The 1926 census of Ireland, containing records of nearly three million people, is now free to search online.
The census was conducted on 18 April 1926. The records were closed for 100 years due to privacy reasons, but have been released on the National Archives of Ireland website exactly a century later.
Patrick O’Donovan, Ireland’s minister for culture, communications and sport, said that the census release was “a historic moment, offering an invaluable account of life in the early years of the Free State.”
The census was the first census of Ireland conducted after it became the Irish Free State, an independent dominion of the British Empire, in 1922.
In total, it consists of 630,048 household return sheets containing the details of 2,971,992 people.
The records can be searched by first and last names, county, townland or street and district electoral division. The results can then be filtered by additional factors such as age and religion.
Each census result consists of a household form and a series of house and building return forms.
The household form lists each member of the household and records their name, relationship to the head of household; age; sex; birthplace; religion; occupation; employer; and whether they speak Irish.
It records the marital status of the adults and, for children under 15, whether their parents are living or dead.
Married women are required to state the number of years and months their marriage has lasted and the number of children born alive to the marriage, and all married and widowed adults must give their number of living children and stepchildren under 16.
For example, the celebrated Irish-American actress Maureen O’Hara (1920-2015) appears in the census under her birth name of Maureen FitzSimons.
Maureen’s census entry includes a household form and the house and building return forms for Upper Beechwood Avenue, Dublin.
These include the address of each house, the name of the head of household, the date on which the return was filled in, the number of people in the family and the number of rooms occupied.
Viewing the building return forms reveals Maureen’s father, Charles FitzSimons, is the head of household for 32 Upper Beechwood Avenue.
The household form shows that Charles is 36 and works as a shop assistant at J Woodrow Sons Ltd.
He lives with his wife Marguerite and their children: six-year-old Bridget, five-year-old Maureen, three-year-old Florence, one-year-old Charles and two-month-old Margot.
Also living with them are Charles’ brother Bernard and his wife Florence, and a servant called Bessie Clinton.
Other famous Irish people appear in the census. For example, the celebrated poet William Butler Yeats is 60 years old and living at Merrion Square South, Dublin, with his wife Bertha and their two young children and three servants.
To celebrate the release of the census, the National Archives of Ireland has appointed 48 people as Centenarian Ambassadors – individuals who appear in the census and are still alive today.
They were born between 1920 and 1926 and are now living in Ireland, the UK, the USA, Canada and Australia.
As part of the programme, each ambassador took part in a short, recorded conversation about their life and memories. These video and photo stories will be shared in association with Census 1926 activities around the country.
Joseph Davis from Cork, one of the Centenarian Ambassadors, said: “It was a trip down a long memory lane sharing my story with the team at the National Archives and I hope people find our stories interesting.”
Orlaith McBride, director of the National Archives of Ireland, said: “The census isn’t about lists and numbers; it’s about the people living in Ireland in 1926 and all of their descendants today.”
