William Carrigan was an historian and Irish canon in the Diocese of Ossory at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ossory was an ancient kingdom covering a large portion of what is now county Kilkenny and southern Laois. He wrote a five volume History and Antiquities of the Diocese of Ossory. Chapter II of the first volume is titled “Early Kings of Ossory–Kings of Ossory of the Corca-Laighdhe” and describes a time in the early history of Ossory when the ruling Osraighe were taken over by Munster Corca-Laighdhe tribes. [No specific mention is made of names that the surname historians believed were precursors to Bowe.] There followed seven Corca-Laighdhe kings beginning with Cucraidhe. In a footnote Carrigan relates:
The tribe-land of the Corca-Laighdhe comprised, but was not entirely restricted to, the Diocese of Ross, in the Co. Cork. Cape Clear, in this territory, was the birthplace of St. Kieran, patron of Ossory, whose mother, Liadhain, was of the Corca-Laighdhe. There is no explanation of the strange fact that Cucraidhe and those of his family who reigned in Ossory, are called “Kings of the Corca-Laighdhe,” in ancient writings, while at the same time their descent is traced by our genealogists from the Eoghanachts of Munster, who were quite a different tribe from the Corca-Laighdhe [emphasis added]. [1]
Carrigan goes on in that chapter to describe how in the 5th c people bearing the names (such as O'Buoy) thought by the surname historians to be precursors of Boe/Bowe/Bowes in Cork, would have made their way to the very region in northern Kilkenny and southern Laois where Boe and Bowe have been prominent since at least the 17th century, according to documents, but likely long before. The [Corca-Laighdhe]:
Penetrated into the interior of Ossory; drove the old natives out of Magh-Airgid-Ros and other tribe-lands; planted their own clansmen in their stead; and succeeded, for a century and a half or thereabouts, in, at least partially transferring the crown of Ossory from the lawful dynasts to Cucraidhe or [?], the son of Duach of Cliu and other Munster princes…Cucraidhe and six others of his kindred who succeeded him as Kings in Ossory, are known as the “Seven Kings of Corca-Laighdhe.”…At length the [Osraighe] succeeded in subduing the tribe of the Corca-Laighdhe, and expelling them,–except a small remnant left in Magh-Airgid-Ros,–over the western frontier of Ossory. [2]
Later Carrigan puts it a little differently: "...about the middle of the fifth century, ... the Munstermen... invaded and conquered the territory, and planted it with a strong colony of their own people. After the lapse of a couple of centuries the Munster settlement declined..." [3]
John Hogan describes Magh-Airgid-Ros as the area in northern Kilkenny and southern Laois exactly where the Boe and Bowe names are concentrated and where our largest subgroup within the DNA project, the one whose Y-chromosome matches Ely Carroll, comes from. (See Southern Irish Boe and Bowe Surname Origin - Laois and Kilkenny):
The broad ravine lying between the Sliabhmargy and Coolcashin hills may be properly described as the Upper Valley of the Nore. As the Coolcashin ridge descends towards the south, it inclines in a westerly direction from the river to form a right angle with the Dromdelgy ridge at Ballyspellan Hill. This arrangement of the mountain tracts produces the expansive plain extending through Freshford and Rathbeith to Durrow, and which has been described by O'Heeriu as 'the fair wide plain of the Nore.' This extensive and fertile country was known in the very dawn of history in this island as "Magh Airged-Ros," which has been translated "The Plain of the Silver Wood." [3]
CITATION 3 ABOVE BECOMES 4
Magh Airged-Ros, or The Plain of the Silver Wood, is now commonly called the Castlecomer Plateau:
The upland plateau area that surrounds it forms a discrete area. It is bounded on the east by the Barrow, the west by the Nore and dissected in the centre by the river Dinnin.
From the earliest times, the topography of the area has defined its history. The plateau has deterred settlement and at the same time has also provided a refuge for the dispossessed. This in effect has meant that its history has differed somewhat from the rest of Kilkenny...
Its geology, namely its coal deposits, has meant that it is one of the few areas in Ireland that has a coal-mining and industrial legacy more typical of the north of England. This dichotomy between the land isolating and at the same time drawing in outside influences, is a common theme in the area's history.
Various names and divisions had been used over time to encompass the area. From Celtic times names such as Magh Argeadh Ros, UiDuach and Idough to varying degrees described parts of the plateau. From Norman times onwards the Barony of Fassadinin covered the area and some adjoining ones. [4]
CITATION 3 ABOVE BECOMES 5
Three facts support the Irish surname historians' attribution of the history of the midland Boe/Bowe/Bowes in Ireland to an early Corca Laoidhe tribe in Cork: 1) the history of the Corca Laoidhe in Ossory, including its minor tribes, settling around the Castlecomer Plateau, 2) the recording in the 1659 "Census" of Gaelic names believed to be precursors to Boe/BoweBowes–O' Buoige and O' Buoy–as prominent names in Carberry where the Corca Laoidhe lived [5], CITATION 5 BECOMES 6 and 3) the geographic concentration of Boe/Bowe/Bowes around the Castlecomer Plateau. But they do not prove the assertion. Absent more direct documentary evidence, we will need more participation in our DNA study to sort things out.
So far, our largest Bowe DNA subgroup, with four Bowe/s participants, has a Y chromosome that matches the Ely Carroll Y chromosome. Ely Carroll refers to a region and group of tribes that were established to the northwest of the Castlecomer Plateau, primarily in Offaly and northern Tipperary, but also at times part of Laois. The Ely Carroll in Laois may have overlapped with the Boe/Bowe of early Magh Airged-Ros. At such a time, a male from the Ely Carroll region could have conceived a son with a woman belonging to a the Boe/Bowe clan that was raised among them and acquired their name when or after surnames came into use. Or, this Bowe subgroup was always part of Ely Carroll.
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1. Carrigan, William. The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, Volume 1. Sealy, Bryers & Walker, 1905.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Hogan, John. Kilkenny; the ancient city of Ossory, the seat of its kings, the see of its bishops and the site of its cathedral. P. M. Egan, 1884.
5. "Castlecomer Plateau," article, AskAboutIreland and the Cultural Heritage Project, Ask about Ireland (http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/environment-geography/physical-landscape/castlecomer-plateau/index.xml: Accessed 10 May 2011).
6. Pender, MA, Seamus, Ed. A Census of Ireland Circa 1659 With Essential Materials from the Poll Money Ordinances 1660-1661. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, p. 227-8, 2002.