TO Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



Careful inquiries on the subject of the decay of the Irish slate 

 and brick trades make it apparent that the Irish manufacturers 

 are themselves in no small degree accountable for the low state to 

 which they have been, for years past, reduced. The improvements 

 and changes necessitated by the requirements of modern architec- 

 ture were, in great part, neglected, and some of the goods, though 

 excellent in quality, so far as durability was concerned, were unable 

 to compete with the more highly finished articles placed on our 

 markets by our neighbours, who have accordingly, for the past 

 thirty or forty years, maintained a monopoly of the supply of the 

 better descriptions of building materials required in this country. 

 This is by no means a satisfactory state of affairs in a country 

 which, from advantages before referred to, should not alone be 

 able to supply its own wants, but have been an extensive exporter 

 of the goods it has so long imported. 



Like most other industries, the production of building materials 

 in many districts succumbed to the shock of the disastrous period 

 preceding the year 1850. The abundant labour available in the 

 country at that time fled to other fields, and the enterprises being 

 almost exclusively in the hands of small capitalists who were unable 

 to stem the tide of adversity which had set against them. The 

 recurrence of better times, and the consequent revival of trade in 

 general, found the Irish brick and slate trade in many cases 

 either annihilated, or in such a depressed condition as to afford an 

 opportunity for importation from elsewhere, which eventually, 

 with but few exceptions, drove the native production out of its 

 natural market. As the foreign article was, in general, very 

 superior in appearance and finish to the Irish then procurable, the 

 latter was soon relegated to work of secondary character, and from 

 that position it did not recover until within the past few years, 

 when some works have been started which bid fair to successfully 

 compete with their rivals across the Channel. 



The Irish Slate Trade has never been attempted to be 

 developed with the energy or perseverance which the material at 

 command undoubtedly deserves. "With a few exceptions in the 

 vast number of so-called slate quarries, the workings merely con- 

 sist of surface-grubbing, where nothing but the more or less 

 weathered upper part of the slate-rock is met with, and in many 

 instances the dressing of the slate is done in such a crude style as 



