Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History

by Joseph Byrne

  tuath. Minor Irish lordship thought to be roughly co-terminous with a barony. Tuatha, however, are not identical to baronies for in the eleventh century there were 90 tuatha and we have 273 baronies today.

  tuck mill. A mill used to shrink cloth.

  tun. 1: A large cask 2: Of wine, contained 252 wine-gallons. It was equivalent to two pipes or four hogsheads.

  tunnage. A variable impost on wine and oils introduced in 1569, levied at so much per tun.

  turbario. An Irish swordsman or pikeman.

  turbary. A bog.

  turbary rights. The right to cut turf on a bog.

  turnpike. See toll-road.

  twentieth parts. A crown tax of twelve pence in the pound levied on all benefices as they were valued at the time of the Reformation. In 1711 the crown forgave the twentieth parts. See Board of First Fruits, valor ecclesiasticus.

  U

  Ulster, Annals of. A fifteenth- and sixteenth-century compilation also known as the Annals of Senait MacManus after its original compiler, Cathal MacGuire of the MacMaghnusa sept, who lived on Senait Island (Ballymacmanus Island or Belle Isle) in Lough Erne. The Annals commence with brief notices of matters of an ecclesiastical nature in 444 and become more elaborate from the sixth century with the inclusion of substantial entries for Armagh and (later) Derry until 1220. Entries continue until 1498, the year of MacGuire’s death, after which they are extended to 1541 by Ruaidhridhe Ó Caisidé and to 1604 by Rory Ó Luinín. The Annals of Ulster are written partly in Latin and partly in Irish, sometimes both appearing within the same sentence. (Hennessy and MacCarthy, Annála; MacAirt and Mac Niocaill, The Annals.)

  Ulster custom. See tenant-right.

  Ulster Cycle. An early prose saga which deals with Conor MacNessa, the king of Ulster, and his warriors, the Red Branch Knights. It includes such tales as the Cattle-Raid of Cooley (Táin Bó Cuailnge), the deeds of Cuchulainn and the tragedy of Deirdre and Naoise. (Dillon, Early Irish literature, pp. 1–31.)

  Ulster king of arms. The chief Irish herald. It is not clear how the king of arms in Ireland became known as Ulster. It may derive from the fact that there had been an Ireland king of arms at an earlier date though the bearer appears to have had little connection with this country and thus the monarch’s second Irish title, earl of Ulster, was chosen. Ulster was created by letters patent in 1552 as the sole authority for the issuing of patents of arms and recording pedigrees. He also performed ceremonial duties, regulated protocol and precedence at state ceremonies and assisted in the introduction of new peers to the house of lords. Broadly speaking, his duties revolved around arms, pedigrees and ceremonies and it is from these that the records of his office largely derive. In 1943 the office was renamed the Genealogical Office and Ulster was replaced by the chief herald. (Barry, ‘Guide’, pp. 1–43.)

  Ulster Revival. See evangelical revival.

  Ulster, Synod of. The Synod of Ulster was the supreme governing body of northern Presbyterians until July 1840 when it merged with the Seceders to form the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. See Arianism, New Light, Presbyterian, regium donum, Remonstrant Synod, Southern Association and Westminster, Confession of.

  ult. (L.) An abbreviation of ultimo meaning last as in of the last month. Thus 23 ult. means the twenty-third day of the month previous to the current month.

  ultra vires. The term which describes when an official embarks on a particular course of action that is beyond his legal authority.

  ultramontanism. (L., ultramontanus, beyond the mountains) A view of church-state relations which favoured papal over state control and church centralisation. Although initially wary of encouraging such thinking for fear of arousing the ire of national governments, the papacy gradually endorsed ultramontanist principles, most notably in the Syllabus of Errors (1864) and the declaration of the dogma of papal infallibility (1870). The archbishop of Dublin, Paul Cullen, who was educated in Rome, was the most important ultramontanist prelate in Ireland in the nineteenth century. See gallicanism. (Bowen, Paul Cardinal Cullen, pp. 15–20.)

  undertaker. 1: The scheme for the plantation of Ulster presented in 1609 foresaw the colonisation of the escheated counties by two distinct groups of planters: undertakers and servitors. An undertaker undertook to implement plantation in a specified area at his own expense and agreed to fulfil certain conditions imposed by government. It was stipulated that undertakers must reside on their holdings for five years, import English or Scottish tenants, construct a fortified bawn and keep a supply of arms. Unlike the servitors, they were prohibited from taking native Irish tenants. See Irish Society, Pynnar’s Survey 2: In Ireland in the eighteenth century, an influential and important parliamentary figure who undertook to carry the king’s business through parliament in return for a share in the disposal of patronage, sinecures and pensions. As the lord lieutenant was absent from Ireland for long periods when parliament was in recess, the business of government was left in the hands of undertakers such as William Connolly and Henry Boyle. All the leading undertakers were speakers of the house of commons and held other important posts. (Hayton, ‘The beginning’, pp. 32–54; McCracken, ‘The conflict’, pp. 159–79.)

  Uniformity, Act of. Two acts requiring religious uniformity were passed by the Irish parliament, the first of which, together with the Act of Supremacy, constituted the key statutory provisions for the establishment of Protestantism in these islands. The 1560 Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church (2 Eliz. I c. 2) was designed to bring dissenters into the fold of the Church of Ireland. The second, enacted a century later, was intended to keep them out. The Elizabethan act insisted on the use of the English Prayer Book by all clergy on pain of imprisonment and legislated for the imposition of recusancy fines on anyone refusing to attend divine service on Sunday. The latter imposition fell into disuse by the close of the seventeenth century but it was not removed from the statute books until 1793. The second act (7 & 8 Chas. II, c. 6, 1666) attempted to establish uniformity within the Church of Ireland by excluding Presbyterians and those with Presbyterian sympathies. It did so by requiring episcopal ordination of clergy and an undertaking from ministers not merely to use the revised Book of Common Prayer but also to give public assent to it. As an additional safeguard, schoolmasters were prohibited from teaching school without licence from a bishop of the Church of Ireland.

  Union, Act of (1800). The act (40 Geo. III, c. 38) which terminated the Irish parliament and transferred its legislative functions to the imperial parliament at Westminster. Ireland was to be represented in the house of commons by 100 members (a number negatively disproportionate to its population) and in the house of lords by 32 peers (including four bishops). The Irish executive, headed by a figurehead lord lieutenant and the effective governor, the chief secretary, remained, sharing the responsibility for Irish affairs with the secretary of state for home affairs. Although in theory, then, direct rule from Westminster came into force on 1 January 1801, in reality the executive in Dublin Castle continued to exercise considerable control over the administration of Ireland, notably in the areas of education, health and the economy. Many Catholics favoured the union because they were led to believe that the act would be accompanied by an emancipation act, a belief that was quickly shattered by George III’s antipathy to enlarging the Catholic franchise. Some Protestants saw legislative union as a means of transforming their minority status in Ireland into a majority within the union, others feared it for the very reason that many Catholics favoured it – that Catholic emancipation would be included in the union package. (Bolton, The passing of the Irish act.)

  Unionist Party. An almost exclusively Protestant political party founded in 1885–6 to fight government proposals for Irish home rule. From 1921 it was the governing party in Northern Ireland until the northern parliament was prorogued in 1972. (Jackson, The Ulster party; Savage, ‘The origins’, pp. 185–208.)

  Unitarianism. A Protestant non-conformist religious movement which d
enies the divinity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity, believing that God exists only in the one person. Unitarianism also stresses the free use of reason in religion. In Ireland the Unitarian church is known as the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian church which originated in the early decades of the eighteenth century with the refusal of a number of Presbyterian congregations to subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith and their secession to form the Presbytery of Antrim. Although they remained associated with the Synod of Ulster they severed that connection in the 1820s when subscription was made compulsory and they withdrew to form the Remonstrant Synod.

  United Irishmen. The Society of United Irishmen was founded in Belfast in October 1791 by a Protestant middle-class group dedicated to radical parliamentary reform and a truly representative, non-sectarian national parliament. Its leading members included Theobald Wolfe Tone, Napper Tandy, Archibald Rowan Hamilton, Lord Edward FitzGerald and Samuel Neilson. Government moves against the society together with the failure of FitzWilliam’s Catholic emancipation bill in 1795 convinced many United Irishmen of the futility of seeking a constitutional resolution to the reform issue and encouraged them to plan for an armed insurrection. When fighting broke out in May 1798 the movement had already been hamstrung by the arrest of many of its leaders. Despite some successes, lack of military discipline and a shortage of arms told against the rebels and by mid-July the revolt was over. The society, too, almost disappeared but for a brief resurgence in Robert Emmett’s abortive coup in 1803. (Curtin, The United Irishmen; Dickson, Keogh and Whelan, The United Irishmen; Jacob, The rise.)

  universities. See Queen’s Colleges.

  Unlawful Societies Bill (1825). See Goulborn’s Act.

  urrí. (Ir., sub-king, pl, urrithe) Sub-king or lesser chieftain, the client of a senior Gaelic lord. Written in English as urraught or urriagh.

  use, feoffment to. Until the abolition of feudal tenures in the mid-seventeenth century the feoffment or trust to use was a popular conveyance employed by chief tenants to avoid a number of crown taxes (specifically the feudal incidents of wardship, relief, escheat and marriage) and to circumvent certain statutory measures concerning family settlements, wills and mortmain. The feoffment to use achieved its end by exploiting the distinction between the common law interpretation of land law and that of equity, the view of chancery. Under common law a chief tenant’s heir was obliged to pay relief to pass livery and assume ownership. Where the heir was a minor, wardship and marriage also applied. In a feeoffment to use seisin of the property was conveyed to a group of family intimates (feoffees) to the use (benefit) of the chief tenant and his heirs. According to common law, legal title to the land now lay with the feoffees or trustees and since the landowner was no longer seised of the land neither he nor his heirs were liable for the incidents. Security for the landowner lay in the certainty that the equitable side of chancery would uphold his beneficial interest. It is important to remember that feeoffees were not required to perform any duties in the management of the estate; their role was purely a nominal one. The use was also employed to circumvent common law prohibitions on family settlements, the bequeathing of land by will and, in earlier times, the conveyance of land to corporate bodies such as religious foundations. The Statute of Uses was introduced in England in 1534 and in Ireland 100 years later to close these loopholes and increase royal revenue by declaring seisin to lie with the beneficiary of any trust to use. Feoffments to use were rendered unnecessary by the 1634 Statute of Wills –(which permitted testators to bequeath land by will) and the 1662 Tenures Abolition Act (which abolished feudal tenures and most of the feudal incidents). (Wylie, Irish land law, pp. 78 ff.)

  utfangeneth. See outfangtheof.

  utrum, juris utrum. A writ which lies for the minister of a church whose predecessor has wrongfully alienated the lands and tenements thereof.

  V

  vade mecum. (L., go with me) A ready reference manual, companion, handbook or guidebook that can be carried about.

  vail. A gratuity or tip given to servants by departing guests.

  valor ecclesiasticus. Following the Reformation the first fruits of all ecclesiastical benefices were impropriated by the crown and an additional tax, the twentieth parts, was imposed on all ecclesiastical incomes. In order to levy the tax a valor or valuation was conducted on benefices. Religious houses were not included in the valor for they were to be dissolved. In terms of detail the Irish valor is inferior to the extensively detailed English equivalent, entries simply recording the living and its monetary valuation. (Valor; Ellis, ‘Economic problems’, pp. 239–265.)

  valuation. The value of a property were it to be rented for a full year. Thus a manorial valuation refers to its annual rental value and not the value were it to be sold. The Primary Valuation (1848–65), or Griffith’s Valuation as it is more commonly known, was intended to establish the valuation of each house and holding in the country for the purposes of local taxation. The valuation books contain the names of occupiers of land and buildings, the names of lessors, the extent and valuation of the property together with a very brief description of the tenement.

  verge. A rod placed in the hand of a tenant by the lord to represent the fief into which he was being invested. See fealty, homage, investiture.

  verger. An usher or sacristan.

  verso. Abbreviated v. in references, verso refers to the side of a manuscript page that is to be read second, in other words, the back or left-hand side. Recto (r.) is the front of the page or right-hand side, the side to be read first. See folio.

  vested schools. The commissioners of national education required schools built with its support to adhere to its rules and be vested in local trustees. Non-vested schools received only annual grants for books and salaries and were subject to the commissioners’ rules only for as long as they were in receipt of aid. The rules for both were the same. In 1840, in order to secure the connection of Presbyterian schools to the national system, the commissioners reinterpreted the status of non-vested schools and developed a number of unwritten rules to satisfy the demands of the Synod of Ulster which refused to countenance the presence of Catholic clergymen in Presbyterian schools. The commissioners now declared that clergymen of a persuasion different to that of the school manager were not entitled to provide religious instruction in the school – it must be provided elsewhere. They were permitted to visit the schools but only as members of the public. Non-vested schools were no longer required to allocate a separate day for religious instruction and children of a minority faith need no longer be excluded from the religious instruction classes of the majority. They might leave class if they wished but neither teachers nor managers bore any responsibility in the matter. These alterations effectively undercut the supposedly non-denominational status of the national system. See Education, National System of, Stopford rule.

  vestry. 1: An early form of local government, the parish or general vestry was an institution of the Established church which supervised the maintenance of roads and bridges and took responsibility for abandoned children, fed and maintained the poor and buried the destitute. See six-day labour. These civic services were financed by a local tax, the parish cess. After the abolition of the penal laws the vestry included all ratepayers irrespective of religious affiliation although the officers must be Anglicans. The ability of civil parishes to fulfil their civic functions varied significantly from place to place and, in general, Irish parishes failed to match the elaborate English parish system. In parishes where the Anglican congregation was small a comprehensive system was clearly impracticable but where strong concentrations of Anglicans existed – as in Dublin city – a sophisticated operation including fire-fighting, a parish watch, constables, street-cleaning (scavenging) and lighting was maintained. The 1833 Church Temporalities Act disestablished the parish by abolishing parish cess. Subsequently its local government and health functions devolved to the grand jury, later to the poor law union and later again to the county and rural district coun
cils under the 1908 Local Government Act 2: A church sacristy. (Refaussé, A handbook.)

  vestry, select. Unlike the general vestry, the select vestry comprised only ratepaying Anglicans. It was responsible for the physical maintenance of the church building and for payment of the minor church officers such as the sexton. From this body were elected annually the two church-wardens who administered the parish. They were assisted by volunteers and occasionally other appointees such as overseers who collected the parish cess and distributed money and assistance to those on the poor list.

  veto controversy (1808–1821) The veto controversy occupied centre stage in the debate on Catholic emancipation in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Some pro-emancipationists believed that a crown veto over Catholic episcopal appointments would reassure Protestants and smooth the path towards emancipation. Indeed, the pope agreed to such a limited veto in 1815 as a quid pro quo for legislative action on the issue. Others, including Daniel O’Connell, sought unqualified emancipation and opposed the veto. The controversy ended in 1821 with the rejection by the house of lords of William Conyngham Plunket’s emancipation bill (which included the veto). From that date the veto ceased to be an issue as campaigners agitated for full emancipation. After Plunket’s bill fell O’Connell wrote: ‘Even the Vetoists must admit that securities do no good because we are kicked out as unceremoniously with them as without them’. This did not prevent him from agreeing to other securities, the ‘wings’, to facilitate the passage of the (unsuccessful) 1825 emancipation bill. (O’Ferrall, Catholic emancipation, pp. 3–9.)