https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipO_2_TqYuyyuxiVgKfwxSnogQ2sua805gKFw0VlQbHLwW7u4YYDsRiDT4T_rKevuA?key=UFdIT3UwZG9ad3FveEFsQUZTaW5UZjRQWlpMeUtB

Place names and the Ordnance Survey

The basic function of a placename is to establish identity and to assist communications. Placenames are a valuable part of our cultural inheritance.

The history of placenames in the Ordnance Survey began in November 1824 when the first survey of Ireland by the British Ordnance Survey commenced. The survey was at a scale of 6 inches to one mile.

At that time, local taxes were based on the Valuation of Townland units. Detailed mapping of townlands was required to make the tax system more equitable. There are over 51,000 townlands in the Republic of Ireland and each one is named. In this extract from the 6 inch plan Donegal 004-01, the townlands are outlined in red.

Special instructions, concerning the treatment of Placenames, were issued by the officer in charge of the survey Lt. Col. Thomas Colby.

• The persons employed on the survey are to endeavour to obtain the correct orthography of the names of places diligently consulting the best authorities within their reach.
• The name of each place is to be inserted as it is commonly spelt, in the first column of the name book; and the various modes of spelling it used in books, writings &c., are to be inserted in the second column, with the authority placed in the third column opposite to each.
• The situation of the place is to be recorded in a popular manner in the fourth column of the namebook.
• A short description of the place and any other remarkable circumstances relating to it are to be inserted.

This data was recorded in Namebooks which are now stored in the National Archive.

From 1830, Irish civilians were employed by the survey to collect and examine the evidence for the purpose of deciding a suitable English language spelling for each name which had not already an accepted standardised English orthographic form.
Generally speaking, the spelling in English of the names of towns and of some physical features had already been standardized. Most of the work still to be done was related to the numerous townlands [over 51,000][/over].

The vast majority of the names originated in the Irish language and the standardised forms were to be anglicisations.

There are many examples, here are a few of the more common ones:
Baile_________ became Bally__________,
Cill___________ became Kil____________,
Dún_________ became Dun___________ or Down__________. etc.,

The most famous of the researchers was John O Donovan from Kilkenny. Others involved were Eugene Curry from Clare and Thomas O Connor from Monaghan. The rise of Nationalism in the 1900’s led to renewed interest in the Irish language. The Gaelic League published a book in 1905,written by Seosamh Laoide. The book was called Post-Sheanchas and it gave the Irish language form of the names of the Post Offices in Ireland.

Around the same time Dublin Corporation began erecting bilingual street nameplates.

In 1946 An Coimisiún Logainmneacha was established.

The Placenames Branch of the Ordnance Survey was established with the purpose of researching the placenames of Ireland in order to provide authoritative Irish language forms of those names for both official use and for use by the general public. The research was focused on the names of the administrative units and the physical features.

Many sources were available when attempting to ascertain the original Irish forms of Placenames.

These sources include surviving native materials written in Irish and Latin between the 7th and 19th Centuries.

However, the majority of Irish placenames are found only in anglicised versions.

These include:

• Rolls and Deeds relating to the Anglo-Norman period of the 13th and 14th centuries.
• Inquisitions and Surveys which detail the seizures and land grants of the 16th and 17th centuries.
• The Deeds and Estate Maps of the 18th century.
• Documents relating to the first Ordnance Survey of Ireland, particularly the Namebooks and the Irish forms recorded by John O Donovan and his colleagues.

The Placenames branch provided Irish placename forms for a number of the Ordnance Survey’s maps. In the 1970’s , it was decided, as far as possible, that all the administrative names, townlands, baronies and electoral districts would be bilingual. Larger Geographical features were also to be bilingual.

The following extract from the OSi Act 2001 describes administrative units and how they evolved.

Extract from Sheet 3175-A showing the names of the E.D. and the townland bilingually.

Extract from 1:50,000 Discovery series showing the official English language version and official Irish language version of the mountain name.

Extract from Road Atlas of Ireland, 4th Edition, Page 34 showing the official English language version and official Irish language version of some town names.

Information extracted from Ordnance Survey In Ireland and The Placenames of Ireland in the Third Millennium.

These publications will help with any research.

Gasaitéar na hÉireann /Gazetteer of Ireland

• 1989
• Lists bilingually 3500 approx, of the most widely used placenames in Ireland.
• Includes a National Grid Reference [ING][/ING]
• A guide to the pronunciation of the Irish version of the name

Logainmneacha na hÉireann

• 1990
• will present all the documentry evidence for each form of the name.
• Produced on a county basis

Liostaí Logainmneacha

• 1992
• Bilingual lists of the official Irish and English place names of all permanent administrative units in each county
• includes townlands, civil parishes & baronies.
• One book per county.

There is also a Gazeteer in The Complete Road Atlas of Ireland.

• Education
• GIS Explained
• Benefits of GIS
• Uses of GIS
• GIS Case Studies in the Public Sector
• GIS Case Studies in the Private Sector
• Schools
• THIRD LEVEL AND ACADEMIC
  • Introduction to GIS
  • GPS and Satellites
  • Guide to Academic Discount
  • HISTORY OF PLACE NAMES
  • Contours
  • Vector V Raster
  • Boundaries
• MapGenie and 3rd Level
• R&D with OSi Data
• Map Reading

SIGNUP TO OUR NEWSLETTER

PRODUCTS

Tourist & Leisure
Professional Mapping

All Products >

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tmq2VhqdtiGCz2F8LGo3QKUWI7feHwvx9d_4IK3ScHo/edit

888. Eviction in Colour At Least 35 Redcoats (British Army ) Armed in Attendance

1886 Attempted Eviction and Siege at Tim Hurley’s Castle (Mill and Farm) , Castleview, Clonakilty.  Landlord Francis Evans Bennett, (1824-1888), Cregan Manor, Rosscarbery.

The eviction eventually succeeded but was a pyrrhic victory as all the mill machinery had been moved and no one could be found to take the evicted farm.

To the present day relations of the extended Hurley thrive in various businesses in the locality.

..

1835. Alexis de Tocqueville in West Cork

‘In our open diligence there were two young men both very uproariously drunk. They talk to and made jokes at almost every passerby. All, men and women, answered with laughter and other pleasantries. I thought I was in France.

..

Bantry, 1842.  The town is most picturesquely situated, climbing up a wooded hill. with numbers of neat cottages here and there, an ugly church with an air of pretension, and a large grave Roman Catholic chapel the highest point of the place. The Main Street was as usual thronged with the squatting blue cloaks, carrying on their eager trade of butter-milk and green apples, and such cheap wares. With the exception of this street and the quay, with their whitewashed and slated houses, it is a town of cabins.

‘The wretchedness of some of them is quite curious: I tried to make a sketch of a row which lean against an old wall, and are built upon a rock that tumbles about in the oddest and most fantastic shapes, with a brawling waterfall dashing down a channel in the midst. These are, it appears, the beggars’ houses: anyone may build a lodge against this wall, rent-free; and such places were never seen! As for drawing them, it was in vain to try; one might as well make a sketch of a bundle of rags.  An ordinary pigsty in England is really more comfortable. Most of them were not six feet long or five feet high, built of stones huddled together, a hole being left for the people to creep in at, a ruined thatch to keep out some little portion of the rain. The occupiers of these places sat at their doors in tolerable contentment, or the children came down and washed their feet in the water. I declare I believe a Hottentot kraal has more comforts in it: even to write of the place makes one unhappy, and the words move slow. But in the midst of all this misery there is an air of actual cheerfulness; and go but a few score yards off, and these wretched hovels lying together look really picturesque and pleasing’.

He prophesied the demise of the Landlord system in a way everyone involved was shackled  and no winners.

.\

.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1spML-5s28rs1uUEshmF_IaOU8hdxHWDPg-JcalhKGAI/edit

Skibbereen Meeting re Failure of Munster Bank

From  Should the Munster Bank have been saved?  Cormac Ó Gráda, University College Dublin  WP01/ 15July 2001

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/24140366_Should_the_Munster_Bank_have_been_saved

In the century and a half since Sir Robert Peel s Bank Act of 1845 only two major Irish banks have failed.  The Tipperary Bank, which folded in February 1856, was one of the swindles perpetrated by John Sadleir M.P.   Less drastic in terms of losses to shareholders but more interesting as banking history is the collapse of the much bigger Munster Bank inJuly 1885.  Though the problems which led to its demise were largely self-inflicted, several observers felt at the time that it could, or should, have been rescued.  Some even accusedIreland s then quasi-central bank, the Bank of Ireland, of allowing it to sink.  Was this an example of the Bank of Ireland failing to discharge its unofficial responsibility as the Irish Banking system’s lender of last resort (LLR)?  Or was it a case of the Old Lady of College Green acting so as to minimise the moral hazard inherent in that function

…

.

Convened public meeting in Skibbereen re failure of Munster Bank in 1885

Of those mention attending the meeting

.

Richard Carey, (1838-, Skibbereen, 188?,  son of Rev. Richard, Tipperary, ed Fermoy College, Manager Munster and Leinster Bank.  m Katherine d William Hill Cork 8 children.   Present at the opening of Skibbereen Railway, July, 1877.  1909 Funeral Dr. William Jennings, Doctor and  Magistrate, Skibbereen. Listed North Main St., Youghal, 1916

Dr. John Samuel Levis, TCD,  M.D., 1865, (1822-1902), Glenview, Skibbereen, Resident, £182.  Son of Samuel, Baronial Constable and major land holder.  Adjudicating Magistrate Skibbereen and Drimoleague Districts. Ex-Officio member Skibbereen Board of Guardians. Regarded as a tolerant Landlord well respected. Levis family pre 1800 usually described as Lavers of Huguenot origin.  Sitting Drimloleague 1866.1885 chairing presentment session West Division, West Riding.  1893, attending funeral of Michael Sheehy, T. C., P.L.G., Skibbereen. 1901 two servants. Probate 1903 to Bruce Levis, £2,472.

Thomas Downes, Solicitor, North St. “Born son Thomas Mitchelstown, Castleknock College, Gold Medalist, partner with McCarthy Downing MP 1870, land agent to Wrixon-Beecher, Local bodies and railways.  Subscriber (3 copies) Dr. Daniel Donovan ‘History of Carbery, 1876. Probably advanced money in 1888 and secured a mortgage to Whites (Lord Bantry).  Paddy O’Keeffe   1894 assistant John James Carmody.  1876 Andrew Collins. Attending  1893, Rev. Charles Davis, Parish Priest, Baltimore aged 63, Founder of Baltimore Fishery School. ” “1871 funeral Skibbereen, Timothy McCarthy Downing, solicitor, MP, landlord.   Married 1876, Teresa d late Charles O’Connell, RM, Bantry, and first Catholic MP for Kerry whose wife was the 2nd daughter of Daniel O’Connell.   subscriber Zenith Marine Disaster, Baltimore, 1895.  1877.   Opening  Skibbereen Railway

T. Downes  J. E. Marshall  Prominent in Carbery Agricultural Show.  Sent a carriage to the funeral of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Somerville D.L. (1824-1898), Clontaff, Drishane. Died 1904, probate to widow Theresa and Daniel O’Connell Esq Agent Bank of Ireland Effects £10,676 5s 6d…..

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17vjisOFikNYRJbVWV36jHXwpIXB_XcT1u7oNHdLnoog/edit

Ms. Carrie (Caroline Mary)  Townshend, (1859 -1951).  West Cork  and Dublin.  Popularity of the Irish Harp.  Teacher of Irish. Giving evidence in America of British Brutality During Troubles in Ireland.  Member Christian Science Church.  1915 Aeridheacht at Glandore with Madeline Townshend.  The name Caroline Townshend is known to only a handful of people in Ireland but if any deserves to be a household name, surely it is hers, for it almost entirely due to her efforts that the ancient Irish harping tradition became firmly re-established.

Re Peadar Ó hAnnracháin, (1873-1985). Peadar was a wonderful Conradh na Gaeilge organiser throughout a number of counties including Cork and he wrote several books as Gaeilge. He also wrote on the Southern Star as ‘Cois Life’ in the 1940s and 1950s. In that period he worked in the Pigs and Bacon Commission in Dublin.  The column often wandered over long lost history, family relationships and there was a touch of the ‘Seanachaí’ about them.  The daughter of the Gaelic Scholar, landowner and businessman in Ballydehob Thomas Swanton, Crianlarich, gave him her father’s papers.

…

The extended Townshend/Townsend family of West Cork have a rainbow of political opinion from bright Orange to bright Green.  Carrie is definitely on the Green wing.  One of the rarely matriarch of the family is Helen Gallwey alias Townsend1709 Wife to Philip Townsend and daughter to John Galway, of Cork, Esquire.  She is Ancestor of Skibbereen Townsends The Cork Galweys/Galways may be Hiberno-Danish in origin She appears in the Convert Rolls ac converting to the Church of Ireland due to the Penal Laws.

..

This account is very much in the style Peadar Ó hAnnracháin, (1873-1985).

Sir Richard Griffith Partial Reminiscences Dictated 1869. Lent by Ashley Powell SC.

Ashley Powell SC

Professor Ashley Powell, B.A., T.C.D., B.L., S.C. Barrister, 1913,  Judge Egypt to 1923 after practising Cairo in British and native courts, British Intelligence in Middle East, WW1, wounded Arabia, Reid professorship of Law TCD 1930,  Senior Counsel 1947, Bencher 1956, Registrar St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Member Church of Ireland Council, Son of Venerable Archdeacon Dace Powell, St. Annes Shandon.  Nephew Dr. Ashley Cummins, Professor of Medicine UCC. Grandson of Dr. William Jackson Cummins, South Mall.  Attending the 1953 funeral of Jasper Travers Wolfe, solicitor, Skibberen.  Went to Cambridge to study Arabic.  Married 1922 Dorothy Uniacke Townsend, Pairc-na-Saileoge, Enniskerry of West Cork family. 1941 funeral of Geoge Daly representing Protestant Barristers.  Jack Lynch, Circuit Court Office later Taoiseach, P.D. Fleming, B.L., Sean McBride, B.L., Mrs. Siobhan McCurtain-McNamara, B.L., F. Neville B.L., S. Fawsitt, B.L., T. Desmond, B.L., F. McCarthy-Cotter, Father of the Cork Circuit,  D .O’Donovan Junior, B.L., D.P. Forde., B.L., Jasper Travers Wolfe representing Incorporated Law Society, Prof C. K. Murphy UCC Law Department, Ashley Powell representing Protestant members of the Bar Funeral of  Maurice Healy (1859-1923), Bantry  Born Solicitor,  Jubilee Dinner given to him by the Bar at Victoria Hotel addressed by John A. Costello, father of Munster Bar, former Taoiseach. Son William Powell, M.D. Cork

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMKvCprk8V8y_V-_uTf1Ti0pbBb6k7tnzmI3ChHI_gpG6BBLvThYYeSWakPaIWkyA?key=cS1lSjVzMWwySUNhWFZQa1RmaDFOWWpzWDYxVFlR

1831, Sir Richard Griffith Report on Bridges he Built on Roads from Skibbereen to Crookhaven and Skibbereen to Bantry, Span, Cost, Location.

https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/36560

1824 Richard Griffith, Road Engineer, Progress Report, Skibbereen to Crookhaven, Wheeled Carts now Appear, where heretofore Loads were carried on the Backs of Horses, New Entrance to Town Of Bandon, Road From Courtmacsherry to Timoleague, Road from Clonakilty to New Fishery Pier At Ring, New Road Skibbereen to Bantry, Macroom to Killarney, with a Note on The System of Labour Organisation Used.

https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/30429

Griffith’s Roads: Report of Patrick Leahy, Civil Engineer, 1834 to Co. Cork Grand July of Progress of Road from Dunmanus Bay to Skibbereen, Nearly Completed, Extension to Ballydehob Approved, and Report of Edmund Leahy, County Surveyor to Grand July 1840 on Ballylickey to Crookstown, 27 miles Active, Bantry to Glengariff 10 miles Near Completion, Crookhaven to Barleycove, Ballydehob to Bantry To Be Finished Current Season.

https://wordpress.com/post/durrushistory.com/30113

Report of Richard Griffith Engineer on new road Skibbereen to Bantry 1823

https://www.dib.ie/biography/griffith-sir-richard-john-a364

Griffith, Sir Richard John Contributed by Jackson, Patrick N. Wyse Griffith, Sir Richard John (1784–1878), public servant, surveyor, and geologist, was born 20 September 1784 at 8 Hume St., Dublin (the house is marked by a plaque), son of Richard Griffith (qv), MP for Askeaton, deputy governor of Co. Kildare, and director of the Grand Canal Co. of Ireland, and Charity Yorke (née Bramston; d. 1789) of Oundle, Northamptonshire. His father had made a considerable fortune with the East India Co., but lost a great deal of money during the building of the canals. Griffith spent much of his childhood at his father’s estate at Millicent, Co. Kildare. He was educated at a number of provincial schools, in Portarlington, Queen’s Co. (Laois), and then Rathangan, Co. Kildare, and at the age of 15 joined the Royal Irish Regiment of Artillery in 1800. His army sojourn was short; following the enactment of the act of union in 1801, Griffith resigned his commission (but continued to receive full pay) and went to London, where he studied geology, chemistry, and mineralogy at William Nicholson’s Scientific Establishment for Pupils. At much the same time he also studied chemistry under Robert Perceval (qv) of TCD. In 1806 he was in Edinburgh, where he attended the lectures of Robert Jameson, and moved in the city’s scientific circles, becoming a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh the following year. Between 1809 and 1813 he served as one of a number of engineers appointed to investigate and map bogs for the Irish bog commissioners, and produced a valuable report on the bog of Allen. Recognising his newly acquired geological expertise, the Dublin Society in 1809 commissioned him to survey the Leinster coalfield; his report and map were published in 1814, and he followed this with similar reports for the Connacht coalfield (1819) and that of Co. Tyrone and Co. Antrim (1829). He served as the society’s mining engineer (1812–39), which required him to deliver a public course of lectures, and was engaged in road and bridge building in the south-west of the country (1822–36). During this period he was responsible for laying out 243 miles of roads and erecting eighteen bridges; his finest bridge is that of five arches which spans the River Feale at Listowel, Co. Kerry. Griffith is today mainly remembered for his work as commissioner of the general survey and valuation of rateable property (1830–64). He was responsible for overseeing two important surveys. The first general survey undertaken was the ‘perambulation’ or ‘boundary survey’, which mapped the extent of the 68,000 townlands in Ireland. The second tenement valuation survey, now known as the ‘Griffith valuation’, was established in 1846 and charged with estimating the value of land holdings, data that was then used to determine local taxation levies. From 1836 he was a commissioner of railways (the commission deliberated until 1838 on the most suitable routes for Ireland’s developing rail network), and later was appointed deputy chairman, and subsequently chairman, of the board of works, positions he held between 1846 and 1864. Through his own field observations and through those of a number of members of the valuation staff, most notably Patrick Ganly (qv), Griffith acquired a comprehensive knowledge of the geology of Ireland. He was determined to produce a geological map of the country that would match William Smith’s 1815 geological map of England and Wales, and in 1839 he persuaded the railway commissioners to publish such a map at the scale of a quarter of an inch to the mile; further revised versions appeared up till 1855. Griffith was very proud of his geological cartographic achievement but failed to acknowledge the major contribution of others in its genesis. His fossil collections were described in two monographs (1844, 1846) by Frederick M’Coy (qv), and these remain important sources for modern-day palaeontological research. Griffith was an active and founder member of the Geological Society of Dublin and its successor the Royal Geological Society of Ireland, serving on the council for many years and as its president (1836, 1840). He was elected an honorary member of the Geological Society of London (1808) and an MRIA (1819), and was president of the geological and geographical section at the 1835 Dublin meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. TCD conferred on him an honorary LL.D. (1849) and honorary MAI (1861). In 1854 he was awarded the Wollaston medal by the Geological Society of London. He was elected president of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland (1850–55; 1861–63). Griffith had a remarkable, long, and varied career as a public servant, and he was rewarded for this work with a baronetcy in 1858. He died 22 September 1878 at his home, 2 Fitzwilliam St., Dublin (marked, like his birthplace, with a plaque), and is buried in a prominent position in Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin. A marble bust by Sir Thomas Farrell (qv) is in the possession of the RDS. He married (September 1812) Maria Jane Waldie (1786–1865) of Kelso, Scotland. They had one son – George Richard (d. 1889), who later took the surname Waldie-Griffith on inheriting his mother’s family Scottish estate in 1865 – and four daughters. His eldest daughter Jane, was thought to have eloped to America at the age of 16, and was apparently never mentioned in the family circle again. Sources G. L. Herries Davies and R. C. Mollan (ed.), Richard Griffith 1784–1878 (1980); G. L. Herries Davies, Sheets of many colours: the mapping of Ireland’s rocks 1750–1890 (1983); G. L. Herries Davies, article in ODNB (2004); R. Griffith, ‘Autobiography’, MS dated 25 Aug. 1869 (copies in NAI and NLI) PUBLISHING INFORMATION

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MzjuNbHTOwR-PdBnv7KRiyc4Xggkaad2CC3MPMzuu9w/edit

Father William Holland, Ardfield, Clonakilty, (1876-1950). 1949 History of West Cork. Included genealogies of Barrys, De Courceys, McCarthys, O’Crowleys, O’Driscolls, O’Heas, O’Hurleys, O’Mahonys, O’Sullivans. 1950 Funeral and Background.

Father William Holland, SMA, 1911-1952 was a relative.

His extended family included the O’Heas and Maddesn of Ardfield. Included was the famous Master Madden, after he finished this National School at Ardfield he ran a cramming school to prepare I think boys only for English Civil Service e Exams. Included among his pupils were future revolutionaries Sam Maguire and his brother and Michael Collins.

At the back of the book is a series of notations by John T.Collins from Kilmeen, Clonakilty. He was part of a loose group including Paddy O’Keeffe, Bantry, Bernard O’Regan, Aughadown, Emmet O’Donovan, Clonakilty. He assisted Basil O’Connell in compiling ‘The O’Connell Tracts’. In the 1950s he was given access to a 18th century collection of Cork Newspaper compiled by the Kearneys of Garrettstown House. By the 1950s Mr. Cussen, Solicitor, Newcastle West had the collection. John T. Collins published widely in the Cork Historical adn Archaeological JOurnal available online great research highly accurate.

History of West Cork:

Pretty much a a stunning achievement before the Internet and Google and the he spent long periods serving in Northern Nigeria.

Funeral and background:

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMIfS_tZBVzk6nxPSY8FobTKXQIT0pG4UgoqVjtlzdLiwteVHZKMEcdEG3NamhszA?key=azNfNy1XamRBdUdBTWthM2p6aHB6VkZ2LWl0MXRB

Funeral and background:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mBDukIFQhkhJiRA5xOIfNPtIDgWzoz_-FHNDjPgPSoc/edit

1754. 22 Butchers Listed Operating at the Shambles, Bandon

1943 Meitheal Pulling Flax, Droumleigh, Bantry

Flax Meitheals..

SchoolFolklore Collection

MEANING OF THE WORD MEITHEAL Meitheal is the Irish word for a work party, a team, or a gang of workers. It inherently refers to a group of people working together, to provide support, and assistance where and when needed. This little word tells of the cooperative labor system that existed in Ireland in years gone by. Here are some examples of how it would be used in day to day language. Meigheal mhóna (phonetic pronunciation meh-hal voe-nah) referred to a band of turf-cutters. Cutting, stacking and drying turf is intensive, back-breaking work and a band of workers would definitely come in handy to store up fuel for the winter. Cuir meitheal ar do chuid móna (phonetic pronunciation kir meh-hal er duh kwid mow-nah) is another wonderful expression. It means ‘get a working party to cut your turf for you.’ There is something powerful in the use of the verb “cuir” which literlly means put. There is no confusion here. You should simply put the power of the meitheal to work for you. It’s as if you can assume if you call, they will answer. Fear cinn meithle (phonetic pronunciation far keen meh-lah) referred to a leader of a working party. It would usually be the farmer who called the meitheal to his aid. If someone had a large family of sons to help them the saying was… Tá meitheal mac aige (phonetic pronunciation thaw meh-hal mock egg-ah) which meant he has a large family of sons to help him. Tá meitheal iníon aige (phonetic pronunciation thaw meh-hal in-een egg-ah) might even be better, since it means he has a large family of daughters to help him. Stack of turf in a field at the base of a mountain with text overlay Saving Turf in Ireland COMMUNITY COOPERATION Neighbors helped neighbors whenever required. All you had to do was send out the word that you were in need, and a meitheal sprang together to come to your aid. In years gone by, before the days of tractors and combine harvesters, farm work was totally dependent on manual labor. Farmers succeeded only through the cooperative help of their neighbors, and their own reciprocated support. You reaped what you sowed, so to speak. If you helped out many of your neighbors, you in turn could count a a vast number of hands when it came time for the heavy lifting and seasonal tasks associated with running your own farm. This little word carries the weight of history in its meager two syllables. It tells of an ancient cultural practice of helping one another out. Our ancestors applied and benefited from the age old practice of mutual cooperation. As a community they addressed their shared social and labor needs. It is a word we continue to need to this very day, and one we should resurrect and apply with all of its powerful attributes. A strong meitheal mentality could ensure that each and everyone of our communites succeeds and flourishes. Thanks for celebrating the Irish language with me today. Woman beside a horse Slán agus beannacht,

1937 School Folklore Project:

..

​​Breda Mac Carthy
to be woven into frieze. The machine used by this gentleman was called a loom and was also worked by hand which was a very slow and tedious work and would not be tolerated in any modern woollen mill. From the weavers the frieze was conveyed to the tucker where it was tucked to ensure better wear.
John and Isaac Johnson, brothers, of Lower Lane Durrus and John Crostan of the same place were the only weavers in this locality. Those individuals have long since gone to their Eternal reward which leaves the district devoid of Looms and Spinning-Wheels, of weavers and spinners, which is rather a pity.
Looms, and all the accompanying paraphernalia have long since been demolished and a mill has been set up in Bantry whether all the wool is carted. But as sheep-rearing is not such a profitable industry at present as it formerly was the number of sheep reared in the district has diminished considerably.
These facts were related to me by my father Michael Mac Carthy on May 7th 1938.

…

1937 school folklore collection, Dunbeacon Mary Lucy, spinner, Cahirlucky.

.

.

Horse Racing Challenge.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10_NjScyJSoX01VEub824aq_e61okd8PpOml_D457zrU/edit

Catherine Gaskin, (1929-2009), Irish Australian Novelist, her Grandfather Michael Ó hArachtáin, Collector of Manuscripts in Irish, from Clohane In Caheragh where was once a Chieftains Castle. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qM18Y-PfKftNlTgD2P2qtSo9thtunMC0QnqyuV9JGeM/edit

..