The manufacturing establishments are almost wholly centred in Ulster. The shirt-manufactur ing industry has become very important in Lon donderry County. Huguenots immigrating to Ireland after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes introduced the manufacture of silk, and for a time it enjoyed considerable prosperity, but it almost died out before the middle of the nine teenth century. In the early part of the nine teenth century a large number of factories changed from linen to cotton manufacture. and over 100.000 spindles were at one time used in the latter industry. But with the introduction of flax-spinning machinery the manufacture of col ton practically ceased.
Ship-building is a long-established industry,and became especially prominent during the last three or four decades of the nineteenth century. Belfast is the centre of the industry: the principal yard at this place employed 9000 men at the close of the century, and produced a larger an nual tonnage than any other yard in the world. The whole fleet of the \Vhite Star Line, including the Oceanic, the reitic, and the Cedric, were built at this yard. Ship-building on a small scale i, carried c,n at liau'bo•line, and ha, been recently revived at Londonderry and Dublin. In 1900,21 steam vessel, were built in Ireland, with a net tonnage of 94,666. The milling industry is steadily declining. The number of mill, de crea,ed from 1482 in 1891 to 1351 in 1901, and their average output also diminished. Importa
tions of flour increased in amount during this time, and importations of wheat decreased. Prior to 1870 there was a thriving leather industry, but machine methods were not adopted, and it has become insignificant.
The home industries are still widely spread through Ireland. and, in the aggregate, contribute largely to the well-being of the people. Impor tant among these home industries are hand knit ting, hand embroidery, and lace-making.
The brewing and distilling branches have be come the most important of the Irish industries, whether estimated with respect to the number of persons employed or the value of the product. The output of the distilleries increased from 4,801.000 gallons in 1961 to 14.221,520 in 1901. It has for a number of years exceeded in amount the output of English distilleries and equaled nearly one-half that of Scotland. The produc tion of beer increased from 1,437,703 barrels in 1961 to 3,149,142 in 1901, the latter figure being less than one-tenth the total output of the United Kingdom for the same year. though greater than the amount consumed in Ireland. Irish beer is remarkable for its purity, being made almost ex clusively from malt. The largest part of it con sists of porter, which first became the popular drink between 1850 and 1860.