Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  resiant. Resident.

  respit. In the legal sense, to postpone, defer or delay or to grant the same, particularly in relation to a sentence, duty or punishment.

  Resumption, Act of (1700). The Act of Resumption (11 & 12 Will. III, c. 2) was introduced and carried by the opposition in the British house of commons to revoke William III’s grants of forfeited estates in Ireland and to sell the resumed estates to defray army arrears and allied military expenses incurred during the Williamite war. William had granted a vast amount of forfeited land to his mistress, Elizabeth Villiers, to military commanders such as Ginkel and to favourites and advisers. Opposition fury at such profligacy during a period of strained national finances was the visible evidence of a deeper struggle for primacy between parliament and monarch, a struggle which resulted in humiliation and defeat for the king when, after a successful passage through parliament, the resumption act cancelled the royal grants and the forfeited estates were canted (auctioned) or sold at 13 times the annual rent to those who had purchased from the king’s grantees. See Trustees Sale.

  retting. The first stage in the process of preparing flax for linen-making. It involved weighting and submerging the flax stalks in water to rot the woody outer fibres and so prepare them for scutching.

  revenue police. Public disorder and a significant loss of state revenue associated with the illicit distillation of alcohol prompted the establishment of the revenue police in 1800. Supported successively by the military, the peace preservation force and armed bands of enlisted men, this undisciplined, poorly-trained body made little headway until 1836 when a drastic overhaul was undertaken by its new chief, Col William Brereton. Brereton divided the country into four divisions and placed each under the supervision of a revenue lieutenant. To energise the force he sacked two-thirds of the men and recruited young, literate men of good character in their place. He acquired a steamer to harass distillers on the western islands. The force’s success in curtailing the activities of poteen-makers led to its demise in 1858 when responsibility for illicit distillation was transferred to the Irish Constabulary. (Dawson, ‘Illicit’, pp. 283–94; Herlihy, The Royal, pp. 33–7; McDowell, The Irish administration, pp. 137–9; O’Sullivan, The Irish constabularies, pp. 18–19.)

  reversion. 1: In conveyancing, refers to the granting of a lesser estate than that held by the grantor. The effect of such a grant is that at some future time the estate reverts to the grantor. If Smith holding the fee simple (freehold) to Ballyduff conveys a life estate to O’Brien, then upon O’Brien’s demise the estate will revert to Smith 2: A grant of property by lease to commence after the termination of an earlier lease or under certain specified conditions 3: The return of property to the grantor or his heirs.

  rerebrace. Arm greaves or armour for the upper arm.

  revision. In 1878 the General Synod of the Church of Ireland authorised a revision of the Book of Common Prayer to eradicate anything that might be associated with Roman Catholic practice or theology. The names of all but a few specifically exempted saints were removed from the church calendar, a plain dress code was introduced for ministers at divine service, bowing to the altar was forbidden as was the ringing of bells during service, the use of incense, lighted lamps and candles, crosses on the communion table, the elevation of the chalice, processions and the carrying of icons such as crosses, banners and pictures during service. (Daly, ‘Church’, pp. 29–37.)

  rhymer. See reacaire.

  Ribbonism. 1: A term used to describe the activities of a number of secret Catholic agrarian societies in the early nineteenth century 2: Ribbonism, a continuation of the earlier Defender network, developed rapidly in Ulster (most notably in Armagh) in the early years of the eighteenth century. After 1815 the movement extended southwards and a new and rival centre emerged in Dublin. Exclusively Catholic, Ribbonism prospered in the northern half of the country where sectarian tensions were greatest but made little headway in Munster, possibly because of a continuing rift between labourers and farmers in the southern province. See Caravats and Shanavests. Ribbonmen, themselves, did not use the term Ribbonism; it was a term used by outsiders because ribbons were worn as a means of identification at a street-battle in Swatragh in 1810. The Ulster society was called The Society of Saint Patrick, that of Dublin, The Irish Sons of Freedom. Ribbonism was, essentially, a response to the rise of Orangeism and mimicked the masonic-style oaths, banners, sashes, parades and passwords of the Orange lodges. Despite vigorous opposition and threats of excommunication from the Catholic church, Ribbon numbers grew, helped by the claims of senior Ribbonmen that the threats were a blind to conceal a secret alliance of church and Ribbonmen. Local societies or ‘bodies’ were led by a ‘body master’ and the cohort of masters in a parish constituted a jury or council which exercised discipline over the members and directed threats or acts of violence against anyone taking the land of an evicted tenant. Although the society attracted members from all classes, leadership was largely in the hands of shopkeepers, publicans and farmers. Ribbon demands included the concession of fixity of tenure (tenant-right), disestablishment of the Anglican church and civil rights for Catholics. (Garvin, The evolution, pp. 35– 45; Lee, ‘The Ribbonmen’, pp. 26–35; Ó Muireadhaigh, ‘Na fir ribín’, pp. 18– 32.)

  right, writ of. Also known as a writ of praecipe, an instruction to the sheriff by the king ordering a wrongdoer to restore property of which another person was wrongfully disseised and to summon him before the justices if he failed to do so. It was an order to a man to do what he should have done already. Cases of right were originally resolved by battle in which champions for the parties fought a duel. By the time of Henry II, however, trial by battle could be replaced by jury verdict where the defendant so desired. Where an individual was wrongfully disseised of land, seisin was recoverable by novel disseisin.

  Rightboys (1785–8). An oath-bound secret society which agitated against church rates, priests’ dues and the level at which tithe was fixed. Supporters of the Rightboy movement came from a broad spectrum of society across southern Ireland. Named after their fictitious leader, Captain Right, Rightboy activities included the posting of warning notices, grave-digging, the erection of gallows, the seizure of guns, the tendering of oaths and the sending of emissaries into neighbouring parishes to extend the campaign. The protest was accompanied by a relatively low level of violence – far less than was to be experienced during the later campaigns of the Defenders, the Caravats, the Rockites and the Terry Alts – and it was curbed by the use of troops, a magistracy act (27 Geo. III, c. 40, 1787) and a riot act (27 Geo. III, c. 15, 1787). (Donnelly, ‘The Rightboy movement’, pp. 120–202.)

  Rights, Declaration of. A declaration accepted by William III and his wife, Mary II, in February 1689 which outlines the principles of the British constitution, notably the requirement of parliamentary consent for the levying of taxes, the annual convening of parliament, the right of MPs to freedom of speech, free elections and the right to trial by jury. The crown was not to keep a standing army during peacetime and its power to suspend laws was abolished. See mutiny act. In addition to taking the oath against transubstantiation, a requirement which barred Catholics from the throne, the monarch must not marry a Catholic.

  ringfort. See rath.

  rising out. Military service owed to a Gaelic overlord by an urrí or vassal, usually requiring the mustering of a specified number of horse and kerne.

  roads, rodes. Punitive incursions by the English administration into the territories of the native Irish. See hostings, journeys, posse comitatus.

  robinet. A light sixteenth-century field gun.

  rochet. A surplice-like linen vestment worn by senior clergy.

  Rockite. An agrarian protest group prominent in the early 1820s which sought regulation of rents, wages and tithe, protection of tenants threatened with eviction and wider access to land for tillage. The movement took its name from Captain Rock, the signature often appended to threatening letters. Heavily influenc
ed by Pastorini millenarianism, Rockite agitation declined with the emergence in 1823 of the more respectable Catholic Association.

  rococo. A decorative style dating from the eighteenth century which is characterised by the use of shell motifs.

  Rocque, John. Influential and renowned Anglo-French cartographer who visited Ireland between 1754 and 1760 and produced his Exact survey of the city and suburbs of Dublin, a magnificent plan of the capital in 1756. He followed that with a county map, An actual survey of the county of Dublin in 1760. In both, Rocque’s preference for depicting landscape and graphics is clear. His oyster-beds are, literally, stocked with oysters. Rocque was indifferent to administrative boundaries and eschewed writing where possible except in relation to toponym. Streams and lesser roads are less well drawn than rivers and main roads. Field boundaries, unlike parks and gardens, are representational rather than authentic. Rocque’s vivid Kildare estate maps influenced a move away from the spartan Down Survey style of surveying towards the production of more elaborate estate and urban maps. (Andrews, ‘The French school’, pp. 275–92.)

  rod. A perch or five and a half yards (5.029m). The rod was derived from the length of an ox-goad.

  Rogation days. The Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Ascension Thursday. Rogation is the equivalent of ‘litany’ and on the three rogation days the litany of the saints was chanted by the clergy and people in public procession.

  rolls. Government records composed of parchment documents stitched together to form continuous rolls. See close, memoranda rolls, patent, pipe rolls, plea rolls.

  rolls, master of the. Keeper of government records (the rolls), formerly a senior judiciary figure in chancery and deputy to the lord chancellor.

  rood. 1: One-quarter of an acre or 1,210 square yards 2: A cross or crucifix.

  rood-loft. A loft above the chancel arch or screen in medieval parish churches where the rood or image of Christ crucified was placed on view. Where there was no rood-loft, the rood was supported by a rood-beam.

  rood-tower. A tower built above the intersection of a cruciform church.

  round tower. (Ir., cloigtheach, a bell house) Round towers appeared in Ireland around the tenth century. They were usually constructed to the west of a monastery with the doors of tower and church facing each other. (Barrow, The round towers.)

  rotten borough. A borough where the franchise was vested in a few persons. The term is usually considered to refer to a decayed borough which contained few if any residents yet which retained the right to return two members to parliament, an entitlement which was exercised by the borough owner. Harristown, Co. Kildare, for example, had no houses yet returned two MPs. In reality, however, size was irrelevant. Any constituency, irrespective of population, where the franchise was vested solely in a corporation of 12 or 13 burgesses was rotten. In all, 86 members of the eighteenth-century Irish parliament were returned by rotten boroughs. Taken together with the nominees of the patrons of pocket boroughs, about two-thirds of the seats in parliament in 1790 were, effectively, private property.

  royal. A gold coin valued by the 1477 parliament at 13s. 4d. Thus it was equivalent in value to a mark.

  royal commission of inquiry. A royal commission of inquiry was one of the means by which parliament acquired knowledge about matters on which it proposed to legislate. Unlike the select committee, which comprised parliamentarians, commissioners of inquiry were often outsiders nominated for their expertise in the relevant field. That is not to say that the commissioners were wholly impartial. Royal commissions were often headed by and composed of members who were considered to be ‘safe hands’, men who could be relied on to present recommendations that would not offend government sensitivities. The report of the Poor Inquiry constitutes an instance where the procedure went awry. A commission of inquiry was not limited, as the select committee was, to the duration of a parliamentary session and the presentation of its report could take anything up to five years. Its value to the local historian lies in the voluminous detail that can be found in the minutes of evidence taken by the commissioners as they travelled through the countryside. Again some caution needs to be exercised when dealing with the minutes of evidence for the social composition of the witnesses must be carefully weighed against what they have to say about other sections of society. Important nineteenth-century royal commissions include the Devon Commission (occupation of land), the Poor Inquiry (condition of the poorer classes), and the Bessborough Commission (the working of Gladstone’s Landlord and Tenant Act, 1870).

  Royal Dublin Society. Founded in Dublin in 1731 as the Dublin Society by Thomas Prior and Samuel Madden to improve agricultural techniques, manufacturing industry and other useful arts. The society published a weekly account of its proceedings, collected statistics, popularised innovations and encouraged agricultural improvement by offering premiums. A model farm and model factories were set up to diffuse agricultural and industrial knowledge. It was supported initially by voluntary contributions but from 1746 was grant-aided annually with the sum of £500 from the civil list. In 1750 it received a royal charter and subsequently received funding from the Irish parliament. An annual spring show was held from 1815 at the society’s headquarters in Leinster House and from the 1880s on its lands at Ballsbridge. In 1924 Leinster House was acquired by the Free State to house Dáil Éireann. (Bright, ‘Reflections on the RDS’, pp. 18–30.

  Royal Irish Academy. The Irish Academy of Science, Polite Literature and Antiquities was founded in April 1785 by the first earl of Charlemont. Granted a royal charter in 1786, the academy developed into one of the foremost scholarly associations in Ireland, encouraging the publication of works of scholarship in a wide range of disciplines in its journals – Transactions (1787–1907) and Proceedings (1836–). Section C of the Proceedings covers history and archaeology. The academy is divided into two divisions, one for the sciences and one for humane studies. From its inauguration it has been renowned for its interest in Irish antiquities and history. Its collection of antiquities formed the core of the antiquities of the national museum when it was founded in 1877. Following the acquisition of the books of Ballymote, Lecan, Leabhar na hUidhre (Book of the Dun Cow) and an autograph manuscript of the Annals of the Four Masters in the late eighteenth century, the academy proceeded to assemble the single largest collection of Gaelic manuscripts in the world which are catalogued in 28 fascicles and two index volumes. It also holds the papers of a number of antiquarians, manuscripts of the Ordnance Survey, a pamphlet collection dating from the sixteenth century and transcripts of original archival material that was destroyed in 1922. The ambitious ten-volume series A new history of Ireland and the ongoing Irish historic towns atlas project were both inaugurated under the auspices of the academy.

  royal service. See scutage.

  royal schools. Under the scheme of plantation for Ulster a free grammar school was to be founded in each of the planted counties with additional land reserved for its maintenance. There were four operating by 1621 and five by 1625. Charles I made re-grants of the land given for educational purposes by James I and provided for additional royal schools in King’s County and Co. Wicklow (Carysfort). There were 343 students (including 70 free scholars) enrolled in royal schools in 1831. Five of the original royal schools still exist at Armagh, Cavan, Dungannon, Enniskillen and Raphoe. (First report of the commissioners of the Board of Education in Ireland, HC 1809 (142) VII. 463: Akenson, The Irish educational experiment, pp. 27–29.)

  Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Founded in 1849 as the Kilkenny Archaeological Society, the society assumed its present title in 1890 after two further name changes. It moved from Kilkenny to Dublin in 1868 where its extensive library is housed at 63 Merrion Square. It publishes an annual journal.

  Rump. The Long Parliament in England after the exclusion in December 1648 of 100 members who favoured compromise with Charles I. It was dissolved in April 1653.

  rundale. A collectively-farmed field system which comprised a ‘c
lachan’ village, small gardens, permanently cultivated infield and occasionally-tilled, pastoral outfield zones, common meadow and summer transhumance (booleying) on the mountains. The infield was cultivated in individual strips which were re-allocated at intervals. Each tenant farmed strips dispersed across large tracts of arable land and shared access to the commonage for grazing. It has been claimed, on the basis of evidence from earlier field systems, that rundale was a pre-Norman survival but while continuous occupation has been proven at several sites no conclusive evidence has been advanced in support of the claim. Clachans and rundale occurred usually on reclaimed land and date from the late eighteenth century. Successive sub-division, the rapid increase in population and an over-reliance on the potato led to the virtual disappearance of rundale when famine struck in the 1840s. Known as runrig in Scotland. See ladder farm, striping. (Evans, The personality, pp. 58 ff.)

  rusg. See raskins.

  Rye House Plot. A plan devised by extremist Whigs to assassinate Charles II on his way from Newmarket to London.

  S

  s. (L., solidus, pl, solisi) The abbreviation used to denote a shilling.

  sac and soc. (OE., sac, litigation and soc, suit.) Jurisdiction, the right of grantees to an estate (such as a manor) to hold court, to deal with offences and disputes and to enjoy the profits thereof. This franchise was granted by the crown and exercised by the lord in the manorial courts leet and baron. See toll and team.

  sacramental test. See Test Act.

  sacrist. An officer in some Irish medieval cathedral chapters, probably equivalent to – or deputy for – the treasurer. He was responsible for the cathedral plate, sacred vessels, relics and vestments.

  sacristan. A sexton. He was a church official responsible for the upkeep of church property and for carrying out such duties as bell-ringing.

  Saint Sepulchre, Liberty of. One of the four medieval Dublin liberties (the others were the liberty of St Patrick’s, the liberty of ChristChurch and the earl of Meath’s liberty), the archbishop of Dublin’s liberty of St Sepulchre was organised on a manorial basis. It was administered by a seneschal and other officers including a marshall, coroner, weighmaster and clerk of the market. It had its own grand jury and three courts including a court of record for personal pleas, a court of criminal jurisdiction, a court leet where constables and the grand jury were sworn and a prison. In 1856 the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Dublin over the liberty of St Sepulchre was abrogated. See liberty. (Mills, ‘Notices’, pp. 31–41, 119–26; Wood, Court book.)