The search for my Irish connection, part 3

 

                                                         The green of Ireland - this was in the vicinity of Trim Castle

Last week, I wrote about how attending an Irish talk at my family history society's online seminar gave me visual proof that there were Cavanaghs in Carlow. That was a fact that agreed with my feeling that my Irish origins were in the south of Ireland. It was also a thrill to see the correct spelling of my family name of Cavanagh up there on my screen. I've since checked out the Down Survey of Ireland, a listing of land owners taken in the mid-1600s. My search found lots of Cavanaghs listed especially when I took it down to the parish level. Lots of possibilities are good in one way but they will also make it difficult to pinpoint a specific family.

It looks too, like it's more than County Carlow that was awash in potential Cavanagh ancestors. At another presentation, this one put on by BIHFSGO, Shirley Monkhouse gave a talk entitled There was a shot; after that everything's confusing. With a title like that, how could I not attend? Besides, at the beginning of the meeting she gave another talk, one about DNA. I'm always interested in information on that subject. Her second presentation, the one about the shot, turned out to be about an incident that happened in a village in Ireland. In present day, the place is called Bunclody. Back at the time of the incident it was known by the name of Newtownbarry. No matter what it was called, the place was right next door to County Carlow.

In fact, the name Bunclody was familiar to me. A few years ago, I signed up to attend a meeting of Clann Chaomhánach to be held there. Unfortunately, the meet up was cancelled as were so many in-person events at that time. While looking into the event, I wondered why on earth it would be held in a place called Bunclody. Well, in Ms. Monkhouse's presentation, I found out that the land around Bunclody was acknowledged to belong to the Clann Chaomhánach. Looks like my search area just got wider.

If you're wondering about the presentation with the intriguing name, the event that took place in Newtownbarry was called 'The Battle of the Pound'. It took place on June 18, 1831 and was one of the conflicts in the Tithe Wars which affected Ireland during the 1820's and '30s. That sounds interesting because, where there was a conflict, there were often records left behind.

Sources:

BIFHSGO – British Isles Family History Society of Ottawa –  https://www.bifhsgo.ca

Clann Chaomhánach https://www.clann-chaomhanach.com/

The Down Survey of Ireland https://downsurvey.tchpc.tcd.ie/