Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  Lebor Gabála Érenn. (Ir., the Book of Invasion or Settlement) An eleventh-century pseudo-history of the settlement of Ireland. It begins with the creation and traces the settlement of Ireland from Noah’s granddaughter, Cesair, through the Fir Bolgs, the Tuatha Dé Danann and down to the Milesians from whom the Gaels were descended. (Macalister, Lebor.)

  Lecan, Book of. Largely the work of Sligo historian and scribe, Giolla Íosa Mór mac Fir Bhisigh (ancestor of Dubhaltach MacFirbis), the fifteenth-century Book of Lecan (or the Great Book of Lecan) is a compilation of earlier Gaelic tracts, genealogies and poetry. It is similar to the Book of Ballymote in content and arrangement and comprises two copies of Lebor Gabála Érenn (the Book of Invasions), copies of historical and genealogical poems and a tract on the families and territorial divisions of Tír Fiachrach in Co. Sligo. The Book of Lecan is preserved in the library of the Royal Irish Academy. (Mulchrone, The Book of Lecan.)

  Lecan, Yellow Book of. (Leabhar Buidhe Lecan) Compiled by Donnoch and Giolla Íosa Mór mac Fir Bhisigh, the Yellow Book comprises a collection of ancient historical tracts in prose and verse on civil, ecclesiastical and military themes. It contains a collection of family and political poems concerning the O’Kellys and O’Connors of Connacht and the O’Donnells of Donegal, details of kings and battle, an imperfect copy of the Táin Bó Cuailnge, a tract on monastic rules in verse, an account of the reign and death of Muirchertach MacErca, king of Ireland, poems on ancient Tara together with a plan and explanation of the Teach Midhchuarta or Banqueting Hall, a biblical account of the Creation and Fall, a copy of Bruighean Da Dearga and it closes with a law tract. The original is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. (Atkinson, The Yellow Book.)

  leet money, leet silver, head money, head silver. Associated with the court leet, leet money was a small sum payable by all tenants owing suit to the manor court.

  Leicester School. Properly, the Department of English Local History, a postgraduate department of Leicester University, the ‘Leicester School’ is so called because of the contribution of its founder W. G. Hoskins, subsequent heads such as H. P. R. Finberg, Alan Everitt and Charles Phythian-Adams and associated historians such as Joan Thirsk and Margaret Spufford to the professionalisation of local history in Britain. A feature of the published work of the Leicester historians is the use of comparative and contrasting studies, techniques which reflect their belief that the best way to identify what is distinctive or typical about a local society is to consider that society, be it the village, parish, town, county or pays (distinctive region), within a broader context. Hoskins’ pioneering advocacy of the landscape as a critical source for the reconstruction of past societies, proclaimed most memorably in his work The Making of the English Landscape, is echoed in the writing of Everitt, Thirsk and, latterly, Phythian-Adams. Since its foundation in 1948 the ‘school’ has been continuously exercised by two interrelated issues: what constitutes an appropriate unit of study for the local historian and the relationship between local and national history. A satisfactory resolution to both questions has proved elusive but the debate has alerted historians to the need for greater subtlety in the selection of study units and to the importance of placing that unit within a broader perspective. (Phythian-Adams, Re-thinking.)

  Leinster, Book of. A twelfth-century compilation collected and transcribed by Finn MacGorman, bishop of Kildare, for Dermot MacMurrough Kavanagh by order of Aodh Mac Crimhthainn, Kavanagh’s tutor. It begins with a book of invasions of Ireland followed by a succession of monasteries down to 1169 and the succession and obituaries of provincial and minor kings. The genealogies and pedigrees (Leinster contains the oldest surviving collection of pedigrees) of kings and saints relate largely to Leinster. Like the Yellow Book of Lecan, the Book of Leinster contains poems on Tara and a plan and explanation of the Teach Midhchuarta (the Banqueting Hall). There are poems on the wars of the men of Leinster, Munster and Ulster, notably the battle of Ross na Righ between Leinstermen and Ulstermen at the beginning of the Christian period. (Best, Bergin and O’Brien, The Book of Leinster.)

  less eligibility. See workhouse test.

  Leth Chuinn. (Ir., Conn’s Half) An ancient division of Ireland corresponding to the northern half of the island.

  Leth Mugha. (Ir., Mugha’s Half) An ancient division of Ireland corresponding to the southern half of the island.

  liberal clubs. Liberal or Independent clubs were middle-class organisations established following the general election of 1826 in which Catholic forty-shilling freeholders defied their landlords to vote for pro-emancipationists. It was intended that local clubs would be linked through county clubs to a central body in the Catholic Association campaign for emancipation. Literacy was a condition of membership which comprised gentry, clergy and literate farmers. (O’Ferrall, Catholic emancipation, pp. 145–6, 170–4, 215–27.)

  liberate, librate. 1: A chancery writ issued to the exchequer authorising the payment of an allowance or pension 2: A writ to the county sheriff instructing him to take in hand the estate of a person who has forfeited a recognisance 3: A writ issued to a jailer to deliver up a prisoner who has posted bail.

  Liber munerum publicorum Hiberniae. A directory of patentee office-holders in Ireland from medieval times down to the nineteenth century. In 1812 the commissioners of the Irish Record Commission decided to publish John Lodge’s unfinished Liber munerum publicorum Hiberniae or the establishment of Ireland. Lodge, deputy-keeper of the rolls and records in the Bermingham Tower, died before 1810. In 1813 Rowley Lascelles was appointed to complete the work but following a disagreement with the commissioners he returned to London. In 1822 he agreed to complete and edit the work but his work was unsatisfactory and in 1830 it was decided not to proceed. At that time the work comprised seven parts and was considered imperfect, incomplete and riddled with irrelevant material. It finally made it to the printers in 1852 in two large folio volumes in the state Lascelles had left it. (Lascelles, Liber munerum.)

  Liber Niger Alani. See Alen’s Register.

  liberty. A civil jurisdiction, such as a manor, granted by the crown and independent of the county sheriff and the royal courts. The attendant rights and privileges of a liberty were specified in the charter of grant. Some liberties were located in frontier areas and emerged during periods of weak royal authority as a means of exercising control over the borderlands. Others, such as the Earl of Meath’s liberty, the archbishop of Dublin’s liberty of St Sepulchre and the liberty of St Patrick’s (which actually lay within the archbishop of Dublin’s liberty) were located in areas that had long remained settled. Within a liberty the lord had sovereign power for all but the four reserved crown pleas of arson, rape, forestalling and treasure trove together with correction of officers and employed an administrative structure rather like royal government writ small. Here could be found a lord, courts, an administration and even an army. The great liberties or franchises were administered by a seneschal, a chancellor (with his own seal and chancery), a master of the rolls, a treasurer and treasury, receivers and collectors, justices, attorneys, an escheator, a coroner, a chief sergeant and a sergeant-at-arms. See palatinate. (Otway-Ruthven, ‘Anglo-Irish shire’, pp. 1–28; Quinn, ‘Anglo-Irish local government’, pp. 354–381.)

  librate. Of land, as much as is worth one pound per year. See liberate.

  Lichfield House Compact (1835). A tacit agreement between the Whigs and Daniel O’Connell’s Irish repeal parliamentarians to work together to keep the Tories from government. O’Connell and his party of about 25 MPs agreed to support a minority Whig government and to desist from pressing for repeal of the union and the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland for the moment in return for a reform package for Ireland. Substantial reforms were never on the cards because the house of lords remained a Tory bastion but tithe reform (1838), the Municipal Corporations Reform Act (1840), an extension of parliamentary suffrage, an increase in the number of Catholics employed by the administration, police reform and a more even-hande
d application of the law flowed from the compact. (Graham, ‘Lichfield House compact, 1835’, pp. 209–225.)

  life tenancy, life estate. An estate held for the life of the current owner only and not in fee simple. It was established by means of a will or marriage settlement. A life estate could not be sold because few would consider purchasing an estate that might terminate suddenly on the death of the vendor. Life tenants could not alter the order of succession which was established by the deed that created the life tenancy. The key legislative impediment to the alienation of family estates was the 1285 statute of De Donis Conditionalibus which sought to ensure that family estates passed intact to the next generation by imposing restraints on the alienability of land and forbidding the barring of entails. The courts, however, proved unwilling to accept such limits on alienability and permitted the barring of entails through the fictitious and collusive actions of fine and recovery. See entail.

  ligan. Goods thrown overboard in an emergency which sink to the sea bed.

  lights. The openings between the mullions or piers of a window.

  Limerick, Treaty of (1691). The treaty enacted between the Williamites and the remnants of the Jacobite army which allowed the Jacobites free passage to go abroad or, if they wished to remain in Ireland, to be secured against discriminatory laws. Under the civil articles of the treaty Catholics were promised such privileges as were consistent with the laws of Ireland or enjoyed by them under Charles II (which, beyond tolerance, amounted to few) and the property rights of those whose claims were accepted by the privy council and a court of nine high court judges were guaranteed. Although William favoured toleration he failed to take account of Protestant anger at the prospect of Catholics apparently getting off the hook. Thus, when the Irish parliament ratified the treaty in 1697 (9 Will. III, c. 2) the military articles and the bulk of claims relating to forfeited estates by persons admitted to articles were legislatively enacted but the religious articles were not. No mention of the right to religious freedom was included in the act and instead repressive penal laws were introduced, effectively breaking the spirit if not the letter of the treaty. See articlemen, court of claims, Trustees Sale, Williamite confiscation. (Simms, The treaty of Limerick; Idem, ‘The original draft’, pp. 37–44.)

  Linen Board. A body established and funded by the Irish parliament in 1711 (9 Anne, c. 3) to encourage and regulate the linen industry. Although composed of unpaid commissioners, including Anglican bishops and members of the gentry, the day-to-day business of the board was conducted by full-time officials. An inspectorate was responsible for ensuring that manufacturing standards were maintained and prizes were awarded for superior work by spinners, weavers and bleachers. The domestic industry declined in the early nineteenth century as linen production became mechanised and factory-based. By the 1820s the board was credited with having encouraged experiments which private individuals by themselves would not have risked yet at the same time was criticised for acting as a restraint on private enterprise. The most serious criticism – that public money should not be expended on an industry that was successful in its own right – led to its abolition in 1828 (9 Geo. IV, c. 62). (Crawford, ‘The evolution’; Johnston-Liik, History of the Irish parliament, pp. 303–311.)

  Lismore, Book of. A compilation of religious, military and topographical tracts including a treatise on the lives of Irish saints, a dialogue between St Patrick and two surviving Fianna warriors, extracts from the travels of Marco Polo, an account of Charlemagne’s conquests and a description of several hills, mountains, rivers and caverns in Ireland. (Macalister, The book of Mac Carthaigh.)

  livery. 1: The provision of food, clothing or an allowance to servants 2: A distinctive suit of clothes worn by a servant 3: An allowance of provender for horses. Horses stabled, fed and groomed at a fixed rate are said to be ‘at livery’. Hence, livery stable.

  livery, to sue out. The act by an heir upon reaching majority of commencing a suit to obtain possession of his estate which was in the custody of the court of wards and liveries. The heir was required to pay a fine (relief) to sue out livery. Failure to observe the legal formalities rendered the defaulter liable to financial penalties. See also livery of seisin, majority, ousterlemain, and livery of seisin.

  Llanthony Prima, Llanthony Secunda. Two priories – Prima located in Monmouthshire, Secunda in Gloucester – that were endowed with lands in Meath, Westmeath, Louth and north county Dublin by Hugh de Lacy and his sub-tenants and held in frankalmoign (which liberated them from having to render military service to the crown) or fee-farm. The Irish possessions were supervised by a canon known as a proctor. The cartularies of the Llanthony priories contain charters and civil and ecclesiastical documents dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries and are preserved in the Public Record Office, London. (Brook, The Irish cartularies.)

  Local Government (Ireland) Act (1898). Gerald Balfour’s reforming Irish local government act (61 & 62 Vict., c. 37) which provided a system of local government with county councils, district councils and rural district councils, elected bodies chosen on a franchise that included women for the first time. Membership of town commissions and district councils now lay open to women but they remained excluded from county and borough councils. The new councils assumed the fiscal and administrative (though not the legal) duties of the grand juries. They were eligible to receive treasury grants and entitled to impose their own local rates and were immediately dominated by Catholic nationalists. Thus control of local government was taken from the landlord ascendancy class and placed in the hands of farmers, shopkeepers and publicans. Local councils did not possess unlimited powers to draw up their own laws, however, for all local enactments had to receive the approval of the supervisory Local Government Board, a body staffed largely by Protestant unionists. See grand jury, poor law commission.

  Local Government Board. See Poor Law Commission.

  locative. A surname derived from a placename.

  Lough Key, Annals of. (Annála Loch Cé) Compiled in Connacht in the sixteenth century with a few additional entries as late as 1636, the Annals of Lough Key was apparently the work of the Ó Duibhgeannain’s, a learned Gaelic family who had a special association with the Mac Diarmada clan of Loch Cé. They derive from an earlier fifteenth-century text written by the Ó Maoilchonaire family. (Hennessy, The annals of Loch Cé.)

  loc. cit. (L., loco citato or locus citatus, in the place cited) A footnote convention, now almost obsolete, referring the reader to a book that has previously been quoted.

  lock hospital. A hospital for the treatment of venereal disease. In 1792 the Westmoreland Lock Hospital was opened in Dublin under the direction of the lord lieutenant. Since it proved difficult to attract private subscriptions, it was maintained entirely by public money. Within a short time the hospital was overcrowded and earned a reputation for disorderliness. Two commissions of inquiry and a new board of governors produced significant improvements and by the mid-nineteenth century it was regarded as an efficient and prudently economical institution providing an importance service to a garrison city.

  Lodge, John. Lodge’s appointment as deputy-keeper of records in the Bermingham Tower represented a turning point in the fortune of Irish administrative records which had suffered serious neglect throughout the eighteenth century. His 26 volumes of transcripts from the rolls were later acquired by the Public Record Office to compensate for the wholesale destruction of the originals in the Four Courts fire in 1922. Lodge edited Desiderata curiosa Hibernica (a collection of seventeenth-century documents) in 1772 and his unfinished Liber munerum publicorum Hiberniae, a directory of patentee office-holders in Ireland, was taken up by the Irish Record Commission in 1812 and partly (and poorly) completed by Rowley Lascelles. Lodge was also the author of The peerage of Ireland (later continued and enlarged by Mervyn Archdall).

  London Hibernian Society. A proselytsing bible society founded in 1806 and one of the earliest of such groups to use the Irish language as a medium for convers
ion. Initially Scots Gaelic-speaking missionaries were employed but these were soon dispensed with for they could not be understood and they were replaced by natives. Day, evening and Sunday schools were conducted under the scrutiny of an inspectorate and teachers (who did not have to be Protestants) were paid by results achieved by their pupils under inspection. By 1823 the society claimed to be educating over 60,000 pupils in its schools. It was jointly funded by the Association for Discountenancing Vice and the lord lieutenant’s school fund. Although the printed regulations governing the schools forbade proselytism and the use of controversial reading matter, pupils were expected to read the bible. As was the case with the other bible societies, its impact was negligible and it made few conversions. In the 1820s opposition to Protestant missionary activities grew in intensity and Catholic children were withdrawn from the society’s schools. See Second Reformation. (Akenson, The Irish education experiment, pp. 82–3.)

  long-house, byre dwelling. A common house style in the west consisting of a rectangular stone-built dwelling in which humans and animals lived at opposite ends of a single compartment.

  lord deputy. See lord lieutenant.

  lord justice. In the absence or death of the lord lieutenant or lord deputy, three lords justice acted as chief governors of the Irish administration. They were usually crown nominees.

  lord lieutenant. The chief governor and senior crown official in Ireland. In the early modern period the title lord lieutenant was conferred on members of the royal household, members of important English families or lord deputies who had distinguished themselves in Ireland. Where the lord lieutenant chose to remain in England he was represented in Ireland by a lord deputy or lords justice. In the nineteenth century, although nominally the head of the administration, the lord lieutenant was eclipsed by the chief secretary who was, effectively, the prime minister. See county governor.