October 24 1925
It is understood that efforts are being made to arrange that the census shall be taken in the Free State on the same date as in the Six Counties – namely, Sunday, April 18. It is somewhat mysteriously announced that such an arrangement will “depend on circumstances”. It would be interesting what are the circumstances that have to be contemplated as possibly interfering with any date that might be fixed.
No census was held in 1921, but that was because the country was in such a state of unrest and lawlessness that the taking of a census was an impossibility. Surely it is not considered to be even remotely possible that anything would occur next year to create a similar difficulty. Then why not fix the date now and let it synchronise with the date fixed for Northern Ireland? It is obvious on a variety of grounds that the census should be held simultaneously throughout the whole of Ireland. Those who are opposed to Partition in every shape and form should be the last to tolerate any difference that could or should be avoided.
Both the Free State and Northern Ireland censuses were held in April 1926, the first censuses in Ireland since 1911, the first since Ireland was partitioned. While the one for the Twenty-Six counties should be made available to the public in 2026, 100 years after it was taken, the Northern Ireland 1926 census has vanished, probably destroyed during the Second World War.
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Sale of Poppies
Scotland Secretary Ian Murray is set to meet veterans at Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory in Edinburgh (Jane Barlow/PA)
Authorisation has already been received from the police authorities in Dublin for the sale of poppies, and complete arrangements are being made by the British Legion (Southern Ireland area) office. Last year a temporary cenotaph, on which numerous wreaths were placed, was erected in College Green, but owing to the necessities of traffic in so busy a centre the cenotaph, if erected at all, will be placed this year in some position where obstruction is not likely to arise. Last year the memorial cross, which it is intended to erect at Guinchy, was also erected at College Green. Since then a second cross has been sculptured to commemorate the men who fell at Wytschaete. No decision as to their exhibition has yet been come to.
While officially the Irish Free State did little to commemorate the First World War, veterans and their families marked Armistice Day in Ireland each year from 1919.