Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  hank. Of linen yarn, 3,600 yards.

  harp. Officially known as ‘coin of the harp’, a coinage struck for Ireland in 1534 in less than sterling silver, so called because it bore on the reverse a crowned harp, the arms of the kingdom of Ireland. (Dolley, ‘Irish coinage’, pp. 408–410.)

  hastiuell. Probably a fast-growing variety of barley.

  hauberk. A chain-mail tunic.

  Hawarden kite. A kite-flying exercise initiated in December 1885 in a letter to the press by Gladstone’s son, Herbert, suggesting that Gladstone was in favour of the introduction of home rule in Ireland.

  hayboote, hedgeboote. The right without payment to procure wood from the manorial woods for the purpose of fence-making or enclosing a plot of land.

  hayward. Manorial official who oversaw the making of hay and harvesting.

  headland. Land left unploughed at the end of a field to enable the plough to be turned.

  heads of bills. See statute.

  Health, General (or Central) Board of. An unsalaried body established by the lord lieutenant in 1820 to advise on the institution of local boards of health and to supervise and examine their expenditure. During periods of distress in the 1820s the board confined its reporting to government on areas in the neighbourhood of Dublin. It metamorphosed into the Cholera Board in 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV, c. 9) in response to the cholera epidemic of that year and played a significant role in shaping government action. The board co-ordinated the collection and distribution of information concerning precautionary and preventive measures and kept in touch with conditions on the ground by insisting on detailed reports from the localities. It instituted local boards of health and appointed health officers, set up dispensaries and small hospitals, provided grants and employed additional doctors where necessary. The fact that the board had no rate-levying capacity and the inordinate demands for medical relief precipitated by the Great Famine led to the piecemeal transfer of its responsibilities to the poor law unions and (from 1872) to the Local Government Board. See Poor Law Commission.

  hearth-lobby house. A house whose entrance lies directly adjacent to the hearth which is separated from the entrance (lobby) by a jamb, screen wall or partition. Hearth-lobby houses have centrally-located hearths and are typically found in eastern areas. See jamb, direct-entry house. (Danaher, ‘Hearth and chimney, pp. 91–104; O’Neill, Life, p. 13.)

  hearth tax. A tax of two shillings on every hearth, fireplace or chimney imposed at the Restoration to defray the loss to the crown incurred by the extinction of the feudal incidents. Schedules of householders liable for the tax were compiled. Known as hearth money rolls, they do not constitute a complete listing of householders in any given area for the Hearth Tax Act of 1662 (14 & 15 Chas. II, c. 17) exempted persons living on alms or unable to work or those whose houses were too wretched to be assessed. The tax was abolished by the Irish parliament in 1793 at the prompting of Henry Grattan. The hearth money rolls contain a parish by parish record of those who paid the tax and how much they paid. Only a few have survived. John Grenham’s Tracing your Irish Ancestors (Dublin, 1992) provides a county by county listing of repositories and journals which contain details of the hearth money rolls. (Carleton, Heads.)

  Hearts of Steel. See Steelboys

  hedgeboote. See hayboote.

  hedge school. Fee-paying Catholic schools operating in hedgerows, ditches, sod cabins, barns and church sacristies which emerged (though prohibited) during the penal years of the eighteenth century and persisted in great numbers into the 1820s when they were providing a rudimentary education in the ‘three Rs’ to an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 children. With the establishment of the national system of education in 1831 their number diminished dramatically. The appendix to the second report of the royal commission on Irish education contains highly-localised detail on a vast number of hedge schools throughout the country. (Second report of the commissioners of Irish education inquiry, HC 1826–7 (12) XII. 1.)

  helier. A tiler.

  herald. A royal messenger and proclaimer. To the herald was entrusted the duties of arranging and ordering precedence in the matter of processions, funerals and state ceremonies. He also regulated the use of arms and recorded the pedigrees of those entitled to bear them. Commissions were issued to the heralds to ascertain, inspect and record the arms in use in a particular county and the records of these visitations contain important genealogical and heraldic detail. Heraldic visitations were undertaken in several eastern counties in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Ireland to control the use of heraldic arms along the lines established by the English College of Arms. Under the supervision of Ulster king of arms (created in 1552) the visitations were intended to establish what arms were in use and by what right they were borne. The visitation records are preserved in the Genealogical Office (since 1943 the successor to Ulster) and on microfilm in the National Library. See funeral entries.

  hereditament. Inheritance. Corporeal hereditaments consist of the material or physical inheritance such as land, buildings or minerals. Incorporeal hereditaments comprise certain rights or easements such as light, right of way, support or water.

  heriot. A payment owed to the lord upon the death of a freehold tenant, usually the best living animal of the deceased or a cash payment. See mortuary, relief.

  Hiberno-Romanesque. A late nineteenth-century architectural style which emerged in reaction to neo-gothicism, the predominant ecclesiastical style of that century. Characterised by round-headed windows and doorways modelled on earlier monastic churches, Hiberno-Romanesque was a simpler and less pretentious form than the ornate Gothic and was felt to be a more appropriate style for Ireland. It was a fashion that gave expression to the upsurge in national feeling and, from an ecclesiastical perspective, emphasised continuity from the early Celtic church.

  high commission, court of. An ecclesiastical court comprising clerical and lay members and equipped with special powers to compel adherence to the Reformation, the court of high commission was established in October 1564 at the behest of Elizabeth who made religious conformity a key objective of the Irish administration. Its introduction followed the issuing of a number of regional ecclesiastical commissions to the midlands, the south, the west and Armagh to enforce the religious settlement. The commissioners discovered that the settlement was being ignored throughout the Pale. Catholic priests were receiving support and shelter from the gentry. Political unrest, the heavy involvement of Anglican bishops in central and local administration, the hostility of the increasingly recusant Catholic Old English and the reluctance of Elizabeth to sanction draconian measures to ensure conformity rendered the work of the commission largely ineffective. Fines were rarely paid and where external conformity was achieved, there were not enough preachers to effect a thorough conversion. In all, five commissions were issued between 1561 and 1635 but only the last was in any way effective. Conducted by Wentworth, the 1635 court established uniformity within the Church of Ireland by expelling Presbyterian ministers and successfully recovered alienated church property.

  high court of justice. (1652). The court established to try those suspected of complicity in atrocities committed during the 1641 Confederate Rebellion. Evidence gathered to build a case against suspects is contained in the detailed and highly-localised collection of documents known as the depositions of 1641.

  high cross. A free-standing ringed cross mounted on a steeped base that first appeared in the eight century. Early examples were richly ornamented with abstract designs such as spirals, geometric motifs and interlacing. Larger, structurally complex crosses began to appear in the ninth and tenth centuries with biblical scenes depicted in panels along divided shafts. A cluster of about 30 of these scriptural crosses are located near the Barrow river at Moone. The patrons of later crosses, such as that at Dysart O’Dea in Co. Clare, eschewed the ring and all but abandoned carved embellishments save simple, prominently-positioned depictions of Christ or bishops. High crosses were associated with monastic sites an
d had an obvious didactic function. They may also have served to delimit boundaries or to enhance the status of the associated institution. (Harbison, The high crosses; Henry, Irish high crosses.)

  High-King. See Ard Rí

  Hilary. A court session and university term commencing about the feast of St Hilary (January 13) and concluding on 31 March. See sittings.

  hill-fort. A hill-top enclosure fortified by defensive earthworks of one or more banks. See promontory fort.

  hip roof. A roof with sloping gable ends. On a half-hip roof the gables terminate short of the eaves.

  hiring fair. Farmers sourced servants and labourers at hiring fairs, the largest of which were held in west Ulster in the late nineteenth century. Farmer and labourer or servant negotiated conditions of employment and wages before agreeing a contract of six months duration, the interval between one hiring fair and the next.

  hobby, hobin. The light horse of a hobelar.

  hobelar. A medieval, light cavalryman who rode a hobby (or hobin) and was armed with a spear as distinct from the heavily-armoured and less mobile mounted men-at-arms who rode massive destriers or war-horses. (Hayes McCoy, ‘The hobelar’, pp. 12–16.)

  Holinshed’s Chronicles. Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande (1577) originated in a plan by the printer Reginald Wolfe to publish ‘an universall Cosmographie of the whole worlde’ which was to have included the history of every known nation. Holinshed (died c. 1580) was to compile the histories but after Wolfe died in 1573 the project was abridged and only the Chronicles made it to the press. A considerable portion of the history of Ireland came from the pen of Richard Stanihurst (1547–1618), a member of a prominent Dublin family. Stanihurst’s favourable treatment of the Kildare rebellion landed him in trouble with the English privy council and he was compelled to revise the text. His treatment of the native Irish was not objective and his re-hashing of some of the fabulous tales of Giraldus Cambrensis attracted the ire of both Geoffrey Keating and Philip O’Sullivan Beare. In the second edition of the Chronicles (1587), John Hooker supplemented Stanihurst’s history with material he compiled from contemporary Irish administrative records. See Foras feasa ar Éirinn, Zoilomastix. (Lennon, Richard Stanihurst; Miller and Power, Holinshed.)

  holy water clerk. (L., aquabajulus) A clerk who carried the holy water in church services and processions, read the epistle at mass, acted as bell-ringer and performed the duties of sacristan. After the Reformation the office became that of parish clerk.

  homage. A symbolic act in which the tenant surrendered to the lord by kneeling and placing his hands within the lord’s clasped hands and swore to be his man. The act was an acknowledgement of the reciprocal bond of loyalty and protection that existed between tenant and lord. See fealty, investiture.

  Home Rule Association. Founded in May 1870, largely as a result of the efforts of Isaac Butt, the Home Rule Association or Home Government Association sought to develop popular support for an Irish parliament with full control over domestic affairs. Functioning more as a pressure group than a political party, the association eschewed involvement in land issues and denominational education and concentrated on pushing a federal solution to the national question. Butt’s federalist vision – which saw Westminster retaining authority over defence, war, foreign policy and taxation and continuated Irish representation at the imperial parliament – did not meet with the approval of nationalists who wanted complete legislative independence. The membership comprised a heterogeneous mix of constitutional nationalists, Protestant conservatives, liberals and fenians. It was renamed the Home Rule League in 1873. MPs elected on a home rule platform were required to agree to concentrate their efforts on achieving home rule but they rejected this as it circumscribed their independence. (Thornley, Isaac Butt.)

  Home Rule Bill (1886). Gladstone’s home rule bill offered a modest degree of home rule to Ireland. It conceived of an Irish parliament of two orders that would vote separately and have a suspensory veto over any proposals introduced by the other. There would be an Irish executive responsible to this legislature but important areas such as peace and war, foreign and colonial policy, customs and excise, trade and navigation, the post office, coinage and legal tender would remain the responsibility of the imperial parliament where there would be no Irish representation. One-fifth of the charges of the UK budget for imperial purposes would be met by Ireland and any remaining surplus would be at the disposal of the Irish parliament. The Irish judiciary would be appointed and paid by the Irish government and hold office on the same terms as their English counterparts. The right of appeal to the judicial committee of the privy council would remain. A land law act to accompany the bill would contain provisions for the application of the principle of land purchase on a massive scale. Unionist fears that the bill represented a stepping-stone towards complete independence were amplified and exploited by Randolph Churchill. The bill also trawled up prejudices regarding the fitness of the Irish to govern themselves. On its second reading in the house of commons the bill was lost by 30 votes to an alliance of Tories and Liberal Unionists.

  hooker. A half-decked, single-masted, gaff-rigged vessel with a bowsprit carrying a large mainsail and jib. Hookers were formerly used for transporting turf and livestock off the Galway coast. A smaller version of the hooker, the gleoiteog, is used for fishing.

  horsemen’s beds. A Gaelic spatial measure equivalent to 20 or 30 acres in Kilkenny and Waterford. Known as cowlands in Wicklow or capell lands elsewhere.

  hosting. A military expedition by a royal army and contingents of unpaid militia organised for the defence of Pale but also for the benefit of other shires where leading magnates such as the Butlers in Kilkenny and Tipperary took the lead. Generally there were no more than one or two hostings in a year for a maximum of 40 days. Within the Pale the hosting was organised by the lord deputy who agreed with the privy council on the commencement date and duration together with the amount of carts that would be required. Instructions for the same were issued in the form of chancery writs which were declared throughout the Pale. Cartage – the requirement to provide carts for the transportation of supplies – was usually fixed at a rate of one cart for very four ploughlands. Hostings applied to all free tenants. In areas dominated by the native Irish the equivalent service was called a slogad or rising out which was declared for the purpose of defending the tuath from attack or attacking another tuath.

  houbote (houseboot). A tenant’s right to procure a reasonable amount of timber from the manorial woods for the purpose of housebuilding or house-repair without payment. He was not entitled to cut timber in excess of his immediate needs for future repairs.

  houghing. The mutilation of animals, often carried out as part of agrarian campaigns. It involved the hamstringing or cutting of the leg tendons of cattle, thereby crippling them. It is thought to have emerged in the eighteenth century as a result of the widespread conversion of arable land to pasture which reduced the amount of land available for letting to peasants and encouraged landlords to evict. An outbreak of cattle houghing in Connacht in 1711–12, for example, has been attributed to the resentment generated by landlords who upped the rents, evicted defaulters and converted the land to pasture. By 9 Anne, c. 11 (1710) cattle-maiming was made a felony and liability for damages was imposed on the baronies. The practice of houghing, however, pre-dated the eighteenth century. In Antrim in 1585 a small English force under Captain Edward Barkley, frustrated at their failure to locate Sorley Boye MacDonald, carried off most of his cattle but ‘houghed’ those they could not carry away. (Connolly, ‘Law’, pp. 51– 68; Idem, ‘The houghers’, pp. 139–62.)

  hue and cry. 1: The legal obligation on all able-bodied persons within earshot of a crime to pursue miscreants. A fine was imposed on anyone failing to respond to the raising of a hue and cry 2: Hue and Cry was the twice-weekly gazette published by police headquarters at Dublin Castle and issued to the constabulary and metropolitan police forces. It contained police
regulations, details of stolen animals and property, apprehensions sought by police forces, lists of apprehensions and names and particulars of deserters.

  Huguenots. French Protestants who fled into exile to escape religious persecution in their native land. They arrived in Ireland, usually from England, in four waves between the late sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, the largest wave occurring after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1689. They settled in numbers in urban areas, often at the request of local notables who invited them to set up woollen, linen or silk manufactories. Some Huguenots conformed to and were assisted by the Established church. Others chose to adhere to their own non-conformist beliefs. Large Huguenot colonies were established in Dublin, Cork, Lisburn and Portarlington, while smaller clusters of families settled in at least 27 other towns. (Caldicott, Gough and Pittion, The Huguenots; Ryan, Irish Church, pp. 171–181.)

  huke. A Dutch, hooded mantle shaped like a tabard.

  hundred. 1: A civil, military and judicial division of an English county, apparently derived from the ‘hundred hides’, a hide being equivalent to about 120 acres. It was roughly equivalent to an Irish barony 2: The equivalent of 126 fish. A hundred contained 42 casts, each cast comprising three fish.

  hundred court. A Saxon institution that was retained as an instrument of civil government following the Norman conquest, the hundred court was a court of burgesses to which every hundreder or burgess was liable for jury service. Every chartered town was granted the right to hold its own weekly hundred court which was distinct from the common law courts.

  hungry months. In nineteenth-century Ireland, the months of June, July and August when the old crop of potatoes had been exhausted and the new crop was not yet ready for picking.

  husbandman. A fairly prosperous peasant who held 20 or 30 acres by long lease.

  I

  ice house. An outbuilding, partially underground, where ice gathered during winter was stored to preserve food during the summer months. The ice was usually sourced from an adjacent ice pond. Belvedere House, Mullingar, and Ardgillan Castle in Co. Dublin each possess ice houses. Ice houses or ice stores associated with commercial salmon fisheries, such as those at Ballina and Lismore, were used to preserve fish for export.