Westropp — Ancient Castles of the Count// of Limerick. 57 



the old Caenraighe and TJibh Rosa (Iveruss). Owney and Coonagh 

 are parts of the ancient Uaithne and Ui Cuanach. Small County is 

 approximately Deisbeg ; Coshlea corresponds in part to Atharlach or 

 Aharloe; while the Maigue Valley, or, as we call it, Coshmagh, 

 represents to a certain degree Ui Cairbre Aobhdha.^ Clanwiiliam and 

 Pubblebrian, on the other hand, have no single historical predecessor. 

 A part of them along the Shannon formed the tribe land of the Tuath 

 Luimneach. This again split, about 1200, into the yague Escluana 

 and Estermoy ; the Irish equivalent of the latter, Aos tri muighe, lay 

 round Crecora in 1420, but that territory was known as Ocholchur^ 

 in the previous centuries. The Tuath Luimneach territory was held 

 about the time of the first Norman settlement by the Ui Chonaing 

 or O'Gunnings, who left their name to the castellated rocks of 

 Carrigogunnell and Castleconnell ; while Kinelmekin lay round 

 Monasteranenagh.^ 



In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the J^orman divisions 

 may be briefly given as the cantreds of — 1, Any, Adare, Cruniech or 

 Ocarbry — in later years "the Lordship of the Earl of Kildare"; 

 2, Bruree; 3, Esclon, near Carrigogunnell; 4, Eontemel or Fontymchil, 

 near Hakmys and Tankardstown ; 5, Iniskef ty or Askeaton ; 6, loregar 

 or Uregare,^ sometimes Grene, Aesgrene or Estgrene ; 7, Oconyll or 

 Connello; and 8, "Wony, Wethney or Owney, The cantreds were, for 

 administrative purposes, subdivided into chapters " (or parish 

 groups) and coroners' districts.^ 



The long predominance of the Earls of Desmond was hardly 

 affected by the existence of the corporate towns, the manors of the 

 Eai'ls of Kildare, and the de Bui'gos, and the Irish tribes in 

 Pubblebrian (which seems to have sprung up in the later fourteenth 

 century, after the fall of Bunratty), Owney, Coonagh, and Aherloe. 



When, at the cost of a deadly and desolating war, the Geraldines 

 were first reduced to submission, their vast territory was broken 

 up (1583-1586), and we first see clearly the later divisions. The 



^ In its greatest extension it reached to Kilmallock (Calendar of Oengus), or eren 

 to Ardpatrick on the south, and to Kenry on the north. Dromin was in it in 

 1088 (A.F.M.), and Athlacca in 1296 (Plea R. 31 and 34). 



-The variants Othotocor, Ocholchur, and Ortholothor in the Black Book of 

 Limerick (44, 96, 100-130) resolve into this form, c and t being frequently 

 confused by the copyist and in the first I and t. 



2 Charter of Prince John to Monasteranenagh (de Magio), 1185. 



*Uregare was Pubblebuskagh in 1586 (Peyton, p. 206). 



^Proc. R.I.A., XXV. (c), pp. 328-331. 



[7*j 



