"When all fruit fails welcome haws" was the philosophical response of our ancestors to hard and hungry times. And when all good land was in the possession of others, they made do with the bad. Every corner of this land acquired a name but when later the land was deserted, either through the availability of better, or through death or emigration, many of the names fell into disuse. We have been unable to discover a handful of place-names - all in Co Laois, listed in the Ormond Deeds V for the year 1567. We have tried various spellings and translations but to no avail. One of these is Stradfinsshoge. In a fiant of 1563 this was spelled Stratedrusshoke, being in "the lordship of Slewmerge", and the Census of 1659 rendered it Sradfusseg. It appears to be in, or near, the parish of Killeshin.
A dispute regarding land arose between Lyseaghe McConnell of Rossmore and Art Tomen of Stradfinsshoge, County Leix, and to avoid any further contention "which might grow from time to time for want of knowledge of the meares and marks which divide said lands" referees were appointed to perambulate Art's lands. "To the said Art the town of Stradfinssoge with a meadow on the east side thereof called Moneekasshee, containing 4 acres or thereabouts, which meadow extends to the water of the river of Barrow, with all the pasture and shrubs by west the ford of the Foxhill called Coolnarosse, and from thence towards the town of Carlow by east 12 miles of small standard measure, named `Acre of Coursullogh' and `Acre ne Skeghe', the `Acre of Coolnarosse, and thence to Cluighe na Toren, and thence to the ford of Clonroin . . .'Cluighe na Toren appears to be Clai na Teorann, the ditch of the boundary.
MacLysaght's Surnames of Ireland says that the surname Toman derives from O Tuamain, and de Bhulbh's Sloinnte na hEireann/ Irish Surnames suggests that this may derive from the personal name Tuaim. The Annals of the Four Masters reports the wounding and death of Cathasach O Tuamain, lord of Killarga in 1107 at the hands of Ui Cremhthainn. Killarga, from Cill Fhearga, is the name of a townland and parish in the Co Leitrim barony of Dromahaire. However 16th and 17th century documents list not a single Toman in the northern part of the country. Among the pardoned listed in The Irish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns (1521-1603), was Edmund Tomyn of Cloghna (in the Co Laois parish of Cloydagh) (1566); Art Tomyn of Cloingaghe (1567), and James Tomyn of Ballyknockan, both in Co. Laois; Arthur Tomyn of Enniscorthy (1569); Moriertagh Tomen of Ballycannon, Co Kildare (1570); Edmund Tomen, Slanestown (1585); James Tomen of Tollaghgorie (Tullygorey in the Co Kildare parish of Kilberry) (1599), and finally a fiant of 1600 lists the greatest number of persons bearing this surname that were pardoned - John, Walter, Donill, Moragh and Dermot Tomen. All were in Co Carlow, though no particular address was given. And the Ormond Deeds lists Robert Tomyn, of Cottrels Bowly, Co Kilkenny, aged 80, in a Commission of 1589-94, established to determine the bounds of the Earl of Ormond's ancient estate.
The Census of 1659 enumerates Tomin among the principal Irish names of the combined Co Carlow baronies of Idrone and St Molins.
Surnames of Ireland says that this is spelled Tooman in Co Roscommon but we have been unable to locate any example of this. Irish Surnames/ Sloinnte na hEireann gives Tumminon as an alternative spelling found in Co Fermanagh. Listing this among "Fermanagh Families", Peadar Livingstone in his Fermanagh Story, quotes O'Donovan as saying that Tummins was one of the principal families around Enniskillen in 1834, adding that the Annals of Ulster mentions the death of Aedh O Tumain in 1485. There are about 16 Tummins voters in Fermanagh today (1969). Tullyhommon is Tulach Ui Thiomain. Today's official rendition is Tulaigh Ui Thiomain. But de Bhulbh gives O Tiomain as the original Irish of Timmons.
There are 13 Tomans in telephone directories south of the Border, and 67 to its north.
We have not come across any suggestion as to the meaning of Cloghna but if it contains two elements the first must be cloch, `a stone'.