What is recorded here

Lacken began as a small cluster of houses occupying the northeast edge of Lackenlouty when Robert Shea lost his lands in 1640. The surveyors reduced that living place to two sharp gables on their map, yet the angle of those lines still points toward the yard where neighbours probably argued, traded and raised children. The exact spot has faded from memory, but the drawing preserves the shape of an ordinary life that power tried to erase.

Indicated on the Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of ‘The Liberties of the Citty of Kilkenny’ and on the Down Survey parish map ‘Canice in the Liberties of the Citty of Kilkenny’ as the gable of two houses, which may be a crude representation of a settlement cluster, in the NE area of the 17th-century townland of 'Lackenlouty', which is roughly the centre of the modern townland of Lacken (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). The terrier accompanying the parish map lists 'Robert Shea Ir[ish] Pa[pist]' as the proprietor of the forfeited lands in 1640 (ibid.). The precise location of this settlement within the townland is unknown. See attached: KK019-090----_01 extract from Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of ‘The Liberties of the Citty of Kilkenny’ (Hib. Reg., courtesy of Trinity College Dublin) KK019-090----_02 extract from Down Survey (1655-6) parish map ‘Canice in the Liberties of the Citty of Kilkenny’ (Hib. Reg., courtesy of Trinity College Dublin) Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 14 October 2020

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