The Famine in Talbotstown Upper

© KCC &
Authors

Full title: Responses to Famine in West Wicklow

Creator / Author: Séamas Ó Maitiú

Item Type / Page count: Book Chapter / 9pp

When Published: c.1995

Publisher / Place of Publication: Kildare County Council / Naas, Co. Kildare

Parent Publication [book]: Lest We Forget: Kildare and the Great Famine / 106pp

About: This essay was published as part of a book commemorating the 150^th anniversary of the Great Famine in County Kildare. It looks at the adjoining district of West Wicklow and uses contemporary accounts from the journal of Elizabeth Smith to show in particular how local officialdom responded to the crisis.

ID number(s): 0952001322

Extra #1: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #2: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #3: Link to the full text of the book containing this chapter, courtesy of the Co. Kildare Online Electronic History Journal.

Extra #4: Link to a portrait of the author via https://portraidi.ie/ga/seamas-o-maitiu/

Hat-Tip: To the Kildare Library and Arts Services who have arranged for the digitisation of this book and its free accessibility online.

A Fourth Valleymount Compendium

© The Publisher

Full title: Valleymount. Facets of our Local History (Part IV: the unpublished volume, added May 2013 by John Hussey)

Creator / Author: John Hussey & contributors.

Item Type / Page count: Journal (Complete issue) / eBook / 39p

When Published: [Posted online] May 2013

Publisher / Place of Publication: [Parish of Valleymount / Valleymount, Co. Wicklow].

About: This is the last of four collections (so far) of local history material which was first published separately in various issues of the Valleymount Parish News. This last issue was never made available as such. Rather, John Hussey has gathered together various pieces that were mostly not already included in the first three volumes to make up a virtual fourth volume of material. The major article here recounts an altar boy’s memories of local parish priest, Fr. John Moynihan.

ID number(s): None

Contents: Teacher’s Residence, Lacken / Fr. Richard Cantwell – Death of Fr. Heffernan P.P [taken from Leinster Leader] – Ballyknockan National Brass and Reed Band [taken from Leinster Leader] – “Dip me Flute” / Mattie Lennon – Valleymount I.C.A. / Tess Curran – The Coal Pit / Mattie Lennon – Bishop Boden’s Well Lacken, Sunday November 5^th 1978 / Fr. Richard Cantwell  – School in Lacken in the nineteen hundreds / Mattie Lennon — Parish Properties – Community Centre / Fr. Richard Cantwell — Renovation of the old Parochial House / Fr. Richard Cantwell — The Irish Journals of Elizabeth Smith, 1840-1850, edited for us by Mattie Lennon – Rerum Novarum: Memories of Fr. John Moynihan / Michael O’Brien (a Valleymount altar boy of many years ago) — A few historical notes from 150 years ago / Fr. Richard Cantwell – Matt Reid / Fr. Richard Cantwell – The Punchestown Races (in memory of Pa O’Brien) / Michael O’Brien – A few little details of Boystown gleaned from the census of 1841 / Fr. Richard Cantwell – Old names of fields in our parish / Fr. Richard Cantwell — Stone trough in Baltyboys cemetery / Fr. Richard Cantwell – Baltyboys House — Irish Folklore Commission – Local Weather Observations / Maggie Broe.

Extra #1: Link to the full text of this magazine via this page at blessington.jimdo.com.

**UPDATE** September 2022: This ebook does not appear to be currently available to read online.

A Third Valleymount Compendium

© The Publisher

Full title: Valleymount. Facets of our Local History Part Three

Creator / Author: Fr. Richard Cantwell (editor) & contributors.

Item Type / Page count: Magazine (Complete issue) / 65p

When Published: Easter 1993

Publisher / Place of Publication: Parish of Valleymount / Valleymount, Co. Wicklow.

About: This is the third of four collections of local history material which was first published separately in various issues of the Valleymount Parish News. It covers areas such as Lacken, Baltyboys, Blessington, Poulaphuca and Valleymount. About one-third of this issue is taken up with an article about the various parish priests that have served in the parish. The publication is photocopied rather than printed and the quality of reproduction reflects this.

ID number(s): None

Contents: Cover drawing: The Church — Bronze Age cemetery at Carrig, Co. Wicklow / Eoin Grogan — Snippets from ‘Leinster Leader’ – Balfe-the-Robber or Cock-a-Hoof / Fr. Richard Cantwell  – “A hoor of a flood” / Mattie Lennon — Lacken Well / Mattie Lennon — School in Lacken in the nineteen-hundreds / Mattie Lennon — Snippets from ‘Leinster Leader’ – Highway robbery at the Tollhouse — Boyce Oh Boyce / Matty Lennon – Saint Patrick stood at Burgage Bridge / Matty Lennon – Light in Lacken / Mattie Lennon – E.S.B. installations at Lacken / Mattie Lennon — Ninety eight in Kilbeg / Mattie Lennon — Lines by a local poet on the funeral of Fr. Rowan [poem] – The bonfire stones / Mattie Lennon — The January fair / Matty Lennon — The Irish Journals of Elizabeth Smith, 1840-1850, edited for us by Mattie Lennon — Griffith’s Valuation Parish of Boystown [reproduction] – History of our former Parish Priests / Fr. Richard Cantwell.

Extra #1: Contains illustrations and reproduction photographs throughout the text.

Extra #2: Link to the full text of this magazine via this page at blessington.jimdo.com.

**UPDATE** September 2022: This ebook does not appear to be currently available to read online.

The Worst of Times

© The Publisher

Full title: The Curse of Reason: the Great Irish Famine.

Creator / Author: Enda Delaney

Item Type / Page count: Book / 293p

When Published: 2012

Publisher / Place of Publication: Gill & Macmillan / Hume Avenue, Park West, Dublin 12.

About: A history of the Irish Famine that looks at the social, economic and political dimensions of the event. It achieves this via the mechanism of examining the contemporary written testimonies of four important figures: Archbishop John MacHale, John Mitchel, Elizabeth Smith and Charles E. Trevelyan.

ID number(s): 9780717154159 / 9780717160105

Chapters: Preface — Acknowledgements — Prologue: the land of the dead — [Part I. Before the Famine] Encounters — Land and people — Politics and power — [Part II. That Coming Storm] Spectre of famine — Peel’s brimstone — [Part III. Into the Abyss] A starving nation — The fearful reality — Property and poverty — [Part IV. Legacies] Victoria’s subjects — Exiles — Epilogue: the death of Martin Collins — Notes — Bibliographical Note — References — Index.

WW Connection #1: Elizabeth Smith lived in Baltyboys House in West Wicklow. Her observations on the Famine relate to this locality.

Extra #1: includes photographs of Elizabeth Smith and her Scottish birthplace and residence.

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.

Extra #4: The paperback edition was published in 2014, under the title ‘The Great Irish Famine: a history in four lives’ (ID number 9780717160105).

Fifth Collection of Articles on West Wicklow History

© WWHS

Full title: Journal of the West Wicklow Historical Society: Number 5, 2009

Creator / Author: West Wicklow Historical Society & contributors, joint editors Chris Lawlor, Donal McDonnell

Item Type / Page count: Journal (Complete issue) / 107p

When Published: 2009

Publisher / Place of Publication: West Wicklow Historical Society / Baltinglass (?), Co. Wicklow.

About: The fifth publication of a set of articles on aspects of West Wicklow history. This issue covers locations from Baltyboys to Kiltegan with contributions from natives of the area.  Also featured is a major article by Chris Lawlor on Tithe, Protest and Criminality around Dunlavin during the years 1823-1845.

ID number(s): 0790-1739

Contents: Frontispiece: A map of 31 holdings in Stratford, late 18thC — A word from the Chairman — Ramblings from the Secretary — All the year round / Joseph McArdle — St. Patrick’s Missionary Society: S.P.S (The Kiltegan Fathers)  / Peadar C. Ó Cuilinn — Tithe, Protest and Criminality around Dunlavin, 1823-1845 / Chris Lawlor — Billy’s Country – a childhood memory / Kathleen Kinsella (née Keogh) — The West Wicklow Historical Society Officers 2009 — Baltinglass Cistercian Abbey / Mairéad Connellan — When Britannia’s sons with their long-range guns ran out in the Glen of Imaal / Liam Kenny — Photo from the past – John Dwyer, son of rebel leader Michael Dwyer / Eugene Byrne — West Wicklow as described in the Parliamentary Gazetteer of 1846 / compiled by Jason Lawlor — A horse tale / Dorothy Leonard — Memories of Donard [photo essay] — Elizabeth Smith comes to Baltyboys / Jim Corley — Dairy farming in West Wicklow: from the horse driven dash churn to creamery milk collection / Stanley Jackson — Methodists in Baltinglass – a juvenile obituary / Andrew Winnett — Extracts from the ‘Post-Chaise Companion or Travellers’ Directory Through Ireland’ / William Wilson — The development and present state of local Irish historiography / Chris Lawlor — A dangerous line / Janes Scannell — Endpiece: Map of Clough, Baltinglass 1722.

Extra #1: Contains black & white photographs, graphs and map reproductions.

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide

Extra #4: Visit the West Wicklow Historical Society website.

The Highland Lady Before She Came to West Wicklow

© The Publisher

Full title: Memoirs of a Highland Lady, 1797 – 1827.

Creator / Author: Elizabeth Grant.

Item Type / Page count: Book / 296p

When Published: 1950

Publisher / Place of Publication: John Murray / Albemarle Street, London.

About: Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus was born in Scotland in 1797. This is an account of her upbringing and of her life in London, Edinburgh and the Highlands. The book comes to a close before her departure to India. While in India, she met and married Colonel Henry Smith of Baltiboys House. After he inherited the estate, they came to live there and these memoirs of her early life were completed in West Wicklow.

ID number(s): None

WW Connection #1: The author was a resident of Baltyboys in West Wicklow.

Extra #1: includes photographs and family tree.

Extra #1: Check Libraries Ireland for this title.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide

West Wicklow Through Scottish Eyes (1)

© Woodfield Press

Full title: The Wicklow World of Elizabeth Smith, 1840 – 1850.

Creator / Author: Dermot James and Séamas Ó Maitiú, editors.

Item Type / Page count: Book / 160p

When Published: 1996

Publisher / Place of Publication: The Woodfield Press / 29 Oaklands Terrace, Terenure, Dublin 6.

About: Elizabeth Smith (neé Grant) was born in Scotland in 1797. While in India, she met and married Colonel Henry Smith of Baltiboys House. After he inherited the estate, they came to live there. Elizabeth kept a journal which describes her day to day life and that of the surrounding areas. The editors of this book have taken a selection of extracts from her journal and penned a commentary covering the period 1840 – 1850.

ID number(s): 095284530X /9780952845300 (paperback edition)

ID number(s): 0952845318 / 9780952845317 (hardback edition)

Chapters: Preface — Introducing Elizabeth Smith — 1840 – ‘All thriving except old Shannon’  — 1841-1842 ‘My whole heat is in Baltiboys’  — 1843-1844 ‘Twelve busy years we have lived here’  — 1845 ‘Two damaged potatoes, the first we have seen’ — 1846 ‘Here comes the famine’  — 1847 ‘Alas, the famine progresses’  — 1848 ‘We in Baltiboys must descend a few pegs’  — 1849 ‘God help the country, man won’t seemingly’ — 1850 ‘The starving children are looking better already’ — Epilogue — Appendix 1: Memorials of the dead — Appendix 2: Historical and statistical descriptions of Blessington, Baltiboys and Ballymore,1837 –Index to placenames — Index to persons.

WW Connection #1: Apart from the subject matter, co-editor Séamas Ó Maitiú is a resident of West Wicklow.

Extra #1: includes many illustrations, photographs and maps.

Extra #2: Check Libraries Ireland for this publication.

Extra #3: Check OCLC WorldCat.org for this publication in libraries worldwide.