PAMELA NEWENHAM
When filling out the census on Sunday March 31st 1901, John Stanislaus Joyce could not have imagined his 19-year-old son James would go on to become one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
At the time, John was a government pensioner residing in Fairview with his wife Mary and 10 sons and daughters including James, who he lists as a student.
The information of Joyce’s early life comes available today as the 1901 census goes online.
According to the census, the third President of Ireland, Éamon de Valera, was a boarder student at Blackrock College on the eve the census was carried out, famous author Peig Sayers was living with her husband and in-laws on the Great Blasket Island and Terence MacSwiney, who would later die in prison after 74 days on hunger strike, was residing in Cork City.
Pádraig Pearse was, at age 22, the head of his household living on Sandymount Avenue in Dublin. In the census he made the return in English. By the time of the 1911 return he makes the family return in Gaeilge.
