The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland, adapted to the new Poor-Law, Franchise, Municipal and Ecclesiastical arrangements, and compiled with a special reference to the lines of railroad and canal communication, as existing in 1844-45.

Illustrated by a series of maps, and other plates, and presenting the results, in detail, of the Census of 1841, compared with that of 1831. Illustrated with eleven engraved plates (including three frontispieces), 11 maps (9 folding), hand-coloured arms of Ireland. Three volumes. Dublin: London, and Edinburgh: Fullarton, 1844/1846. Royal octavo. pp. (1) clii, 560 (2) 840 (3) 715. Contemporary half calf on cloth boards, title in gilt on morocco labels on spine with gilt harps in panels. Occasional mild foxing to maps. A very good set. Rare.

JISC locates the British Library copy only.
The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland was published at a critical point in Ireland’s history, which is intimated in its typically verbose Victorian subtitle: ‘Adapted to the new Poor-Law, Franchise, Municipal and Ecclesiastical Arrangements and Compiled with a special reference to the Lines of Railroad and Canal Communications as existing in 1844-5. Complete with maps and plates and presenting the results, in detail of the Census of 1841, compared with that of 1831’. Published the year before the first annual report of the Commissioners of the Poor Law in Ireland and the onset of the Great Famine, the Gazetteer in more than 2,000 pages presents in considerable detail a country on the cusp of huge and irrevocable administrative and social change. While Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, published in 1837, is for many a more accessible and identifiable topographical dictionary of Ireland, The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland provides more substantive statistical information and is perhaps a superior publication in both and breadth. Unlike Lewis, which treated on the cities, civil parishes and main post towns of Ireland in some 1,500 pages, the Gazetteer also treats on minor geographical features, such as small streams and manmade structures, such as bridges, harbours and ferries; some of the latter were only in their developmental stages and never actually came to fruition. The Gazetteer details many small villages and for each provides the statistical information as delineated in the 1831 and 1841 Censuses of Ireland abstracts, useful in tracing the demographic change - either growth or decline - of many of Ireland’s smaller hamlets prior to the Famine. Without consulting the full Census of Ireland Abstracts, the Gazetteer provides the most comprehensive statistical analysis for Ireland to a general readership, which it happily combines with interesting anecdotal and topographical detail. For many of the larger urban areas, provinces and provincial towns and cities a brief history of the area’s settlement and historical events of note are provided. Of importance are some of the more abstract detail provided, such as the derivation and location of Ireland’s ancient principalities. An example of this is Dalriada, which the Gazetteer notes was situated on the east coast of the Province of Ulster. Although the name had fallen-out of usage by the mid-seventeenth-century, the Gazetteer deemed the history of the name and principality worth half a page of commentary, although it admits that its treatise raised more questions than it answered. The Parliamentary Gazetteer is presented in an alphabetical format and includes a thorough index.
Complete with maps and plates: Coloured frontispiece “The Above is a Copy of the Arms of Ireland entered in a Manuscript Volume in my Office, of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth, (or thereabouts) Witness my hand and Seal, this 5th March, 1844. W Bentham Ulster King of Arms”; four folding maps: House Accommodation, Population, Education, and Livestock; folding map of Ireland by J & C Walker; map of Environs of Belfast, map of Environs of Dublin; folding maps of Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught. Engravings of: Belfast, Londonderry, Giants Causeway, Dunluce Castle, Fair Head, Dublin, Glengariff, Gougane Barra, Upper Lake of Killarney, Meeting of the Waters Vale of Avoca.

[CAT 164]