Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland (1845–6). A three-volume social, economic, topographical and administrative gazetteer which contains a vast amount of information and statistics relating to pre-famine Ireland. The opening chapter comprises an extensive description of Ireland together with the results of the 1831 and 1841 censuses and innumerable statistical tables on all aspects of contemporary Irish life. Separate articles are given for each province, county, barony, parish, island, town and sizeable village. In 1998 the gazetteer was re-issued in a six-volume edition.

  parliamentary papers. Broadly speaking, the parliamentary papers of Great Britain and Ireland embrace everything officially published which concerns parliament and its working. In a narrow and strict sense they are taken to refer to the 7,000-volume bound set or ‘blue books’ (so called because many were bound in blue) which commenced in 1801 and includes papers (bills, reports and returns) presented to parliament in response to an order, an act or an address. To these were added papers printed by royal command. Using the broader definition, parliamentary papers can be usefully divided into two categories: papers which relate to the agenda, proceedings and debates of the house and papers which give information to the house to inform the legislators. Agenda, proceedings and debates papers include all the papers one would associate with the actual conduct of parliament. They include minutes, agendas, notice papers, votes and amendments. The official account of proceedings can be found in the journals of the house and verbatim records of debates are published in Hansard. Minutes of standing committees appointed in each session to deal with public bills are also printed and circulated. The second category – information papers – may arise from within the house or from without. Public and private bills, the reports of committees of the whole house, select committee reports, returns (papers required by parliament from government departments) and act papers (papers presented to the house by order of an act of parliament and which it has ordered to be printed) are generated from within. The reports of royal commissions of inquiry and departmental committees, however, are externally generated.

  This vast archive is one of the most important and detailed sources for Irish social, political and economic history in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has one major deficiency – it is not easy to extract what you are looking for. There are sessional and consolidated indexes (shelved at the librarian’s desk in the National Library) but the method of referencing is complex and confusing. A major royal commission on poverty in Ireland like the Poor Inquiry, for example, will not be found in the indexes because it is listed under its longer official title. Likewise for the Devon and Bessborough commissions. Intimidating they may appear but the parliamentary papers contain so much evidence of a local nature that it is inconceivable that any historian of the nineteenth century could neglect them. Fortunately, the unwieldy indexes have given way to a number of more user-friendly search guides. Although not yet widely available, Chadwyck-Healey’s Index to the house of commons parliamentary papers on CD-Rom, 1801–1999 is the most advanced research tool available for locating relevant parliamentary papers. It provides speedy access to the papers through a multi-search facility which allows readers to search by key word, title keyword, title, paper type, paper number, session, chairman and year. The fourth volume of Peter Cockton’s Subject catalogue of the house of commons parliamentary papers, 1801–1900 (Cambridge, 1988) contains a listing (with full referencing) of parliamentary papers relevant to Ireland. For convenience, papers are organised thematically under five headings: Government and Public Order; Agriculture and the Land; Trade, Industry and Transport; Legal, Social, Administration, Education; Health and Religious Affairs. Each heading is subdivided alphabetically into individual topics and is arranged in the same order as the nineteenth-century bound volumes: bills, reports of committees, reports of commissions and accounts and papers. Cockton also cites the filing number of the Chadwyck-Healey microfiche edition of the parliamentary papers. The Maltbys’ thematically-arranged breviate of official publications includes a wide selection of Ireland-related papers, each of which is accompanied by a summary. Susan Parkes has produced a helpful catalogue (with detailed summaries) of parliamentary papers touching on Irish education. In an effort to make parliamentary papers more accessible Irish University Press (1968) reproduced almost 5,000 papers in 1,000 volumes under 36 thematic headings. The IUP series overcame the problem of related papers scattered over many volumes by bringing them together in single or serial volumes.

  Parliamentary papers should be cited accurately to facilitate readers who wish to examine the original. The form is: session/paper number/ volume number/ volume page number. Example: Eleventh report of the commissioners of the board of education in Ireland, HC 1810–11 (107) VI. 35. Here the session number is 1810–11, the paper is numbered 107 (sessional paper number 107), the volume number in the bound set is VI and the volume page number on which the report begins is 35.

  Paper numbers may be contained within round or square brackets. Round brackets are used for house papers which begin numbering anew at the start of every session. Square brackets are employed to denote papers presented by royal command such as royal commissions of inquiry. Unlike house papers, command papers are numbered continuously over many sessions. There have been five separate series since 1833 when square brackets were first employed and the command numbers themselves were only printed on the papers from 1870 together with the legend C for Command (Cd. from 1900, Cmd. from 1919 and Cmnd from 1956). Example: Report of Her Majesty’s commission of inquiry into the working of the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870, and the acts amending the same, HC 1881 [C2779] XVIII. I.

  The most accurate means of identifying a paper is by its sessional year and paper number but the sessional year and volume number serves as the call number in the National Library of Ireland which holds the vast bulk of parliamentary papers. (Ford, A guide; Idem, Select list of British parliamentary papers; Maltby, Ireland in the nineteenth century; Parkes, Irish education; Shearman, ‘The citation’, pp. 33–7.)

  Parliamentary Register of Ireland. A record of the proceedings and debates of the Irish house of commons during the last two decades of its existence. Words spoken by members in both houses of parliament were privileged and their publication was prohibited. Nevertheless, as in England, the practice developed of memorising the speeches of members, recording them in shorthand or obtaining the speakers’ written notes and then publishing them for popular consumption. Inconsistency in recording members’ orations was matched by inconsistency in reporting them. Some speeches are given verbatim, others reported indirectly and others again are simple summaries. The 17 volumes of the Register contain a great deal of biographical as well as political material and therefore are a useful source for examining the relationship between representatives and their borough or county constituencies.

  parochial survey. A three-volume survey of 79 parishes published by William Shaw Mason between 1814 and 1819. Mason compiled the survey with the assistance of local Protestant clergymen who provided information about the name, situation, extent, division, climate and topography of their respective parishes. Respondents were also invited to make suggestions for the amelioration of conditions in the locality. Perhaps reflecting the varying degrees of enthusiasm amongst the contributors, the survey is uneven. Some accounts are quite comprehensive, others are brief and not very illuminating. (Mason, A statistical account,.)

  partible inheritance. A custom similar to gavelkind by which land was subdivided equally between the male heirs.

  paruchia. By the seventh century Christian Ireland was administered by networks of monasteries (paruchiae) supervised by abbots, a structure which superseded, and was later superseded by, an episcopally-dominated diocesan system. See diocese.

  passage grave. Dating from c. 4500 bc, most passage graves consist of a stone-lined passage leading to a corbelled chamber grave, the whole being covered by a round cairn. Undifferentiated passage-graves are simpl
er in form, comprising but a passage which also served as a burial chamber. In excess of 300 have been found in Ireland, mostly located in groups on hills in the east but also in counties Sligo and Antrim. Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, all overlooking the river Boyne, are elaborate passage graves, with side and end chambers creating a cruciform effect. (Herity, Irish passage graves.)

  passim. (L., passim, in various places) Used in footnotes to refer to material that can be found here and there throughout the cited source.

  Pastorini. The pseudonym of the English Catholic bishop, Charles Walmsley. His General History of the Christian Church contained a millenarian analysis of the Book of Revelations which claimed that a violent destruction of the Protestant churches would occur in 1825. Published in 1771, the book achieved a massive circulation through cheap copies and digests from 1817 in Munster and Leinster. Its popularity is thought to relate to the typhus epidemic of 1816–17 and the poor harvests and declining social conditions of the early 1820s. Pastorini millenarianism influenced the Rockite movement. (Donnelly, ‘Pastorini’, pp. 102–39; O’Farrell, ‘Millenialism’, pp. 45–68.)

  patent, letters patent. A royal writ, the instrument by which land, rights, office and privileges were granted. Patents are so called because the grant begins with the words Litterae patente (open letters). They were open grants available for inspection by all, unlike close letters which were folded and sealed and to be opened only by those to whom they were directed. They issued from chancery, the secretarial office of government which held the authenticating great seal, and are recognisable because the great seal hangs from the bottom. Contained within the patent are the grounds on which the monarch was induced to make the grant together with the nature, extent and tenure of the grant and attendant conditions and penalties. The issuing of letters patent was a complex and often lengthy task. It was initiated upon receipt by the lord deputy of a king’s letter directing him to make a grant of land to a certain specified value or some office or right to a named individual. In the case of land grants the first requirement was to locate a tract of land in crown hands to the value expressed in the letter. A copy of the king’s letter was sent to the surveyor-general who examined his records and requested the escheator to conduct an inquisition. The results of the inquisition were submitted to the auditor general in the exchequer as a warranty against fraud and then forwarded to chancery. In the interim the lord deputy sent the king’s letter to the attorney-general requiring him to draft a fiant (an instruction under the privy seal) to the chancellor to make a grant of land worth so much to the named individual. In chancery fiant and inquisition were put together to form a patent, the great seal was affixed and dispatched to the grantee. The issuing of patents conferring rights, privileges and office was altogether a simpler affair. Although it too could be preceded by an inquisition (see inquisition ad quod damnum), the normal procedure involved the delivery of the king’s letter to the attorney-general who directed a fiant to chancery to issue a patent under the great seal. Until the seventeenth century letters patent were not required to be enrolled on the patent rolls unless this was specified as a condition of the grant but in any case it was a security to have it enrolled and on record. The original patent rolls, fiants and inquisitions were destroyed in 1922 but nineteenth-century calendars have survived. (Erck, A repertory; Griffith, Calendar of inquisitions; Inquisitionum in officio; The Irish fiants; Morrin, The patent rolls; PRI rep. DK, Appendices to 7–9, 11–13, 15–18, 21.)

  ‘patriot parliament’ (1689). The name given by Charles Gavan Duffy to the predominantly Old English Catholic parliament convened by James II in Dublin on 7 May 1689. This short-lived assembly asserted the independence of Ireland and attempted to roll back the mid-century confiscations and land settlements by repealing the Acts of Settlement (1662) and Explanation (1665). It opened with only six Protestant representatives in attendance in the commons out of a total of 230 members and immediately set about undoing the settlements. An act of attainder was passed attainting almost all Protestant landholders in the country. It was accompanied by an act for liberty of conscience together with legislation for the recovery of waste lands, for the improvement of trade, shipping and navigation and for the establishment of marine schools in the ports. Parliament asserted its independence of the English parliament and forbade appeals from Irish courts to the English house of lords. All came to nought within two years, however, when the Williamite cause triumphed in Ireland. In 1695 the ‘patriot parliament’ was declared illegal, its acts were annulled and the records of its proceedings were destroyed. (Farrell, ‘The patriot parliament’.)

  ‘patriot’ party. A loose grouping of eighteenth-century Irish parliamentarians, including Henry Grattan, Henry Flood, Sir William Osborne, Charles Lucas, Gerard Hamilton and the duke of Leinster, which sought to achieve legislative independence for the Irish parliament. They claimed that only the king, lords and commons of Ireland could legally and constitutionally legislate for Ireland and that the power of the privy councils of Ireland and England to amend or reject bills originating in the Irish parliament was unconstitutional. They wanted to establish an independent judiciary, root out corruption and bribery in the administration and parliament, terminate the monopolisation of church and state offices by Englishmen and have a permanent habeas corpus act enacted. In the area of commerce they believed that restraints on trade should be lifted and all Irish ports opened to countries not at war with the king. They used the threat of military defeat in the Americas, the strength of the Volunteer movement and a refusal to vote supplies beyond six months to prise concessions from the government. In 1779 partial free trade was granted to Ireland when the free export of wool, woollen cloth and manufactured glass as well as free trade with the colonies was permitted. In June 1782 the Declaratory Act was abolished and a month later Yelverton’s Act amended Poyning’s law and removed the power of the privy councils to alter Irish bills. A mutiny act was enacted annually and the independence of the judiciary was established in the same manner as it existed in England. In 1783 the Renunciation Act confirmed Irish legislative independence by enacting that the people of Ireland were bound only by laws enacted in that kingdom. Henry Flood’s attempt in 1784 to reform parliament by abolishing the right of corporations to return members of parliament, by suppressing the rotten boroughs, by limiting the duration of parliament to three years and by enfranchising Protestant freeholders was rejected. In 1785 Thomas Orde, the chief secretary, brought forward a measure to grant unrestricted trade between England and Ireland but his proposal was so heavily encumbered that it was withdrawn. In 1789 the ‘patriot’ party gambled for power by supporting Whig attempts to have the prince regent succeed his temporarily insane father with full royal powers. They hoped the prince regent would get rid of Pitt and install Fox, a Whig, as prime minister but the king recovered and the issue died leaving Pitt cautious of Irish independence and awake to the idea of a union of the two parliaments. See Commercial Propositions, regency crisis.

  patronymic. A name derived from the father or from the paternal line which is usually identifiable by the fact that it has a prefix in Irish such as Mac or Ó. Once surnames became fixed in Ireland, as was the case in England, the patronymic ceased to refer to the father’s Christian name and descendants simply inherited the surname.

  pattern. (L., patronus) A religious festival associated with a holy well involving a procession, a number of circuits of the well and the recitation of prayers. It was held on the feast day of the saint in whose memory the well was named.

  pavage. 1: A toll or tax levied towards the paving of highways or streets 2: The right to impose such a levy.

  payment-by-results. One of the earliest experiments in tying the salaries of teachers to the results obtained by pupils under examination was conducted by the proselytising London Hibernian Society (1806). Recommended by the Powis Commission, the practice became general from 1871 when partial payment of national school teachers’ salaries was determined by pupil atta
inment. School attendance increased considerably but the practice encouraged a narrow, mechanical approach to teaching and learning and was discontinued from 1900 following a critical assessment by the Belmore Commission. Payment-by-results was a characteristic feature of second-level education from its inauguration with the passage of the 1878 Intermediate Education Act (41 & 42 Vict., c. 66). Here the government funded schools indirectly through scholarships and results fees to avoid the criticism that it was supporting denominational education. The impact on enrolment and learning paralleled the national school experience. Numbers in attendance rose but teaching methods became mechanistic. Paradoxically, the Palles Commission (1899) was endorsing a modified payment-by-results system for intermediate schools at the same time as Belmore was recommending its abolition in primary schools. In 1900 the education commissioners opted for capitation payment and made provision for inspection by school inspectors. See second-level schooling. (Coolahan, Irish education, pp. 28–30.)