The Statistics (Heritage Amendment) Bill, 2010 has been published and is awaiting to be introduced at Second Stage in Seanad Éireann, the Irish Government's upper house. The Bill is designed to secure the release of the 1926 Census of Ireland, and is sponsored by Senator Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fáil) and has the support of many senators on both sides of the House. The Bill can be consulted online at www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2010/3610/b3610s.pdf
The 1926 census in Ireland was the first to be carried out in the Irish Free State (Eire) following Partition of the island. Due to the Troubles of 1921, no decennial census was carried out anywhere in Ireland. If successful, the counties released will be those from the 26 counties of the modern Irish Republic, but not the six counties of Northern Ireland.
The moral weight behind the potential release of the 1926 documents lies in the fact that a good half of all censuses from 1821-1891 (they started earlier in Ireland, in 1821, and with genealogical info from the outset) were destroyed by fire during the Irish Civil War in Dublin, 1922 - the rest were previously pulped by the British Government in the First World War to produce paper.
(With thanks to Roger Lewry of the Federation of Family History Societies)
Chris
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Do we know when this will get read ? / voted on ?
ReplyDeleteWould be great to see, is it already microfilmed ? Wonder how long it would take to find it's way online ??