Welsh Journals

SHORT NOTICES Much evidence has come in lately of the continuing buoyancy of historical studies in Ireland. In addition to the consistently high standards of Irish Historical Studies (with which the WELSH HISTORY REVIEW has had a close relationship for the past fifteen years), there is that important venture, promoted under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy, of the New History of Ireland, a nine-volume series involving over seventy scholars, and under the editorship of Professors T. W. Moody, F. X. Martin and F. J. Byrne. A valuable adjunct of this is the 'Ancillary Publications' series, consisting of aids to scholars in such areas as biblio- graphy, statistics and edited texts. Two of these ancillary volumes appeared in 1978 and each is of much value to historians. Volume IV, Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922 (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1978. Pp. xvi, 438), edited by B. M. Walker, consists in the main of clearly- tabulated lists of parlimentary election results, together with details of the electorate, maps and other aids, for the period from the Act of Union to the creation of the Irish Free State. The first part lists election results in chronological order, while the second gives results by constituencies, listed alphabetically. The third part includes indexes of all members and candidates, together with a useful short bibliography. The Introduction is perhaps a shade too brief, both on the details of changes in the electorate between 1801 and 1918, and on the political affiliations of candidates (particularly confusing in Ireland, especially from the 1850s on). But in general this is a marvellously useful and lucid aid for historians, the more so as F. W. S. Craig's authoritative lists of British election results omit Ireland entirely. Historians will look forward to Dr. Walker's subsequent volume on election results between 1922 and 1972. Volume II of the 'Ancillary Publications' series, Irish HistoricalStatistics: Population, 1821-1971 (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 1978. Pp. xxiii, 372), edited by W. E. Vaughan and A. J. Fitzpatrick, is also exceptionally helpful. Based largely on the censuses from 1821 to 1971 (with estimates of population from Petty in 1672), this volume tabulates population totals, broken down into counties, provinces and towns. It also includes statistics for ages and conjugal status; births, marriages and deaths; and statistics for emigration. Where necessary, the arithmetic of the census authorities has been corrected. The section on membership of the various religious denominations in Ireland, derived from census returns from 1861 onwards, is also useful, though perhaps more warning might have been given to the unwary about the problems of giving credence to the claims of rival religious bodies. This particularly applies to nineteenth-century Ireland (and, indeed, nineteenth-century Wales) where membership of or adherence to different religious denominations was a source of such intense political contention. This apart, the volume is a marvel of precision and lucidity. Perhaps the Board of Celtic Studies could lend encouragement to sponsor- ing similar works, or statistical surveys, on Welsh demography in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.