Thursday, October 13th, 2022

Today, we are going to feature information that Danny Dowling recorded regarding the residents of the townland of Rickardsland around 1961. The Irish for this townland, according to Kelly’s, The Place Names of the County of Kilkenny (1969, p. 110) is Fearann Risteaird, or Richard’s land. It is divided into North and South Richardsland with a total area of 88 acres. No further information is supplied by Kelly. Over the years the name has been spelled in different ways on headstones etc., but Danny referred to it as Rickardsland.

In the 1833 Griffith’s Valuation Applotment Records the townland of Richardsland or Rickardsland is not found. In the old civil parish of Kilcoan both Weatherstown and Moulerstown are present. It may be the case that Rickardsland was an area within a larger townland similar to Grogan in Davidstown. Sometimes areas along the edge of a townland split off because landlords sold them or altered them in some way. A good example is Ringville that was once part of Rochestown. Unfortunately Danny isn’t available to explain how or when Rickardsland became a townland.

A newspaper search employing the various spellings of Rickardsland turned up very few articles or references prior to the 1960’s.  However, in 1869 the Kilkenny Moderator (Sat. 20 March 1869, p. 2) reported on the “County Grand Jury Fiscal Business” and levied £34,629 2s. 0d. in 44 half yearly instalments for the re-building of the New Ross bridge. County Kilkenny was “at large” to pay £29,810 8s. Four districts were established. District 1 comprised the townslands closest to the bridge such as Rosbercon, Annagh, Shanbough (sic) and they were to pay the sum of £819 1s.8d. District 2 comprised parishes in Dysartmoon, Listerlin and Kilmakevoge and Kilcoan including Cappagh, Ballybrahy, Richardsland north, Richardsland south, Moulerstown and Flemingstown to pay £968.0s.0d. The fourth and last district was composed of most of the rest of the current parish of Glenmore including: Aylwardstown, Robinstown, Ballyfacey, Kilbride and further outlying townlands Darbystown, Glenpipe, Ballymartin etc. to pay £863 6s.8d.  Excluded from all four districts were the townlands in most of the old civil parish of Kilcolumb such as Rochestown, Rathinure, Scartnamore,  and Davidstown etc. See the end of our previous blog of 14 December 2019 for further details concerning the destruction of the New Ross bridge by ice.

The newspaper search did turn up a number of greyhound’s with Rickardsland in their names including Rickardsland Rose (Irish Examiner, Thurs. 12 Nov. 1964, p. 15);  Rickardsland Phil (Kilkenny People, Fri. 7 May 1971, p. 16) and Rickardsland Prince (Irish Press, Sat. 9 Oct. 1954, p. 13). We assume that greyhounds were bred in Rickardsland or by a former resident to honour his or her native townland.

Danny Dowling in 1961 recorded only 2 families or households in Rickardsland. Birthdates or birth years are provided for some of the older residents gleaned from available public records. For some time after drafting his notebook, Danny recorded the dates of death or simply recorded that a resident had died or left the townland. The recorded information reveals that in 1961, 6 people resided in Rickardsland North and 10 people residing in Rickardsland South (16 total). The population of the townland is comprised of 8 males and 8 females. The Roche family was the largest family with ten members in the household. There was no household recorded of a single person living alone.

Recorded Residents

Males= 8
Females= 8
Eldest Recorded Resident= Margaret Fitzgerald née Woods (1906-1997). In 1961 Margaret  Fitzgerald was only 55 years of age and according to available records she was 7 months older than her husband James Fitzgerald (1906-1979). Margaret was born on 11 April 1906 in Ballymartin, Rosbercon to Nicholas Woods (farmer) and his wife Bridget Woods née Dungan. When she died in 1997 she was 91 years of age. The obituaries for James and Margaret Fitzgerald are on the Family, surname F, page and may be accessed by clicking here.

Recorded Work

Farmers = 1  (1 males)
Farm workers = 2 (2 males)
Motor garage worker = 1 (1 male)
Domestic servant = 1 (1 female)
Meat Factory Worker = 2 (2 females)
General Labourer = 1 (1 male)

RICKARDSLAND NORTH

[1] FITZGERALD
Fitzgerald, James (21 Nov. 1906-26 April 1979) Farmer
Fitzgerald, Margaret (11 April 1906-15 Sept. 1997) wife
Fitzgerald, Mary, daughter
Fitzgerald, Nicholas (1938-2015) son, farm worker (twin)
Fitzgerald, William (1938-2010) son, farm worker (twin)
Fitzgerald, Martin A., son, student

RICHARDSLAND SOUTH

[2] ROCHE
Roche, Thomas (22 Dec. 1912-11 June 1989) General Labourer
Roche, Margaret (28 April 1911-8 Aug. 1992) wife
Roche, Mary, daughter, meat factory worker
Roche, Johanna, daughter, meat factory worker
[Roche, Margaret, daughter, domestic servant]
Roche, William, son, motor garage worker
Roche, Kathleen, daughter, domestic servant
Roche, Edward, son
Roche, Bridget, daughter
Roche, Eileen, daughter
Roche, Martin, son

[Correction–the birthdate of Margaret Roche née Long was incorrect and has been corrected. Margaret Roche née Long was the daughter of Edward Long (labourer) and Johanna Long née Corcoran of Weatherstown, Glenmore. The third eldest child of the Roche family, Margaret Roche, was not in Danny’s list and has been added in brackets. The death notice for Thomas Roche (1912-1989) and the obituary of his wife Margaret Roche née Long (1911-1992) may be found on our Family, surname Q-R page and may be accessed by clicking here. ]

Thirteen years after Danny recorded the information concerning Rickardsland townsland, in 1974 the Kilkenny Co. Council agreed to erect a new pump at Rickardsland South, Glenmore (New Ross Standard, Fri. 21 June 1974, p. 2). Thus into the mid-70’s roadside water pumps were being installed in Glenmore parish by the County Council.

The featured drawing of the greyhound above is a Player’s cigarette card courtesty of the New York City Library Digital Collection. See, George Arents Collection, The New York Public Library. Greyhound Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-1f79-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Please send any further information of corrections to glenmore.history@gmail.com.

Dr. Kathleen Moore Walsh