288 



IREL 



Sutitck*. In treating of the sheep husbandry of Ireland, it has 

 been remarked, that the demand for them as mutton 

 it very limited ; consequently not very many are kept, 

 and of those that are, a considerable proportion are ex- 

 ported to England. Hence it will appear, that the 

 woollen manufacture, on a large scale, cannot exist in 

 Ireland. We have already mentioned, in the history 

 of this country, that it was formerly much checked and 

 depressed by the jealousy of the English woollen manu- 

 facturers, to which the English government very un- 

 justly, as well as unwisely, gave its sanction and sup- 

 port. And, since the union, which placed the two 

 countries on the same footing, this species of manufac- 

 ture does not seem to have flourished. Besides the 

 cause already mentioned, which perhaps ought more 

 properly to be deemed the effect of the absence of 

 woollen manufactories, there is another which operates 

 very powerfully and generally. The great mass of the 

 people manufacture their own woollen cloths. All the 

 wool that is shorn is manufactured into frieze and lin- 

 sey by the proprietors of the sheep, who card, spin, 

 weave, dye, and consume it. The poorer classes, who 

 cannot afford to purchase oil for their woollen goods, 

 extract, in the summer, .the juice of the fern root, which 

 answers the purpose of oil ; and the twigs of the alder, 

 walnut, and oak, with elder berries, &c. are used for 

 dyeing. In some parts, of Ireland, the common farm- 

 ers and cotters, and their wives and children, manufac- 

 ture not only frieze, stockings, linseys, flannels, petti- 

 coats, &c. for their own children, but also some woollen 

 goods for sale. 



As the woollen manufacture on a great scale is not 

 established in this country, there are few or none of 

 those people who, in England, prepare the wool for the 

 manufacturers. There are no wool breakers. There 

 are plenty of wool merchants, who buy whole fleeces, 

 but none who understand the art of sorting it. As the 

 exportation of wool in the yarn is permitted by the 

 Irish laws, the principal part of the wool, not used in 

 the domestic manufactures, is purchased by the mer- 

 chants in the south of Ireland ; and after it is spun there, 

 it is exported to England for the Norwich manufac- 

 turers. There are, however, a few woollen manufac- 

 tures of different descriptions in some parts of this 

 country. A small quantity of broad cloth is made at 

 Carrick on the Suir ; blankets are made at Kilkenny ; 

 b,ut both these manufactures are on the decline. In 

 1800, there were employed at Kilkenny about 780 

 people ; the average number of pieces wove in the year 

 were 2500, and the greatest capital at any time em- 

 ployed did not exceed 36,000. There is a flannel 

 manufactory in the county of Wicklow also on the de- 

 cline. Between 1794 and 1809, the total number of 

 pieces exposed to sale scarcely exceeded 55,000. A 

 small quantity of broad cloth is manufactured at Dub- 

 lin ; and very lately, in the county of Kildare, a wool- 

 len manufacture has been established with shearing ma- 

 chinery, and all the other improvements of Yorkshire. 

 Broad cloth and blanket manufactories are established 

 no where to the north of the capital. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cork, and along the coast of that country, 

 stuffs are manufactured. 



Gloves, &c. ^ Gloves are manufactured in some parts of Ireland. 

 What are called Limeric gloves are made of the skins 

 of calves taken from fat cows. Iron is not manufactu- 

 red to any considerable extent at present ; though it 



AND. 



appears, from Boate, that, in the middle of the 17th Statistics. 

 century, there were several very large iron founderies "* T""' 

 and manufactories in various parts of Irehind. Hard- 

 ware articles are manufactured in DuVlin ; and reaping 

 hooks, scythes, shears, and other coarse implements at 

 Carlow. 



This country has long been celebrated for its distil- Distilleries, 

 leries, both legal and illegal. The latter prevail most 

 in the northern and north-western counties, and even 

 in some of those to the south-west. The following ta- 

 ble contains the number of unlicensed stills that were 

 seized in the course of five years, from June 1802, to 

 June 1806: 



The number of fines imposed on Townlands for illicit 

 distillation in the year 1814 were 3555, and the amount 

 of fines was 90,210. The greatest number and 

 amount were in the counties of Donegal (727), Cavan 

 (501), Galway (363), Leitrim (326), and Sligo (304). 

 The whole receipt of duty on home-made spirits, con- 

 sumed in Ireland on an average of theyear 1 808 and 1 809, 

 was about s6'64,05 1 ; whereas it is supposed, if duty had 

 been paid on all the home-made spirits, it would have 

 amounted to upwards of 2,280,000. The principal 

 licensed distilleries are established at Limeric, Cork, 

 Ross, Dublin, and Drogheda. In theyear 1808, the 

 largest distiller in the kingdom made 17,000 gallons of 

 spirits per week, and worked his stills between nine 

 and ten months in the year. Distillation was first car- 

 ried on in the north, and has been introduced into the 

 south only within these 30 years. The following table 

 will farther illustrate the state of legal distillation in 

 Ireland : 



Account of the Quantity of Corn Spirits for which Duly 

 has been paid in Ireland, in each of the last ten Years, 

 to 5th January 1813. 



1S08 



5,707,153 181? 



4,085,913 



Public breweries have been introduced into Ireland 

 only within these few years. At present, the princi- 

 pal breweries are at Cork, Fermanagh, Limeric, Water- 

 ford, Roscommon, Dublin, Belfast, Cavan, Armagh, Do- 

 noughmore, Dungarvon, &c. Malt is prepared by the 

 brewers themselves, and never purchased by maltsters. 

 One of the largest breweries in Ireland brews upwards 

 of 100,000 barrels per annum. The following Table 

 shews the quantity of malt used in the breweries and 

 distilleries for several years. 



* During the greater part of this year distillation from com was suspended. 



t Suspension of distillation from corn, and continued during the first quarter of this year. From the 28th of September 1861, to Ui5 

 February 1817, there were 335,317 barrels of corn, 1? stone to the barrel, used in distilling. 



