Ordnance Survey Letters by John O'Donovan and Eugene Curry, 1839: Part II. Hy Cearnaigh

X. Hy Cearnaigh

The proprietor of this Territory up to the year 1318 was O’Heichtighern, now anglicisied Ahern. It appears from Mac Namara’s rental, published by Mr. Hardiman in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, that it comprised the Parish of Kilfinaghty and more of the district lying between that Parish and the City of Limerick. The name of this Territory is still locally preserved in that of the River Ogarney which flows through Six Mile Bridge and falls into the Shannon near Bunratty. This river flows through the middle of the Territory of Hy-Cearnaigh from near the Castle of Enaghofline to near that of Rosmanagher after passing which it forms the boundary between Hy-Cearnaigh and Tradree.

Map of Hy Cearnaigh and Hy-Ainmire
Click on the map for larger version

It was the ancestor of O’Ahern, the ancient Chief of this Territory, that granted the Island of Inis Sibtond, now the King’s Island in the City of Limerick, to Saint Munchin, but still it does not appear that all the Country extending from Limerick to the Parish of Kilmurry Nagaull was included in the Territory of Hy-Cearnaigh, for we have the authority of O’Heerin for placing two other Chieftains in this district, viz., Hy-Ainmire and Hy-Sedna. The probability is that the Territory of Hy-Kearny extended from the Mountain of Sliabh Oigheadha an Righ or Glennagross Mountain to the Parish of Kilmurry Nagaul, and that the district extending thence to the Shannon was divided between the Hy-Ainmire and Hy-Sedna.