Excellent!
Now, how about adding similar paragraphs for DEDs and PLUs something along these lines?
Poor Law Unions (PLUs)
On 31st July 1838, an Act 'for the more effectual Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland' was passed, dividing the country into Poor Law Unions. There were a number of subsequent subdivisions and amalgamations of Unions. Eventually, the 2,238 or so townlands of County Clare were assigned to eight and a bit Poor Law Unions - the Limerick PLU straddled the county boundary, as did the Scarriff PLU until the county boundary was altered in 1898. The average Clare PLU comprised approximately 263 townlands. Further details are given at
http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Ireland/Un ... .shtml#CLAThe PLU boundaries respected neither parish nor county boundaries; some PLUs in other parts of Ireland contained parts of three different counties. Each PLU was governed by an elected Board of Guardians, being divided into a number of District Electoral Divisions, each of which returned one elected guardian in an annual election. (There were also
ex officio guardians.) Extensive details of the Clare Poor Law Elections 1839-1898 are on pp.460-610 of
The Clare Elections by Kieran Sheedy (Bauroe Publications, 1993). When Civil Registration was introduced, the Poor Law Unions became the basis of the Superintendent Registrar's Districts.
District Electoral Divisions (DEDs)
When the Poor Law Unions were set up in 1838, the townlands of County Clare were assigned to approximately 155 District Electoral Divisions, each returning one Guardian annually to the relevant Board of Guardians. The average DED comprised approximately 14 townlands and the average PLU comprised approximately 18 DEDs. Under the Medical Charities Act of 1851, another subdivision between the DED and the PLU was introduced, originally called Dispensary Districts and later known as Registrar's or Registration Districts. Clare was divided into 28 Dispensary Districts, so that the average Dispensary District comprised about 6 DEDs and the average PLU comprised just over 3 Dispensary Districts. Census returns were compiled and collated on the basis of DEDs, which is how they are arranged for browsing on this website (
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... s_deds.htm) and on the National Archives website (
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Clare/ and
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Clare/). The original DEDs of 1838 evolved into the 154 DEDs used in 1901 and the 155 Electoral Divisions into which Clare is divided for the purpose of modern censuses at
http://census.cso.ie/censusasp/saps/Pag ... 6_live.asp-----
The Microsoft Excel pivot tables which I used to calculate the averages above may not be completely reliable as in the present index there are some minor anomalies, presumably mostly arising from adjustments to boundaries over the years:
Crusheen DED in Ennis Union contains one townland in Corrofin Union (Caheraphuca)
Kilfenora DED in Ennistimon Union contains three townlands in Corrofin Union (Ballycasheen; Bunnanagat North; Bunnanagat South)
Ennis Rural DED is split between Ennis No. 1 and Crusheen Reg Districts (Rosslevan and Ballycorey are in Crusheen)
Ennis Rural Reg District contains only one townland (Newpark [Templemaley])
Cloghaun Beg and Cloghaun More and Gortalougha townlands are in Ennistymon with a Y, but elsewhere Ennistimon is spelled with two Is.
Ten townlands in Cloonagarnaun DED should probably be in Cloonadrum
In Drummaan DED, Illaunmore and Whitegate are down as Feakle Reg District, but the rest of the DED as Mountshannon
Inishcaltra-South (with a hyphen) and Inishcaltra South (without a hyphen) are treated as different DEDs