Irish Civil Parishes: 1841 and 1851 Digitized and Mapped, 1821-1851

Fernihough, Alan (2023). Irish Civil Parishes: 1841 and 1851 Digitized and Mapped, 1821-1851. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-856187

Was early 19th century Ireland overpopulated and fertility at an unsustainable level, or did other factors cause the Great Irish Famine? Did the famine-induced migration to Britain spread infectious diseases and have a substantial impact on British mortality rates? Similarly, what impact did the famine have on the British labour force and economy generally? This research project will answer these questions. The Great Famine was a watershed in global history. It was the last major famine to occur in a Western economy, and had long-run impacts. The enduring legacy of the famine has sparked the interest of numerous novelists and playwrights. Earlier this year, news that media group Channel 4 was considering commissioning a Great Famine-based sitcom stoked an intense public debate. Many felt that this would trivialise the tragedy. The length and breadth of this debate underlined the immense interest that still surrounds the famine. However, the spectrum of opinions as to the causes and consequences of the famine also highlighted the need for further historical research. Let the Data Speak Joel Mokyr's influential 1983 book Why Ireland Starved redefined famine research. Before, famine-related research was largely based on qualitative assessments that left ample room for both conjecture and, rhetoric, and errors. Unlike previous researchers, Mokyr, wanted to let the data decide whether or not it was Ireland's overpopulation that caused the famine. To do this he gathered data on the population density of Irish regions and found that it was Ireland's least densely populated regions that were the ones that suffered worse during the famine. Mokyr's test did not support the overpopulation theory (captured by what is known as the Malthusian model). I hasten to add that the Malthusian model cannot be considered to have been refuted by this finding. For one thing, the possibility that more sophisticated econometric techniques and improved data will reverse the finding cannot be ruled out. (Mokyr, 1983). Whilst striking, Mokyr's analysis was based on variation between relatively few data points (Ireland's 32 counties), as the quote above testifies. This study is motivated by the above quote. Better data (from over 3,000 civil parishes) and more sophisticated econometric techniques exist, and therefore Mokyr's findings can at last be re-evaluated, something this project will do. Mokyr's philosophy of letting the data speak, can also be applied to help uncover some of the Great Famine's consequences. Specifically, this project will quantify the impact that famine-induced migration had on Britain. The famine caused a mass movement of the Irish population to Britain. Before the famine, there were around 430,000 Irish born in Britain. By 1851, the Irish-born population had grown to 730,000. This crisis-driven mass-migration echoes Europe's migration crisis today, as people flea from war-torn and economically desolate nations in Africa and Asia. In this sense, the Great Irish Famine provides a form of historical natural experiment from which we can learn from and gain a greater understanding of the consequences of mass migrations. What effect did the Irish famine have on Britain? This research will use newly available census data (released as part of the ESRC-funded ICeM project) to uncover how the Irish famine influenced the British economy and labour force. For example, did the influx of Irish in certain cities such as Liverpool and Manchester boost demand and help to speed up economic growth, or did this migration depress the wages of locals and therefore stifle economic advancement? In addition, this project will also use newly available records of regional mortality to calculate what impact, if any, the Great Famine had on mortality in England and Wales. If the Irish famine caused elevated levels of mortality, this implies that the ultimate death toll of the Irish famine is underestimated.

Data description (abstract)

This data collection contains data primarily from both the 1841 and 1851 Census of Ireland used in Fernihough and Ó Gráda (2022). Also contained, where available, are population counts from the 1821 and 1831 censuses. The data collection also includes an amended version of the Civil Parish Shapefile from townlands.ie (OpenStreetMap Ireland, 2020). Both data sources were adjusted to ensure concordance. The towlands.ie data is open data is open data, licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL). Please contact Alan Fernihough for further details or queries. The “shapefile” files are the GIS files one needs to load the spatial boundaries. The census data is included in the “data.csv” file and one must merge this to the shapefiles to work with these data. However, this is a simple process. The file “load and join.R” is an example of how this could be performed using the R statistical software package.

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