1911 Census

Posted by Ronan on Jul 25, 2009 in comment, ireland | 1 comment

So it’s nearly 100 years ago since my great-great-grandfather filled out a census in April of 1911.  You can get a pdf version of the census now from here, not all areas are covered but the site appears to be quite comprehensive. A bunch of counties were added recently including

Donegal, Cork, Galway, Wexford and King’s County (Offaly) are the latest batch of counties to be made available. Even though there is still some material missing (in particular, some Irish language returns, and corrections submitted by the public), we have decided to make the material immediately available, in the knowledge that the vast majority of our users will be able to find what they want.

So I downloaded the Skehill’s census and had a read.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

The questions are quite strange .. like if you had someone in the household that was mentally handicaped (or perceived to be ‘odd’) you as the head of the household had to differentiate between an imbecile, idiot and lunatic.  Put yourself  in the shoes of a 72 year old man in 1911..

For the record…

Idiot:
1. an utterly foolish or senseless person.
2. Psychology. a person of the lowest order in a former classification of mental retardation, having a mental age of less than three years old and an intelligence quotient under 25.

Imbecile:
1. Psychology. a person of the second order in a former classification of mental retardation, above the level of idiocy, having a mental age of seven or eight years and an intelligence quotient of 25 to 50.
2. a dunce; blockhead; dolt.

Lunatic:
1. an insane person.
2. a person whose actions and manner are marked by extreme eccentricity or recklessness.
3. Law. a person legally declared to be of unsound mind and who therefore is not held capable or responsible before the law.

Another question was aimed at determining the education level.. you could choose – Read & Write, Read only or Cannot Read.  No place for a PhD so ! How times have changed.

I knew that Thomas Skehill (great-great-grandfather) had remarried and had more children late in life, his first wife died at child birth of the twin girls. My great-grandfather (James) was 28 at the time, married to Margaret expecting my grandfather (Thomas) who was born late in 1911.

I hope the 1901 records get scanned and uploaded soon so we can get a glimpse of who was around at that time. The Skehills tree needs some more work especially around the turn of the century.

If other Skehills come across this post you’re welcome to drop me a line. I’d be happy to hear from you.

1990's Telecommunications (from 1960's)

Posted by Ronan on Jul 23, 2009 in broadband, technology | 0 comments

Google Voice Not Available in Your Country

Posted by Ronan on Jul 15, 2009 in comment, ireland, technology | 5 comments

After months of waiting last night at 1.42am I got my Google voice invitation. Clicked on the link.. got whisked away to the Google Voice page, logged in only to find…

Darn it !

Times are changing.. Once upon a time Google used to do something for everyone.. now they are being selective. Once upon a time Google would have a big announcement for a new service (Gmail, calendar, gtalk, Earth, maps etc.) and the next day you had it! Now Google announces things like ‘Wave’ and Chrome OS  which are “coming soon”. I want the old Google back !

New Office

Posted by Ronan on Jul 11, 2009 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

We’ve taken up a desk in the EAC out in LIT.. here is a picture of said desk -

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow…

omg sweet 16 part 2

Posted by Ronan on Jul 11, 2009 in Uncategorized, comment | 2 comments

So after a dinner conversation out in the EAC earlier in the week where we moaned about the state of nation and the youth of today I ‘accidentally’ caught sweet sixteen today on mtv. I gave it another go just to see if perhaps my previous rant was out of kilter. In a word – no.

A brittany wannabe got a porsche (Cayenne), threw a hissy fit at west coast customs when she ‘really needed’ pink diamonds on black paint, a logo of her name on the headrests, a cool stereo for 100K. Then omg the perfect dress arrived omg its too long. Omg. Disaster. Her party could be ruined.

For fub sake.

Then only one helicopter was ordered to bring her and her friends to party. There should have been 3. Cue another hissy fit of omg’s. But the whole day is ‘about me’ she states and makes her entrance via the only helicopter, her friends make their own way. Cue hysteria froml other ‘friends’ who are awaiting her entrance.

At this point I switched over to the Kerry game and cried. Not because the game is dire but because sweet 16 is far worse than I remembered! Doing a few sums in my head suggests that at least a million dollars were wasted – sorry spent – on stuff and one night. Today’s generation are obsessed with celebrities and living the celebrity lifestyle. I really hope that some of them can see past this madness, understand the value of one dollar/euro and get in touch with reality.

Call me old fashioned but hey that’s just me.

A Tree, Virgin Mary, Hysteria

Posted by Ronan on Jul 10, 2009 in comment, ireland, random | 0 comments

When the guys were ordered to cut down the tree in Holy Mary Parish Church I bet they didn’t reckon on chainsawing out the Virgin Mary. Well that’s what’s after happening in Rathkeale Limerick.

Bock the robber has some thoughts on the matter.

I love the qoute from Local parish priest Fr Willie Russell who said on radio station Limerick Live 95FM yesterday that people should not worship the tree. “There’s nothing there . . . it’s just a tree . . . you can’t worship a tree.”

* picture from Irish Times

It’s friday and my coffee cup needs a wash.. but I think I see something in it.. oohh that’s right it’s stale coffee.