New Collection in DRI – Historical National Accounts Group for Ireland

The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) is delighted to announce that a new collection, Historical National Accounts Group for Ireland, has been published in the Repository through the Centre for Economics, Policy and History at Trinity College Dublin.

The Historical National Accounts Group for Ireland (HNAG) was founded in 1994 and has been a nexus for scholars and professionals interested in Irish economic history. Meeting initially at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin, the group later migrated to Trinity College Dublin, where it evolved into the Irish Quantitative History group (IQH) that stills meets annually.

Comprising academics, researchers and public sector representatives, HNAG’s original mission was to develop comprehensive statistics on Irish economic growth from the Famine to the First World War; those interested in that initial mission are encouraged to read the following article from Andersson and Lennard, “Irish GDP between the Famine and the First World War: Estimates based on a dynamic factor model” (2009).

Nowlan Digitisation Grant

Since the inception of HNAG, the group produced outputs including symposiums, working papers, and data series on Irish economic history. The group’s efforts significantly contributed to the exploration and understanding of Ireland’s economic past. One of their outputs was a digital data depository, created by Jason Begley, Frank Geary, and Kevin O’Rourke.

Regrettably, the data made available online by HNAG, and which were stored on TCD servers, was lost in the mid-2010s. However, with the support of the Royal Irish Academy, through a 2023 Nowlan Digitisation Grant, it has been possible to restore the HNAG data series.

Collection Highlights

Some of the collection highlights include:

• Approximate annual cost of clothing, provisions, forage and regimental pay, 1901
• Accounts of receipts and expenditure of the intermediate education board for Ireland, 1900
• Census 1901 – Occupation of population 1891 and 1901
• Average earnings of all workpeople in the woollen and linen industry, 1901
• Irish exports and imports by good, 1771-1919

Regarding the ingest of this collection, DRI Director, Dr. Lisa Griffith said:

“We are delighted that Trinity College Dublin have ingested this important quantatitive collection into the Repository. The Historical National Accounts Group for Ireland (HNAG) collection not only supplies important data regarding Irish life, trade, work and economics – it also has a large number of potential re-uses for researchers and the wider public.

We at DRI are also glad to collaborate once again with a recipient of the Royal Irish Academy’s Nowlan Digitisation Grant award. This grant has ensured that these HNAG outputs are preserved safely, for the long-term, and viewable to all on open access.”

The Historical National Accounts Group for Ireland collection can be viewed and downloaded in the Repository.

DRI are delighted to include this valuable collection in the Repository. Other similar collections in the Repository include: the Indexes of British Army monthly returns in Ireland during the late nineteenth century collection and the Debating Austerity in Ireland collection.

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