1926 Census (Irish Free State) - the Hart family

On 18th April 2026, the first census of the Irish Free State was made freely available online for members of the public to research.

The Hart family consisted of Patrick Hart (1876-1944), his wife (Rose Anne Union 1883-1976), and their 10 children - Chrissie (1907), Pattie (1909), Rose (1911), Maureen (1913), Gertie (1914), Eileen (1916), Paddy (1918), Joan (1921), Della (1924), and Teresa (1926).

The 1926 census was officially taken on the night of 18th April 1926. This was the census reference date, meaning households were recorded as they existed on that specific night. So anyone absent from the house on that night would have been excluded.

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The census record for the Hart family shows that they were living on Strand Road West in Clontarf. There is no house name or number associated with the record (there may be on form B1, but this does not seem to be available currently on the website). However, we know from other records that by this time they were living in Blandford Lodge (which apparently may have some connection with the family of Winston Churchill *). 

Their neighbours appear to have been the McConnell family on one side, and the Riddall family on the other. The name Riddall is interesting because, not only is it a rare Protestant surname, but on many occasions over the years, the Hart & Union families lived on Riddalls Row (tenements off Moore Street). So I wonder if this Riddall family were in some way connected to Riddalls Row?

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The Hart family initially lived at 1 Riddalls Row in 1905, moved to 58 Moore Street about 1906, then to 56 Moore Street about 1913, and then Blandford Lodge about 1917 - a year after the Easter Rising (immediately after which grandfather Patrick Hart was detained in Mountjoy Prison for a week or so, along with over 3000 others). The last four Hart children were born in Blandford Lodge. 

The 1926 census entries include the middle names of some of the children (e.g. Christina Mary, Patricia Mary), and interestingly Aunt Joan is referred to as Catherine Joan (this also reflects her birth record where she is Catherine Joan Mary).

Cropped extract from census Forms A1 & A2 showing entry number 4 (for Patricia) crossed out

Aunt Chrissie was 19 years old and was "assisting in Father's shop". The rest of the children were "attending school". However, three of the ten Hart children are missing from the 1926 census. They are: 

1) Teresa (my mother) - she was born 6 months after the census was taken (in Sep 1926).

2) Della , the second youngest child - she would have been 2 years old the day after the census (she was born 19 April 1924).

3) Rose, the third oldest child - she would have been 15 years old (born Jan 1911). 

I was able to track down Aunt Rose in the 1926 census - she was a boarder in a school run by nuns (presumably Loretto Convent) in Rathfarnham. See the third entry on Form A1 here.

Aunt Pattie (the second oldest, aged 17) was included on the census form but was subsequently crossed out (in green ink, possibly by the assessor, when he collected the form?), so she may have been absent from the home on the official date of the census, but present in the house when the form was being filled in (retrospectively?). Aunt Pattie does not appear elsewhere in the census, but maybe she too was attending Loretto Convent, Rathfarnham? There is a Kitty Harte in the convent, aged 16 (which is about right age), but she was born in Kilkenny, so this is a different person, and there is no sign of Aunt Pattie in the convent.

I was not able to track down Aunt Della but presumably she was being looked after by some close family. However, she does not appear on the census forms for immediate family on the Hart side or on the Union side, so her whereabouts remain a mystery. If anyone has any ideas, please leave a comment below:

• Edward Hart (1880-1960) & Gertrude Dunne (1889-1966) - living on the Howth Road.
• Mary Union (1869-1943) & Joe Campbell (1871-???) - Joe is not on the 1926 census form so may have still been in England (where their children were all born). However, the rest of the family were living at 56 Moore Street (previously occupied by the Hart family).
• Kitty Union (1872-1962) & Gerald Jacob (1873-1916) - living on Main St, Leixlip.
• Christopher Union (1874-1957) & his brother James Union (1875-1938) - living at 1 "Riddles Row" (where the Hart family were living in 1905).

Incidentally, as a teenager, I asked my Dad where did Aunt Della (my godmother) get her name. He said she was probably born Dolores, which was subsequently abbreviated to Della. And I believed this up until recently, when I discovered from her birth record that she was born Magdalen Veronica Mary, so maybe "Della" came from Magdellena?

The 1926 census form for the Hart family also reveals that the family had two servants - Valentine Kealy (aged 24, and apparently female), and (on a separate page, form A2) Catherine Kealy (aged 19). Both have the mistakenly transcribed surnames Healy & Leahy. They are both single and I assume that they are siblings, and may have been known to grandmother Rose Union's family because of the connection to Leixlip, in Kildare. They are described as "general domestic servants".

The other potentially big surprise was in the two columns on the far right. In previous census years (1901 & 1911), these two columns record the number of children born and the number of children surviving. In the 1926 census, the numbers here are 9 and 7, suggesting that two of the children had died. But on closer examination, the last column only refers to living children under the age of 16. So this was a false alarm, because Chrissie and Patricia were over 16. 

It is clear from looking at several of these census return forms that many people had difficulty understanding the precise particulars desired by the people who designed the forms. Some things never change ...

Cropped extract from census Form A1 showing number of children born
and number living (who are under 16)

So the 1926 census shows a relatively well-to-do family, living in a rather grand house, with two servants. Most of the children were still at school, but Aunt Chrissie had recently left and was helping her father in his butcher's shop. The only remaining mystery from the 1926 census is where was the 2-year old Aunt Della? 

Where was the toddler?

Maurice Gleeson

April 2026

This work includes content from records of the 1926 Census of Ireland, made available by the National Archives of Ireland under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Please see further: https://nationalarchives.ie/search-the-1926-census-2/permission-to-reuse-census-1926/

National Archives of Ireland, 1926 Census, STAT/1/10/48, Strand Road West, Clontarf West, Residents of a House Form. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Director of the National Archives.

* from "Chapters of Dublin" ... Blandford Lodge on the shore seem to intimate some connection with the Marlborough family. Sir Winston Churchill, who lived some time in Dublin, was father of the great Duke, and the name Winston has been used by the Churchills since one of them married a Lincolnshire Winston. Blandford is the second title of the Duke of Marlborough, but the name of the house may come from Blandford in Dorsetshire from which the title is derived.