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