Look at the map of our place. Some pins mark places where people used to work long ago. What do you notice? What do you wonder? Talk with your partner, then share one notice and one wonder with the class.

In April 1926, people all over Ireland were counted in one big count. That count is called a census. The people who did the counting wrote down what work each person did, if they had work.

We have worked their numbers out so they are easy to read. Out of every 100 people who had work, they show how many farmed, how many made things, how many built, how many moved goods about, how many kept shops, how many worked as servants in other people's homes, and how many did everything else.

Go back about a hundred years, to the time of many of your great-grandparents. That span is three generations. Farming was the biggest kind of work in many parts of Ireland then. In the towns and cities the picture was different. People made things, drove carts and trains, and served in shops and houses.

Today the work people do near us has shifted in some ways and held steady in others. Some old workplaces still stand. Some are quiet now, and new kinds of work have arrived. When we put the old numbers beside what we know about work now, we can see change and continuity in our own place.

Work with your partner. Use your sheet and the chart on the board.

1. Find our county on the 1926 table on your sheet. Write the number for each kind of work in the Then column.
2. Drag each bar on the chart so it matches those 1926 numbers.
3. Your teacher will read a short picture of work in our area today. Fill the Today column in plain words from what you hear, and from any notes you have from somebody who remembers.
4. Compare the two columns. Which kinds of work look bigger now? Which look smaller? What looks much the same?

Look at the map of our place. The pins already on it show old workplaces near us. Tap Pin, pick a colour from the key for the kind of work, and mark places where people work today. Use Add to key if you need a new kind of work. On your sheet, write what has changed about work here, what has stayed the same, and what these figures cannot tell us. Be ready to share.

Four key words from this lesson are census, generation, change and continuity. Our finding about work here goes on the timeline wall at 1926 and beside today. Talk about this: if a child your age lived here in 1926, what kind of work might their family have done, and how sure are you?