56 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



in co-partnership (about as bad a mode as the niiud of man conld 

 devise), making it hard to say how much each man held, but the 

 average size of the cultivated land on each holding was probably 

 about 4 to 4^ acres. 



The arable land has now been divided up into definite holdings, 

 fenced, and sold to the peoj)le by the Congested Districts Board. 



(c.) Language and Illiteracy, — I regret to be unable to record the 

 number of Irish-speaking persons in the population; they are all 

 practically bilingual, and do not, they say themselves, speak Irish well 

 now. It was noticeable during this visit that the jjeople were not 

 observed speaking Irish among themselves, the way they did in Inish- 

 bofin and Inishark and other places. Several of the older inhabitants 

 informed me that they all knew Irish, but spoke it so badly that they 

 always felt ashamed in speaking it to the people from Achill. The 

 younger generation growing up hardly knows more than a few -words- 

 and phrases. It is to be regretted that the census returns only 

 give the figures as to Irish-speaking peoples by baronies. 



Illiteracy. — The return for this is given by parishes. In the parish- 

 of Kilgeever, which includes both these islands, there were in 1891 

 4847 persons, of whom 1413, or 29*2 per cent., were illiterate. 



Population. 



Persons. 



Male. Female. 



5 years old and upwards, 

 jSTumber illiterate, 

 Percentage, 



4847 

 1413 

 29-2 



2504 



661 



26-4 



2343 

 752 

 32-1 



The rate of illiteracy on the islands is not high, as most of the- 

 men met with were able to read and write. 



There are two l^ational schools on Clare Island, and one in Inish-- 

 turk. 



(d.) Health. — It was found to be very difficult to obtain reliable 

 information on this part of the subject, but there was universal agree- 

 ment among my informants that the people on the whole are very 

 strong and healthy, and that the diseases from which they suflter are 

 mainly those due to their mode of life and occupations, their food, 

 and most of all to the unsanitary condition of their dwellings, de- 

 scribed in another section. 



Consanguineous Marriages seem to be of very frequent occurrence 

 on both islands, as might be expected in an insular population ; but 



