The first official decennial census of the population was taken in 1821, and thereafter every ten years until 1911. It is accepted that the census figure for 1871 is the first return that can be considered as reasonably reliable owing to the compulsory registration of births from 1863 onwards. The accuracy of the 1841 census … Read more
Lord Sidmouth, the British home secretary, acknowledged that Irish troops, many of them Catholic, had ‘turned the scale on the 18th of June at Waterloo’. Nevertheless, within a couple of years it became evident that there would be no reward for Irish loyalty, merely a continuation of existing policies: claims for civil rights would be … Read more
The Stuart court-in-exile sponsored many schemes to assassinate Oliver Cromwell throughout the 1650s. Most plans envisioned a handful of gunmen ambushing the lord protector and his mounted escorts as they picked their way through narrow streets from Whitehall Palace to Hampton Court, where the protector was wont to spend his weekends, or elsewhere. Éamonn Ó … Read more
In 1707 the Registry of Deeds was established by act of the Irish parliament, to secure the transfer of land after the Williamite conquest. The Registry’s intended main function was to provide security of tenure for new owners of land in Ireland. The registration or ‘memorialising’ of deeds was on an entirely voluntary basis. Registered … Read more
The map of the siege of Castle Maine was probably drawn shortly after the victory of Munster president Sir John Perrot in August 1572, since it was entered into the state papers in December of that year. The map acknowledges the attacking crown force through a depiction of their camps, their ordnance, their journey across … Read more