West Clare, 1816, an Irish "West Side Story"

[smcarberry]

A Statistical Account, Or, Parochial Survey of Ireland
By William Shaw Mason

Google Books (main Google page, use link for "more" in upper lefthand corner of the screen, then click on "books") has a set of statistical surveys of selected Irish districts, published in 1816, and addressed to an Exchequer officer named William Vesey Fitzgerald, likely the Clare man of that name. No wonder one of the half-dozen districts was a Clare one: Kilrush, described in exquisite detail. It is worth reaching (I suggest using the author's name as a search term) if only to read about the way in which bog trees were found. More than that, income-producing activities are comprehensively covered, including turf-cutting for the Limerick market. Diseases and customs are described. To give the gist of such descriptions, here is a section on p. 455:

"The genius of the poorer classes here is acute, and wants only the aid of education to develope and cherish it. Their disposition is kind, but...classed into clans, families, and factions, they violently resent the injuries or affronts offered to each other. In too many instances they keep up hereditary feuds, like those of the Montagues and Capulets, and often decide their quarrels by pitched battle at the fairs of Ballykett, Kilmurry, and Kilmacduane."

Subsequent pages include this sociological observation:
p. 460 "The inhabitants of this district marry at an early age...a girl's first appearance at mass is well understood to be an intimation that her parents wish to receive proposals for her."

Page 478 has a list of "incumbents" (gentry with estates) drawn from First Fruits' records, with descriptions of individuals
using dates in the 1600s and 1700s.

Page 488 has listings of townlands in each civil parish. The spellings are old ones, e.g., Leaghguidial is one such.

Page 490 provides the locations, numbers of students, and names of teachers in the district's schools.

Lots of good reading. Find out why residents liked to use Shanakill for burials.

Sharon Carberry USA