County Offaly
County Offaly (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the Ancient Ireland, ancient Kingdom of Uí ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. It is about two kilometres east of
Kilcormac
Kilcormac () is a small village in County Offaly, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, located on the N52 road, N52 at its junction with the R437 road, R437 Regional road (Ireland), regional road, between the towns of Tullamore and Birr, County Offaly ...
. The village is in a
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of the same name.
Prior to the
Plantations of Ireland
Plantation (settlement or colony), Plantations in 16th- and 17th-century Ireland () involved the confiscation of Irish-owned land by the Kingdom of England, English The Crown, Crown and the colonisation of this land with settlers from Great Br ...
, Ballyboy was ruled by O'Molloy in a territory known as Firceall which was allied to the
Kingdom of Meath
Meath ( ; ; ) was a kingdom in Ireland from the 1st to the 12th century AD. Its name means "middle," denoting its location in the middle of the island.
At its greatest extent, it included all of County Meath (which takes its name from the k ...
. When the Gaelic chieftains were removed from power following the English Plantations, Firceall was broken up with Ballyboy forming its own
barony Barony may refer to:
* Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron
* Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron
* Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...
County Offaly
County Offaly (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the Ancient Ireland, ancient Kingdom of Uí ...
).
Although now a small village of several houses, a pub and a primary school, it was an important and thriving hub in the Middle Ages. During this era, the town had a hat and glove factory, and a mill which was used for making flour, grinding corn and cutting timber. The ruins of the mill are still standing today on the road from the village to Ballyoran. The mill, one of several in the area, was powered by water from the Silver River which is a tributary of the River Brosna.
There is also a ring fort in the village environs which legend has it is linked by a tunnel to the Ballyboy church about 400 metres distant. The church in Ballyboy was originally a
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
but was later dedicated as a
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...