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Cormac O'Grada's analysis of the marital fertility of farmers' and farm labourers' wives in rural Derry c. 1911 based on manuscript census material suggests that the well-known gap between Catholic and Protestant family size was present even then. The difference was quite small, however - about 0.3 children per completed family - and insignificant for women who had married before the mid-1880s. Various indicators of 'wealth' suggest that, all else equal, wealthier couples have more children, although there is also a tendency for labourers to have more children than farmers. Had Catholics in rural Derry been as well-off as their Protestant counterparts, they would have had more children. O'Grada's finding contrasts with the popular belief today that the larger families reared by northern Catholics reflect a culture of poverty. Did the Catholics always have larger
families?: Religion, Wealth and Fertility in Rural Ulster before 1911 |
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