Nick Maxwell Richard Lovell Edgeworth, born at Bath, Somerset, in 1744, died at Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford, 200 years ago. By Tony Lyons The Edgeworths settled in Ireland in the mid-1580s during the reign of Elizabeth I, having come from Edgeware near London. Their principal Irish seat was in County Longford. Over subsequent years the family’s fortunes ebbed … Read more
Bushe, Connell and an eighteenth-century Irish population controversy. By David Parker Gervase Parker Bushe was a taxman. It was his job to ensure that you paid your dues to the Board of Revenue, and that, even if you were ‘on the parish’ and entitled to tax-free status, you—or rather your dwelling, the basis of the … Read more
In recent years technology has placed another essential tool within reach of genealogists—DNA testing kits. By Fiona Fitzsimons A person’s ancestry is written in his or her DNA. The evidence can be used to trace deep ancestral origins, especially when researchers have run out of historical documents from which to work. Family historians use three … Read more
In Fenagh, Co. Leitrim, celebrations were held last summer to commemorate a vellum manuscript written there in 1516. By Brendan Scott In 1516 a well-known scribe from Roscommon, Muirgheas Ó Maoilchonaire, was hired by Tadhg O’Roddy, the coarb of Fenagh, to revise and update an earlier version of a manuscript that had supposedly been written … Read more
St Caillín’s shrine was donated to Fenagh by Brian O’Rourke, lord of west Breifne, in 1536. It was held in St Mel’s Cathedral, Longford, from c. 1980 until it was rescued in early January 2010 from the ruins of the cathedral following a disastrous fire there on Christmas Day 2009. It is inextricably linked with … Read more