A Millstreet Miscellany (3) - Aubane Historical Society

Mr Reid published this in his book but he did not believe it. Being a gentleman he would
not contradict his friends and be seen to rubbish their hard work. But he was quite certain they were
wrong. He said: "..it is feared the statement is far from correct. Had I trusted entirely to my own
observations, the result would have been considerably greater.. I am quite certain that the view here
given is much below what it should be; indeed I had many opportunities of proving it; but
deference for those who kindly interested themselves in the inquiry... has induced me to adopt their
calculation."
Readers may recall that in Millstreet Miscellany (2) we published the population finding of a
rather amazing statistician, Cesar Moreau, a Frenchman resident in London who produced "The
Past and Present Statistical State of Irelande established in a series of tables constructed on a New
Plan and principally derived from official documents and the best sources." It provided thousands
of statistics on every conceivable subject relating to Ireland including its history, geography,
industries, trade, products, politics, administration and of course population and sold for 30/-. It was
a stunning piece of work and all done in the neatest of handwriting.
He calculated the population in 1827 and also provided detailed breakdowns of the main
towns by sex, occupations and houses, inhabited and uninhabited. My sample test for his figures
was the town of Millstreet and they ring true and accurate. He gave one estimate as high as
9,050,000 for the whole country. This figure would confirm fully the reservations that Reid had
about the figure of almost 8 million five years earlier. There is no evidence that these two ever
knew of each other's existence and they would have arrived at their estimates independent of each
other and this adds to the credibility of their figures.
Everyone agrees that the population was growing at a very rapid rate during the early
decades of the 19 th
century. 1.6% per year is generally accepted. This would put the population in
1846 at over 12 million according to Moreau's figures. While that is still only an estimate it does
show that a figure 8.2 million always quoted from the 1841 census is just not credible.
The incredible fact is that there is likely to be about 4 million people missing from the
Famine figures universally quoted!!!
It is also truly amazing to read how conveniently it is ignored that any 1841 figure could not
possibly be the same as the 1846 figure but they are accepted as such. One would have to accept an
outbreak of mass celibacy or mass infanticide, or both, from 1840 onwards if they were to remain
the same.
It should be the first task of any self-respecting Irish Government that commemorates the
Famine to have the most essential fact of all clearly established. It has never been done. Until it is
not done it might be better to scrap the whole Memorial Day thing about the Famine and avoid the
likelihood of adding more insult to injury.
Jack Lane
3. Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott visited Ireland in 1825 and travelled from Killarney via Millstreet to
Mallow and Cork in August of that year. His biographer, J. G. Lockhart, records on leaving
Killarney:
"Killarney Club-rooms very poor affair..
t h
Monday, 8 -We were early astir. Dined at Millstreet, where Captain Bloomfield called, and pitied
our poor fare, and proceeded to Mallow, where we slept - a pretty, English-like town, and a very
fine old castle. We breakfasted next morning at Cork, a town which by no manner of means came
up to my expectations."
(Sir Walter Scott's tour of Ireland in l825 now first fully described
by D. J. O'Donoghue.1905)
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