80 million people globally claim Irish ancestry – why the release of 1926 Irish census records is so momentous

A children's party in Dublin in the 1920s. National Library of Ireland on The Commons @ Flickr Commons, CC BY

One hundred years after it was conducted, the first full census of independent Ireland is being released for free online. These nearly 3 million records will be of great significance to Ireland’s population, and a global diaspora of some 80 million claiming Irish ancestry.

As well as providing insight into socioeconomic circumstances following the establishment of Saorstát Éireann (the Irish Free State) in 1922, the 1926 census holds several keys to unravelling Ireland’s complicated past.