Irish Examiner view: Say hello to your ancestors as 1926 Irish census goes online

We're just a click away from meeting our great grandparents in Ireland's 1926 census — and it's all free of charge

A piper performing at a feis at the Mardyke in Cork in July, 1926. She — and everyone else in this photo — are probably among the millions of people resident in Ireland on April 18 that year recorded in the 1926 census. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive 

The 1926 census, conducted on April 18 that year, was the first of its kind to be carried out in what was then the newly-established Irish Free State. Those census returns are now available online. The National Archives has digitised more than 700,000 return sheets and from today — Saturday, April 18, 2026 — they are accessible to genealogists, historians, and all of us here, on NationalArchives.ie.