Tonyhallagh

Tonyhallagh (from Irish Tonnaigh Shalach, meaning 'The Miry Pasture') is a townland in the civil parish of Templeport, County Cavan, Ireland.

The regional R205 road (Ireland) running between Killycluggin and Ballyconnell passes Tonyhallagh at its eastern boundary.

[1] In medieval times the McGovern tuath of Tullyhaw was divided into economic taxation areas called ballibetoes, from the Irish Baile Biataigh (anglicized as ballybetagh), meaning 'A Provisioner's Town or Settlement'.

The original purpose was to enable the farmer, who controlled the baile, to provide hospitality for those who needed it, such as poor people and travellers.

[6] Another name for the townland was Rostonimore (from Irish Ros Tonnaigh Mór, meaning 'The Wood of the Big Pasture') In the 1938 Dúchas Folklore Collection, a story by Francis Maguire describes local legends about Tonyhallagh.

[8] Cahill McBrien O'Reily seem to be the great-grandson of the chief of the O'Reilly clan, Eamón mac Maolmórdha O’Reilly of Kilnacrott, who ruled East Breifne from October 1596 – 1601.

[10] James Talbot married Helen Calvert, the daughter of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore of Maryland in 1635 and had a son Colonel George Talbot who owned an estate in Cecil County, Maryland which he named Ballyconnell in honour of his native town in Cavan.

He became a merchant in Dorchester, Dorset but fled to France in 1633 when facing a warrant from the Exchequer for not paying customs.

/ That erected this monument, died the 28th of March 1727, aged 69 years.Blachford-Memorial-detail A deed dated 10 May 1744 spells the name as Townyhullagh.

[13] The 1836 Ordnance Survey Namebooks describe the area as "a light gravelly soil intermixed with lime stone...There is a large ancient fort near the western boundary of the townland but there is no houses of any kind."