Whitaker’s Grey Book
The human cost of stagnation was visible in households and communities throughout the State. The 1956 census had already shown the intensity of the preceding five years’ population loss: average annual net emigration between 1951 and 1956 was 13.4 per thousand of the population, with particularly high rates in much of Connacht, the border counties and the west. This was not merely a rural story. The census commentary noted that Dublin City and County, an area of net in-migration in 1946–51, had become an area of substantial net emigration in 1951–56. Young adults crossed regularly to Britain for building work, nursing, domestic service, factories and other employment, while families at home experienced the departures through remittances, return visits and, often, permanent separation.