Antrim County, Ireland. Genealogy and History. Description of County Antrim 1931 ©Jane Lyons

Description from Thom's Directory, 1931

Antrim is a maritime county in the province of Ulster, it is bounded on the north by the Atlantic ocean, on the east by the Northern Channel, on the south by Belfast Lough, which it shares as far as mid-water with County Down and on the west by Co. Derry (Londonderry). The length of county Antrim from the "new bridge" over the river Lagan near Lisburn to the Giant's Causeway is 54.5 miles; and it's breadth from Island Magee to Toome on the river Bann is 30 miles.

NAME AND FORMER DIVISIONS
The counties name is derived from the town of Antrim and probably means "one tribe" or "one habitation". The northern part of the county was the ancient territory of Dalriada, commonly called the Route; all south of that was part of the old territory of Dalriada; this latter part was in later ages called North Clannaboy, to distinguish it from South Clannaboy in Co. Down, both of which formed the territory of the O'Neills. The district along the coast from Larne to Ballycastle was the territory of the MacDonnells and it is now known as "The Glens of Antrim" which are named after the streams that run through them as follows:- Glenshesk, Glendun, Glencorp, Glenaan, Glenballyemon, Glenariff, Glencloy and Glenarm.

PHYSICAL FEATURES
As regards minerals in the county, the sub-soil is basalt or trap, which forms the Giant's causesway on the north coast, clay-slate and limestone; there was coal at Ballycastle, and salt mines near Carrickfergus; and iron ore in the hill region extending from Larne to Cushendall. The ore was shipped from Larne, Glenarm, Carnlough and Red Bay to the ports of Cumberland, Wales and Clyde. There are numerous large bogs in the county.

The chief mountain summits in the county with their height in feet are: Slemish (1,437) near Ballymena; Trostan (1,811), Slieveanee (1,782), Slieveanorra (1,676) and Slievenahaghan (1,325), around Cushendall: Aganarrive (1,225) and Crockaneel (1,321), west of Cushendun; Knocklayd (1,695), a detached peak near Ballycastle; Collin Top (1,426), Carncormick (1,431) and Soarns Hill (1,326) near Glenarm; Divis (1,561), Black Mountain (1,272), Squire's Hill (1,230) and Cave Hill (1,188) near Belfast; Carnhill (1,025) and Toppin (928) near Carrickfergus.

The chief headlands coming from the north are Bengore Head which includes the Giant's Causeway, Kinbane or Whitehead, Benmore or Fair Head, Torr Head, Garron Point, Ballygaley Head, The Gobbins, Black Head and White Head which is near Carrickfergus. The islands along the coast also from the north are Rathlin; the Skerries near Portrush; Maidens near Larne; and Muck Island off Island Magee.

The Bays and Harbours are: Belfast Lough between Antrim and Down; Larne Lough (an inlet 5 miles long and bounded on the east by the peninsula of Island Magee); and the Bays of Ballygalley, Glenarm, Carnlough, Red, Murlough, Ballycastle and White Park.

Lighthouses were located at Maiden Rocks (opposite Larne Harbour); Black Head; and Altacarry Head (north-east of Rathlin Island).

The principal rivers are the Bann, which for 27 miles forms the boundary between Antrim and Derry; the Lagan for about 22 miles forms the southern boundary; the Six-Mile-Water flowing into Lough Neagh near Antrim town. Larne Water which flows into the sea at Larne; the Main river flowing into Lough Neagh below Randalstown receives the waters of the Glenwhirry and Kells rivers, also those of the river Braid on which stands Ballymena. The Glenravel Water and the Clogh river are also found in Antrim. The Bush river enters the sea near the Giant's Causeway. The river Carey runs into the sea at Ballycastle, and the streams running through the Glens of Antrim reach the sea at different points along the east coast.

The principal Lakes are Lough Neagh; Lough Beg is an expansion of the river Bann, lying north of Lough Neagh; Lough Guile is near Ballymoney; Portmore Lake is close to Lough Neagh and Lough Mourne is found to the north of Carrickfergus.
The Lagan canal connects Lough Neagh with Belfast Lough.

FAMILIES AND HOUSES, 1926
There were 42,477 families in the county according to the 1926 Census for Ireland, the average number in each family was 4.48. The number of 'inhabited houses' was 41,896 with an average of 4.54 persons to each house. The Special Inmates of Public institutions are omitted from these figures.

There were in the county 25,680 'Occupiers' or 'Heads of Families' who were in occupation of less than five rooms, this was 61.6% of the total for the county. Of these, 849 or 2% occupied one room; 6,549 or 15.7% occupied two rooms; 7,716 or 18.3% occupied three rooms; and 10,666 or 25.6% were in ocupation of four rooms.

There were 374 tenements in the county in which the room had only one occupant at that time; 375 cases where the room had two, three or four occupants; 81 cases in which there were five, six or seven occupants to one room, and 19 cases where the occupants of one room exceeded 7 in number, including three cases where ten persons occupied the same room.

ANALYSIS OF THE CENSUS FOR COUNTY ANTRIM, 1821-1926

Year	Males	Females	Total Pop.
1821	111,572	122,034	233,606
1831	131,727	140,601	272,328
1841	137,533	148,034	285,567
1851	124,778	135,125	259,903
1861	122,491	134,495	256,986
1871	117,003	128,755	245,758
1881	113,464	124,274	237,738
1891	102,689	112,540	215,229
1901	94,087	102,003	196,090
1911	93,651	100,213	193,864
1926	92,596	99,047	191,643

EDUCATION
In 1911 there were in county Antrim, 157,812 people aged 9 and upwards; of these 141,944 or 90% could read and write; 7,606 or 4.8% could read only and 8,262 or 5.2% were illiterate. As that census was the first for which the age for consideration had been raised from 5 years to 9 years, no comparison can be made with figures from earlier censuses. But - the percentage of those of five years and upwards who were unable to read and write in 1891 was 9%. By 1901 this figure was listed as 8% and in 1911 it had fallen to 7.9%

IRISH SPEAKING (1861-1911)

No. of people	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911
Irish only	11	14	27	0	0	0
Irish & English	1,911	464	1,481	894	1,012	2,724
Irish Total	1,922	478	1,508	894	1,012	2,724
% of population	0.7	0.2	0.6	0.4	0.5	1.4

A point to note: there are no errors in the above table, the majority of counties in Ireland show a similar trend in numbers of Irish speaking people between the years 1861 and 1891. The figures given for emigration patterns show a greater number of people emigrating in the years 1861 and 1881 and this may account for the figures in this table.

RELIGIONS, 1871-1926(% of population)

Religion	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926
Presbyterian	52.0	51.3	42.1	50.77	50.14	49.5
Church of Ireland				20.9	21.72	22.5
Roman Catholic				20.59	20.5	20.1
Methodist	1.4	1.5	3.3	1.91	1.97	2.6
Others	3.8	4.7	4.7	5.83	5.87	5.3

Note: The figures for Church of Ireland and Roman Catholics in the county for the years 1871, 1881 and 1891 will be included as soon as possible.

EMIGRATION (1861-1911)

1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911
77,516	54,670	59,431	5,469	14,946	32,804

These figures include emigrants from the City of Belfast which was a major port of emigration for people from other counties