placenamesRathcooney
Ráth Chuanna
Lewis described factory employment in the Glanmire valley and compulsory schooling for its child workers.
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 Chuanna · Irish · main form · validated name
- Rathcooney · English · main form
Place & story
Looms in the valley
Rathcooney parish included Glanmire within Cork’s North Liberties when Samuel Lewis described it in 1837. A woollen factory established by Messrs. Lyons and Hanly in 1822 occupied a secluded part of the Glanmire valley. Lewis reported 30 looms and employment for 200 people. He separately recorded 100 workers at Thorley and Son’s Annasilla bleach-greens and another 100 at the firm’s St Patrick’s beetling mills. These figures belong to the account’s nineteenth-century industrial landscape. [2]
Three hours after work
Children working in the woollen factory were required to attend school for three hours each evening. Lyons and Hanly supplied the schoolhouse and teacher, with no equivalent deduction in money or labour, according to Lewis. Other schooling arrangements were separate: two schools had the parish priest’s patronage, while Mrs. Hickie supported a school of about 100 girls. The account does not give the number of factory children attending the evening lessons. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Rathcooney. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Rathcooney, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.