Beggars Bush: A Perambulation through the Disciplines of History, Geography, Archaeology, Literature, Philology, Natural History, Botany, Biography & Beggary

Vicarstown, County Offaly Ireland Beggars Bush 1837

Ballyvicarye (1569) (Irish, Baile an Bhiocáire) is recorded consistently from 1602 as Vicarstown, with some variation in spelling, but the record for 1837 gives “Vicarston al’ Beggar’s Bush”.

See also Philipstown, County Offally, although there is no obvious connection.

There is also a Beggarstown (Irish, Baile na mBacach) in County Offaly.

Source

Placenames Database of Ireland


Posted: October 9th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: , | No Comments »


Shanagarry, North Cork, Ireland Beggars Bush ?

House and garden on outskirts of village built on part of old field.

Not present on 1837-42 survey.

Source

Ordnance Survey for Ireland


Posted: October 9th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: | No Comments »


Dublin, Donnybrook – False Trails Beggars

The usual explanation of the place name Beggars Bush is that it was a haunt of highwaymen or beggars. However, the record of Beggars boush in 1573 undermines these later explanations at Dublin, Donnybrook. Many historical works on Dublin give this. I believe they are examples of the tendency to adopt restrospective romantic explanations. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: May 30th, 2011 | Filed under: Places, Speculations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Dublin, Donnybrook – False Trails Prints

There are four early prints purporting to show Beggars Bush at Donnybrook. It is difficult to identify these with any recorded features or with each other. It seems that the two later prints take liberties with the features to present an artistic scene. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: May 30th, 2011 | Filed under: Places, Speculations | Tags: , , , , , , | No Comments »


Dublin, Donnybrook – False Trails Baggotrath & Folly

At the date of the earliest record in 1573 Baggotrath Castle would have been a prominent landmark in the countryside south east of the city. As However, as the record refers to both it appears to exclude the possibility that the place name Beggars Bush was an Anglicisation of Baggotrath. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: May 30th, 2011 | Filed under: Places, Speculations | Tags: , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Dublin, Donnybrook – False Trails Lazars Hill

In 1573 “the Old Shore” of South Dublin continued to Townsend Street, then called Lazey or Lazar’s Hill (also Louseyhill, Louzy Hill and Lowsyhill) from the leper hospital. This is too far away to have any direct connection with Beggars Bush at Donnybrook.
I have encountered an article by Sean Donnelly which speculates that connects the two sites in Dublin through Poor Robin’s An Almanack of the old and new fashion (1694) which says “Since the King of the Beggars was married to the Queen of the Sluts at Lowzy-Hill near Beggars-Bush, being most splendidly attended by a ragged Regiment of Mumpers.” I do not believe this has anything to do with Dublin. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: May 30th, 2011 | Filed under: Places, Writers | Tags: , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Henry Chettle – probably not “H.C.”

The Dialogue of Silvynne and Peregrynne contains the earliest literary reference to an identified contemporaneous location, at Philipstown, (now Daingean), County Offally, Ireland;

“Then they passed aloofe for feare of the greate ordynaunce of the forte, which dismayed them mightely, but yet they burned the moste parte of the subberbs withowt the north gate called beggars bush to the hinderance, and undoinge of many an honest subiect.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: April 25th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Walter Jones ? Yellow Stockings 1713

There is a reference to Beggars Bush in a version of the popular melody “Yellow Stockings” printed in a dubious Irish anthology. It isn’t possible to be certain about the author of the verse, which is almost certainly a literary creation rather than a collected “folk song”, although one reviewer rather cruelly suggested it was “neither Irish nor literature”. All that can be said is that the author and printers assumed that readers would understand the phrase, which is consistent with the standard literary usage. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: April 25th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »


Dublin, Lucan, Ireland Begarsbush 1704

Rocque’s Survey of Dublin (1760) shows Begarsbush over three fields running north-south west of the lane south from the Lucan to Palmerston road (now the N4). The site roughly corresponds with what is now Ballyowen Park. It is opposite the gate house to the park marked Hermitage, and an area marked Woodville. Taylor’s Map of Dublin (1816) shows Beggars Bush running west-east across the same lane, and appears to show the area as being a small hill. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: April 25th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: , , , | No Comments »


Belfast, Ireland Beggars Bush 1863

Although there is a record of this place name it is an error. It appears likely to be a mistranscription by the reporter, in Belfast, or mistake by the typesetter, in Cork (where there is a Beggars Bush). There is no other record of the name and that the entry is clearly an error for Friars Bush, a Catholic graveyard referred to elsewhere in the article. The fact that it happened is evidence that the phrase was known in Cork and common enough not to alert the user to the error. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: April 24th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: , , , | No Comments »