Poulnahincha – Pollnahincha – Poll na hInse – Hole of the Island

Various spellings are ascribed to the name of this townland. Poulnahincha and Pollnahincha are the standard versions given in the Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pollnahensy was the version used during the reign of William III (1689-1702). The Irish version of the name was recorded as Poll na hInse, meaning hole of the island. Poulnahincha was that used by Rev. Francis Coghlan while George D.H. Kirkaldy spelled the name Poulnahinchy. The Placenames Commission records it today as Pollnahincha and gives its Irish form as Poll na hInse.

Location

Cloonconabeg, Ballycahill, Treenanearla, Killeen East, Killeen West and Whitegates border the townland of Poulnahincha. Circa 1830 it contained a number of detached houses, arable land, with the northern part of the townland inundated (flooded). The Ordnance Survey Map showed an eel weir in Poulnahincha.

Census 1841, 1851

Census statistics recorded sixty five people in nine houses in 1841, with a post-famine decrease to eighteen people in four houses by 1851.

Griffith’s Valuation 1855

Griffith’s Valuation indicated the acreage as eighty acres, three roods and five perches at a total annual valuation of £41.15s.0d. The landowner, John Connolly, retained all of the land for himself. There were three cottiers’ houses and a herd’s house on this land at that time.

Census 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891

The 1861 census statistics listed a population of twenty one people in three houses. Neither population nor houses were recorded in 1871. The 1881 statistics showed one person in one house but by 1891 there were no people or houses in the townland.