Valentia population dropped almost 80 percent since 1841

Fingers crossed for Tidy Towns results next Monday

TAKE a look at the statistics here, highlighting the continued decline of the population of Valentia Island between the years 1841-2016.

1841-Population: 2,920. 1851- 2,482.

(The period between 1841-1851 saw the great Irish Famine) 1864-2,240

1871-2139 1881-2,240. 1891-2,050. 1901-1,864. 1911-1,625. 1926-1,483. 1936-1,198. 1951-1,015.

1961-926.

1971-770.

1981-718.

1991-680.

2002-690.

2011-665.

2016-654.

It is noticeable that the period 1871 -1881 shows an increase in population. It must be remembered that the arrival of the Cable Telegraph company to Valentia in 1866 was of huge economic benefit to the Island and also the Slate Quarry industry was at it’s height.

Notice the drop in population from 1881-91. One would have thought that the drop would have been bigger as the ships Belgravia and Furnesia, in a very sad day in 1883, took a total of over 1,000 people from Valentia Harbour to America. It was an assisted ‘Free Emigration’ policy by the British Government. However, its impact was in all probability minimised by the continued success of the Cable Company and the Valentia Quarry. Also a good number of those who went on board were from areas outside the island. The family unit thereafter also continued to be quite big.

The closure of the Quarry in 1911, the decline in mackerel fishing (particularly after the war), the subsequent further decline in the fishing industry, the closure of the Cable Station in 1966 as well as the disappearance of manufacturing industries from nearby Cahirsiveen have slowly but surely impacted on population and employment opportunities in the last century.

The loss of these employment outlets, together with the catastrophic down-turn in the economy from about 2008 with the further decline in farming, fishing and construction opportunities and the loss of other local services as viable employment outlets have all contributed to today’s number of 654.

An ominous and very worrying situation is to be observed in Valentia’s only National School, Scoil Derarca. It was completed in 1878 and replaced the existing three National Schools in Corobeg, Chapeltown and Knightstown. On its opening over 100 pupils attended. School Principal John Daly states that when he started there in 1994 104 attended – today it is halved to exactly 52.

The vast majority of students now go on to third level education but on qualification do not have access in the main to third level job opportunities here.

Irish society is very much moving towards urbanisation and rural communities are paying a very heavy price. The weedkiller of overbearing bureaucracy is choking small rural business opportunities, copper fastened by unwillingness and apathy by central government to rectify it. We in Valentia Island are only too well aware of it as it is and has been well documented and illustrated in local and national media circles as to how we have to fight tooth and nail to hold on to long-established employment institutions vital to the very lifeblood of our survival. SEPTEMBER is a very important month in Tidy Towns parlance – a month in which the postman is eagerly awaited by Tidy Towns committees. Helen, the post-lady, came up trumps with an invitation to the Knightstown Tidy Towns committee to attend the prize giving ceremony in the Helix, Dublin, on Monday, September 25. The invitation means that the village will receive a prize, possibly a bronze, an addition to the four previous bronze medals. Whether or which, Knightstown looked great again this year and received a lot of good comments from visitors and locals alike