THE HICKEYS OF LOUGH GUR

Thomas and Ellen Hickey and their family lived in a small stone house with a thatched roof by Lough Gur, the Enchanted Lake, in County Limerick. The house had 2-4 rooms with two windows in the front. They also had a stable. The family leased Lot 11a, which was about 6 acres from the Count de Salis. Thomas was a small farmer with this quantity of land.
 

The following Hickey families are found in Knockainy parish during the early 1800s:
 

John Hickey and Anne Donovan had these children baptised in Knockainy parish:
Mary, christened 11 August 1811
Bridget, christened 26 November 1825
 

James O'Neill Hickey and Mary Hickey had a child baptised in Knockainy parish:
William, christened 7 January 1816
 

John Hickey and Mary Slattery had a child baptised in Knockainy parish:
Patrick, christened 22 February 1817
 

Patrick Hickey married Sally Carroll 1 February 1815 in Knockainy, and had these children, all baptised in Knockainy parish:
Margaret, christened 29 June 1816
Mary, christened 26 August 1818
Catherine, christened 29 March 1820
Bridget, christened 26 January 1822
John, christened December 1823
Michael, christened 5 March 1826
Patrick, christened 4 April 1828
Edmond, christened 24 March 1830
James, christened 4 February 1832 (possible twin)
Edmond, christened 4 February 1832 (possible twin)
Edmond, christened 24 June 1833 (sponsor: Margaret Hickey)
James, christened 7 June 1835 (sponsor: Mary Hickey)
Daniel, christened 19 February 1837
Catherine, christened 27 August 1838 (sponsor: Ellen Hickey)
 

John Hickey and Anne McCarthy had a child baptised in Knockainy parish:
Anne, christened January 1824

Maurice Hickey married Ellen Sherwin 27 November 1823 in Dromin and Athlacca parish (a neighboring parish), and had these children baptised in Knockainy parish:
Mary, christened 6 December 1824
Thomas, christened 29 September 1827
William, christened 1 January 1830  (sponsor: Mary Hickey)
 

Matthew Hickey and Eliza Cherry had a child baptised in Knockainy parish:
Mary, christened 7 August 1830
 

Bridget Hickey of Knockroe townland married John McGrath 27 May 1816 in Knockainy. This is most certainly Thomas' sister, as she is the right age, and the McGraths are found living next to the Hickeys in the land records. The others listed above may be brothers, or even a father for Thomas.
 

The Hickeys appear in the Tithe Applotment of 1833 in Knockrough townland. John McGrath is listed in the next lot.
 
 

Tithe Applotment, Knockrough, Knockaney parish, 1833

The occupants of Knockrough townland at that time are:

John Ahern

 

The House Books created in the late 1840s in preparation for Griffiths Valuation show the Hickeys in Lough Gur, with Bridget McGrath next door.
 
 

House Book, Loughgur, Knockaney parish

Thomas Hickey has a house that is 28.4 feet long by 16 feet wide, and 6.9 feet high. The house is rated 3B-. That means it is a thatched house of stone walls with mud mortar, or mud walls of the best kind. The condition is medium - deteriorated by age, and not in perfect repair. He also has a turf house that is 17.6 feet long by 13 feet wide, and 5.6 feet high.
 
 

The other piece of land owned by Thomas Hickey is also found in the House Books. The house is 23.9 feet long by 12 feet wide, and 5.6 feet high. It is rated 3C-. That means it is a thatched house of stone walls with mud mortar, or mud walls of the best kind. The condition is old and dilapidated, scarcely habitable.
 
 

House Book, Loughgur, Knockaney parish

In Griffiths Valuation of 1851, the Hickeys are found on two pieces of property, in lot 11a and lot 35a. In lot 11a, Thomas is renting a house, office and just over six acres of land from the Count de Salis. Bridget McGrath is show in Lot 10a. In lot 35a, Thomas is renting a small house only (worth eight shillings) with no land, from Patrick Gourey. This is the old, dilapidated property shown in the House Books. This Thomas may be Thomas, Jr, before he emigrated to America.
 

Griffiths Valuation, Loughgur, Knockaney parish, 1851

Their neighbors were the Dalys, the O'Donnells, and McGraths. The Dalys and the McGraths were sponsors at the baptisms of the Hickey children. Another neighbor was Edmund English, who leased a small lot from Thomas Hickey.
 

The land valuations continued, and in 1864, Ellen Hickey is shown renting lot 11a. Thomas must have died between 1851 and 1864, and left Ellen a widow.
 
 

Valuation List, Loughgur, Knockaney parish, 1864

Ellen is still shown on the same property in 1865 and 1873.
 
 

Valuation List, Loughgur, Knockaney parish, 1865-1873

In 1889 Ellen Hickey is crossed out, and the land passes to Thomas Hickey. This Thomas is the oldest son of Patrick Hickey, Thomas and Ellen's oldest son. Patrick must have died by this time.
 
 

Valuation List, Loughgur, Knockaney parish, about 1889

 Lot 11a passed from Thomas Hickey to Ellen Hickey, his widow, to Thomas Hickey, their son. It then passed to Thomas' widow, Mary, and then to Michael Hickey. The land still belongs to the Hickey family, but the house was razed in 1914. It is currently owned by Thomas Hickey, a great-great grandson of our Thomas Hickey. He and his family live in the house, which he says is about 200 years old. The walls are of thick stone, and a beam with hooks for hanging hams is high above the fireplace. On the hill near the house, under a berry bush, is the foundation of the old house, which Mr. Hickey says is probably 400 years old or more. The Hickey family is considered to be one of the oldest names in the town, and has been there as long as anyone can remember.
 
 

Land Valuation list of 1933-1940, showing Lot 11 passing from Thomas Hickey to Mary Hickey and then Michael Hickey

Lough Gur is a flat, silvery lake of about four miles in circumference. It has two beautiful islands. The ruins of a castle, Bourchier's Castle can be found in a farmyard next to the lake. A description of Lough Gur is given in the book "The Farm by Lough Gur" by Mary Carberry. This autobiographical book describes the life of a young girl, born in 1858, who grew up by Lough Gur. Her father was John O'Brien, a close neighbor of the Hickeys. Tom Hickey, Thomas and Ellen's son was the head man on the O'Brien's farm. She describes Lough Gur in this way: "When I think of home I see first Lough Gur, lying in summer sunshine like a bright mirror, in which are reflected blue sky, bare hills, precipitous grey rocks and green pastures dotted with cattle and sheep; then a small white house, half-hiding the farm buildings behind it. Lough Gur with its ruined castles; Knockadoon and Knockfennel with their caves ancient forts; the stone-circles, the cromlechs and gowlauns were enchanting places to play in. The green hills were covered with sheets of ragweed and willow herb, loosestrife and furze, tiny pansies in the short turf, and bog cotton. Lough Gur dominates the scene. It was to us a personality loved, but also feared. Every seven years, so it is said, Gur demands the heart of a human being. Drownings were not infrequent and, as the bodies of the drowned were sometimes not recovered, Gur was said by some to be a bottomless lough. In the lake is Knockadoon hill, joined to the land by a causeway built on the isthmus, once guarded by two fortresses where now only one, the ruined Black Castle, remains. Sometimes we children climbed by a steep and stony way to the summit of Knockadoon, where, when father was a boy, eagles made their nest and flew about the hills searching for leverets and newborn lambs to feed their young. From the top of Knockadoon we could see Garret Island, interesting for its prehistoric remains which were visited from time to time by antiquaries who gave my mother curious implements of the stone age in return for her hospitality."
 
 

Lough Gur is the site of a major archeological find. A Neolithic (about 3000 B.C.) settlement site was found in the light limestone soils around Lough Gur. In Lough Gur, farmers from Neolithic into Bronze Age times, and herdsmen, lived on the same sites in dwellings of stone and sticks. Other Lough Gur finds include Bronze Age pottery, and Irish ritual circles, and pillarstones. In Lough Gur townland is a National Monument, a wedge-shaped gallery grave, in which were buried more than twelve individuals. Mary Carberry recounts local beliefs about ancient peoples: "Lough Gur has been called the Enchanted Lake; some say that in ancient days there was a city where the lake is now, before an earthquake threw up the hills and filled the hollow with water so that the city was submerged. The hills round Gur are bare of trees, but once they were covered with forest. Great giants, who were among Ireland's first people, hunted in the woods. On Baile-na-Cailleach one of these giants lies buried in a stone coffin with a long gold sword beside him. Old people who lived on the shore believed that the giants built the stone circles which stand near the lake, for who but giants could move such great stones?"
 
 

Lough Gur townland is in the parish of Knockainy. Knockainy (or Aney) is a parish in Smallcountry Barony, in County Limerick. In 1837, Knockainy had a population of 4542 inhabitants. Knockainy takes its name from Cnoc Aine, which means the hill of Aine. In Irish mythology, Cnoc Aine is the Otherworld seat of the sun-goddess, Aine. Until 1879, men used to bring flaming cliara (bunches of hay and straw on poles) to the summit of Cnoc Aine. Then they would visit villages, fields, and herds to bring good luck. The cemetery sits atop the hill overlooking the ruined castle of the Ormonds.
 
 

Lough Gur had its own legend. Gerald the Rhymer, Earl of Desmond, who disappeared in 1398, is said to sleep beneath its waters. Every seventh year he emerges to ride the moonlit ripples of the lake, on a horse with silver shoes.
 
 

There were also many local beliefs and superstitions associated with holidays. May-Eve was supposedly a night when evil powers were most powerful. Mary Carberry recounts the stories she heard on a May-Eve from Tom Hickey (Thomas and Ellen's son):
 
 

"Tis not the Good People I'd be in dread of in the dark of night," Tom told them, "but to hear the cry of the Ould Kings. There's them that thinks they'll be on the move once more. The last time was in '48. My father was on the top of Knockfennel, tending the Bel-fire with a score of the neighbors when the cry of the Ould Kings struck upon them. It came rolling like thunder over the mountains from south to north, from east to west it rolled, from sea to sea! And the ground heaved and broke, and rising from the clay came the army of the dead. Ould warriors were there with their ould war-horses; foot soldiers and trumpeteers and drummers and all, waiting for the word of command! Up the Shannon it came, along the rally and over Lough Gur, loud as judgement-day, so everyone, living and dead, must hear the cry of the Ould Kings. Then the army gave an answering shout, clashing their shields and rattling their swords, and letting out the ould war-cries of the people." "Whatever for?", asked Bridgie, who was rather matter-of-fact. "There's but the one thing," Tom answered, "and that's Ireland! 'Twas to encourage the living to fight for her like them ould warriors fought."
 
 

On Halloween night chairs were set out for deceased family members to return to their old homes in comfort. Mary Carberry remembers, "Father read the litany for the Dead. We made the responses in hushed voices as if we were listening for the rustling of home-faring souls. Father prayed for his own dead and for mother's by name. He prayed for Tom Hickey's father:
 
 

Eternal rest grant to them, O Lord
And may perpetual light shine upon them."

The O'Hickeys were formerly Chiefs of a district in the vicinity of Killaloe, County Clare, also a cantred in the barony of Upper Connello, County Limerick. They were hereditary physicians to the O'Briens, Kings of Thomond, to the MacNamaras, lords of Hy-Caisin, and to the O'Kennedys of Ormond. Several of them are said to have compiled and translated valuable medical works, including a Latin Medical work, "The Rose". The O'Hickeys possessed a copy of "The Rose", a celebrated medical work compiled in 1344. The Hickeys are one of the Milesian families of Ireland, and it is said that a banshee attends the death of a member of the family.
 
 

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