Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

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Sduddy
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Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by Sduddy » Thu Dec 29, 2016 3:43 pm

Is there anything that speaks more eloquently of the effects of the Great Famine than the Rath and Kilnaboy register of baptisms?
Here are the figures: 1845:193 baptisms; 1846: 221 baptisms; 1847: 123 baptisms; 1848: 105 baptisms; 1849: 74 baptisms; 1850: 53 baptisms; 1851: 52 baptisms; 1852: 49 baptisms.

When we walk the line roads, or visit the remains of workhouses, we think of the victims of that famine; here in this register must be many of the names.

Sheila

kbarlow
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Re: Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by kbarlow » Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:35 am

I'm fairly convinced my ancestors stole the 2 cows from Laurence Foley in 1849 in order to be transported and to escape the continual loss of life around them. On my recent visit to Eire I was very moved by the Famine Memorial sculpture on the Quayside in Dublin - an important reminder of recent history and the outcomes of negligent (to put it nicely) administrators.

Thanks for your continuing work on the Rath-Kilnaboy records Sheila - I very much look forward to your completed results.

:) Kerry

Paddy Casey
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Re: Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by Paddy Casey » Sat Dec 31, 2016 8:47 am

There are lots of books on the Great Famine, of course, but one that I found particularly evocative is Sable Wings over the Land by Ciarán Ó Murchadha (Clasp Press, ISBN 1 900545 05 5).

Paddy

Sduddy
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Re: Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by Sduddy » Sat Dec 31, 2016 11:16 am

Hi Paddy

Yes, I agree. I never thought I would say that a book about the famine would be unputdownable, but that one is. Presenting the story of the famine in Clare through the newspaper reports of the time was an inspired approach - it takes the famine out of it's usual chapter in the history book and makes it immediate. I am not a very bookish person, so I did not realise that another book by O Murchadha, 'Figures in a Famine Landscape', had been published (by Bloomsbury) in 2016, but I got a present of it this Christmas and have devoured it already. O Murchadha takes nine prominent figures from the Clare of that time and gives their various reactions to the famine.

But I wish there was more social history about the post-famine period. All the general history books do a chapter on the famine and then take flight into high politics again - Young Ireland, Fenians, Land War etc.. If it weren't for our local historians we would never again visit an ordinary parish in Clare once the famine was over.

P.S. I am trying to keep my head down and do the Rath-Kilnaboy marriages, but keep getting distracted!

Sheila

Sduddy
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Re: Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by Sduddy » Wed Feb 01, 2017 3:15 pm

‘The Parish of Corofin – a historical profile’, by Michael Mac Mahon, published 2013 by Michael Mac Mahon, has a chapter entitled ‘The Great Famine', followed by a chapter entitled ‘Post Famine Changes’, which tell the story of the plight (and flight) of the Rath and Killinaboy people at that time. Mac Mahon says,”Overall in the decade between 1841 – 1851, 306 homes in the parishes of Killinaboy and Rath became uninhabited as death and emigration reduced the population by a staggering 2,020 persons. Most seriously affected everywhere were those at the bottom of the agrarian hierarchy, the landless labourers who generally bartered their labour to the tenant farmer or middleman in return for potato ground, or rented patch of conacre seasonally for the same purpose wherever he could find it.” He presents charts (pp. 267 – 271) showing the numbers of houses left vacant in each townland. In the townland of Glenquin, for instance, there were 21 inhabited houses in 1841, but only 3 in 1851. I don’t know if these statistics, taken from the 1841 and 1851 censuses, are available online – maybe someone can tell me.

This book (390 pages) moves from the first human settlements to the 20th century and is essential reading for anyone interested in the Corofin area – my copy, bought a couple of years ago, cost only €18!

Sheila

murf
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Re: Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by murf » Wed Feb 01, 2017 10:45 pm

Sheila, regarding the census statistics you refer to:
Some years ago I extracted these statistics from EPPI: Enhanced British Parliamentary Papers On Ireland
See for instance
http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi/documents/ ... age/409225
This particular page shows figures for the counties. As I recall the files that I saw at that time listed stats for every townland for each census, with comparison figures for the previous census. I was able to compile figures on the number of male/female residents and number of inhabited/uninhabited residences for each census year (1841-1891) in four townlands of interest in Clondagad/Kilchreest Parish.
I'm sorry that I don't have a link to these files for you but if you scrounge around on the EPPI site you may turn them up.
Cheers, murf

Sduddy
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Re: Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by Sduddy » Thu Feb 02, 2017 4:32 pm

Hi murf

Thanks for that suggestion. It's good to know that that information on the townlands is available online. I might find it after some searching.

Sheila

murf
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Re: Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by murf » Sat Feb 04, 2017 12:26 am

Hi again Sheila
I went back to the EPPI site to locate these stats, here's how:
From the EPPI homepage at http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi
In the search box put 1851 census clare
Scroll down a bit to find Census of Ireland 1851: part I, area, population, and number of houses, by townlands and electoral divisions: County of Clare
Click on this and then click on Open Document
You should be presented with the cover page for the Province of Munster.
County Clare is contained in the first 50 pages of this document.
Near the top right of the screen is the page navigation. If you go to page 29 you should find that the Parishes of Killinaboy and Rath are spread over pages 29-31. Data are provided by townland for 1851 and 1841 for comparison.
Note that the navigation page number does not quite coincide with the page number on the document.
You could go thru a similar process for further censuses. I suggest that you next look for the 1871 census, as 1861 is included for comparison, and so on.

I found these statistics most useful in gaining a feel for demographic changes during the 19th Century in one's particular townlands of interest, especially following the famine. In the case of the Ballynacally area there is a popular myth that landlord Major William Ball evicted some 200 families from the townland of Inisdea during the famine. The official figures show this tale is a gross exaggeration.

Paddy Casey
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Re: Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by Paddy Casey » Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:30 am

murf wrote:Hi again Sheila
I went back to the EPPI site to locate these stats, here's how:
From the EPPI homepage at http://www.dippam.ac.uk/eppi
In the search box put 1851 census clare........
I'm off-topic, Murf, but thanks for flagging that the EPPI site and, specifically, its Search facility, is back in business. Having used it extensively in the past and posted extracts from it on this forum I and others gave up on it some time back because the site wasn't functioning. I made numerous attempts to contact the curators/webmasters by mail and phone but just met brick walls. Now it seems to be working again. Whooeee !

Paddy

Sduddy
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Re: Rath-Kilnaboy Register: an eloquent testimony

Post by Sduddy » Sat Feb 04, 2017 1:52 pm

Hi murf

Thank you for those step-by-step instructions (the kind I need), which are so helpful. I'm glad to have access to that information.

Sheila

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