Irish Demographic Maps

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Does Limerick feel like a small city or a large town?

Well, right now, it feels more like a medium sized swimming pool .

I'm not sure how to answer that actually. This is Ireland, even Dublin feels like an oversized village at times. And like elsewhere there is a lot of sprawl with the city centre feels a bit undersized in comparison to its population. The whole 'central area' can be walked in about an hour and a bit. On the other hand however, this is a city which has very much its own self-contained culture which is quite distinct from the rest of the country. It's much more self-consciously proletarian than any other Irish city as well as the most overtly and quite publicly Catholic (ObserverIE may correct me here, but it's the only city in Ireland I know where it's normal for shops to note on their windows that they sell mass cards). Rugby is very important. On the flip side, poverty, social deprivation, unemployment and violence (it's not known as 'stab city' for nothing) are much higher than almost anywhere else except the worst parts of Dublin.

Any other requests for Maps/topics?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

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Oh no doubt

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I can't speak for Waterford or some of those parts in Dublin but I've lived in Cork - and in a fairly down at heel area at that and saw nothing.

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Yes but also numbers, percentages, etc.

Also Great map Jas

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I would say that Waterford, with its post-industrial problems and its OSF/SFWP/Workers Party heritage, is comfortably more working-class than Limerick, which de facto includes big better-off areas in Castletroy and Dooradoyle, even if they'd never admit it.

Well yes, but I wasn't really thinking of Waterford as a city - technicalities notwithstanding. Limerick has also had more social problems coming from its deindustralisation - Waterford has had those o/c but never to the same extent.

Of course, the area surrounding Limerick is quite prosperous (and home to the PDs let it never be forgotten).

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Bump

Had a discussion about this in the IRC and decided make a map as I wasn't sure of some of the data. Even more hilarious than I expected (Look at Donegal!) although some of the patterns are not that surprising. Now if only we could test people...



Anyway, the key thing to note about this map is this a) the age brackets and b) the fact that more people claim to speak Irish in Dublin South than in North East Donegal, which indicates all you need to know about how people understood by the word 'speak'

(Also memo to self: use smaller font for bands in future)

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I assume a lot of yes responses came from people who have a basic understanding of the language, but nontheless aren't at all fluent? (sort of like me and Welsh, being able to say a few basic phrases, like dydw I ddim yn hoffi celf achos mae'n ddiflas does not equal proficiency in the language).

Partly, also tokenism and aspiration.

Look at map of Dublin in that map and compare it to the other maps of Dublin I've posted.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Okay, a more realistic map now but not without problems. There's basically no good way to figure out good figures for Irish speakers from the census, although this comes the closest.

Those who answer Yes to the question above are asked to fill in another question about the frequency of their ask, there are a couple of answers:

Speaks Irish daily only within the education system
Speaks Irish daily within and outside the education system
Speaks Irish daily outside the education system
Speaks Irish weekly outside the education system
Speaks Irish less often outside the education system
Speaks Irish never outside the education system
Speaks Irish outside the education system, otherwise not-stated

Needless to say with those questions and options there's... a lot of potential ambiguity. For this map below I combined the figures for the second and third options on the list and expressed them as a percentage of the total population. This is far from ideal (plenty of Irish speakers work as bureaucrats and in other jobs in Dublin, but how much is that represented here?) but it does seem to correspond much better to actual usage and knowledge patterns on the ground. Oh, except for pretentious exurbanites obviously.

 

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Any reason why it's higher in Co. Kildare?

Not too sure but I suspect part of the reason is

Oh, except for pretentious exurbanites obviously.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

There's absolutely a Protestant voting bloc in Cavan-Monaghan, as anyone who has looked at Heather Humphries and her various FG predecessors voting base has come from. Elsewhere it's more complicated but studies tend to suggest that the Protestant vote can be a decent vote bank for those who try to win its votes, unless they are SF of course (and FF would be unusual here).

Anecdotal evidence to me suggests in the constituency I'm registered to vote, Church of Ireland parishioners are a good voting bloc for Shane Ross. Of course, that's *parishioners* (average age I'm guessing is about retirement age if not older).