Report on the Cost of Living in Ireland, June 1922

In the summer of 1922, the newborn Irish Free State faced a crisis that predated its birth: the crushing weight of post-war inflation. This official report, commissioned by the Provisional Government just months before civil war erupted, documents what ordinary families endured as prices skyrocketed 85% beyond 1914 levels. Through meticulous analysis of commodity prices and household budgets across Ireland's regions, the committee attempted to calculate an official cost-of-living figure that could guide wages and social policy. The document captures a nation in transformation, where the promise of independence collided with economic realities that threatened to undermine the very stability the new government hoped to build. For historians and economists, this is a vital primary source: a snapshot of how ordinary Irish people lived through one of the most volatile transitions in modern European history. For anyone curious about the hidden machinery of nation-building, it reveals that independence was won not just on battlefields but in the daily struggle to put food on the table.