Publication of 1926 census records ‘allows us to step back in time’ – Taoiseach

By Rebecca Black, Press Association

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the release of 1926 Census records is “allowing us to step back in time” to the first years of the then Irish Free State.

The National Archives officially released records at midnight, after the expiry of the 100-year limitation on their publication under the Statistics Act 1993.

It is freely available and searchable on www.nationalarchives.ie alongside the 1901 and 1911 editions of the census after three years of work on more than 750,000 individual household and enumerator returns.

Martin said it was the first census undertaken by the independent Irish Free State which was formed in 1922.

He described a year which followed a decade of conflict and upheaval, from the Easter Rising in 1916 and the War of Independence to the Civil War.

“Census 1926 shows the ambition of the new state to carry out a census of the 2.9 million people living in Ireland as part of its programme of nation-building and to do so, so soon after independence, was a bold and visionary decision,” he said.

“As such, Census 1926 marks a historic moment in the development of modern Ireland.

“For people across Ireland, the release of the 1926 Census offers something deeply personal. It allows us to step back in time and encounter our own families, neighbours and communities as they were almost a century ago. It brings history out of the abstract and into the everyday.”

Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan said it was a “significant day for the country and our diaspora as we see for the first time in a century the records of how we lived in 1926”.

“I want to congratulate the team at the National Archives for their trojan work in getting us to today – not only through carefully cataloguing and preserving the records for generations to come, but also in putting together such a comprehensive programme of activities to allow people to engage with this important part of our history,” he said.

Director of the National Archives Orlaith McBride said: “The census has never been about lists and numbers; it’s the story of us.

“It’s about the people living in Ireland in 1926 and all of their descendants today.

“Whether through the centenarian ambassadors, this exhibition, the book and all the other elements of our extensive public programme, throughout this project we have aimed to ensure the stories, information and human connections revealed by the Census reach as many people as possible, in Ireland and around the world.”

To mark the release of the 1926 Census, the National Archives has opened a major exhibition that explores what life was like in the newly independent Ireland of 1926.

It will run at Dublin Castle, opening to the public from April 19th until August 15th, 2027, before visiting London and Boston, and then touring Ireland.