ballybetagh

English

Alternative forms

• ballibetoe
• ballybeto
• ballybetoe

Etymology

Irish baile biataigh (“victualler's townland”), from baile (“home”) + betagh (“victualer”).

Noun

ballybetagh (plural ballybetaghs)

1. (historical) A division of land in Ireland equal to 480 Irish acres (approximately 315 hectares or 778 statute acres) of arable land.
   • 1844, Duald Mac Firbis, Geineaich ua Ch-Fiachrach, page 204:

     In many instances the ancient names of the ballybetaghs are lost, and the names of their subdivisions only are retained as townland names; but in some instances the name of the ballybetagh remains, although it is not applied to as large [an area].

   • 1879, Evelyn Philip Shirley, The History of the County of Monaghan, page 240:

     To the former was assigned five ballybetaghs in demesne, and to the freeholders under him eleven ballybetaghs and a half; to the latter two ballybetaghs and a half, and to freeholders under him two other ballybetaghs and a half.

   • 1908, Arthur O'Clery, The History of Ireland to the Coming of Henry II., page 233:

     Besides these food rents (from the Mensal lands), Maguire had about 240 beeves yearly paid unto him out of the seven baronies, and about his castle at Enniskillen he had about a half ballybetagh, which he manured (tilled) […]

   • 2007, Patrick J. Duffy, Exploring the History and Heritage of Irish Landscapes, Four Courts PressLtd:

     In late medieval Gaelic Monaghan, the ballybetaghs with their intricate tate subsections, were combined into parishes, indicating a link between secular and ecclesiastical territorial order that was universal throughout Christian Europe.

Further reading

• Patrick Weston Joyce (1903) A Social History of Ancient Ireland: Treating of the Government, Military System, and Law ; Religion, Learning, and Art ; Trades, Industries, and Commerce ; Manners, Customs, and Domestic Life, of the Ancient Irish People, page 40: “[…] ballys or ballybetaghs (Irish baile-biataigh). Each ballybetagh contained 12 sesreachs or ploughlands, and each ploughland 120 large Irish acres. A bally or townland was of a size sufficient to sustain four herds of cows of 75 each, […]”