McHugh's Miscellany: Donegal being the poor relation is no optical illusion

Back in February, Donegal once again recorded the lowest disposable income per person in the state in 2020 which was calculated at €18,322 per person.

I can only imagine what these same figures will be when the 2023 and last year’s equivalent emerge from the Central Statistics Office. But I digress!

Dublin’s disposable income per person stood at €27,686 in that same year of 2020 - a difference per person of €9,364 from the Donegal figure.

Ok, one could argue that it is the capital city and reflects the diversity of all its appendages on offer, which would by necessity, increase that average disposable income.

But that Donegal 2020 figure was also a massive 22% below the state’s average disposable income, which is far more disconcerting, from a Donegal comparative analysis.

And just to be consistent, my reading is that we have been bottom of this particular league, since these reports were first introduced back in 2007.

Now newly digitised Census 1911 documents by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released last week tell the story of wealth and poverty at a more distant time frame in this country.

I was equally curious as to how we fared out in that census over a century ago.

So it was no surprise to learn that the wealthiest counties were in 1911, to the east of the country, while poorer counties tended to be located on the western seaboard.

And lo and behold, out of the 20 poorest district electoral divisions (DEDs) in the country, 11 were in Connacht and there were none from Munster.

While Mayo was deemed to be the poorest county, Donegal had eight DEDs out of the 20 poorest DEDs, the highest amount for any county.

The Annagary DED was identified as the poorest of all in 1911 with a valuation per person of £0.23.

Annagary had a land area of 9,731 acres with 694 houses, of which 639 were inhabited.

On the other end of the scale, Culmullin DED in Meath was identified as the wealthiest DED in 1911 with a valuation per person of £20.97.

Culmullin had a land area of 9,036 acres with 129 houses in 1911, of which 115 were inhabited. That is some difference!

In that same census of Ireland in 1911, the Duffy household were recorded as living in the same Annagary district, Donegal.

The Duffy household consisted of 11 people with the head of family, Grace Duffy, listed as a farmer’s wife.

There were nine children aged from 18 down to one year old and a grandmother aged 73. Their house contained just two rooms along with one outhouse or farmsteading.

Source: Central Statistics Office 

This household Census return records the roof of this house as being of ‘Thatch, wood or other perishable material’ while the walls were of ‘stone, brick or concrete’.

Things have thankfully improved since then, although some may contend that mica riddled buildings of today, don’t even reach that standard.

The real point here is that despite all the passing decades, our hard earned Independence, our amazing tourist product and relative infrastructural advancement, we are still playing in the lower divisions, in terms of how much money each of us has to spend weekly, monthly or yearly.

In recent times, that has only been compounded by the complexities of Covid, the war in Ukraine, Brexit but token platitudes from all governments, regardless of their make-up or structure going back multiple decades has exacerbated the situation.

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I then gaze across the pond and see the French up in arms as President Macron tries to increase the pension age from 62.

And while I most certainly do not condone or even contemplate any violence or aggression as witnessed in France over recent weeks to endorse any cause, however noble the cause, it is clear that we are very forgiving souls in the west and north west, but particularly in Donegal, when it comes to demanding a better life that others on this island seem to have.