Know Your Townland – Rathluby/Ráth Lúbaigh

This townland is located at the south eastern edge of the parish of Quin, at the turn-off for Craggaunowen. Sadliers Cross Road is the name of this junction. No record can be found for the family names of Ó Lúbaigh or Sadlier having resided here. A gate lodge was located here for the Rathluby estate and the one-time resident may have inspired this placename. This small townland is best identified by the large lough taking its name from the townland and by the demesne that once dominated it.

Ó Lúbaigh, a rare and scattered surname, now most numerous in Tipperary’.

50.3 hectares/124 acres

1659 Census Records (Rathlubby, Ballyroughane, Cullane)

Census Records for Rathluby 1841-1891

1918 Subscribers to Major Redmond Memorial Fund

James McInerney, William McNamara

1926 Census Records Households 5; Population 11

Thomas & Mary Conlon.

Rose McNamara, daughter Bridget.

Comment:

Many of the same family names will be seen in the ‘Baptismal Records’ and the ‘Petty Sessions Cases’ further below in this post such as Conlon, McNamara, McInerney, Pewter.

Rathluby House

Associated Families: Molony, McGann, Piercy, Bridgeman, McMahon

Features: Rathluby House was an eighteenth-century, rectangularly shaped residence, facing north-north-east over Rathluby Lough. The yard and utility buildings stood to the west, and to the south was a large water-garden. The front of the house was approached by a drive from the south-east. Another drive approached from the south where there was once a gate lodge at Sadleirs Cross.

History: In the mid eighteenth century, James Massy Molony of the Cragg family, whose father Andrew Molony died in 1724 and whose mother was Arabella Massy, lived here with his wife, Susanalva Molony. They had one daughter. In 1799, St J. Bridgeman of Rahloba (sic) was in favour of the legislative Union of Ireland with Great Britain. Henry Bridgeman is shown as leasing the property from Eliza Piercey in 1855 together with almost one hundred acres.

A tombstone in Kilseilly graveyard (Broadford) records a ‘Colonel George Frost, I.M.S., in memory of his uncle Thomas Bridgeman of Rathluby d. 1894’. Above the words is a shield parted per pale with the Bridgeman arms on the sinister (left) side. There is also above the shield the family crest. Nearby is another stone: ‘Henry and Eleanor Bridgeman, Al Wall and Ames Wall. Henry’s brothers: William, Winter and Carre 1714’. The Bridgemans had been in the area since circa 1659 when Henry Bridgeman was Tituladoe of a number of townlands in Killuran parish to the north-east. At the turn of the century, Rathluby was acquired by James McMahon of Newmarket House. The house no longer remained occupied. The property is still in the hands of the McMahons. Rathluby house was demolished in 1948.

Courtesy of Hugh Weir – Houses of Clare.

 National Monuments

CL043-011 Enclosure, CL043-013 Enclosure

Quin Petty Sessions – Sample Cases

Baptismal Records from 1800’s for Rathluby

The population of the townland peaked at 67 in 1841, hence the large numbers of recorded baptisms in this period. Prominent family names such as MacNamara, McInerney, Conlon (and variations in spelling), Pewter recorded below are still to be found in records right up to 1926. Note the record containing Margaret Sadler and witness Daniel Sadler.