The PlaceBuckley Townlands |
Focusing on the "Buckleys of Cappawhite" or the Buckleys of Toem is geographical caprice: it makes as much sense as circling a patch of stars in the heavens and calling them a constellation. Looking at the broader picture of Buckleys distributed across Tipperary and Limerick, there are concentrations of Buckleys in Abbyfeale, Kilcomenty, Toem, Lorrha & Dorrha, and Cahir to be sure, but there are Buckleys sprinkled across much of the intervening landscape as well. Still, focusing on the Toem/Doon area is as good a place to circle the stars as any. |
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| Constellations of Buckleys |
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Looking at the Buckleys as they fall on the highly detailed maps from Griffith's Valuation, or even driving about the back roads of Toem and Doon, it is hard to sense any pattern to where the Buckleys lived in the area. Although one feels sure that the Buckleys of Cappawhite didn't fall out of the sky to land in arbitrary places on the earth, it isn't until you look at a road map of the area that any sense of pattern begins to emerge.
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If for nothing else than for simple ease of description, the Buckleys of Toem and Doon radiate from the line that runs from Cappawhite to Doon Village, and on to Cappamore. Of course, this line is tracked by an actual road, which makes one wonder about how our Buckley ancestors might have migrated along that road, but we’ll leave that area of speculation for now.
Though there are fewer Buckleys on the farmlands of Toem and Doon today, they dotted the rural landscape during the 19th century. Property records from this period have them residing in the townlands close along the Cappawhite/Doon road in Shanacloon & Moher, and in Knockanavar/Cahernahallia. Stepping out a little further from the line of the road, we also see them in Glengar & Leugh, and in Ayle. The sections below show these townlands in a little more detail. |
Shanacloon and Moher
Shanacloon and Moher, adjacent to one another, are the first Buckley townlands you reach as you travel from Cappawhite toward Doon. They both were home to Buckleys in the Tithe Applotment (?TA?) data from 1826, and as nearly as we can tell, the Buckleys in that period lived on the parcels indicated at right.
In our next dataset in time, the Griffith? Valuation (?GV?) in 1851, the Moher parcels are vacant. But because the Moher parcels were exactly adjacent to the Shanacloon parcels, and because the same names were repeated across these parcels we believe that the parcels in Shanacloon and Moher held by the same family.
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| Shanacloon & Moher |
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Cahernahallia/Knockanavar
Continuing along the road toward Doon. The next Buckley townlands we reach are Cahernahallia and Knockanavar. There were Buckleys in Cahernahallia in the Tithe Applotment (TA) data, but none in the Griffith's Valuation (GV) data; and there were Buckleys in Knockanavar in the GV data, but none in the TA data.
This flip-flop puzzled us for a while until we realized that Cahernahallia of the time of the TA appeared to be a much larger townland than it was during the GV (just from the acreage totals reported in these datasets), and that Knockanavar and a couple other townlands didn’t even exist in the TA data. Looking again at the maps, it became evident to us (and by “us” I mean Phil) that at some point between the TA and the GV, Cahernahallia had a few new townlands carved from it that make their first appearance in the GV: Knockanavar, Gortaderry, West Moher, and Ballyhane West. The maps below show what we believe happened:
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| The Original "Super" Cahernahallia |
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| Cahernahallia Carved Up |
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Although local residents may be aware of this evolution in the townlands, researchers from outside the area need to take this into account when trying to track their own families through these records.
If anyone has any historical account of this subdivision of Cahernahallia, please share it with us!
So, we have now concluded that the Buckleys in this particular corner of Toem resided on one set of parcels throughout the 19th century, but saw the townland boundaries redrawn around them: they started in Cahernahallia and ended up in Knockanavar, without every moving a muscle. These were my Buckley ancestors.
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| The Cahernahallia/Knockanavar Parcels |
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Glengar/Leugh
Moving off the road between Cappawhite and Doon to the north we reach the townlands of Glengar and Leugh. Pairing these two townlands together doesn’t make sense at first, because Glengar is most easily reached directly by road from Doon, while Leugh is most easily reached directly by road from Knockanavar. We have concluded (as discussed elsewhere on this web site, in the section called "The People") that the Leugh Buckleys were most likely related directly to the Glengar Buckleys . . . so that’s how I show them here. |
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| Glengar & Leugh |
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Ayle
Ayle is a townland that is reached by diverting off the road from Cappawhite to Doon to pass through Toem, then continuing to the southwest. We know the least about this townland because the Buckleys of Ayle disappear after the TA, emigrating to America in the 1840s. These were the ancestors of my American cousin, Bill Buckley, whom I mention on the home page. A GV map of the townland appears at right, but I am still struggling to place on this map the single 5-acre parcel that was home to Bill Buckley’s family. |
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| Ayle |
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Doon Civil Parish
That covers the Buckleys of Toem. The Buckleys of Doon are just a little further down the road, with some in Doon village and others radiating off the line of the road that continues off to Cappamore. But I need to leave that part of our story to another time - or to another story teller.
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[image to come] |
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