"Counting the People provides a comprehensive survey of the Irish censuses from 1813 to 1911. Several eminent Victorian polymaths, such as Thomas Larcom, William Wilde (father of Oscar) and Thomas W. Grimshaw, were involved in the design and organization of successive census-taking exercises, and their labours produced works of great value to economic and social historians. The censuses of 1851 and 1861, in particular, are unsurpassed in the breadth of their scholarship."--Jacket.