The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
The seven Laois clans that made a new home south of the Shannon
THINK YOUR KIN WORKED THOSE FIELDS SINCE GOD WAS A BOY? YOU MIGHT HAVE TO THINK AGAIN, AS TARBERT NATIVE DR MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER KEANE REVEALS IN HIS NEW BOOK ON KERRY’S DEEP TIES WITH CO LAOIS
DID you know that the people of Kerry have strong family connections with County Laois that go back to ancient times?
When Laois was taken over for plantation by the English and renamed Queen’s county, the leading clans of Laois, the Moores, Kellys, Lawlors, Dowlings, Dorans, Dees and McEvoys, as well as some associated clans such as Brassils and Nolans, were transplanted to Kerry, being under sentence of death if they returned.
In my recently launched book, ‘From Laois to Kerry’, the continuing surname presence in Kerry among the descendants of these original Laois clans has been traced from the early 1600s, when the transplantation occurred, to the present time.
The Laois clans, always referred to as the Seven Septs of Laois, were mainly transplanted to ten parishes in North Kerry.
These included the “hurling” parishes of Kerry such as Abbeydorney, Ballyduff, Ballyheigue, Ardfert, Kilflynn, Kilmoyley, Lixnaw, Finuge and Causeway in the extreme north-west of the county, as well as a second group of parishes in the extreme north-east of Kerry, including Tarbert, Duagh and the old parish of Galey (mainly Ballydonoghue and Clounmacon).
In tracing the Laois surnames in those parishes through the centuries, it is interesting to find that, over 400 years later, all seven of the original Laois surnames still have a significant presence in those original parishes and the immediately surrounding areas to which they were transplanted.
For example, based on the most recent electoral register, if one takes the area of North Kerry north of Tralee and Castleisland, the original seven Laois Sept surnames account for close to 1,000 of the 30,000 total population.
Some have remained very localized through the centuries, such as for example the Lawlors in Clanmorris barony and the Dees in Iraghticonnor.
The Laois Septs were first transplanted into the parishes listed above as much of those lands, among the best farmland in Kerry, had come into the possession of a controversial landlord, Patrick Crosbie, who was the organizer of the transplantation from Laois, along with his younger brother John, who became the second Protestant bishop of Kerry.
The land had become available following the horrors of the Elizabethan-Desmond war in the late 1500s following which most of Kerry and Munster ultimately came to be planted by English overlords.
In tracing the Laois Sept surnames in Kerry through the centuries, their presence was first recorded in the 1610 will of Patrick Crosbie which prescribed for example that “all the corn which William McEvoy and the rest sowed at Tarbert be presently restored to them, to every man his own portion”.
The Laois Septs were also very active in Kerry in the Catholic Confederacy uprising of the 1640s, as quoted for example in Crosbie family papers; “the O’Dorans, O’Dowlings, O’Lawlors and O’Kellys swooped down and set fire to Lord Kerry’s new castle and St Brendan’s old Cathedral”.
As there are no census records for the 1700s, one must rely on the work of family historians or genealogists. Martin Moore, who has just published an excellent book, ‘The Call to Arms’, has recorded for example that Trinity College, which had been granted the lands of the O’Connors of Carrigafoyle, leased land in Moyvane to Roger Moore who was a grandson of the O’Moore chieftain who signed the original transplantation agreement in Laois in1607 (Ballyguiltenane Rural Journal 1998-2000).
When it comes to the period from 1800 to the present time there are much better records, such as the Griffith valuation from around 1850, the censuses of 1901 and 1911, which are now online, as well as the aforementioned latest electoral register.
The Griffith valuation showed that there were over 70 surnames of Laois origin listed in the extreme north-west region of Kerry (Tarbert, Galey and Duagh) in the early 1850s, with all seven surnames represented. A superb account of Kerry family surnames by townland in the early 1900s was provided by King in his fine book ‘County Kerry Past and Present’. He records 415 families with surnames of Laois origin in the county, with the great majority still living in the same parishes that their ancestors were transplanted to some hundreds of years earlier or in the immediately surrounding areas. As already mentioned a very similar finding was made when the most recent electoral register was analysed. Overall the presence in North Kerry in the 21st century of many descendants of the early 17 th century transplantation of the seven Septs of Laois is a good illustration of the survival and local rootedness of native peoples. These largely forgotten historic links between the counties Laois and Kerry are perhaps ripe for a revival and maybe far distant cousins in the two counties will be able to become reacquainted and participate together in the different Laois Sept clan gatherings that continue to flourish in county Laois to the present day.