Inchaquire Co. Kildare

There were 311 people resident in the Inchaquire Electoral Division on Census Night March 31st 1901. The 7 townlands included in this file, with their populations  are as follows:

This area is rural in nature, sitting south of Calverstown, east of Narraghmore, and north east of Ballitore, and is traversed by the Kilcullen to Castledermot road and today by the M9 motorway. Its eastern townland of Rahoonbeak forms part of the Kildare/Wicklow border. It does not contain any conurbation of note which partly explains why the population has not recovered since 1901.

The population in 1851 and 1901 is almost identical to the nearby electoral division of Kilkea, so the decline of 47% between 1851 and 1901 is the same. But the pattern of decline differs. In Inchaquire, the rate of depopulation was most pronounced in the 1860’s when it fell by 120 residents (23%) between 1861 and 1871. In Kilkea the steepest rate of decline happened in the 1850’s. The population declines in neighbouring areas like Moone, Narraghmore, Fontstown and Kilrush all happened from the 1860’s too, so Kilkea remains an outlier in that regard. 

The Great Southern and Western Railway company built constructed a spur line from Sallins to Tullow in Co. Carlow that opened in 1886. Two local stations on that line were at Colbinstown and Grangecon.

The river Greese flows east to west through the area on its meandering journey to join the river Barrow. It crosses the Kilcullen to Castledermot road at Inchaquire bridge. At this point, north of the river, and east of the road  was located a cotton factory with an extensive array of mill ponds that have since disappeared. The Census of 1901 does not list anyone with an occupation compatible with this industry, so presumably it was gone by 1901, but if anyone has any information  on this cotton factory do let us know, for it may explain why the population of the Inchaquire townland fell 46% between 1851 and 1861. Did the weavers and spinners leave when the cotton factory closed?

In contrast, the population of the Blackrath townland increased from 128 to 143 in the 1850’s but fell 35% in the 1860’s and continued to decline to 59 by 1901. Rahoonbeak townland experienced the opposite pattern.  It’s population of 64 in 1851 was half that of Blackrath but fell 53% in the 1850’s, only to recover since and be home to 51 residents in 1901, only 8 less than in Blackrath. One suspects the railway line’s appearance in 1886 is a reason Rahoonbeak, the nearest townland to it, increased its population from 34 in 1881 to 51 by 1901. 

At aged 81, William Hanley in the townland of Inchaquire was the oldest resident in the area on Census night. William was widowed and lived that night with his cousin John Murray and his life Mary L, with his relationship to John described as “cousin”. If so, it is unlikely they were first cousins because John was only 34 years old and his wife 27.

Six children had yet to celebrate their first birthday that Census night of March 31st. They were:

1. Joseph Dowling and Lizzie Higgins of Blackrath. 
2. James Payne Wilson and Rose Russel of Inchaquire, and 
3. Mary Travers and James Dempsey of Rohoonbeak.

1. A link to the Inchaquire ED GEDCOM file is immediately provided when purchase is completed. Download the digital file to your computer then upload it to your preferred genealogy programme,  such as Ancestry.com, Findmypast.ie, MyHeritage.com etc. See our Toolkit tab for some short “How to” videos.
2. You get a spreadsheet list of all 311 residents, which includes names, address, age, occupation, religion, literacy, special illnesses and a url link to the Census record for ease of reference. We recommend that you use the spreadsheet as a control sheet to record the changes your research has found, such as maiden names of wives/widows, dates of birth and marriage, marital links to other families etc.