placenamesRathcoole
Ráth Cúil
The Townlands Project brought residents’ knowledge of this Kilkenny parish into exhibitions, recordings and a mapped field-name archive.
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
- Ráth Cúil · Irish · main form · validated name
- Rathcoole · English · main form
Place & story
Artists work within nine townlands
Alan Counihan and Gypsy Ray began the Townlands Project in spring 2009, focusing on the nine townlands of Rathcoole civil parish, where both lived. Counihan’s own report describes walking the fields and talking with neighbours about names, work and remembered places. Their first exhibition took place in Johnswell Hall during the 2009 Kilkenny Arts Festival. Visitors could add field names to large Ordnance Survey maps. [2]
Names, voices and mapped fields
A second phase began in February 2010 with heritage and arts support. Almost 450 previously unrecorded field names were gathered and digitally archived, with field locations recorded using GPS. Oral histories accompanied the mapping. At the Heritage Week exhibition that year, the short film Field Song paired photographic portraits of local people with field names spoken by them. The project documented community knowledge without treating every remembered name or story as proof of a particular ancient event. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Rathcoole. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- An Art of Place, Heritage Outlook Summer2011, pages16–19 · Alan Counihan, Heritage Council
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.