Byrne's Dictionary of Irish Local History (16 page)

cony
. A rabbit.

conyger
. (Ir.,
coinicéir
) A rabbit warren or connywarren.

cooper
. A cask maker.

co-operative movement
. The co-operative movement was founded by the Irish Protestant unionist Sir Horace Plunkett following the success of a small co-operative store on his family estate. Plunkett believed there was too much emphasis on tenure and anti-English agitation in Ireland at the expense of increasing the quality and presentation of Irish produce to compete with cheap food imports. The first co-operative society was founded in Doneraile (Co. Waterford) in 1889 and there were 33 creamery and co-operative societies in existence within five years. Plunkett also founded the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society, an umbrella group which propagated the co-operative message through its organ,
The Irish Homestead
. By 1914 there were about 1,000 affiliated societies operating with an annual turnover of £3.5million, of which the creameries accounted for two-thirds. The co-operative movement operates to this day from the same headquarters in Merrion Square, Dublin, that it occupied in 1908. (West,
Horace Plunkett
, pp. 20–35.)

copia vera
. Documents which contain the words
copia vera
are true copies and not originals.

coppice
. A wood or grove. Woods were often coppiced or pollarded (cut back) to ensure a steady supply of rods for basket-weaving or thatching. Coppicing was carried out at the base of a tree to produce many shoots rather than one trunk.
See
pollard.

copyholder
. A tenant who held land on terms set out in a copy of the manorial court roll. It is not certain to what extent, if at all, this form of tenure existed in Ireland.

coracle
. A Boyne, circular
currach
consisting of a hide-covered framework of woven hazel rods. Coracles were worked by two men, one kneeling in front, the other facing backwards to handle the net. (Shaw-Smith,
Ireland's traditional crafts
, pp. 95–6.)

coram rege
. (L., before, in the presence of the king) The perambulatory king's court before it became fixed in one location. In Ireland, the
justiciar's court
, later the
king's bench
.

corbel
. A stone or wooden wall projection which supports a roof beam.

corbelled roof
. A roof constructed of ascending layers of overlapping stone which converge at the top.

cordwainer
. A shoemaker.

cores
. Coarse, often slightly chipped, flints which are the waste or discarded material of a flint toolworks.

Corinthian
. One of the three Greek orders of architecture, Corinthian columns are characterised by capitals richly ornamented with flowers and leaves.
See
Ionic, Doric.

corn laws
. Early in the eighteenth century an outbreak of cattle murrain on the continent encouraged Irish farmers to convert tillage land to pasture. The graziers were aided by the Irish parliament which exempted pasturage from
tithe
. Bounties paid on the export of English wheat coupled with tariffs on Irish corn being carried into England acted as disincentives to Irish arable farmers and the shift to cattle-raising accelerated when the British market was opened to Irish cattle in 1758. The Irish parliament voted bounties several times to corn exporters to aid the movement of grain to Dublin but the premiums were tied to grossly unrealistic price levels and proved ineffectual. The introduction of a bounty on the inland carriage of corn in 1759 provided the impetus for an increase in the area of land under tillage but it was the enactment of Foster's Corn Law in 1784 (23 & 24 Geo. III, c. 19) that transformed the face of Irish agriculture. A combination of export bounties and tariffs on imported grain coupled with the increasing demands of a burgeoning British population and restrictions on imports from continental Europe led to a twelvefold increase in grain exports to Britain between 1780 and 1820. Grain exports remained strong over the following decades but government interference in the markets increasingly attracted the ire of anti-protectionists. When the potato crop – the food that facilitated the export of grain – failed in 1845 and 1846, the government dithered over the question of repealing the corn laws. Irish merchants and traders opposed the introduction of free trade in corn claiming that reports of food shortages in Ireland were exaggerated but the British Anti-Corn Law League proved a more powerful lobbyist and the laws were repealed in July 1846. In theory cheaper imports should have lowered the price of grain locally but it was three years before the measure became fully effective. In the interim the government resolved not to meddle in the market, refused to impose a temporary embargo on the export of corn and agreed with the merchants not to sell corn below market prices. Thus the repeal of the corn laws owed more to ideological principles than to the need to provide food for the starving in Ireland. In the long-term the repeal of the corn laws encouraged a shift away from tillage back to livestock-farming which remains the predominant characteristic of Irish agriculture down to this very day.

cornet
. The bearer of regimental colours.

cornice
. An ornamental moulding projecting from the higher reaches of a wall.

coroner
. The office of coroner emerged in Ireland in the thirteenth century. Then, as now, he was required to investigate sudden or unexplained deaths a function deriving from his duty to secure the pecuniary interest of the crown and remembered in his original title – ‘crowner'.
Treasure trove, wreck
and sudden death (the chattels of a suicide or the thing which caused the death were forfeited as were the chattels of a convicted felon) all touched upon the prerogative entitlements of the crown and the inquest conducted by the coroner was the means by which such rights were established. His duties were many. He was required to receive abjurations of the realm made by felons in sanctuary; to hear appeals, confessions of felons and appeals of
approvers
. He had to attend or organise exactions and outlawries in the county court. He was obliged to secure all forfeitures of lands or goods to the crown, secure the appearance of witnesses and keep a record of what had happened. The coroner might be required, either alone or with the sheriff, to perform any other administrative duties and he must have enough land in the county to answer the king. He was elected by the oath of 12 men in the county court. The coroner was also the keeper of the pleas of the crown. He recorded the accusations and preliminary pleadings which took place between one
eyre
and the next so that cases could proceed when the justices arrived.
See
abjure the realm.

corporas cloth
. The consecrated linen cloth on which the sacred vessels rested during mass.

corporation
.
See
borough, Municipal Corporations Reform Act (1840).

corrody
. An old age pension, usually purchasable from a monastery, consisting of lodging, food and incidentals. Corrodies were also granted as a reward for service.

corruption of blood
. When a person was attainted of treason or felony his blood was said to be corrupt and his lineal blood were unable to inherit. If he was a nobleman or gentry he and all his posterity were declared base.

corsair
. A privateer of the Barbary Coast (North Africa).

corviser
(also cordwainer). A shoemaker.

coshering
. (Ir.,
cóisir
, feast) The right of a Gaelic lord to progress among his tenants with all his retinue and be entertained and fed. The term used to describe the food and drink consumed by the lord and his entourage is
cuddy
. The main period for coshering was from New Year's Day to Shrovetide.
See
coyne and livery. (Simms, ‘Guesting', pp. 79–86.)

cottier
. A cottager, the poorest inhabitant on a manor who lived in a small house with a garden. In later times the cottier was a labourer who was rewarded for his labour with a small potato plot and grazing for one or two cows. Cottiers were not protected by lease and therefore had no security. Recent studies have pointed to a number of distinct usages of the term in pre-famine Ireland. In Munster it meant a smallholder occupying up to ten acres without any labour services attached. In parts of Leinster, Ulster and most of Connacht it applied primarily to one who paid all or part of his rent by labour service. Finally from Dublin to Louth and inland as far as Armagh and Cavan it referred solely to the occupier of a cabin. In the aftermath of the famine it became synonymous with the term smallholder. (Beames, ‘Cottiers', pp. 352–3.)

coulter
. A vertical metal blade mounted slightly forward of the
share
on the frame of a plough which cut through plant roots and eased the passage of the share.
See
ard plough, mouldboard. (Mitchell,
The Shell guide
, pp. 143–4.)

Council, the Irish
.
See
privy council.

country
. A district with a distinct identity or personality. The French term
pays
is synonymous with country. Byrne's country, an area co-terminous with parts of modern Co. Wicklow, is styled after the eponymous clan which controlled that region down to the seventeenth century. Factors which contribute towards establishing the characteristic personality of a region include topographical, geographical and geological features (drumlin country, the Burren), specialised agricultural or industrial activity (Golden Vale, Lagan Valley) and culture and language (Fingal, Forth and Bargy). For local historians the ‘country' as a unit of study offers an exciting conceptual framework and an alternative to administrative divisions such as the county, barony or parish, the traditional units of study in Ireland. It opens up the possibility of studying social and economic communities whose geographical distribution transcend administrative borders.

country, to put oneself upon the
. To present oneself for trial before a jury summoned from the area in which the alleged offence was committed.

county
. The administrative division known as the county or shire was superimposed on Ireland between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. Shiring, or the making of counties, was the process by which common law and central government control was gradually extended throughout Ireland. It involved the appointment of a
sheriff
(shire-reeve), a
coroner
, an
escheator
, a clerk of the market and justices of the peace. Two knights of the shire were sent from each county to parliament. Counties were formed by uniting a number of baronies or ‘countries'. The earliest shirings were Dublin (pre-1200), Waterford and Cork (1211), Kerry and Louth (1233), Tipperary and Limerick (1254), Roscommon (1292), Kildare and Meath (1297), Antrim and Down (c. 1300) and Carlow (1306). Kilkenny (c. 1200) and Wexford (1247) were
palatinates
. Shiring was renewed in the sixteenth century with Westmeath (1543), King's and Queen's counties (Laois and Offaly, 1557), Longford (1565), Clare, Galway, Mayo and Sligo (1568–78) Longford (1571) and the Ulster counties of Coleraine (later Derry), Tyrone, Fermanagh, Cavan (1579). Monaghan, Armagh and Donegal were shired from 1604. Wicklow, in 1606, was the last shire created.
See
country, justice of the peace. (Falkiner,
Illustrations
, pp. 103–142; Otway-Ruthven, ‘Anglo-Irish shire', pp. 1–13.)

county cess
. A tax levied on occupiers of land within the jurisdiction of counties and baronies to fund
presentments
of the
grand jury
for the construction of roads, bridges and other public works. It was introduced in 1634 (10 Chas. I, c. 1) when royal justices and justices of the peace in the quarter-sessions were given the power with the assent of the grand jury to levy local charges for the construction and repair of bridges and roads.

county borough
. County boroughs were towns or cities with small surrounding areas whose privileges were defined by the medieval charters that brought them into existence. Each of the eight Irish county boroughs (Carrickfergus, Drogheda, Galway, Waterford, Cork, Kilkenny, Limerick and Dublin) sent two members to the Irish parliament on a franchise that included freemen, forty-shilling freeholders and members of the corporation. Relatively speaking, the county borough electorate was large, ranging from 500 to 4,000. Parliamentary elections encouraged the creation of fictitious freeholders and honorary freemen as landed and municipal interests fought to gain control over the parliamentary seats. The county boroughs boasted a number of local courts. Dublin had four –
quarter-sessions
, the lord mayor's court, the mayor and sheriff's court and a
court of conscience
. Quarter-sessions had cognisance of all crimes (bar treason) and the remainder dealt with minor offences and disputes, personal actions and small debts, respectively. Cork, Limerick, Derry, Kilkenny and Waterford possessed all but the lord mayor's court. Carrickfergus, Galway and Waterford conducted quarter-sessions and a tholsel court for civil disputes. Waterford also operated a lord mayor's court.
See
borough, franchise, freeman, Municipal Corporations Reform Act (1840), Newtown Act.

county court
.
See
assize courts, assistant-barrister.

county governor
. Although the office was largely honorific, the county governor was the senior legal and civil officer in the county and performed the same function in Ireland as the English lord lieutenant of county. He was commander of the militia and responsible for public order. Invariably he was a senior nobleman in the county and appointed for life. He was required to provide the names of suitable nominees for the commission of peace (the magistracy) and the post of deputy-governor, report on the conduct of magistrates and communicate information about local feelings and conditions to central government. The post of
custos rotulorum
(keeper of the county records) was usually held in conjunction with the governorship. In theory the county governor should have been an effective link between the localities and central government. In reality many governors were absentees or inactive. Moreover, unlike England where there was a single lord lieutenant per county, Irish counties had more than one governor and the multiplicity of competing voices at nomination time became a nuisance and diminished the importance of the office in the eyes of government ministers. In the 1830s the Whigs sought to shed the largely Tory county governors and replace them with lord lieutenants of their own choosing to end extremism and remove one of the obstacles to the appointment of Catholic or liberal magistrates. After 1831 county governors were styled lords lieutenant and their deputies, deputy-lieutenants. In their respective districts, deputies performed the same duties as regards maintaining public order and transmitting information to their superiors as the lords lieutenant performed for the county at large. (Crossman,
Local government,
pp. 15–23.)