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The map below sets the scene (click to enlarge for enhanced viewing). "Cahireen", the Lucey family farm is in the townland of Bawnatanaknock (Barr an tSeanchnoic) which is in the west Cork parish of Clondrohid, about 7 miles from Macroom.
By way of background, Tithe Applotment Books were compiled in Ireland between 1823 and 1837 to determine the amount of tithes (religious taxes) payable to the Church of Ireland (the equivalent of the Church of England, or Anglican Church) by all Irish Catholics occupying agricultural holdings. These payments were enforced during this era of oppressive rule by the English Protestants. The Tithe Applotment records disclose that in 1834 Patrick Lucy (spelt Lousy) was the occupier of 721 acres of land at Barataoknuck (variations Baratanaknock and Bawnatanaknock) in the parish of Clondrohid. Patrick was required to pay rental of twenty pounds (£20) and tithes of £1.19s.6¼d.). Just a few years prior to this, some 2115 lessees in county Cork met and decided to refuse to pay tithes, and the government subsequently set up the Clergy Relief Fund 1831. Among the four farming families of the townland Barnatanaknock (yet another variation of spelling) who resisted paying tithes during this period of the infamous Tithe War 1831-1838 were Patrick and Jeremiah Lucey.
The church's sworn affidavit of 1831 reads:
The meeting of immense assemblages of people in numerous places, such as Milstreet [sic], Macroom, Kanturk, Kilmichael, Ballyvourney, Ahabollogue [sic], Enniskeen [sic], Kilnamiurtery [sic] etc all assembled in an unlawful, riotous & threatening manner declaring that they would pay no more tithes, to act as Auctioneers or to be bidders for any cattle seized for tithes all which facts have been stated officially to Your Excellency.
I am quietly confident that Jeremiah Lucey, the other party cited in the record of defaulters, was Patrick's father2, if not, it would be reasonable to assume a brotherly relationship.
The ancestral line above illustrates who inherited the family farm over three generations. Mindful of infant mortality in this era, in the event that James and Cornelius were not strictly eldest sons, it has to be assumed that they were the eldest surviving sons (nothing contrary has been established to prove otherwise at the time of writing).
The Tithe Applotment Books of 1834 also disclose Patrick's close neighbours as Cornelius and John Corkery, William Creedan, and James Kelleher, all very familiar names in one way or another even in contemporary times. (Click the image below to view an enlarged extract or download the Bawnatanaknock Townland Patrick Lousy.jpg file - see end of page).
Just when the Luceys first ever occupied this land3, notwithstanding the formal lease of 1778, is not known but I can confirm that occupation ended with the sale of this farm in 1926 when ownership passed to the Creedon family.
Footnotes1 This is Irish acres. One Statute (English) acre = 0.61734 Irish acres.2 Jeremiah and Darby are interchangeable and Darby Luocey (also Luscey) held a 31 year lease (demised from Cornelius Townsend of Bridgemount, Co Cork) over "the mountain quarter of the lands at Baratardknock" (yet another variation) from 25th April 1778. Darby's address was Kilgobbenet (Kilgobnet).3 This article suggests that cultivation in the parish of Clondrohid began c1812.
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