Townland

Een townland of bally (Iers: baile fearainn) is een kleine geografische onderverdeling van land in Ierland. Het townlandsysteem is van Keltische oorsprong en is ouder dan de Normandische invasie van Ierland die begon in 1169^[1][2][3][4] en verreweg de meeste stukken grond hebben een naam van Keltische oorsprong.^[2] Sommige townlands ontlenen hun naam echter aan Normandische landhuizen, volksplantingen of zijn nieuwe namen die zijn toegewezen door de Ordnance Survey Ireland.^[5][6] Tegenwoordig bestaan er nog 61.109 townlands met een geregistreerde naam op het gehele Ierse eiland.^[7]

1. ↑ Barry, Terry (2000). A history of settlement in Ireland. Routledge, "Rural settlement in medieval Ireland", 114 "She argued that Ireland’s townland system, which pre-dated the Anglo-Norman conquest, worked against the creation of sizeable nucleated settlements."
2. ↑ ^{a b} Colfer, Billy (2004). The Hook Peninsula. Cork University Press, "Prehistoric and early Christian landscapes", p. 29 "The townland network provides the most pervasive landscape survival from the Gaelic era. Most townlands, many retaining their Gaelic names, are believed to predate the arrival of the Anglo-Normans."
3. ↑ Graham, Brian (2003). A companion to Britain in the later Middle Ages. Wiley-Blackwell, "Ireland: Economy and Society", p. 149 "The manor was the basic unit of settlement throughout the Anglo-Norman colony. Anngret Simms and others have argued that the constraint of the pre-existing Gaelic-Irish network of townlands (the basic subdivision of land in Ireland, a townland was originally the holding of an extended family) pre-empted the formation of large villages on the Anglo-Norman manors of Ireland."
4. ↑ Clarke, Howard, Prunty, Jacinta, Hennessy, Mark (2004). Surveying Ireland’s Past. Geography Publications, p. 113 "It is clear that the Gaelic townland system of territorial organisation exerted a powerful centripetal force on the evolving settlement pattern."
5. ↑ Connolly, S. J., Oxford Companion to Irish History, page 577. Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0-19-923483-7
6. ↑ Maxwell, Ian, How to trace your Irish ancestors, page 16. howtobooks, 2009. ISBN 978-1-84528-375-9
7. ↑ (en) Placenames Database of Ireland / Bunachar Logainmneacha na hÉireann. Laatst bezocht 31 augustus 2013