What does 21st-century Ireland have in common with mid-19th-century Ireland? New analysis, conducted by Prof Eoin McLoughlin of Heriot-Watt University and Dr Richard Mc Mahon of Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, reveals that it is evictions.

Their analysis of the contemporary rate of evictions viewed against Ireland’s historical record was published last week on RTÉ’s Brainstorm, a platform for academics and researchers to publish articles and research.

According to McLoughlin and Mc Mahon’s analysis, the rate of evictions relative to the number of households between 1855 and 1877 was 0.14 per 100 households, and during the Land War a few years later was 0.48 per 100.

Using the latest Census data and figures from the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB), they calculated that the “modern rate implied by recent RTB data is roughly one eviction notice per 100 households (and higher if we only consider rented households) in both 2023 and 2024″. In the third quarter of 2025, the RTB reported that there were 5,405 eviction notices, a 35 per cent increase on the same period in 2024.

This historical comparison gets starker when one considers the cited renter share of the market in the 1800s (96 per cent) versus today (33 per cent). The researchers deduce, “it is not unreasonable to suggest........

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