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Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



forms only a part of the parish of Kilcominoii, as all Erris outside of 

 the Mullet is designated. In 1891 the condition as regards educa- 

 tion of this very large parish was as given in the Table : — 





Persons. 



Male. Female. 



Xiimber above 5 years, 

 Illiterate, . 

 Percentage, 



10,988 

 5382 

 48-9 



5310 

 2266 

 42-7 



5688 

 3116 

 54-8 



The chief reason for the high rate of illiteracy prevailing in 

 Ballycroy seems to be the scattered nature of the population, and the 

 long distances of many of the houses from any of the schools, of 

 which there are three in the district. 



(d.) Sealth. — The following notes regarding the health of the 

 people were obtained, for most of which I have to return my best 

 thanks to Dr. P. M'Hale, of Ballycroy, who kindly afforded me the 

 opportunity of seeing many of the cases personally, and also allowed 

 me access to notes of cases. On the whole, the population is a healthy 

 one, and there is but little serious disease, though there are many 

 trivial ailments, for the most part attributable to the nature of their 

 food and dwellings, and of their occupations. 



Consanguineous Marriages. — Marriages between relatives are of 

 pretty common occurence in this district, for several reasons ; one of 

 these is the strong clannish feeling of the people, another the nature 

 of their relations with the inhabitants of the surrounding districts ; 

 and, lastly, the difficulties of communication which prevent much 

 movement of the population. These unions are not commonly of 

 nearer degree than second cousins, which seems to be the most usual 

 relationship in these cases. In addition to these there are many, if 

 not the majority, of the marriages in which the parties are related 

 more or less distantly to one another, often in no very distinguishable 

 degree. 



The kindness of the Eev. Henry Hewson, p.p., of BelmuUet, who 

 supplied me with the list of marriages and of dispensations for 

 maniage on account of relationship fi-om the year 1875, extracted 

 from the record of dispensations for the diocese which he has kept 

 since that year, enables me to give actual figures. In the Eoman 

 Catholic parish of Ballycroy,^ which contains about 320 families, there 



' It is not a parish in the Census Ketums, but forms part of Kilcommon, Erris. 



