The population of Rathlin Island.

INTRODUCrION THIS paper consists of an epidemiological and demographic study of the population of the island of Rathlin, off the coast of County Antrim and lying between Ulster and Scotland. Its history is briefly traced from earliest times and its population analysed from the record of the Census of Ireland over the past 120 years. HISTORY Rathlin is mentioned by Pliny as "an island between Ireland and Britain". It is known that in neolithic times, porcellanite was mined in the townland of what is now called Ballygill for the production of stone axes and tools which were used in many parts of Western Britain (Whelan, 1933). In the post-Christian era, the first church on Rathlin was founded by St. Comgall of Bangor in 580 A.D. The island was then part of the kingdom of Dalriada which extended from the mainland of Antrim to the Scottish Isles and Kintyre (Boyd, 1947). In the tenth century Viking invasions began and these Scandinavians became absorbed in the local population which produced at a later date the clan, Macdonnell of the Isles. Their seat was at Islay and they controlled the island until 1476. (Hill, 1873). John de Courcy, who came to Ulster in 1177 made friends with the local chieftains of Dalriada who in turn regarded him as their overlord. His possessions were lost to Hugh de Lacy in 1205 who later obtained the title of Earl of Ulster from King John of England. (The Earldom of Ulster eventually passed to Henry VIII and has been held by the Royal Ramily since then, the present holder being H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester). Rathlin was then granted by de Lacy to John Bisset in 1242 and it remained with this family until the dispute of King Bruce of Scotland with England. The owner of the island at that time, 1306, Hugh Bisset lost the tenure because of his part in aiding King Bruce and it was granted by Edward II to Sir John of Athy. It was later returned to the Bissets, one of whom Margery Bisset, married John Macdonnell, a grandson of Robert II, King of Scotland, about 1400. The Macdonnells, who later became the Earls of Antrim, therefore possessed the Glens and also the island of Rathlin through this marriage. Much fighting and bloody battles occurred in this period of Ulster's history between the Scots-Irish alliances and the Anglo-Normans who were beginning to settle in the rest of the country. As a reprisal against an attack on a Norman stronghold, all the cottages were burnt and every inhabitant that could be found was killed in a Norman invasion of the island in 1274. During this retreat of the Lord of the Isles to Antrim, Rathlin was settled by Scottish immigrants. They also entered the Glens on the mainland (Hill, 1873) and many different clans and names were introduced into this area at that time. Battles continued to rage, and in 1575 the Earl of Essex massacred all the inhabitants he could find duiing an expedition against the Scottish Macdonnells (Froud, 1858).