On the election of George W. Bush as President of the US, some idle bilingual wag dubbed his accession to the White House as "An Sceach sa Teach". We do not know if George has sought any Bush ancestors in Ireland, but current Irish telephone directories contain 21 Bushe entries, five of Bush, and two de Buis.
The Phone Book of Northern Ireland lists 14 Bushe and nine Bush entries. There are two entries each North and South of the Border of Busch(e) which Sean de Bhulbh's Sloinnte na hEireann/ Irish Surnames gives as another spelling of this name.
The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames notes that Bush(e) derives from a place wherein a `bush', but does not feature Busch(e).
Hart's Irish Pedigres lists Bush among "the Families in Ireland in the 16th century". One of our earliest sightings was of John Bushe listed in A Census of Ireland c.1659 as a titulado in Saint Werburgh street in Dublin city.
In 1690 after the Williamite victory in Ireland, most of the "Jacobite" estates were confiscated, and one of the 26 purchasers of forfeited estates in Kilkenny was Arthur Bushe.
The bulk of the forfeited lands in Kilkenny was sold to absentee owners; surprisingly little came into the possession of the county's Cromwellian and Restoration grantees.
The one significant exception was the purchase by Dublin-based Arthur Bushe, younger son of the Cromwellian grantee Col John Bushe of Kilfane, of 1,646 acres in the Co Kilkenny barony of Gowran, "in trust for and the only use of his brother Amyas Bushe of Kilfane" (The Changing Composition of Kilkenny landowners 1641- 1700 by Monica Brennan in KILKENNY History and Society: Geography Publications 1990).
Arthur was one of the representatives of the borough of Thomastown in 16951699 and again in 1703-1715. Among those who bought town houses in Kilkenny city in the early 1700s was Amyas Bushe.
Those families were to form the nucleus of fashionable society there in the 18th century. In 1716 Amyas bought the small Archdeacon estate of 149 acres in Gowran.
The Petty-Southwell Correspondence 1676-1687 contains a letter from William Petty - dated Dublin October 18th, 1679 - in which he beseeches Southwell that he advance one Arthur Bush. "You know 100 times more of him than I; but I praise the Zeale, Care and Industry of his parents for him".
In a letter from Dublin to the Bishop of Cork, dated 1737 (Orrery Papers), Lord Orrery remarks that his five Senses were "as much mortified here as They were iprov'd at Corke". He comments "my Taste was regal'd at your table, and my Smelling in your Garden: my Eyesight by the Drawings of Miss Bush, and my Ears by the Voice of Miss Donaldson". Miss Bush was Letitia Bushe (fl 1731-1757), youngest daughter of Arthur Bushe of Dangan, Co Kilkenny, of whom it was said "she paints delightfully" (Irish Women Artists: 1987).
Here also we learn that Mrs Charles Kendal Bushe (fl 1793-1910) "Had a rare and enchanting gift as an artist". (The same book lists painter Katherine Plunket (1820-1932) 112 years old!). Charles Kendal Bushe (1767-1843) who was MP for Callan and Donegal, was a strong advocate of Catholic Emancipation, and though a strong opponent of the Act of Union, he accepted one of six escheatorships in January 1799, and was to become Chief Justice from 1822 to 1841. Renowned for his oratory, he wrote Cease Your Funning in 1799. He died at Furry Park, his son's residence near Dublin.
In October 1778 Gervais Bushe led a party of the Kilkenny Rangers to capture Whiteboys, and was fortunate to survive when a Whiteboy's gun, at point blank range, misfired.
A year earlier a subscription which was set in foot to build a new chapel to replace St Canice's, was supported by some local Protestants, among whom was Captain Bushe. In 1789 he published his Essay towards ascertaining the population of Ireland, it being a critical analysis for the entire country of the 1788 house returns under the hearth tax.
"The Kilkenny Players" - a drama group - was formed around 1802, and among the "gentlemen players" were Bushe of Kilmurry and Langrishe of Knocktopher.
These were described as "Gentlemen of the first rank, who preferred books, thinking, and conversation, to dice, dogs and jockeys". Owners of Land of One Acre and Upwards (1876) shows Bushe holdings of 1,746 and 620 acres at Glencairn Abbey, Lismore, Co Waterford, with smaller holdings in Cos Kilkenny, Offaly, Waterford, Clare, and Mayo. Alicia Bush had 26 acres at Furry Park, Dublin. Ballybush in the Co Kilkenny parish of Killaloe, is Baile an Bhoisigh in Irish.