Population and its Distribution
The population of Ireland remains essentially rural. The proportion living in rural regions, however, has now been reduced to two thirds, both through the growth of cities and through depopulation by emigration. This emigration has caused persons of Irish descent in the United States to far outnumber those in the home country. Many emigrants have also gone to Great Britain where large numbers have settled around Liverpool and Glasgow.
Cities
The principal towns of Ireland are all seaports depending upon trade. From Londonderry on the north to Cork in the south they face away from the main Atlantic. This is because the major part of Irish trade has always been with England and Scotland, and sometimes with France. Not only is the west coast very stormy, but also it is far from the parts of Ireland where the climate permits the largest population. Moreover, Ireland has had little in the way of goods that could be sold across the Atlantic. Ireland's new political independence, to be sure, is reflected in a perceptible increase of trade with foreign countries, but the economic relationship with England is too close to be much changed. For this reason the towns along the western coast, despite their splendid harbor facilities, remain small and show no sign of becoming important. Limerick at the mouth of the Shannon, Ireland's principal river, is the chief of these, along with Galway and Sligo.
On the east and southeast coast lie the three largest cities-Cork, Dublin, and Belfast--but Cork is small. Little Cork with its outport of Cobh, where several trans-Atlantic lines touch, is essentially Irish. Its trade is typical, butter and bacon being the chief exports. Cork is still primarily a commercial center, though manufacturing industries have been coming in of late.
Dublin, the Irish capital, with nearly half a million people, was originally an English settlement. The relatively dry climate has always been a great advantage agriculturally. Because of its location facing England, Dublin early became the main Irish harbor. Its advantages as an outlet of the productive central lowlands have been increased by canals connecting with the River Shannon. Hence it is not surprising that Dublin has long been the political and cultural center of Ireland. Its industries are based on domestic materials, notably brewing and distilling, both beer and whiskey being important export articles.
Belfast, of about the same size as Dublin, is the capital of Northern Ireland. It was originally a Scotch settlement and owes its growth largely to industrial enterprises. It is interesting to note that the principal manufacturing section of Ireland is the one with a foreign-that is, Scotch--population. The linen industry and ship-building have advanced Belfast from a small town to a great city. On a small scale, Londonderry, the most northern port, has also profited from the industrial development, besides being the commercial center of the northern region.
Showing posts with label Dublin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dublin. Show all posts
Ireland Crops Land Tenure
Ireland now raises only about as much wheat as New Jersey, using only 35,000 acres, chiefly in the dry eastern section around Dublin. Previous to 1846 the wheat area was ten times as great. As might be expected in a moist, cool, stock-raising country, oats are the main crop, covering nearly a million acres. The area of potatoes is also very large, comprising 520,000 acres. Ireland is famed for its potatoes, which still supply an astonishingly large part of the diet. Among food crops barley comes next to potatoes in the amount of space devoted to it, but most of the crop is used for beer and whiskey. The area of forage crops is considerable; turnips, for example, cover nearly 250,000 acres. Flax is a minor but not unimportant crop in northeastern Ireland, where it is the basis of a famous linen industry. Aside from potatoes, barley, turnips, and cabbage, the climate does not make it worth while to raise much in the way of food crops. Hence practically all the other foodstuffs consumed in Ireland are imported. Under the pinch of the World War I Ireland materially increased her food crops, but after the war the previous state of affairs quickly prevailed again.
Land Tenure
From the earliest times the ownership of the land has been one of the chief troubles of Ireland. During the seventeenth century, when the British political power became dominant as the result of prolonged wars, the greater part of the country was divided among British conquerors. The English landlord-and-tenant system replaced the old Irish arrangement. The big landowners either leased the land to the Celtic Irish peasants, or exploited the properties themselves by means of hired managers and Irish labor. For more than two centuries a struggle went on between the oppressed Irish farmer who found himself deprived of his own soil, and the foreign Protestant landlord who very often looked with contempt on the Irish-Catholic inhabitants. The system of "tenancy-at-will," imposed by the English, was one of the greatest injustices done to the unfortunate Celts. It permitted the landlords to send away tenants whenever they chose.
Although the weather with its effect on potato diseases and thus upon economic conditions in general was mainly responsible for the great collapse after 1846, the hated system of landlords seriously aggravated it. The small holdings which were not cultivated directly by the big landlords had previously been subdivided repeatedly because of the increase of population. In this way they became too small to return a livelihood. It was on properties of this kind that potatoes were raised most intensively until the failure of the crops suddenly cut off the principal source of food and threw the entire country into privation.
A change came in the latter part of the nineteenth century when new laws restored a part of the land to the tenants as owners. At present 60 per cent of the holdings are cultivated by owners, and the rest are leased. Most of the properties range in size between 5 and 100 acres; only 6 per cent of them are larger. The creation of small farms is still going on. New holdings are created from untenanted land, and considerable sums have been loaned by the government to finance the development of these small properties. Another part of the program has been the enlargement of very small holdings to the point where they can be profitably operated.
Land Tenure
From the earliest times the ownership of the land has been one of the chief troubles of Ireland. During the seventeenth century, when the British political power became dominant as the result of prolonged wars, the greater part of the country was divided among British conquerors. The English landlord-and-tenant system replaced the old Irish arrangement. The big landowners either leased the land to the Celtic Irish peasants, or exploited the properties themselves by means of hired managers and Irish labor. For more than two centuries a struggle went on between the oppressed Irish farmer who found himself deprived of his own soil, and the foreign Protestant landlord who very often looked with contempt on the Irish-Catholic inhabitants. The system of "tenancy-at-will," imposed by the English, was one of the greatest injustices done to the unfortunate Celts. It permitted the landlords to send away tenants whenever they chose.
Although the weather with its effect on potato diseases and thus upon economic conditions in general was mainly responsible for the great collapse after 1846, the hated system of landlords seriously aggravated it. The small holdings which were not cultivated directly by the big landlords had previously been subdivided repeatedly because of the increase of population. In this way they became too small to return a livelihood. It was on properties of this kind that potatoes were raised most intensively until the failure of the crops suddenly cut off the principal source of food and threw the entire country into privation.
A change came in the latter part of the nineteenth century when new laws restored a part of the land to the tenants as owners. At present 60 per cent of the holdings are cultivated by owners, and the rest are leased. Most of the properties range in size between 5 and 100 acres; only 6 per cent of them are larger. The creation of small farms is still going on. New holdings are created from untenanted land, and considerable sums have been loaned by the government to finance the development of these small properties. Another part of the program has been the enlargement of very small holdings to the point where they can be profitably operated.
Ireland Climate and Vegetation
(A-B276, A277, A278). --The productivity of Ireland is influenced by climate even more than by relief. Ireland possesses an extreme marine climate. Along the west coast the winter temperatures average between 42° and 44° F., and even the interior runs between 39° and 40° F. The summers are cool, the average July temperature along the west coast being 58° or 59° F., and inland 60° or 61° F. The difference between summer and winter is remarkably small, particularly in the southwest where the range between the average temperatures of the warmest and coldest months is no greater than 15°. Rainfall is heavy in the west where there are from 60 to 80 inches, but decreases to the east in the rain shadow of the mountains, falling below 30 inches around Dublin. The distribution is fairly uniform the whole year round.
The influence of regular and abundant rainfall, high humidity, and prevailing cloudiness is shown by the great amount of moorland and bog. Moorland covers the higher parts of the mountain upland as in Great Britain, and parts of the central plain as well. Monotonous low lands covered by peat are typical of widespread sections, and peat is still the commonest Irish fuel. But where the drainage is sufficient, the climate gives rise to the grassland par excellence that accounts for the legendary green of Erin. In former time, at the phases of great climatic cycles when the climate was drier, the European forest extended into Ireland. This was the case, for example, at the end of the sixteenth century. Grass, however, was abundant and probably dominated the landscape even then, particularly in the west. The combined result of climatic cycles and deforestation by man has been that only the typical park landscapes of big estates with scattered trees in the midst of grassland remain to show the former extent of the forest.
The influence of regular and abundant rainfall, high humidity, and prevailing cloudiness is shown by the great amount of moorland and bog. Moorland covers the higher parts of the mountain upland as in Great Britain, and parts of the central plain as well. Monotonous low lands covered by peat are typical of widespread sections, and peat is still the commonest Irish fuel. But where the drainage is sufficient, the climate gives rise to the grassland par excellence that accounts for the legendary green of Erin. In former time, at the phases of great climatic cycles when the climate was drier, the European forest extended into Ireland. This was the case, for example, at the end of the sixteenth century. Grass, however, was abundant and probably dominated the landscape even then, particularly in the west. The combined result of climatic cycles and deforestation by man has been that only the typical park landscapes of big estates with scattered trees in the midst of grassland remain to show the former extent of the forest.
Ireland Structure and Relief
Ireland, The Giant's Causeway Art Print
Plisson, Philip
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Ireland's relief is not especially favorable. The island suggests a very irregular and shallow bowl, with a muchbroken rim of low, rounded mountains surrounding a central plain. The plain itself is broken by mountains. No part of the country is over 40 miles from mountains. The rim consists of a combination of the old Caledonian and Hercynian mountain systems, while the depression is filled with Carboniferous limestone. Evidences of recent Alpine mountain-building appear in the break between Ireland and Great Britain; in the accompanying eruptions of basalt that are represented by the Plateau of Antrim in the northeast; in the structural depression of Lake Neagh in that same region; and in the uplift and revival of some of the old mountain systems in the south, especially the sandstone Mountains of Kerry in the far west which attain elevations of 3,000 feet. The Irish mountains are mostly knobs of especially hard and resistant rock, such as the granite uplands of Wicklow, south of Dublin; Connemara, in the center of the west coast; and Donegal in the northwest. All mountains are bad for Ireland. Not only are altitudes above a thousand feet or even less too cool for agriculture, but mountains promote cloudiness and rainfall, especially on their western and seaward slopes. Such conditions are disastrous to agriculture in so marginal a country.
Another handicap of Ireland is that much of the present topography is the result of the erosion of soluble limestone, with its consequent unusual forms of relief. The lowland consists almost wholly of limestone, and in many cases this results in vast areas of bog. The central plain is a typical karst region characterized by underground drainage, and numerous sink holes and other undrained hollows. The largest of these hollows are occupied by numerous lowlying lakes not more than about a hundred feet above sealevel; thousands of smaller hollows contain bogs. Thus large parts of the lower land are useless for cultivation.
The Ice Age did not improve matters much. Glaciers of local origin covered the mountains, making them smooth and rounded, and carrying away a great part of the soil. Some parts of the lowland have profited from the glacial drift which was thus carried down, but in many places the number of lakes and bogs has been greatly increased.
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