I mentioned this way back in March and now it’s finally arrived! The National Archives of Ireland has released the 1911 census for Dublin, now available at http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ .

You can search by first/last name, approximate age (within 5 years), gender, and DED (District Electoral Division). I did a search for Smith and got over 2400 results. Results are sorted by surname by default, and are in tables which include name, townland/street, age, sex, and DED. Click on a name and you’ll get the information on the entire family living at that address. On the family page you’ll also find links to census images (which are in PDF format, be warned) that include the basic household form but also forms for buildings, outbuildings, and other forms unique to households or situations.

I am not a big fan of PDF census forms but these were pretty easy to read/magnify/manipulate. Information on these forms included the religion of the family, whether each member could read/write, marital status, where they were born, whether they spoke only “Irish” or both “Irish and English” and any conditions that the census especially took note of (“idiot”, “lunatic”, etc.)

You can also BROWSE the census, which is pretty interesting! You can browse by DED, which will take you through the townlands/streets of Dublin and list houses and families as well as significant buildings in the area. To get a sense of what the city was like in 1911, the site also has several articles and photographs covering a variety of topics including religion, transportation, poverty, and law.

Be sure to check out the future plans page, which shows the order in which census records will be made available. 1911 will be done first, then 1901. Something to look forward to!