In the Registrar-General's Return, for the first three months of the year, it is stated that the emigration from Ireland in that time was 14,339, being 3,231 more than in the corresponding months of 1881; and the same official estimates on July 1 the population of Ireland had fallen to 5,088,079, this being about the total at the beginning of the century.

Source: The Illustrated London News, No.2254—Vol. LXXXI, Saturday, July 15, 1882, p.66