Irish Baronies and Townlands

Post date: Aug 16, 2011 4:50:21 PM

After my last blog relating to parishes, I was asked to explain Irish baronies, district electoral divisions and townlands. Baronies were established as territorial divisions in Ireland by the Anglo-Normans, based on sections of old Gaelic lordships or multiples of other pre-Norman territories. A total of 324 baronies were used as administrative divisions in Ireland until the establishment of county councils at the end of the nineteenth century.

Under the Poor Law Act of 1838, Ireland was divided into 130 Poor Law Unions (and later increased to 163) to cater for the destitute, with a workhouse in each. Each workhouse was managed by a Board of Guardians, elected by the ratepayers for each District Electoral Division in the union, a grouping of a number of townlands for electoral purposes. There were 3,751 District Electoral Divisions in the country. Various statistics, like census information, are recorded under District Electoral Divisions.

Townlands, the smallest administrative divisions in Ireland, originated in early medieval Ireland as farm-holdings. In the early nineteenth century, the Ordnance Survey researched and standardised the place-names of Irish townlands. Most of these place-names are Irish in origin, some of which were adopted and altered from pre-Celtic times. There are over 63,000 townlands in the country. The Ordnance Survey recorded the townlands in the 1841 Census of Population and they are shown on the Ordnance Survey maps with a scale of six inches to the statute mile.

The original Irish names reflect topographical features like droim (ridge) and cnoc (hill), land measures like ceathrú (quarter), botanical features like cluain (meadow) as well as family and personal names. Various Irish names for a ringfort, ráth, lios, dún, caiseal, cathair, or Anglicised versions thereof, are frequently used in Irish place-names. Boundaries are usually physical, for example, a river or a human-made structure like a road. A townland is a special place for those who know it, with specific natural features, field systems, land-holding patterns and family roots. Townland names are used for postal addresses, the census of population and in land transactions.

When tracing one’s Irish rural roots, in addition to the parish it is helpful to know the specific barony, district electoral division and townland. These are not easy to find. However, every extended family has an archive of birth, baptismal, marriage and death certificates, as well as letters, photographs, memorial cards and items of information which can provide valuable genealogical information.