placenamesKillea
Cill Shléibhe
William J. Hayes’s study of the O Meaghers identifies a distinctive pattern of ownership in seventeenth-century Killea.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Cill Shléibhe · Irish · main form · validated name
- Killea · English · main form
Place & story
Land held in common
Using the Civil Survey of 1654, which described ownership in 1640, historian William J. Hayes identifies fourteen O Meaghers sharing ownership across Killea parish. Killmocuddy was the exception, held by Colly McSweeney. The O Meagher holdings were inherited shares held without partition, rather than a collection of wholly separate farms with individually defined boundaries. [2]
The upheaval of the 1650s
Hayes traces the loss of O Meagher landholding through the Cromwellian settlement. He identifies Anthony Meagher of Park in Killea as one of two possible exceptions in the county, using the appearance of their names as people of standing in the 1659 census. His qualification matters: the entry suggests possible survival of ownership rather than proving an uninterrupted estate history. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Killea. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- O Meagher, Meagher and Maher — and their dispersal in Tipperary, Tipperary Historical Journal1993, pp160–166 · William J. Hayes; County Tipperary Historical Society
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.