John Bourke's dog licences!

Dog licences were introduced into Irish law in 1865 and the first licences were issued the following year. It cost 2 shillings per dog with an extra 6 pence in administration costs. The licences were issued in the local courts, the Petty Sessions, which were the forerunner of our District Courts today

In the first year 353,798 dog licences were issued generating over £35,000 in revenue. Subsequent years saw an average of 250,000 licences purchased. In the following decades, millions of licences were issued. The dog licences were introduced to make it easier to identify the owners of trouble making dogs, the ones which either worried sheep or damaged property. 

John Bourke is recorded as having a licence for various terriers from 1866 onwards with a "brown terrier" listed from 1897 to 1902 and a "black collie" in 1905 and 1907.

This might seem to be a banal piece of info in the greater scheme of things but it just goes to show that from the earliest days the Burkes of Kilmacow have been law-abiding people!