It will ever be so that drinkers will complain about the price of drink and about the mark-up profit of the vintners. And so it appears it ever was so.
In 1672 it was estimated there were 1,180 public houses in Dublin, supplied by 91 breweries, catering for its 4,000 families. And the profit on the drink was 500 per cent.
A Proclamation of the period complained that "ale houses, called tippling houses, do daily increase, and, for redress thereof, there is no positive law".
Fynes Moryson informed that "ale hath vent in every house in the town [Dublin] every day in the week, and every hour in the day, and every minute in the hour".
Fynes Moryson arrived in Ireland in 1600, later becoming secretary to Lord Deputy Mountjoy. His Itinerary is an account of journeys across Europe between 1591 and 1595, and to the Holy Land between 1595 and 1597.
Part Two describes the Nine Years' War in Ireland until the surrender of the Earl of Tyrone in 1603. Indeed it was Moryson who tricked Tyrone into submission that year, when he concealed from him that Queen Elizabeth was dead.
Seathrun Ceitinn in his Foras Feasa ar Eirinn/History of Ireland (1629-31) wrote "Cuirim o theist d'aon-fhocal Fynes Moryson, do scriobh go sgileamhail ar Eirinn; oir, biodh go raibhe a pheann cliste re scriobhadh i mBearla, ni shaoilim go raibhe an chiall do bhi aige ar chumas an phinn re fhirinne do nochtadh.
"I discard Fynes Moryson who wrote jeeringly on Ireland; for, though his pen was skilful for writing in English, I do not think that he intended by power of the pen to disclose the truth."
The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns (1521-1603) notes that in 1602 Fynes Moryson, gent, was leased the rectories of Downings and Keraughe (Car agh), Co Kildare, "to hold for 21 years, rent £10.6.8".
Sean de Bhulbh in his Sloinnte na hEireann/Irish Surnames gives Mac Muiris as the Irish of this surname, Scottish and English generally.
Muiris is the usual gaelicisation of first name Maurice, and was adopted as a patronymic by the Prendergasts of Mayo. In Ulster, however, the name is mainly English. Indeed one of the 13 apprentice boys who shut the gates of Derry city in 1649 was named Robert Morison.
Hugh Smith Morrison, a Derry unionist and future Northern Ireland MP, was the author of Modern Ulster, Its Character, Customs, Politics and Industries (London 1920).
Is it due a reprint?
Current telephone directories north of the Border list over 600 Morrison entries, almost three times as many as those to its south. Outside of the Dublin 01 area, the greatest concentration is in Connacht and Co Donegal.
The only person so-named in the 1659 Census of Ireland was Robert Morison, merchant, one of the tituladoes of the Diamond in Derry City.
Index to Irish Wills is a calendar of wills, mainly from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. By far the greater number of Morrison entries were in the diocese of Derry, followed by the diocese of Dromore.
There is but a single one in the diocese of Limerick, this being Christopher Morrison, farmer, Bilboa, Co Limerick. All five listed in the diocese of Cork and Ross, dating from 1718 to 1794, were in Cork city.
Persons so named were among the sheriffs of Cork city in the years 1708, 1714, and 1761, while James and Rowland Morrison, were Lords Mayor of Cork in 1784 and 1806 respectively. Today, Morrison's Island names a central part of Cork city.
Taylor & Skinners' 1778 Maps of the Roads of Ireland lists but two Morrison residences: one at Grangemore, Co Kildare, with the other near Cork city. The 1814 Directory has persons so named at Ballitore, Co Wexford; at Course Lodge, Rich Hill, Co Armagh, and at Walcot Lodge, Co Dublin.
The 45 Morrison holdings listed in Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) are of most modest proportions. Only two reached triple digits.
There were 18 acres in Co Derry and 12 in Co Down. Two were in Co Cork - Alexander, Ballynagrumolia, had one acre, and Julia, College Road in the City, had 82 acres.
The only Co Kildare holding was the single acre of Alexander Morrison, Yellowbogs Commons.
Fynes Moryson, who died in 1630, had returned to Ireland in 1613, it being thought funds might have been getting low. It appears he had some ill-defined economic interests there.
He also went to see his brother Richard, then vice-president of Munster, and his nieces and nephews.
And Downings? That in Donegal is Na Dunaibh.