Mapping Irish Tontines

This map provides the location and, where possible, details of over 140 tontines established in Ireland between 1773 and 1906. These included a mix of public and private schemes, directed at a variety of aims, including large-scale government tontines, private debt and building tontines, and a range of mutual aid tontines.

Early Awareness and Government Adoption: Despite an 80-year gap between the first English (1693) and the first Irish government (1773) tontines, Ireland was well aware of the scheme through extensive press coverage of European tontines. Initially, government tontines in Ireland faced parliamentary resistance. However, all three Irish government tontines (1773/1775/1777) were fully subscribed and successful, though they proved to be an expensive way to borrow, with payments to subscribers continuing until 1870.

Limited Private Tontines: Ireland had far fewer private tontines than England (200+) or Scotland (40+), with fewer than 20 identified in the half century after 1773. These included five investment schemes, two for private debt relief, and ten for civic improvements. Notable examples include Cork's Tontine Coffeehouse (1793), which became a vital community hub for merchants and political meetings, and assembly rooms in Armagh (1794) that served social and cultural functions.

Unique Irish Innovations: Ireland developed highly innovative and novel tontine models. Mutual aid tontines combined insurance with tontine principles, offering working-class subscribers sickness/burial benefits plus year-end payouts from remaining funds. These schemes, operated by a variety of societies, were so associated with Irish communities that when they appeared in England from the 1840s onwards, they clustered around Liverpool's large Irish immigrant population.

Temperance Tontines: This form of tontine operated in two ways: (1) as a mutual aid tontine which stipulated members must not drink alcohol, and (2) as a scheme which financially incentivised sobriety by paying annuities only to subscribers who maintained abstinence.