Madam, – In 1941, during the Emergency, the government compiled a Population Register to aid officials with rationing. This register was similar to that compiled in the United Kingdom in 1939 and was arranged by address, noting each person’s name, date of birth, occupation and marital status.
In essence it amounted to a census of the population, compiled under the Emergency Powers Act 1939. Further registers were compiled in 1943, 1947 and 1951. The Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations is currently trying to establish how these registers were used during the Emergency and what happened to them after the war had ended. We would be extremely interested to hear from anyone who may have had a working knowledge of (or other information about) these Population Registers. We can be contacted at 01-4063542, info@cigo.ie or at the address below. – Yours, etc,