Bawnboy () is a small village and townland in a valley at the foot of Slieve Rushen, between Ballyconnell and Swanlinbar, in County Cavan, Ireland. A synod of the Roman Catholic Provincial Council of Armagh was held in Owengallees, Baunbuidhe (Bawnboy) on 25 May 1669 where the Bishop of Kilmore, Eugene MacSweeney tried to depose Thomas Fitzsimons, the vicar general of the diocese. Bawnboy is part of the ancient parish of Templeport, birthplace of St Mogue. Its most famous building is a Victorian workhouse, built in 1853, long disused and now derelict. Early history In medieval times the McGovern barony of Tullyhaw was divided into economic taxation areas called ballibetoes, from the Irish Baile Biataigh (Anglicized as "Ballybetagh"), meaning 'A Provisioner's Town or Settlement'. The original purpose was to enable the farmer, who controlled the baile, to provide hospitality for those who needed it, such as poor people and travellers. The ballybetagh was further divided into townlands farmed by individual families who paid a tribute or tax to the head of the ballybetagh, who in turn paid a similar tribute to the clan chief. The steward of the ballybetagh would have been the secular equivalent of the erenagh in charge of church lands. There were seven ballibetoes in the parish of Templeport. Bawnboy was located in the ballybetagh of "Balleagheboynagh" (alias "Ballyoghnemoynagh"). The original Irish is Baile Na Muighe Eanach, meaning "The Town of the Marshy Plain"). The ballybetagh was also called "Aghawenagh", the original Irish is Achadh an Bhuí Eanaigh, meaning "The Field of the Yellow Bog"). Name Bawnboy takes its name from the term "bawn", the defensive wall surrounding an Irish tower house. It is the anglicised version of the Irish word badhún meaning "cattle-stronghold" or "cattle-enclosure" – its original purpose was to protect cattle during an attack. The remains of a late medieval bawn is to be seen at Bawnboy House, which is the origin of the village name. The earliest surviving mention of the placename is in the 1663 Hearth Money Rolls for Templeport where it is called Baonboy. Another name for the village is Kilsub or Kilsob. The 1622 Survey of County Cavan states:Sir Richard Greames, holdeth 1000 acres of this land, upon which there is built a Bawne of stone and lyme, sixty foot square and nine foot high, with a little stone house within, where in Lieutenant William Ruttledge dwelleth and hath a