Enumerators: An Garda Síochána and the 1926 Census

An Garda Síochána (AGS) were appointed as enumerators for the 1926 Irish Free State census in March 1926 under Section 3(b) of the Statistics (Census of Population) Order. The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and Dublin Metropolitan Police had performed this work for earlier censuses, as would the Royal Ulster Constabulary for the 1926 census of Northern Ireland. AGS had also been collecting agricultural statistics since 1924 and gathered data for the Census of the Gaeltacht the following year.

If an attack on a Garda station in North Clare in early April 1926 might have suggested that this would be politically loaded or potentially dangerous, in the end there were no campaigns of organised political resistance. No judicial statistics are available for prosecutions under the Statistics Act, 1926 for refusal to cooperate with enumerators, but there is also little to suggest these were common.

There were other concerns more benign than political animosities. Major Bryan Cooper (TD for County Dublin) asked the registrar general at a meeting of the Dublin Rotary Club if ‘persons who did not wish to reveal their ages or other information to the collectors of the forms could send them directly to the office of the registrar general’. It is not clear how often, it at all, this option was taken, but the Irish Times remained sure that ‘the task of collecting such delicate statistics as the birth-dates of middle-aged female citizens will be handled as tactfully by the Civic Guard as it was handled formerly by the Royal Irish Constabulary’.  Garda Commissioner Eoin O’Duffy also felt it necessary to respond to a complaint from the secretary of the Gaelic League that a Garda in Skerries, Co. Dublin, had been encouraging householders to complete the form in English (rather than the alternative Irish form) and declared that he was satisfied the allegation was ‘as false as it is malicious.’

The primary concerns of AGS in advance of the 1926 census were likely similar to those expressed regarding the collection of agricultural statistics. In February 1924, Garda Commissioner O’Duffy pointed out to the Ministry for Home Affairs that when the RIC had collected agricultural statistics its stations were ‘well established, the boundaries of the various Sub-Districts being well known and defined, and the men themselves experienced and with thorough knowledge of their areas and what was required’. The strength of AGS, however, was ‘less than that of R.I.C. times, while the areas of the Sub-Districts are considerably increased’. The press pointed to the same issue in census coverage in April 1926 and noted there might be some ‘little delay’ in collecting forms as a result’.

According to Garda Commissioner O’Duffy the task was one of ‘much magnitude,’ engaging 3,800 men, or 50% of the force.

Detailed instructions were provided for work that began with acquiring a thorough understanding of the forms and ‘Enumeration District,’ including knowledge of the number of distinct families and individual buildings, and devising a carefully planned route for distributing forms.

Enumerators were left in no doubt that they were responsible for ensuring that returns were accurate, and their corrections and additions to completed census forms highlight a role that went beyond distribution and collection. In some cases, heads of household used the form to make a point, or record something that mattered more to them than to the statisticians – sometimes about national politics but often. More commonly, heads of household struggled innocently with what the director of the statistics branch of the Department of Industry and Commerce later described as the ‘complicated Family Schedule’. Where information was missing or the wrong information recorded, enumerators made suitable additions or amendments (visible on the original forms in black ink, in comparison to the green ink used by the statisticians).

This was important work, both for the state and for the force. Garda Commissioner O’Duffy was inclined to complain about the burden of clerical and non-police work on AGS but was convinced of its value. In February 1924 he was anxious for the force to collect agricultural statistics, notwithstanding the challenges, as it would improve local knowledge and efficiency, providing opportunities for ‘a more intimate contact with the people, and a more thorough understanding of the actual conditions which exist in their cases.’ In the first annual report he submitted to the government (for the year 1929), he similarly acknowledged that time spent on ‘work of a civil nature’ was ‘not time lost from a police point of view’: ‘the Guard who has collected statistics in a Sub-District for a couple of seasons is by far the most efficient man at the Station. He has a perfect knowledge of the area, he knows and understands the people, and invariably gains their confidence to a remarkable extent’.