Ireland first counted itself in the 1926 census — the results still echo a century later

A century after the Free State’s first census, its figures still illuminate Ireland’s struggles with identity, population, and political ambition

The All-Ireland winning Tipperary hurlers on board the SS Bremen in 1926. Tipperary was the first county team to tour the US. The image appears in ‘The GAA  — A People’s History’ by Mike Cronin, Mark Duncan, and Paul Rouse, published by The Collins Press, 2009.

On the night of April 18, 1926, Ireland paused.

Across the Irish Free State, enumerators went door to door with clipboards and carefully worded forms, recording names, ages, relationships, religions, occupations, and languages spoken.