of Parliament petitioned William III. to interfere. In accordance with his wishes the Irish parliament in 1698 placed heavy additional duties on all woollen clothing (except friezes) exported from Ireland, and in 1699 the English Parliament passed an act prohibiting the export from Ireland of all woollen goods to any country except England, to any port of England except six, and from any town in Ireland except six. The cumulative effect of these acts was practically to annihilate the woollen manufacture in Ireland and to reduce whole districts and towns, in which thousands of persons were directly or indirectly supported by the industry, to the last verge of poverty. According to Newenham's tables the annual average of new drapery exported from Ireland for the three years ending March 1702 was only 20 pieces, while the export of woollen yarn; worsted yarn and wool, which to England was free, amounted to 349,410 stones. In his essay on the Trade of Ireland, published in 1729, Arthur Dobbs estimated the medium exports of wool, worsted and woollen yarn at 227,049 stones, and he valued the export of manufactured woollen goods at only £2353. On the other hand, the imports steadily rose. Between 1779 and 1782 the various acts which had hampered the Irish woollen trade were either repealed or modified, but after a brief period of deceptive prosperity followed by failure and distress, the expansion of the trade was limited to the partial supply of the home market. According to evidence laid before the House of Commons in 1822 one-third of the woollen cloth used in Ireland was imported from England. A return presented to Parliament in 1837 stated that the number of woollen or worsted factories in Ireland was 46, employing 1321 hands. In 1879 the number of factories was 76 and the number of hands 2022. Since then the industry has shown some tendency to increase, though the number of persons employed is still comparatively very small, some 3 500 hands.
Linen Manufacture
Flax was cultivated at a very early period in Ireland and was both spun into thread and manufactured into cloth. In the time of Henry VIII. the manufacture constituted one of the principal branches of Irish trade, but it did not prove a very serious rival to the woollen industry until the policy of England was directed to the discouragement of the latter. Strafford, lord-deputy in the reign of Charles I., did much to foster the linen industry. He invested a large sum of his own money in it, imported great quantities of flax seed from Holland and induced skilled workmen from France and the Netherlands to settle in Ireland. A similar policy was pursued with even more energy by his successor in office, the duke of Ormonde, at whose instigation an Irish act was passed in 1665 to encourage the growth of flax and the manufacture of linen. He also established factories and brought over families from Brabant and France to work in them. The English parliament in their desire to encourage the linen industry at the expense of the woollen, followed Ormonde's lead by passing an act inviting foreign workmen to settle in Ireland, and admitting all articles made of flax or hemp into England free of duty. In 1710, in accordance with an arrangement made between the two kingdoms, a board of trustees was appointed to whom a considerable sum was granted annually for the promotion of the linen manufacture; but the jealousy of English merchants interposed to check the industry whenever it threatened to assume proportions which might interfere with their own trade, and by an act of George II. a tax was imposed on Irish sail-cloth imported into England, which for the time practically ruined the hempen manufacture. Between 1700 and 1777 the board of trustees expended nearly £850,000 on the promotion of the linen trade, ] and in addition parliamentary bounties were paid on a considerable scale. In 1727 Arthur Dobbs estimated the value of the whole manufacture at £I,000,000. In 1830 the Linen Board ceased to exist, the trade having been for some time in a very depressed condition owing to the importation of machine-made yarns from Scotland and England. A year or two later, however, machinery was introduced on a large scale on the river Bann. The experiment proved highly successful, and from this period may be dated the rise of the linen trade of Ulster, the only great industrial manufacture of which Ireland can boast. Belfast is the centre and market of the trade, but mills and factories are to be found dotted all over the eastern counties of Ulster.
In 1850 the number of spindles was 396,338 and of power looms 58; in 1905 the corresponding figures were 826,528 and 34,498. In 1850 the number of persons employed in flax mills and factories was 21,121; in 1901 the number in flax, hemp and jute textile factories was 64,802.
Cotton Manufacture.-This was introduced into Ireland in 1 777 and under the protection of import duties and bounties increased so rapidly that in 1800 it gave employment to several thousand persons, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Belfast. The trade continued to grow for several years despite the removal of the duties; and the value of cotton goods exported from Ireland to Great Britain rose from £708 in 1814 to £347,606 in 1823. In 1822 the number of hands employed in the industry was stated to be over 17,000. The introduction of machinery, however, which led to the rise of the great cotton industry of Lancashire, had very prejudicial effects, and by 1839 the number of persons employed had fallen to 4622. The trade has dwindled ever since and is now quite insignificant.
Silk Manufacture.-About the end of the 17th century French Huguenots settled in Dublin and started the manufacture of Irish poplin, a mixture of silk and wool. In 1823 between 3000 and 4000 persons were employed. But with the abolition of the protective duties in 1826 a decline set in; and though Irish poplin is still celebrated, the industry now gives employment to a mere handful of people in Dublin.
Distilling and Brewing.-Whisky has been extensively distilled in Ireland for several centuries. An excise duty was first imposed in 1661, the rate charged being 4d. a gallon. The imposition of a duty gave rise to a large amount of illicit distillation, a practice which still prevails to some extent, though efficient police methods have largely reduced it. During recent years the amount of whisky produced has shown a tendency to decrease. In 1900 the number of gallons charged with duty was 9,589,571, in 1903 8,215,355, and in 1906 7,337,928. There are breweries in most of the larger Irish towns, and Dublin is celebrated for the porter produced by the firm of Arthur Guinness & Son, the largest establishment of the kind in the world. The number of barrels of beer-the inclusive term used by the Inland Revenue Department-charged with duty in 1906 was 3,275,309, showing an increase of over 200,000 as compared with 1900.
| Articles. | 1900. | 1902. | 1904. | 1906. |
| Beer.. . | £983,841 | £1,200,711 | £1,262,186 | £ 1,227,528 |
| Licences. . | 209,577 | 213,092 | 213,964 | 214,247 |
| Spirits. . | 4,952,061 | 4,292,286 | 4,3 11 ,7 6 3 | 3,952,509 |
| Other sources | 502 | 436 | 508 | 798 |
| Total. . | £ 6, 1 45,9 81 | £5,7 06 ,5 2 5 | £5,7 88 ,4 21 | £5,395,082 |
The following table shows the net annual amount of excise duties received in Ireland in a series of years: Other Industries.-Shipbuilding is practically confined to Belfast, where the firm of Harland and Wolff, the builders of the great " White Star " liners, have one of the largest yards in the world, giving employment to several thousand hands. There are extensive engineering works in the same city which supply the machinery and other requirements of the linen industry. Paper is manufactured on a considerable scale in various places, and Balbriggan is celebrated for its hosiery.
Commerce and Shipping.-From allusions in ancient writers it would appear that in early times Ireland had a considerable commercial intercourse with various parts of Europe. When the merchants of Dublin fled from their city at the time of the AngloNorman invasion it was given by Henry II. to merchants from Bristol, to whom free trade with other portions of the kingdom was granted as well as other advantages. In the Staple Act of Edward III., Dublin, Waterford, Cork and Drogheda are mentioned as among the towns where staple goods could be purchased by foreign merchants. During the 15th century the trade of these and other towns increased rapidly. With the 17th century began the restrictions on Irish trade. In 1637 duties were imposed on the chief commodities to foreign nations not in league with England. Ireland was left out of the Navigation Act of 1663 and in the same year was prohibited from exporting cattle to England in any month previous to July. Sir William Petty estimated the value of Irish exports in 1672 at £500,000 per annum, and owing principally to the prosperity of the woollen industry these had risen in value in 1698 to £996,000, the imports in the same year amounting to £576,000. A rapid fall in exports followed upon the prohibition of the export of woollen manufactures to foreign countries, but in about 20 years' time a recovery took place, due in part to the increase of the linen trade. Statistics of exports and imports were compiled for various years by writers like Newenham, Arthur Young and Cesar Moreau, but these are vitiated by being given in Irish currency which was altered from time to time, and by the fact that the method of rating at the custom-house also varied. Taking the figures, however, for what they are worth, it appears that between 1701 and 1710 the average annual exports from Ireland to all parts of the world were valued at £553,000 (to Great Britain, £242,000) and the average annual imports at £513,000 (from Great Britain, £242,000). Between 1751 and 1760 the annual values had risen for exports to £2,002,000 (to Great Britain, £1,068,000) and for imports to £1,594,000 (from Great Britain, £734,000). Between 1794 and 1803 the figures had further risen to £4,310,000 (to Great Britain, £3,667,000) and £4,572,000 (from Great Britain £3,404,000). It is clear, therefore, that during the 18th century the increase of commerce was considerable.
| Year. | Cattle. | Sheep. | Swine. | Total. |
| 1891 | 630,802 | 8 93, 1 75 | 5 0 5,5 8 4 | 2,029,561 |
| 1900 | 745,519 | 862,263 | 715,202 | 2,322,984 |
| 1905 | 749, 1 3 1 | 700,626 | 3 6 3,973 | 1,813,730 |
In 1825 the shipping duties on the cross-Channel trade were abolished and since that date no official figures are available as to a large part of Irish trade with Great Britain. The export of cattle and other animals, however, is the most important part of this trade and details of this appear in the following table: The value of the animals exported in 1905 was estimated (at certain standard rates) at about £14,000,000.
Since 1870 the Board of Trade has ceased to give returns of the foreign and colonial trade for each of the separate kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland. Returns are given, however, for the principal ports of each kingdom. Between 1886 and 1905 these imports at the Irish ports rose from £6,802,000 in value to £12,394,000 and the exports from £825,000 to £1,887,000.
| Ports. | 1901. | 1902. | 1903. | 1904. | 1905. |
| Dublin- | £ | £ | £ | £ | £ |
| Imports | 2,666,000 | 2,856,000 | 3,138,000 | 2,771,000 | 2,664,000 |
| Exports | 54,000 | 63,000 | 122,000 | 79,000 | 78,000 |
| Belfast- | |||||
| Imports | 6,626,000 | 6,999,000 | 7,773,000 | 7,033,000 | 6,671,000 |
| Exports | 1,442,000 | 1,344,000 | 1,122,000 | 1,332,000 | 1,780,000 |
| Cork- | |||||
| Imports | 1,062,000 | I,114,000 | 1,193,000 | I,156,000 | I,010,000 |
| Exports | 15,000 | 17,000 | 6,000 | 8,000 | 5,000 |
| Limerick- | |||||
| Imports | 826,000 | 913,000 | 855,000 | 935,000 | 854,000 |
| Exports | 2,000 | 400 | 3,000 | 600 | 3,000 |
| Imports. | Exports. | |
| I. Farm Produce, Food and Drink | ||
| Stuffs- (a) Live-stock, meat, bacon, fish and dairy produce.. . | £3,028,170 | £23,445,122 |
| 11,859,201 | 1,721,753 | |
| 919,161 | . 4,222,194 | |
| 4,230,478 | 1,121,267 | |
| II. Raw Materials- (a) Coal | 2,663,523 | |
| (b) Wood. ... . | 1,880,095 | 235,479 |
| (c) Mineral | 1,012,822 | 282,081 |
| (d) Animal and vegetable products | 4,529,002 | 3,067,398 |
| III. Goods, partly manufactured or of simple manufacture . | 7,996,143 | 2,576,993 |
| IV. Manufactured goods.. . | 17,059,611 | 9,934,145 |
The following table shows the value of the total imports and exports of merchandise in the foreign and colonial trade at the ports of Dublin, Belfast and Limerick in each of the years 1901-1905: The Department of Agriculture published in 1906 a report on the imports and exports at Irish ports for the year 1904. In this report, the compiling of which presented great difficulties in the absence of official returns, are included (I) the direct trade between Ireland and all countries outside of Great Britain, (2) the indirect trade of Ireland with those same countries via Great Britain, and (3) the local trade between Ireland and Great Britain. The value of imports in 1904 is put at £55,148,206, and of exports at £46,606,432. But it is pointed out in the report that while the returns as regards farm produce, food stuffs, and raw materials may be considered approximately complete, the information as to manufactured goods-especially of the more valuable grades-is rough and inadequate. It was estimated that the aggregate value of the actual import and export trade in 1904 probably exceeded a total of £105,000,000. The following table gives some details From the figures given in the report it would appear that there was in 1904 an excess of imports amounting to over £8,500,000. But owing to the imperfect state of existing information, it is impossible to say with any certainty what is the real state of the balance of visible trade between Ireland and other countries.
Shipping returns also throw some light upon the commercial condition of Ireland. Old figures are not of much value, but it may be stated that Arthur Dobbs gives the number of ships engaged in the Irish trade in 1721 as X334 with a tonnage of 158,414. According to the statistics of Cesar Moreau the number of ships belonging to Irish ports in 1788 was 1016 with a tonnage of over 60,000, and in 1826 they had increased, according to the trade and navigation returns, to 1391 with a tonnage of over 90,000. In 1905 the vessels registered at Irish ports numbered 934 with a tonnage of over 259,000. In the same year the vessels entering and clearing in the colonial and foreign trade numbered 1199 with a tonnage of over 1,086,000, and the vessels entering and clearing in the trade between Great Britain and Ireland numbered 41,983 with a tonnage of over 9,776,000.
Government, &c.-The executive government of Ireland is vested in a lord-lieutenant, assisted by a privy council and by a chief secretary, who is always a member of the House of Commons and generally of the cabinet. There are a large number of administrative departments and boards, some, like the Board of Trade, discharging the same duties as the similar department in England; others, like the Congested Districts Board, dealing with matters of purely Irish concern.
Parliamentary Representation.-The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 entirely altered the parliamentary representation of Ireland. Twenty-two small boroughs were disfranchized. The towns of Galway, Limerick and Waterford lost one member each, while Dublin and Belfast were respectively divided into four divisions, each returning one member. As a result of these changes 85 members now represent the counties, 16 the boroughs, and 2 Dublin University-a total of 103. The total number of electors (exclusive of Dublin University) in 1906 was 686,661; 11 3,595 for the boroughs and 573,066 for the counties. Ireland is represented in the House of Lords by 28 temporal peers elected for life from among the Irish peers.
Local Government.-Irish local government was entirely remodelled by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, which conferred on Ireland the same system and measure of self-government enjoyed by Great Britain. The administrative and fiscal duties previously exercised by the grand jury in each county were transferred to a county council, new administrative counties being formed for the purposes of the act, in some cases by the alteration of existing boundaries. To the county councils were also assigned the power of assessing and levying the poor rate in rural districts, the management of lunatic asylums, and the administration of certain acts such as the Explosives Act, the Technical Education Act and the Diseases of Animals Act. Subordinate district councils, urban and rural, were also established as in England and Scotland to manage the various local areas within each county. The provisions made for the administration of the Poor Law by the act under consideration are very complicated, but roughly it may be said that it was handed over to these new subordinate local bodies. Six towns-Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Londonderry and Waterford-were constituted county boroughs governed by separate county councils; and five boroughs-Kilkenny, Sligo, Clonmel, Drogheda and Wexford-retained their former corporations. The act provides facilities for the conversion into urban districts of (1) towns having town commissioners who are not sanitary authorities and (2) non-municipal towns with populations of over i 50o and entitled to petition for town commissioners.
Justice.-The Supreme Court of Judicature is constituted as follows: the court of appeal, which consists of the lord chancellor, the lord chief justice, and the master of the rolls and the chief baron of the exchequer as ex-officio members, and two lords justices of appeal; and the high court of justice which includes (1) the chancery division, composed of the lord chancellor, the master of the rolls and two justices, (2) the king's bench division composed of the lord chief justice, the chief baron of the exchequer and eight justices, and (3) the land commissions with two judicial commissioners. At the first vacancy the title and rank of chief baron of the exchequer will be abolished and the office reduced to a puisne judgeship. By the County Officers and Courts (Ireland) Act 1877, it was provided that the chairmen of quarter sessions should be called " county court judges and chairmen of quarter sessions " and that their number should be reduced to twenty-one, which was to include the recorders of Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Londonderry and Galway. At the same time the jurisdiction of the county courts was largely extended. There are 66 resident (stipendiary) magistrates, and four police magistrates in Dublin.
Police.-The Royal Irish Constabulary were established in 1822 and consisted at first of 5000 men under an inspectorgeneral for each of the four provinces. In 1836 the entire force was amalgamated under one inspector-general. The force at present consists of about 10,000 men of all ranks, and costs over £1,300,000 a year. Dublin has a separate metropolitan police force.
| Year. | Committed. | Convicted. | Acquitted. |
| 1886 | 3,028 | 1,619 | 1286 |
| 1891 | 2,112 | 1,255 | 669 |
| 1900 | 1,682 | 1,087 | 331 |
| 1905 | 2,060 | 1,367 | 417 |
Crime.-The following table shows the number of persons committed for trial, convicted and acquitted in Ireland in 1886, 1891, 1900 and 1905: Of rthe 1367 convicted in 1905, 375 were charged with offences against the person, 205 with offences against property with violence, 545 with offences against property without violence, 52 with malicious injury to property, 44 with forgery and offences against the currency, and 146 with other offences. In 1904, 81,775 cases of drunkenness were brought before Irish magistrates as compared with 227,403 in England and 43,580 in Scotland.
| Year. | Aggregate number relieved during the year. | Total Annual Expenditure. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indoor. | Outdoor. | Total. | ||
| 1902 | 363,483 | 105,501 | 468,984 | £1,026,691 |
| 1903 | 3 6 3, 0 9 1 | 99, 1 5 0 | 452,241 | 986,301 |
| 1904 | 39 0, 0 47 | 9 8, 60 7 | 4 88, 6 54 | 1,033,168 |
| 1905 | 434,117 | 124,697 | 558,814 | 1,066,733 |
Poor Law.-The following table gives the numbers in receipt of indoor and outdoor relief (exclusive of persons in institutions for the blind, deaf and dumb, and for idiots and imbeciles) in the years 1902-1905, together with the total expenditure for relief of the poor: The average daily number in receipt of relief of all kinds (except outdoor relief) during the same years was as follows: 1902, 41,163; 1903, 43, 600; 1904, 43,7 21; 1905, 43,9 11. The percentage of indoor paupers to the estimated population in 1905 was I 00.
Congested Districts Board
This body was constituted by the Purchase of Land Act 1891, and is composed of the chief secretary, a member of the Land Commission and five other members. A considerable sum of money was placed at its disposal for carrying out the objects for which it was created. It was provided that where more than zo% o