Literacy equals intelligence?

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murf
Posts: 365
Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 12:58 am
Location: Qld Australia

Literacy equals intelligence?

Post by murf » Fri Jan 25, 2019 2:16 am

The following excerpts are from an article in The Protestant Standard Saturday 10 April 1880 p 6, dealing with 1879 immigration to Australia.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01nar/

IMMIGRATION."
The report of the Immigration Agent; laid on the table of both Houses of Parliament about a month ago, has at length been published................

When the details of the Irish immigration come to be considered, it would appear there are sectarian influences at work. The number of Protestants from Ireland is only 286, while the Roman Catholics number nearly 2090. The former surely bear a much larger proportion to the latter than this, but it seems to be managed in this way :—
Emigration appears to be encouraged principally from Roman Catholic counties. One county —namely, Clare— supplied 469 immigrants, and Tipperary 266 ; while the whole of Ulster, which contains 9 counties, only 495. ......................

It would be interesting to know on what grounds this preference to South of Ireland immigrants is shown.
It certainly cannot be on the ground of superior intelligence. Of the adult English immigrants from England, 67 only could not read; while of the Irish adults, 138 could not read, and of those from Scotland, only six were in that position..............

smcarberry
Posts: 1281
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 4:31 pm
Location: USA

Re: Literacy equals intelligence?

Post by smcarberry » Fri Jan 25, 2019 10:23 am

Geesh, the blind leading the blind. In-depth analysis in that article, hah. Note nothing said about the ages of the different immigrant groups, which would reflect on the availability of public education. Older Clare residents tended to have less literacy than the younger set.

Another major factor that should have been in the analysis was the availability of land for new tenancies in Clare. My reading of East Clare news articles on outrages shows that an increasing cause in 1880 and thereafter was the tug of war over what was to be done with land newly available after an eviction. Farmers wanting to take over such land often were the subject of violence at the hands of their neighbors. They then wisely chose to emigrate rather than stay.

So, yet another opportunity for the broader world to realize the depth of the problem in Clare, and instead a sneering attitude was easier.

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