The Ancient Territory of Ba llymacone a nd the l\ cCones.
References to Sliabh Fuaid in the Annals of the Four Masters.
Place names and their meaning in the Territory of Ballemacoan.
Variations of spelling of townland names.
Sub-denominations of to wnlands.
Vari a tions of spellings in the 18th and 19th ce nturies.
Map Sheets of the district.
Ordnance Survey Maps of 1835-
The Fews in 1651.
The Fews in 1655.
The Lands of Ballymacone in 1655.
Poll Tax Abstr a ct of 1660.
Poll Tax of 1660.
Ballymacowen in 1729-1730.
Charle mont Rental of 1752-1764.
Rentals and Freeholders Lists.
Blayeberry Sundays.
Harvest Homes.
Notes of festivals kept in Ballymacone.
Afil•IA.GHr11ISCSLLAHEA
VOL.XVII
Folktales from the townl ands . St . Patrick and the Bull.
~.ntiquities in the territory of Ballymacone
Hous in g and house ty p es in Co. Armagh .
The cont ents of thes e volumes l a belled Armachiana are simply notes for t a lks to local and visitin g societies in search of material relating to it s histor ic a l b a ck ground and an cient monuments . They a re not of any great i mportance but may p rovide a gui de to studen ts seek ing d a t a on the county g enerally or on their own distri ct s i n particular . TGF Paterson
Armachiana Volume 17
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Armachiana Vol1 (Armagh County Museum ARMCM.28.2014.46)
The Territory of Ballymaconeand its associations lii1b. the McCones, · t . °::i. C . <7~~ ·
Introg.uctory the Ballymacone River,
Some years ago when investigating the annual 11Bilberry Sundayu gathering on Carrigatuke 1 , a hill in Armaghbrague rising to a height of 1,024 feet, my quest compelled me to explore much of the surrounding countryside on foot. In doing so I accumulated a mass of material relating to folk custom and tradition -matter that must be shelved for the present.
In my journeys through the district I was continually finding myself on the banks of the Ballymacone river, and being - of a somewhat inquisitive nature tried to find a reason for the name. Its origin was, however, a subject upon which local knowledge failed to throw any light so I was left to wonder why the stream should masquerade as the town or lands of the McCone's. My curiosity was even more whetted when I found that an old corn-mill in Tanderagee townland was still known as Ballymacone Mill 2 • It then became 1 •o.s. Sheet 25. 2 ·The corn mill is of some antiquity, being in use at least as early as 1703. See Appendix IV. A scutch mill was later erected. Both buildings survive but are now chiefly farm storage accommodation. Local ~radition ascribes the erection of the mill to a mythical 11Bella McCone" from whom the river is also said to take its name1
necessary to try and solve through other channels the connection of the river with the surname.
Further consideration of the problem induced me to study the Inquisitions, maps and other . documents of the Plantation period in the hope that they might produce the missing town or lands as a hidden sub-denomination or alias for a townland in the area. My researches quickly disclosed the fact that the~ once held a tract of over 6,000 acres and that the lands formed a definite region described by various authorities as the territory of Ballymacone.
The McCone's ' s, and their lands_._
I first examined an Inquisition taken at Armagh on August 12, 1609, and therein learned that the Sept of ClanmcCone had been time out of mind possessed of the eight towns of
Lisnedull
Lisleagh
Tullynegyn
Corran
Tullibroane
Toynregy
Fernaghleshalge
Armaghbregagh
in Fues barony at a rent to the Archbishop of £1 per annum3 . Having proceeded so far I thought it advisable to consult the Plantation maps .of that year as they form our earliest to,mland index for the northern counties. The General Map of Ulster prov.ed unproductive but the County Baronial Sheets under Fues
3. Cal. Pat. Rolls 7. James I.
-3portrayed the above eight townlands as a separate unit within that barony under the title of Balle McOmem. A presentment made by thirteen native jurymen in the preceding year named the lands as BallymacOwen and gave the additional info~mation that the Archbishop challenged certain chief rents 11the certainty of which the jury knew notu4, whilst another record of the same date designated the group of townlands as BallymacKowen 5 •
The town.lands in question are all situate in the barony of Upper Fews, a district noted in early times as the location of Sliabh Fu.aid, one of the three great familiar places, through which ran one of the three great highways of Ireland, the ancient road from Tara to EmaniaAs to Sliabh Fuaid 1 s exact position in the Fews there is little definite information, but Carrigatuke seems the most probable identification.
Space will not permit an examination in detail of references. They first appear in our oldest manuscripts as narrations of legendary events that even then
4
•Vol. E.3.13 and No.582 Trinity College Library, Dublin. Survey of the County of Armagh taken at the Moyrey Castle August 2, 1608. A note dated August 3, 1605, in the writing of Archbishop Henry Ussher and preserved in Old Rent Rolls, Archbishop's Registry, Public Library, Armagh, asserts that the division of the county into baronies took place in that year. Patrick McCalo McArdell was then Constable of the Fews and BallymacOwen appears as eight unnamed towns.
5•Rawlison M.S. No.237. Bodleian Library, Oxford -see Annalecta Hibernica, No.3, September, 1931, p. 2160
were long past. They continue down the centuries to the present and show that it was a most important spot -famous as a place of battles, assemblies and conferences. Such meetings occur in the Annals and compel one to suppose that there was some specific reason apart from its . situation?for its choice, some veneration of past traditions that made it more or less sacred ground.
We have no data, however, as to when the above eight towns became the property of the McCone's. The first notice I have fonnd of the name locally refers to a Patricio Macuymn and Gillachomded Macomgan. It is shown in a document perfected by Archbishop Scannel on February 5, 1264, who erected the Franciscan - Abbey of Armagh in that year. In 1367 a Macomgan emerges as a principal citizen and one of the chief tenants of Archbishop Sweteman, and in an undated rent list of about the same year there is a reference to the 11land of McComgam-rent l0/-, 11that ~cL being the earliest account I have of the territory or lands of I\ Ballymacone.
The tract of land comprising the territory was a long strip stretching from Lisnadill, about 2½ miles south of Armagh1 to within about the same distance of the modern village of Newtownhamilton, and up to the late eighteenth century formed part of the old and very large parish of Armagh. Tenants on the southern part of the territory must have found it difficult to attend to their religious devotions owing to the distance that separated them from the ancient city and its churches. Probably they worshipped in a church on one of the nearby Granges of the
Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul.
The following members of the Sept were involved in rebellion A in Elizabeth I s reign, but made subI9,ission and were pardoned by · warrant from the Lord Deputy, dated June 24, 1602.
Morris McCowane, Yeoman )
James Oge McCowane, Yeoman)
Rorie Mccowan, Husbandman)
Torligh McCowane, Yeoman )
Shane McCowane, Yeoman )
All of Fewes
Barony
Torligh later settled in Armagh and appears in .the Archbishop's rentals as tenant of a house in the city in 1615-1624.
Immediately afterwards the Plantation of Ulster with English · and Scotch settlers took place. The Commissioners appointed to carry out that task arrived in Dundalk on their way from Dublin on July 31, 1609, and rested there two days. From Dundalk they set forth for Armagh on the morning of August 3. The day was stormy and wet so when they reached uthe midst of the Fewsu they decided to encamp. Next morning (August 4) they arose and passed through the rest of the Fews and pitched their tents within four miles of Armagh. The first camp was probably south of the territory of Ballemacone but the second one was undoubtedly within it and was a rather notable resting place for they remained there from the evening of August 4 to the morning of August 6, on which day they passed into the city to begin the work of the Commission, a task not completed until August 13. \fuilst enc amped outside the city they heard the claims of the Archbishop, inte rviewed surveyors and obtained many facts from the
inhabitants of the county, that were of help during the busy days that followed.
The most consequential meeting of the week took place on August 12. It was held to decide the controversy between the Crown and the Church as to termon and herenagh lands and the findings as to septs and sept lands make that Inquisition invaluable as a clue to the old Irish families of the county and as a guide to the location of their lands. The Commissioners present were:-
Sir Arthur Chichester
The Archbishop of Armagh
The Archbishop of Dublin
Sir Thomas Ridgeway
Sir Humphrey Winche
Sir Oliver St. John
Sir Garrett Moore
Sir John Davies
William Parsons (SurveyorGeneral)
The jury appointed . to assist the Commissioners was selected (with two exceptions) from the chief septs or families of the county. The jury was as follows:-
Marmaduke Whitechurch, Esq.
Sir Tirlagh O Neale, Knt.
Carberie Mccann
Donagh Morchie
Tirlagh Mciteggart
Christopher Fleminge
Con O Neale
Hugh McBrien Mccan
Donell McHenry O Neale
Neale McCoddane
Donnell Mccann
Calvagh McDonnell Redmond O Hanlon
Owen Boy McMurcho
Neale O Calligan
Hugh McHenry O Neale
Patrick Oge O Conrie
Cormack McTirlagh Braslowe
Bartholomew Owen
Hugh Mciteggart
Tirlagh O Cassaye
Nice O Quin 0 Neale
Unfortunately the jurors did not include a McCone, but their findings revealed the names of most of the septs of the county and gave detailed particulars as to their lands. sep ts were the -
The then
McGillechrany 1 s
McCoddan 1 s
0 Mellane 1 s
Coffey's .
0 Falligan 1 s
O Donell 1 s
MacCasey 1 s
McRorie 1 s
McGillemurris 1
McTaggart•s -7-
Mcowen' s Doogane 1 s
0 Moyer's McGillivora 1 s Rathe's McLaughlin's Clonawe's Shane I s Cullan 1 s
Kenny 1 s
0 Quin' s
Macawan's
0 Casadie 1 s
McGillwory 1 s
Murtagh's Montercor•s
0 Hanlon' s Connoghon 1 s
who with the Sept of ClanmcCoane and various other families and clans, the heads of whom are distinguished by their Christian names so that the document becomes, when taken in conjunction with the lists of pardons of the same period, a fairly comprehensive census of the old population of the eounty as it stood in the days of James I.
On February 25, 1614-15, the territory of 11Ballymcowenu in Fues Barony was granted to Christopher, Archbishop of Armagh. It then consisted of:-
Lislea Lisnedolly Ballycorran
Ferneshalge Armaghbregre Tulbrone
Tonregie Tullinegan
The Archbishop's Rental for 1615 gives a list of the tenants on the territory and shows that Owen and Patrick McMurphy had intruded into three town.lands therein,Tullybrone, Lissadell and Corran. The remainder, however, was MacCowanproperty and held as nnder -
Lisleagh and Tullanecran by Maurice and Patrick McCoan
Aghernamuckla and Cavencrow by James and Shane McCoan Armaghbreag and Tanderagee by Patrick and Maha McCoan
All the tenants then held direct from the Archbishop and besides rents were liable for herriotts of oxen, mutton, hogs, hens, and so many days work each year "with man and garran 11 - see Appendix I.
The Archbishop had a further grant of the territory on July 3, 1620. It contains slight variations in the spelling of the names of the town.lands but otherwise reveals no new features.
A Chancery Inquisition relating to the lands of James Archbishop of Armagh and ta~en in the city on September 9, 1633, is, however, much more informative -see Appendix IIfor besides giving three separate sets of spellings for the Ballymacone O.,.C,crn..'2_ town.lands of the territory of Ba.1 l@fiL9 eovan it gives in the f\ final list the sub-denomination of each of the eighttownlands, one of which was Menemacowan in Armaghbrague.
In the nDistribution of Fprfeited Lands returned by the Down Survey, shewing whose they were in Anno 1641 and to whom now set outn there is the following summary of the lands
Armaghbreg
Coranmore
Lessleagh
Fernainucklagh
Tollebrone
Lisnadell
and the Commonsof Ballymacowen,
Tonregee
Tullynegonie
The maps of the above surveY, made in 1655, depict the Commonsas 481 acres of coarse mountain pasture and render the place-name as Ballymacowane.
\
In the 16th and 17th centuries it was usual for the pe ople in the lowlands after sowing their crops in spring to mig rat e to the uplands with their families and cattle, living
-9there in temporary settlements during the summer and returning to their homes at the beginning of the autumn in time to gather in the crops. The communal pasturage was grazed by all and not fenced in. Each head of a family belonging to the sept p.e~~ had the right to send his cattle on it, the number he was A entitled to graze being usually in proportion to the size of his farmi. In regulating the grazings on such lands animals were the classification, the cow being taken as one unit which enabled a man to turn out the exact number of cows or the equivalent in other animals in any way he pleased so long as the total did not exceed the amount of his privilege. The custom was known as booleying and was probably ancient as it is noticed in the Senchus Mor.
The Poll Tax of 1660 6 unfortunately only gives particulars for four townlands within the territory:-
Ardmaghbeg, inhabited by 16 Irish.
Tonrige, inhabited by 10 Irish.
Tollenagin, inhabited by 5 Irish.
Lisnadell, inhabited by 10 Irish and 10 English. Just why the other four townlands should have been omitted is somewhat puzzling. It does not seem possible that they could have been without inhabitants. A survey of the principal Irish names and their number is given under each barony and there were then 10 0 Cou.nes in Upper Fews.
6. Royal Irish Academy Library. Known also as Census of 1659. ,
The Hearth Money Rolls for the year 1664 give the names of the people in the relevant townlands7 who paid the tax - but they also lack completeness -there is no mention of Tullybrone. The then inhabitants were all Irish excepting Ralph and Clement Read of Lisnadill. No McCone's are mentioned though there is d~ proof that members of the filan were still resident within the /\ McCone territory. About that time McKeone became a normal spelling due no doubt to a Hearth Collector's phonetic rendering of the surname. By then they had spread into marry townlands in tne Upper Fews and indeed into Lower Fews also as the following list indicates
Cavankill
Owen McKeone
Rory McKeone
Patt. McKeone
Bellek
Donagh McKeone
Toole McKeone
outleckan
Art McKeone
Dunesmullan smullan
John McKeone
carrowmannan
Patt. Roe McKeone
Patt. McKeone
7. See Appendix III.
Corhanmock
Shane McKeone
Cormick McKeone
Drumnahunchin
Phelim Boy McKeone
Sorley McKeone
Carrickgallogly
Phelim McKeone
Toole McKeone
Damoily
Rory O Cowan
Ballylane
Patt McKeon
In the days before the revolutionary wars the district was a favourite haunt of the celebrated Rapparee, Redmond 0 1 Hanlon. Many stories are still told of his audacity and his cleverness in evading and fooling those who were sent in pursuit of him. His is, indeed, the best remembered name of any of the Tories and Rapparees that ever graced the Fews.
The old road from Armagh to the south had a great charm for such gentry, sometimes indeed it was a fatal attraction as the following letter shows "Sir ' Armagh. July 17, 1697.
Yesterday about six o'clock in the afternoon, came into this tov-m.a country fellow stript to his shirt, with an account that Captain MacNally and the rest of the Rapparees that so long infested this road were in a little house within four miles of this place and that they were there asleep. Upon which Captain Macklin and about twelve men of his company and townsmen went out with all expedition and designed to surprise them, but they had a spy at some distance, who ran and gave them notice, and so they got to their horses and made away as fast as they could, but our party so eagerly pursued them, that they soon overtook them. They fired many shots and would not take quarter, but after an hour's chase they killed MacNally and one MacShane and brought in their heads which were presently fixed upon the Sessions House.~ These two were the chiefest of these rogues that robbed fourteen or fifteen persons on Wednesday last, and murdered Captain Groves9 after his being their prisoner for a long time, putting one of their bayonets into his heart and .rowling it in his body till he expired. They drank most of Dr. Drelincourt'swine that was coming hither to treat his friends,." 11.
8. Situat e in Market Street. Replaced on Mall by present Court Hous e in 18090
9. ill iam Groves of Castle Shannaghan Co. Donegal.
10 . The Very Rev. Peter Drelincourt D.b. Dean of Armagh 1691-1722.
11 . Printed Broadsheet Newsletter. Thorpe Collection Vol.XI. "A letter f ro m a gentleman in Armagh to his friend in Dublin, iving an account of the Rapparees that killed Captain Groves and robbed several other persons, with the beheading of the chief of them. Monday,July 19, 16970
In 1703 we get another glimpse of the ancient territory i n Ashe's Survey of the lands of the Archbishopric. The eight town.lan ds were then held by named principal tenants who had built small farm houses with barnes, stables and cow-houses. iany of them had cottier tenants under them, living in "cabins" or small tenements with cow-houses and potato gardens attached. Amongst the latter class of tenants,in all probability, were some members of the old G~hat gave name I\ to the area, they do not at anyrate figure amongst the named a.-ti.dtenants in the survey -see Appendix IV. /)
Eleven years later a most comprehensive census of the population of the eight towns was compiled giving the names and religions of all the tenants thereon. Compared with the Hearth Money RolJsof 1664 already mentioned it shows an astonishing increase in numbers. This, no doubt, was due to further reclamation of waste lands. The document is of importance as an early 18th century census of the inhabitants of t h e district and interesting as revealing two members of the old Clan, Teige and Hugh McCoen resident in Farnamuckly. It also shows a certain Torlagh Bronty in Armagh-brege who may ha ve b een the elusive ancestor of Hugh Brohte, the grandfathe r o f t h e famous novelists -see Appendix V.
The dis tr i ct would seem to have been still somewhat Wlsettled in s o far as the southern portion of the territory was concerned . In August 1708 the well-known Dr. Thomas
Moleyneux came north from Dublin on a visit to his estate at Castledillon near Armagh, from which he continued his journey to many other places in the north. On leaving Dundalk with his friend and companion, Counsellor Depping, they LLdesigned for Ardmagh and went sixteen miles towards it, mostly on the very wild mountains on the Fews. These mountains are of a boggy heathy soil, the road through them of a rocky gravel, in all this way met but one house and nothing like corn meadows or enclosures. He baited on them at the second house which is called Black Ditch, where there is also a small Foot Barracks but . without any soldiers. Here was miserable entertainment not so much as tolerable grass within two miles of them. From there two or three miles brings you to the end of the mountains and you enter into a pleasant enclosed country which in five or six miles brings you through new made roads to Ardmaghu. l3.
Donaldson writing of the state of the Barony of Upper Fews as it was, circa 1733, when a number of Presbyterian families settled in some townlands thereof, provides us with a picture of the district in the second quarter of the 12. 13 . Son of Samuel Molyneux of Castledillon, Co. Armagh, and brother of William Molyneux the author of 11The Case Of Ireland Stated 11 • Born 1661; created a baronet 1730; died 1733. . "Journey to ye North 1708", Young•s 1101d Belfast", p ag e 153.
eighteenth century. He states that uextensive shrubberies and thickets in different places and wet lands and bogs covered with heath, boggale, ruhhes, and several portions of the lands on othe ·r acquatic the summits being under / tillage from whence the inhabitants whose numbers were very limited derived their scanty subsistence. The old barbarous custom of ploughing with horses yoked by the tails and burning the straw to separate it from the corn was not entirely abolished notwithstanding the legislature had made laws upwards of a century anterior to that period imposing fines upon delinquents. The houses were generally built in clachonsor clusters and had two doors or entrances which were closed up with bundles of sticks or hurdles alternately, or as it answered to keep out the wind and rain. The whole was enclosed by a bawn, or kind of pound, to protect themselves, their cattle and property from thieves and robbers .which then invested the country. 11
About that period the district was "the scene of operationsu of a certain Charley Carragher, kno1,m locally as Carl More or Big Charley, who killed and robbed until he was at last caught (with some of his associates) and hanged, following which he was beheaded and quartered, the head and quarters being gibbeted at places in the district where he h a d committed "murders and other atrocious crimes 11 • If we a r e to credit Thomas Wright, the antiquarian, it was "a
dismal country with scarce a house to be seenn 14 when he set out from Dundalk accompanied by the Bishop of Raphoe on Ma~ch 31st, 1747, on his way from that _to .1im.to Armagho Had he made the journey later in the year he would, no doubt, have had some comments to make upon the magnificent views for which the area is so well known.
An interesting account of travel in the district in 1750 survives. It states that the journey from Armagh -to Dublin was then reckoned ualmost as perilous an achievement as the descent of Xenophon on the far famed march. When love of gain stimulated any man to so desperate a venture, he first made his will and piously commended his soul to God, then having collected his friends around him, he proceeded under their protection, on horseback, through the dreaded defiles of Armagh Breagh and Black Bank. Even then he was alarmed at every breath of wind which whistled through the heath and started with terror when he casually heard the whirring of the grouse's wings or the bleating of a vagrant snipe, lest the merciless Tories should be upon him •••••••• In this state of trepidation he proceeded until he arrived at the residence of Johnston of the Fews who was the terror of robbers and safeguard of travellers • . The Johnston's, who 14. Journal of Thomas Wright, Louth Archaeological Journal, Vol. II, iu.82.
were conservators preserved the mountainous district of the country from the incursions of Tories and other robbers. They were an honourable and valiant family whose exertions during half a century were highly useful to the country. In the Fews they were said to have possessed the power though not the name of Sovereigns. The following anecdote concerning them may be worth relating. On a dark night the famous Priest 0 1 Lavery, a man of humour and talent, and the chief of the Johnston's accidentally rode against each other and were both overthrown. On rising up the Priest perceiving the gentleman with whom he had so unpleasant and unexpected a rencontre · exclaimed -
Jesusof Nazareth, King of the Jews, Protect us from Johnston, King of the Fews. 11
That courage comes and goes is assured, and . many a traveller whose courage had oozed out at his finger ends amidst the ·, dreary wastes of Armagh Breagh felt new spirit invigorating his heart and new strength nerving his arm when he saw the smoke of Johnston 1 s house curling in the air. Here it was usual for the escort to tenderly embrace with tears in their eyes and take leave of their friend who in the course of two days made good his journey to Du.blin. 0 1 5
Despite robbers ~nd other such discomforts, the more well-to-do local families of those days made a trip to 15. Newry Telegraph, November 24, 1820.
Dublin fairly frequently and some indeed spent the winter months there each year. The following description of such journeys provides a vivid picture of the discomforts of the early 19th century. It was written by the Honble. Mrs. Henry Caulfeild 16 who spent her girlhood days at Castledillon, Co. Armagh, with her maternal aunt, Lady Molyneux, who was accustomed to vary the route and sometimes made the trip via Newry or Castleblayney instead of through the Fews.
'lYearly we went to Dublin in November and returned in June. Plate, linen, household goods and the trunks of the family were sent up by a tenant who acted as carrier ••••••• When the move was from Castle Dillon, salted beef, butter, and every transportable thing was added to the extent sometimes of four cart loads, nor did the caravan end there, for the under. servants travelled with it -kitchenmaid, second housemaid, and a sort of general girl seated soldier fashion on the baggage. Nor did this plan cease until Lady Molyneux discovered that the halts at carman's inns were not very improving to manners or morals and that the board and lodging until the fourth evening cost nearly as much as the stagecoach, now that there were rivals upon the road.
16. Widow of the Honble. H. Caulfeild, MoP. Hockley Lodge, Armagh, and mother of James Molyneux CaulfeildA third and last Earl of Charlemont. ·She died in 187~.
Sir Cape1; 7 of course, had his own peculiar mode of travelling, he always went by himself, in his O¥ffiparticular chariot, his valet on the box and the interior packed with books, violin and all sorts of things. He never went direct, diverged to villages and inns that he liked where he set up his music-stand and scraped away at Handel as vigorously as at home. He never jqined Lady M. and the family until everythingswas unpacked and placed and all domestic work in gear ••••• Lady Molyneux travelled in the large barouche dra¥m by her own four horses ••••••. o It was followed by another carriage with the upper servants. The time consumed was two days and a halfe, involving two nights at inns, generally at Du,ndalk and Drogheda ••••• In those days the stoppage of carriages and even of stage-coaches by highwaymen was by no means rare. I cannot forget our terror on that winter journey to - Dublin as we approached Dunleer, whereabouts the exploits of a robber named Collier were well known, and again as we passed the ivied wall of Santry within which desperadoes were reported to hide themselves. 11 18 17. Fourth baronet. Born 1750. Joined the United Irishmen in · 1792 but withdrew after the formation of that body into a secret society. Following the Union of Ireland with Great Britain he dressed his servants in green and white instead of the family livery, an expression of his disapproval of the dissolution of the Irish Parliament. He died 1832. 18. Monthly Review, Vol. XI, June 1893, p.140-141.
But to return to the McCone1 so Documents of the late 18th and early 19th century display a new version of the surname in the neighbourhood of the old patrimony and one must assmne that families appearing in Cashel (where McCone•s Bridge still survives) and in Ballymacnab as McGoan•s and McGoane•s were, in reality, McCone•s especially as in the same authorities 19 we find McCoane1 s and McCone•s in Foleyl . :LO
Our next guide is a Tythe Payers List for Lisnadill, a manuscript by which a census of the inhabitants of the townlands of that parish becomes available for the year 1835. In the eight townlands of Ballymacone the undernoted members of the sept are tabledArmaghbrague Michael McCone.
Farnamucklagh - Alexander McGone, Charles McCoane, Anthony, John and Bernard McCone a summary showing a then concentration of the clan in Farnamucklagh, a matter of some interest as James McCone who died in October 1942, aged 85 years, was the last of the name to reside in that townland.
In my searches against the surname I found many variants ranging from the 13th century Macomgam toto the present McCone. The differences go to show a transition from the original form previous to the end of the 16th
century, from which time onwards the generally accepted renderings have been McGowan, McCowane (1602), Mcowen, MacOwen, McCone, Mackowen (1605), McCone, McOmem, McCoane, Mcowen (1609), McCoan (1615), O Coune (1659), McKeon, McKeone, O Cowan (1664), McGoan, McGone, McCoane, McCone, McGoan, McKeone, McKeon (last half of 18th and first quarter of 19th century), McCone, McCoane, Cowan (1835), and indeed McKeown. To illustrate the last change in the orthography of the name evidence remains in Voters' Lists. For instance in 1851 the McCone 1 s of Farranmucklagh are entered as McKeon 1 s and in 1863 as McKeone's, but shortly afte-rwards figure as McKeown1 s. An example best proves that point. In 1852 John McCone of the above townland was enrolled as John McKeone, in 1854 became John McKeown, in 1860 reverted to McKeone and by 1872 was again John McCone. Other members of the clan were equally careless, but the negligence in spelling was more likely due to officials unfamilar with the surname than indifference on the part of individual McCone•s. As a matter of ·fact Griffith 1 s Valuation for County Armagh, published in 1864, gives yet another modification. There Catherine McCone of Armaghbrague, John and Owen McCone of Farnamucklagh are enrolled as Macoun•s.
Epilogue A
Material for the history of the Sept is very scanty. They are said to have been of Meath extraction 2 0 but were certainly settled here before 1264 and the ulands of McComgan" existed as early as 1367. They formed part of the Manor of Armagh and in 1609 it was found that they had been held by the McCone1 s ntime out of mindu. By 1615, however, a part of the lands had been leased to two MacMurphy1 s and the rents considerably increased. Six of the McCone1 s were then in occupation of the major portion and presumably in a sound position financially. Some years later, in 1620, the territories of Balemoire and Ballemacowan were leased to George Fairfax with a town within the liberties of Armagh for 60 years, he to pay a £5 herriott, build a fair stone house within the city of Armagh, and find a light horse and man for His 6 21 Majesty's service at a rent of £114. s.8do Fairfax died about 1634 whereupon the lease was renewed to his widow Mrs. I Mary Fairfax, a~d by 1660 had been acquired by Thomas Fairfax, but by 1711 had passed to the Graham's of Ballyheridan. Archiepiscopal rentals give no information as to the McCone 1 s during that long period with the exception of a census of the Manor for 1714, a document already referred to. They no 20. Woulfe, Irish Names and Surnameso 21 . Ren tal 1620, Archbishop's Registry.
-22longer held directly nnder the Archbishop and it is clear that . the new method of farming out the See Lands brought much hardship to the tenants and, incidentally, resulted in the omission of the surname from later rentals.
We are in complete ignorance of how they fared in the Civil War of 1641 and during the Cromwellian period. From Friar O Mellan's Journal we know that there was a skirmish in the Fews on May 21, 1642, ·and on May 8, 1644, the Friars of Armagh went to the Fews, that six days later the creaghts went to Farney and Armaghbrague. The latter townland is mentioned again on May 30, and nnder date September 1 of same year we learn that "a party of the enemyu went from Armagh to the Fews where they acquired some plunder. A later entry in January 1645 suggests that the people of the Fews may then have fled westward but if so we may assume that they returned following the Battle of Benburb.
In 1664 seven of the eight townlands were still tenanted by natives, but from that date onwards there was a steady influx of Scotch settlers into the area especially in the years immediately following the Battle of the Boyne.
It is pleasant, however, to be able to -record that there are still McCone1 s in Armaghbrague. There Michael McCone (aged about 77 years), son of Francis and grandson of Michael of the Tythe Payers Lists of 1835, dwells with his three sons , Francis, John and James, and Bridget his daughter.
Appendix I. -
Tenants on the Territory of Ballemacoan.
Owen McMurphy and Patrick McMurphy. The three balliboes of Tullybrone, Lisadell and Corran at £21 per an; three oxen of two years old; six muttons; twelve hens; three fat hogs; three barrels of barley or oats; thirty days work by man and garran. Duties to be for corn this year.
Maurice McCoan and Patrick McCoan Two balliboes of Lisleagh and Tullanecran at £3.16.8 per an; two oxen of two years old; four fat muttons; eight hens; two fat hogs; two-barrels of barley or oats; thirty days work with man and garran.
- James McQoan_and Shane MCcoan One balliboe called Aghernamuckla and Cavenecrow at£ .13.4; one ox of two years old; two fat muttons; four hens; one barrel of barley or oats; ten days work with a man and garron.
Patr.1,ck McCQan and Maha McCoan Two balliboes called Armaghbreag and Tanderagee at £15 per an; two oxen of two ¥ears old; four fat muttons; two fat hens; two barrels of barley or oats; twenty days work with man and garron. / I !
Note as to abovev1-- Sir Toby Caulfeild's Account of his collection of Tyrone's rents from his flight in 1607 to November 1, 1610, provides a basis for the value in cash of such herriotts besides much additional information as to prices of other commodities -for instance, cows were worth 15/-each, steers 13/4 each, heifers 10/- each, calves 4/-each, sheep 1/6 each, hogs 2/b each and oats 8d. per barrell.
September 9, 1633, Jarnes 7 , Archbishop of Armagh, and his tenants in possession of -
Ballymacowan consisting of -
Lisnedull
Lisleagh
Tollyvegynn
Tullybroan
mentioned in the Patent as -
Li -slea
Lisnedoth
Ballycorran Beg and More
Ferneshalg
Toynregy
Fernaghneshallye
Corran
Ardmaghbregagh
Armaghbregg
Tullybrony
Tonregie
Tullinegan.
All the aforesaid lands in possession of the Archbishop and his tenants in Ballyrnccowan -
Lissnedell, one balliboe containing part of Knocktantie, part of Creenkill, Lurgaboye, Lissdrumgavmagh, and Coolekill.
Lislea, one balliboe containing Drumgarve and Tullawoskie. Tullyneecan, one townland containing Drurnoell and Carneveeagh.
Carrenbeg als Cavanteeragh, one balliboe containing Fernaghnumucklagh and Liscormully.
Corremore, one balliboe, containing Fernaghneeshaly, Mullaghmoy, Feavegore and Attycorbe.
Ardrnaghbreaghie, one balliboe, containing Bealatallon AnnaghKnockbracke and Menemacowan
Tanneraghie, one balliboe containing Tearwullin, Corbeachan and Dartanffrye.
Tullybrone, one balliboe containing Clontiegorog and Oughtnygrowre. 8
7. James Ussher, D.D., Archbishop of Armagh, 1624-1656.
8. Chancery Inquisition, No.20, Charles I.
Appendix III, HearthMoneyRolls of 1664,
Tollonegin
Art O Hugh
Owen O Hugh
Patte O Hugh
Li she lea.
Patt McMurphy
Bryan O Gormly
Lisnadell.
Ralph Read
Clemenne Read ·
Tonregee.
Bryan O Haggan
Neale Q Kanevran
Shane McGuvhale
Ardmaghbreag.
Shane Kreaghan ' Patt McEnally
Hugh O Cunnagh
Patt McGrane
Cavan
Patt O Haggan
Teage O Kelly
Patte McEngald
Neale McGugin
· Farnaghamurlagh
Bryan O Tonner
Hugh O Donnelly
Tullybrone No hearths shown.
Ashe's I s Survey
34. Corren. This contains 493 acres p rofitable land a nd 74 acres unprofitable, all Irish Plantation Measure. The lessee has½ of it in his own hand s, all under stock. Gaven McMurde, Saunders McMurde and Samuel McClealan who have each a small farmhouse with barns and stables, cow~ouses, garden~, etc. are tenants to the other ¾. This is coarse grazing farm and on it some small narks of rye and oats. ·
Fernemucklagh. This contains 335 acres Irish Plantation Measure. It is coarse arable and pasture land, better than above. James Chambers, John Duncan, Pat Tonor, and Gillduff McArdell and who have each a small farm house with barns, etc. and several cottiers with cabins under them are tenants. The last two towns lie together and are bounded by the Ballemcowen Water west, Claudemore and Claudebegg, south and east and Folea north.
LisnedillThis contains 191 acres Irish Plantation Measure. John Read, John May, near to whose house is a large fort with a small grove or thrump of thorn trees and some few fruit trees upon it. William Murdagh and William Read are tenants and have each a small farmhouse with barns, stables, etc. and under them cottiers with cabins, etc. It lies about 2 miles from Armagh, and is bounded with Ballemarron north, Latmacullan east, Killyfaddy west, Lislea and Ballymacnabb north. This is very good arable and pasture land and there are good meadows upon it and it is well enclosed with quicksand dry ditches.
Lislea. This contains 151 acres Irish Plantation Measure. William CampbellThomas and Hugh Miller, Adam Dinsmore and John Simpson are tenants. They have each a small farm-house with barn stables, etc. and have under them cottiers with cabins. It is bounded with Killefaddie and Tullenegin west, Ballemcnobb east and south and Lisnedell north. A good turf bog and some meadow, and on it a large fort. This lies about three miles from Armagh. '
Tullebrone There is but half of this farm belongs to this lease, the other half is No.35. It contains the whole 160 acres Irish Plantation Measure, so that there is no more than 80 acres like measure. It is coarse, arable and pasture land. Ja.mes Fulton, John Johnston, who have each of them a small farm-house and some cottiers under the m are tenants. It is bounded with Graymore south and west, Tanderagee north, and Ballemcowen River or Water east.
35. Armagh breague This contains 343 acres un p ro f itable land Irish Plantation Measure and 301 acres like measure unprofitable. Leard Wallise, Capt. Read and James McDonnel are tenants and under them are 24 cottiers, who have each a small tenement with a cowhouse, p otato garden, etc. This is a coarse grazing farm. There are some small p arks under oats. The under-cottiers make their rents chiefly by grazing young cattle, etc. This is bounded with Tullyvallen south, Graymore west, and north, and Ballemco wen water east.
Note: there are 120 acres of the Commonof Ballemcowen belonging to this farm.
Tandragee. This contains 173 acres Irish Plantation Measure. John Lucas who has a good farm house . with a barn built with stones ·and Constant McKernan and who have each a small farmhouse with barns and under them some cottiers who have cabins? etc. This better land than above and lies under the mountain. It is arable and pasture land. It is now under corn and stock an? has upon it a corn-millo Lucas holds it and Ballemcowen Water serves it. Note: The water to this mill is carried across a small glen b¥ wooden troughs about 30 yards.
Tullebrone. But one half of it held by this lease and that containing 80 acres Irish Plantation Measure. The other half is held by Arthur Graham in No.34. John and Walter Johnson who have each a small stone farmhouse with barns and stables and under them some cottiers with cabins are tenants. This is arable and pasture land. There are some small meadows belonging to it. These last two lie to~ether and are bounded with Armagh-brege south, Graymore andBallebrolly west, Killefadde north and Ballemcowen Water east.
Tullynagin. This contains 110 acres Irish Plantation Measure. It is arable and pasture land and has upon it some me.adow. James Morrison, Jeremy Frame and David Dixon who have each a small farmhouse with oat-kilns, barns, stables, etc. This is but hungry dry land and it is bounded with the Ballemcowen Water and Tandragee west, Lislea east, Killefadde north and Farrenemuclagh south. This lies about three miles from Armagh.
Hugh Toner p Neece Toner R P Gilduffe McArdle R Hugh R · Cormack Lappan R R Cullo McArdle R Jas. Haverty R R Teige McCoen R
Lislea. Chief tenant -Arthur Graham, gent.
Wm. Gamble p John Miller
Thos. Gamble p George Ffoard
Jas. McNare r John Simpson
Lisnadill Chief tenant -Arthur
Walter Johnston P Wm.Johnston
Jas. Ireland P John Reid
Tur. 0- Neile R WilliamReid p John Mul1en p 'Wm. 0 Germill p Graham, gent. P Pat. Curry P Thos. Curry p
Tullybrone Chief tenants -Arthur and Hector Graham. p
John Johnston
John Jefferys
Wm.Johnston P Owen McShane P Pat Lurkan P Owen Carvan R R R Thos. Loghread P
Appendix v. (cont 1 d).
Tandrageerage e. Chief tenant -Hector Graham, gent.
Constant McKernan R
Samuel McKernan R
Thur. Currie R O Brien R
Pat. McParlon R
Jas. McTeigue R
Jas. Stoop P John Lucas P
Samuel Derry P
Gain McCavill ,P
John Gillpatrick P
Tullynagin Chief tenant -Hector Graham, gent.
Jas. Morrison .P
Wm.Morrison P
Jerome Frame P
James Morrison P
Thos. Preston P Hugh SmileyP
P = Presbyterian. R = Roman
Jas. Frame P
(Archbishop's Registry, Public Library, Armagh).
Appendix VI.
Tythe Payers Lists 1835.
Armaghbrague...
Edward Allen
Charles O Brien
David Clarke
Daniel Holland
Catherine Donelly
Owen Donnelly
Patrick Donnelly
Patrick Doyle
John Doyle
James Thompson
Henry O'Brien
Archibald Coleman
Mary McKeown
Widow Callaghan
Hugh Lennon
Francis Campbell
Bernard Keenan
Richard McKeown
Arthur Murphy
John Haughey
Charles O Brien
Widow Neill
Widow Graham
William Pepper
William Herron
Ja.mes McKeown
Edward Doyle
Henry Murray
Samuel Seceveral
William Hanly
James Murray
William Henry
Joseph Porter
Alex. Porter
John Mcclelland
William Moody
Thomas Glover
Samuel Warnock
Charles O Brien
John Neill
Patrick McGrath
William Campbell
Andrew Jenkin
John Gordon
William Wright
Robert Hogg
Margaret Wright
David Jenkins
John Clarke, Sen.
James Bingham
Jacob Clarke
Widow Watson
James Clarke
David McKee
James Galbraith
Widow Bailie
William McBri d e
Henderson Watson
John Bailie
Edward Diviney
William English
Hugh Garmoney
John Mc Clean
Alexander Porter
Ja.mes Paxton
William Smith
Andrew Steen
James Simonton
Charles Doyle
William Harkness
Pat. Doyle
William Moore
Francis McVeagh
James Donnelly
Terence Mccardle
Peter Campbell
J. Donaghy
William Warnock
Arthur Adams
Alexander Mcclean
John O Brien
Edward McVeigh
Pat. Doyle, Sen.
Catherine Conlon
Michael McGurgan
George Anderson
John Fee
James Kernaghan
W i d ow Harvey
Widow Castles
William Coleman
James Totten
Thomas Totten
Robert Coleman
William Coleman
William Henry
Arthur Donnelly
John Donnelly
Robert Miller
Michael McCoy
Robert Lowry
Patric k Powell
Mr. Mccleave
James Rainey
Charles Cavanagh
Michael McCone
Thomas Conlan
William Campbell
Patrick Cavanagh
Alexander Jeffery
Patrick McKeown
Bernard Hughes
Michael Murray
William Tedford
Francis Harvey
William Castles
John Kelly
Robert O Brien
Samuel Warnock
James Harvey
Isaac Smith
James Castles
William Leeman
Owen McVeigh
Widow Collins
corran.
Michael Doran
Patrick Toner
SamuelFulton
Michael McArdle
John Hughes
Widow McGiveran
Alex. Allen, Jun.
William Mills
Neill Molloy
James Murphy
Terence McFarland
Bernard Feighan
Henry Steinson
. Henry Pinkerton
James Dogherty
Robert Feighan
Hugh Maguire
Owen Donaghy
Patrick Donaghy
Patrick McNally
Dennis Short
Bridget McFarland
Patrick Donnelly
Widow John Donnelly
Bridget McCartney
John Short
Farnanamucklagh,
John Mccardle
George Rutledge
Widow Murphy
James Murphy
Robert Fegan
Patrick McKee
Bernard Carbery
Arthur McKee
Felix McKee
AlexanderMcGone
Owen McKenna
Widow Devlin
Roger Toner
Denis Toner
CharlesMcCoane
Hugh McCall
Peter Toner, Jun. --
James Harvey
John Harvey
Hugh Finn
Bernard Hughes
Edward Rogan
Michael Cole
Patrick Sharkey
Thomas Collins
Terence Connolly
Patrick Grimes
Terence Kelly
Widow Kelly
Ja.mes Mccann
John McKenna
Arthur Corrigan
Charles Cavanagh
Terence McArdle
Patrick Gribben
Patrick Cowan
Owen Magee
Roger Magee
Patrick McNally
Widow McNally
Patrick Morgan
John Dogherty
Michael Cole
Owen Morgan
John Neill
Bartholomew Vallely
Patrick McNally
Alex. Allen, Sen.
Sandy McKeown
Terence McArdle
Widdow Trodden
Bernard Vallely
Widow Grimes
Patrick Kerr
John Kerr
John Mccardle
Samuel Price
Brian McFarland
Peter Callaghan
John Toner
Terence Toner
Hans Rippett
Owen McFarland
John Mccardle
Arthur Kerr
William Mills
Robert Rainey
James Dogherty
John McCone
Anthony Mccane
John Mccane
James Kelly
John Kelly
Michael Toner
Terence Toner
Dennis Short
Peter Lappin
Michael Lappin
Owen Lappin
Thomas Corr
Patrick Monaghan
Bernard McCoane
Patrick Lappen
John Dowris
Bernard Quinn
Arthur Toner
Owen Toner
Patrick Toner
Francis Ton.er
Hugh Toner
Michael Toner
Peter Toner
Patrick McCristal
Michael Boyle
Arthur Boyle
Terence Rafferty
Peter McDermott
Robert Kearney
Francis O'Neill
Bernard Megain
Lisnadill,
Joseph Menary
David Ireland
John Marshall
Mary Morrow
James Morrow
Thomas Marks
Lislea
Roger Mccann
Thomas Mccann
RichardKane
James Houston
William Girvan
James RichardMagurk Gray
Charles Keating
Archibald Glenny
Tullybrone.
Michael McGiveran
Philip Feighan
Thomas McDowell
George Hall
Hugh Jeffry
Patrick Duffy
Hans Johnston
John Murphy
Richard Donnelly
James Donnelly
Alexander Jeffry
Edward Conry
Tanderagee.
Francis Wilson
Peter Nugent
James Catenay
John Hanlon
James Catenay
Widow Kearne y
Francis Kea rney
Samuel Dickson
Elizabeth Reid
Lawrence Kearney
David Duncan
James McCreish
OwenDevlin
David Williamson, Sen.
David Williamson, Juno
John Donaldson
Widow Atkinson
John Donaldson
James Donaldson
John Houston
Robert Houston
Constant Donnelly
Thomas McKinstry
Arthur Vallely
Francis Kerr
Andrew Gamble
Robert Mccann, Sen.
Patrick Toner
Patrick Duffy
Hans Johnston
John Clarke
Robert Donnelly
Matthew Johnston
Clement Courtney
William Moore
John Robson
Peter Rocks
David Jeffry
Brian Toner
Francis McLaughlin
Bernard Donnelly
Laughlin Donnelly
James Cashedy
Peter Kernan
Francis Campbell
Bernard Lindsay
Patrick Lindsay
Widow Lindsay
John Catenay
Thomas McKee
John Mcilkerian
James McKee
William Reed
Widow Reed
James Hanlon
Joseph Devlin
Thomas McKenna
Jame s Marks
Robert Mccann, Jr.
John Mccann
Henry Moffett
James Rocks
Henry Rocks
Bernard Rocks
Francis Kelter
Charles Keating
John Clarke
John Rocks
Arthur Johnston
George Hall
William Moore
John Rocks
John Johnston
Thomas McTeague
James Jeffery
Terence Mccardle
William Jeffry
Hugh Jeffry
John Lawson
Peter Cassedy
John Cassedy
Michael Gormal,Sr.
Michael Gormal,Jr.
Alexander Gormal
Hugh McCall
Terence Trodden
John Trodden
Peter Catenay
Ja.mes Donnelly
Terence Donnelly
James Morrison
Appendix YI, (cont 1 d).
Tanderagee (cont 1 d).
James Devlin
John Devlin
Hugh McCall
Tullynagin,
Hugh Morrison
William Freme
Jeremiah .Morris
Noble Freme
Samuel Craig
Francis Toner
Hugh Morrison
James Terry
James Morrison
Patrick Hanlon
Ardle Hanlon
Widow Hanlon
Thomas McCristal
Francis Wilson
Laurence Kelly
Cornelius Donnelly
Owen McKenna
Peter Nugent
James Taylor
(Archbishop's Registry, Public Library, Armagh)o
(Note: The surname O Coune appears in the Poll Tax of 1660 but the Hearth Money Rolls of four years later give it as McKeon and McKeone. The prevalence of McKeownin Armaghbrague in 1835 raised a query whether the registers of ·Granemore and Ballymacnab should not be examined to discover if by any chance the McKeown's of that town.land appear in Baptisms, Marriages and Burials as McKeon1 s or McCone1 s.) .
Variat~:r_ s.J.1.ellings Qf tQ\filland names in 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. . - _..____;
Compiled as a guide to possible meanings of the town.land · names of the territory of BallymcCoan.
Inquisition of 1608,
Lissnedull
Lisseleigh
Drommoyle
Cavnegrogh
Corran
Ardmaghbreigy
Tonregugh
Tullybrone
Map of 1609,
Lisnodolhe
Tonrogie
Tulbrony
Tullinegan
Armaghbonoga
Lislea ··
Ferneshalge
Ballycorran
InquisitionAugust 12, 1609,
Lisnedull
Toynregy
Tullibroane
Tollynegynn
Armaghbregagh
Lisleagh
Fernaghleshalge
Corran
-2-
Variations of spellings of townland names.
Inquisition Febryary ~5, 1614-l2...
Lisnedolly
Tonregie
Tulbrone
Tullinegan
Armaghbragre
Lislea
Ferneshalge
Ballycorran
Rental of 16l5,
Lisadell
Tanderagee
Tullybrone
Tullanecran
Armaghbreag
Lisleagh
Aghernamuckla
Corran
Grant of September 9, 1633.
Lisnedull
Taynregy
Tullybroan
Tollyvegynn
Ardmaghbregagh
Lisleagh
Fernaghneshallye
Corran
Lisnedoth
Tonregie
Tullybrony
Tullinegan
Armagbregg
Lislea
Ferneshalg
Ballycorran)
Beg and More)
Lissnedell
Tanneraghie
Tullybrone
Tullyneecan
Ardmaghbreaghie
Lislea
Fernaghnumucklagh
Carrenbeg and Correnmore
Downsurvey 1641.
Lisnadell
Tonregee
Tollebrone
Tullynegonie
Armaghbreg
Lissleagh
Fernaghmu cklagh
Corranmore.
Vatiations of spell1ngs of town.land names,
Book of Survey and Di§tribution 1654-1703,
Lesnadill
Tonregee
Tollibrone
Tullyenegeine
Ardmaghbregg
Lesseleagh
Fernamucklagh
Coranmore
Cromwell Inguisition 1657.
Lysnedel
Tandrchgoe
Tullybrowne
Tullynagin
Ardmag-Brege
Lysaleagh
.
Fernagh Mucklagh
Caronmore
Poll Tax 1660_._
Lisnadell
Tonrige
Tolle nag in
Ardmaghbeg
Hearth Money Rolls 1664.
Lisnadell
Tonregee
Tollonegin
Ardmaghbreag
Lishelea
Farnagh amurlagh
Cavan
Stray Notes relating to the Sept of ClanmcCoane. Pardons in 1602. 1
For murder committed before their rebellion. Intrusion on Crown lands and debts to the Crown excepted. Lord Deputy 1 s warrant for same dated June 24, 1602.
Morris McCowane, Yeoman. )
James Oge McCowane, Yeoman )
Rorie McCowane, Husband.man. )
Torligh McCowaneYeoman. )
Shane McCowane, Yeoman. )
All of the Fewes.
2An Inquisition taken at Armagh 12th August 7 James I, 1609, states that -
The Sept of Clan mcCoane was possessed time out of mind of the eight towns of
Lisnedull (Lisnadill).
· Tollynegynn ( Tullynagin) •
Lisleagh (Lislea). .
Corran (Corran).
Tullibroane (Tullybrone).
Toynregy (Tanderagee).
Fernaghleshalge (Farranamucklagh).
Armaghbregagh (Armaghbrague). · in Fuighes Barony, at a rent to the Archbishop (of Armagh) of £1, but that those towns were never in his hands.
l. Fiats of Elizabeth.
2. Calendar Patent Rolls.
. . 3
Grant to ChristopherArchbishop of Armagh, Feb.25, 1614/15, of the territory of Ballymcowen in Fues Barony containing the towns and lands of_
Lislea Lisnedolly
Ballycorran Fernashalge and all other lands in said Armaghbregre
Tulbrone
Tonregie
Tullinegan territory.4
Grant to Christopher, Archbishop of Armagh, July 3, 1620, of Ballyrncowen country consisting of -
Lislell Lisnedolshe
Ballycorran Fernashalge
Armaghbregie
Tullbrone
Tonregie 5 Tullynegan
Turlo McGowanresident in Armagh City in 1615. Tur lough McCone II Lt 11 11 11 1624.
Ballemcoan Territory in possession of George Fairfax, Esq. for 60 years, £5 herriott. To provide a light horse and man for His Majesty 's Service. See Rental of 1620, also rentals of 1624, 1628, and 1631. Same lands leased for same term14th July, 1634, to Mary Fairfax, widow. Mrs. Fairfax, widow, shown in 1660 and Thos. Fairfax in 1663. Arthur Graham lessee in 1711, and townlands given as -
Lislea Lisnedullye Ballycorran
Tullybrone
Armaghbrege
Tanragye _
Farneshalye aJjas Farnemuckley muckl ey als Cavanagrough Tullanagin
3. Christopher Hampton, D.D., Archbishop of Armagh 1613-1625.
4. Calendar Patent Rolls 12 James I.
5. Calendar Patent Rolls 18 James I.
A distribution of forfeited lands returned by ·the Dovm Survey, shewing whose they weve in Anno Domini 1641 and to whom they are now set out. b
Fews Barony, Co. Armagh.
Armaghbreg 223 acres.
The Commons of Ballymacowen. 481 acres.
Coranmore 567 acres
Ferhamucklagh 3i5 acres
Tollebrone 1 0 acres
Tonregee 173 acres
Tullynegonie 110 acres.
Lessaleagh 151 acres
Lisnadell 191 acres
In possession of the heirs of George Fairfax.
Book of Survey and Distribution 1654-1703. 7
Fewes Barony, Co. Armagh.
Ardmaghbregg 223 acres
Commons of Ballyrnacowen 120 acres.
Coranmore 493 acres
Fernamucklagh 335 acres
Tollibrone 160 acres
Tonregee 173 acres
Tullyenegeine 110 acres
Lesseleagh 157 acres
Lesnadill 191 acres
6. Volume 1-5-2, Stowe M.SS. Royal Irish Academy.
7.
A.D. 709. 819. 922. 1007. 1010. 1018. 1021. 1023. 1025.
References tq Sliabh Fuaidin Annalsofthe Four Masters ..
Age of the world 3,500. Fu.aid slain at Sliabh Fu.aid.
The Battle of Sliabh Fuaid by Ferghan over the Ui-Meth.
Army led by Conchobhar, son of Donnchad to Ardachadh of Sliabh Fu.aid, and all Airthera devasted by him as far as Emhain Macha.
The Steward of Patrick 1 s people from Sliabh Fuaid to . Leinster died. ·
King Domhnall brought vessels over Dabhall and across Sliabh Fuaid to Loch Ainninn so that the isles of the lake were plundered.
Dornhnall Ua Neill, the king, was driven from Meath northwards across Sliabh Fuaid (but afterwards returned and plundered all the forts of Meath, etc.)
Dornhnall, son of Dubhtuinne, king of Ulidia, slain by Muireadhach, son of Madudhan and Urghaeth of Sliabh Fuaid.
An army led by Brian to Claenloch of Sliabh Fuaid where he obtained hostages of the Cinel-Eoghain and Ulidians.
A war between Maelseachlainn and the Di-Neill of the north so that the Eoghanachs went northwards over Sliabh Fuaid. ·
A o-reat depredation was committed by Maelseachlainn ~pon the Cinel-Eoghain and they went northwards over Sliabh Fuaid.
A victory gained at Sliabh Fuaid over the Airghialla by Niall son of Eochaidh and a great slaughter was made of the Airghialla there.
An army led by Dornhnall Gott into Breagha 1 and he expelled the Ui Neills northwards over SliabhFuaid.
A victory gained over the Ui-Creamhthainn by the men of Fearnmhagh at Sliabh Fuaid.
Donn Ua Leathlobhan, Lord of Fearnmhaghwas killed by the Ui-Laithen at Sliabh Fuaid.
An army led by the Munster men to oppose Sliabh Fu.aid to oppose Domnhall, grandson of Lochlainn but they obtained neither hostages or pledges.
An army led by Muircheartach Ua Briain and the people of Leath-Mhoghe to Sliabh Fuaid to obtain hostages of (Domnhall) Ua Lochlainn and Domnhall was in readiness to meet them but the successor of Patrick made a year's peace between the North of Ireland and Leath-Mhogha and so separated for that time.
A great army was led by the Leinster men until they arrived at Sliabh Fuaid.
An army led by Domnhall MacLochlainn with the people of the north of Ireland to Sliabh Fu.aid but Cellach, successor to Patrick made a year's peace between MacLochlainn and Ua Brian.
Donough O Carrol, Prince of Oriel, revenges the death ·of Eochy, King of Ulidia by slaying Murrough O Loughlin, king of Tyrone, at the battle of Letter Luinn in the Fews.
The men of Leinster returned back southwards over Siiabh Fuaid.
O Neill and his forces marched into Feadha.
Red Hugh O Donnellescaped from Dublin uand proceeded across Sliabh Fu.aid to Armagh
Lord Mountjoy after building the Moyry Castle continued onwards to the Fews Mountains at Armagh.
Place Nai11es. - -
Probable He4,J}j,_ng_o_f..Place Names in Terr·i tou_o_.{ Ballemacone -
1. Tullynagin - Tulaigh na gceannHill of he a ds. Field _of battle or an execution p l a ce. Joyce. Tulac na gcionn .• Peak of the h e a ds. Murray.
2. Lisnadill - Lios-an-doill. Fort tbf the blind man. Joyce. Liosan-a-daill. The blind man's fort. t ~rray.
3. Tullybrone - Tulaigh-bron. Hill of the mill stone. Joyce. Tulac brain - hill of sorrow) Tulac bruacain - border hill) Murray.
4 . Lislea Lios-liat -grey fort. Murray • .
5. Tanderagee -Ton-le-gaeith. Back to the wind. Joyce. Tainnac-liatT Grey pastu.re. Murray.
6. Armaghbrague - Breug - a lie or falsehood. Shadow or ghost of the City of Armagh.
7. Carran -Carran - a reaping hook. Joyce. Carn -cairn or heap. 1'lurray.
8. Farranamucklagh - Fearannmuclach. Land of the swine. A p lace frequented by pigs in fee d ing or slee p i ng . Joyce. Fearann n a muc kla. Land of the swineherds. Murray.
Place names,. (cont 1 d).
VII. Tullybrone
1. Clontie g orog. 2 Oughtnygrowre
VIII. Tullyneecan
1. Drurnowell. 2 . Carnveeagh. Lis:; of Surroundi11g__tg_v_[p.lands.
Augbnagurgan. Ballymacnab
Ballintemple
Ballymorran.
Cashel.
Clady Beg . Cladymore
Carnavana ghan
Cavanakill
Drwnconwell
Dundrum
Foley
Killyfaddy
Latmacollum
Tullyvallen
1. BallyrncEnave alias LatmcEnabb. Grant to Sir Toby Caulfield 22 May 10 James I~
Sub-denominations of . tQ.vLnlands of territory of Ballemacoan,
I. Lisnadill I • Lisnedell in Inquisition.
1. Creenkill. Crion-choill.
2. Lurgaboy.
3. Knocltantie
4. Lisdrumgawnagh
5. Coolekill.
II. Lislea,
1. Drurngarve
2. Tullawoski.
III. Garren-Beg als Cavanteeragh.
1. Fearnamuckley.
2. Liscormully.
IV. Armaghbreaghie,
1. Bealeatallon.
2. Annagh
3. Knock-bracke.
4. Menemacowan.
v. Corremore.
1. Fernagheeshaly.
2. Mullaghm.oy.
3. Teavegore. l,-. Attycorbe.
VI. Tanneraghie,
1. Tearwullin
2. Corbeachin.
3. Dartanff'rye.
Withered wood. The long yellow hill.
Fort of the ridge of the milking-cow. Backwood.
The rough ridge.
Ford of the assembly?
Speckled hill. MacCoane 1 s field.
Round hill. Name survives.
Compi.led as a gu.i~e to possible mea:nings of the to,mland names of' th0 territory of Ballymacone
Xnonl11.t;tm1 Q.t....1608 ;
Lissnedull
Lisseleigh Drommoyle
Cavnegrogh Corran
Ardmaghbreiigy
Tonregugh
Tullybrone
lN at i,6Q9A.
Lisnodolhe
Tonrogie
Tulbrony
Tullinegan
Armaghbonoga.
Lislea
Femeshalge
Ballycorran
~§.Uign AP:tmiil.3.2.,l,6Q9JI
Lisnedull
toynr-egr tuilibroane
Tollyne~i ]
Armaghbr.egagh
] _ Fernaghleshalge Corran
~:2s .o:Cl6"5•
Lisadell
Tanderagee
TullybroriQ
Tullanecran
Armaghbreag
Lisleagh
Aghernamuckla
Corran
Gu.nt ot Q!tP~..t~.!4. lR33a.
Lisnedull
Lisnedoth
TaynregyTonregie
Tullybroan
Tollyvegynn
Ardmaghbregagh
L1sleagh
Fe:rnaghneshal.lye
Corran
Tullybrony
Tu.llinegan
Armagbregg
Lislea
Ferneshalg
Ballyorran)
Beg and More)
Lissnedell
Tanneraghie
Tullybrone
Tul.lyneecan
Ardmaghbreaghie
Lislea
Fernaghnumueklagh
Ctllffenbeg and Correnmore
Lesnadill
Tondregee ollibtone
Tullyengeine
Ardmaghbreeg
Lesseleagh
Femamucklagh coranmore
Poll Tax 1660
Lisnadell
Tonrige
Tollenaghin
Ardmaghbeg
Hearth MoneyRoll 1664
Lisnadell
Tonreg
'l!ollonogin
A-- ..gb.breag
Lishelea
Farna.gha!llUrlagh
Cavan
Lislaedally
Tonragee
Tullaghbronies
Tullanegin
Al:.aaghb1-ieyn
Lislla
Fernshal.ye a.ls Ferrenennickly a.ls c. vc:negrough
Ba.llyconan
QLl,203.
Lisnedill
fandrgee.
Tullebrone
Tul.1.ynag!n
Armagh-Brege
Lisl.ea
Fememueklagh
Corren ~ -,gg lZll..
Lisnedull
'lanragye
:Cullabrone al.s :ru.llagbbi-aine
1full_anagin
Armaghbrege
~isloo
Femsha.J.:,i)
Dallycorren
Rental of 1714
Lisnadill
Tanderagee
Tullybrone
Tullynagin
Armaghbreg
L1slea
Rocque's map 1760
Lisnadell
Tullybroan
Armagh Breage
Farnamuckla
Irish Curren
Scotch Corran
At§. Ul35&
Lisnadill
Tanderagee
tullybrone
Tullynagin
Armaghbrague
Lislea
Farranamucklagh
Irish Corran ?
Scotch Corran?
324 acres
302 acres
266 a.ores
l.8-7acres
2e95 a.ores
L1slea 249 acres
Farranamucltl~ >+81acres
Irish Conan )l 20 acres.
Scotch Cori~an )
VariatiQns Qf spellings Qf townland names,
Rocque's Map of 1260.
Lisnadell
Tullybroan
Armagh Breage ·
Farnarnuckla
Irish Curren
Scotch Curren
Q,B. 1835,
Lisnadill
Tanderagee
Tullybrone
Tullynagin
Armaghbrague
Lislea
Farranamucklagh
Irish Corran?
Scotch Corran?
o.s, 1908.
Lisnadill 324 acres
Tanderagee 302 acres
Tullybrone 266 acres
Tullynagin 187 acres
Armaghbrague 2895 acres
Lislea 249 acres
Farranamucklagh 481 acres
Irish Corran )1420 acres.
Scotch Corran)
I. Lisnadill........ ,. Lisnedell in InqUisition.
1. Creenkill Crion choill Withered wood. 2 . Lurgaboy The long yellow hill . J. Knocktantie
It. Lisdrumgawnagh
Fort of the ridge 0£ the · milking-cow . 5. Coolekill .. Backwood
II. Lislea
l. Drumgarve 2. Tullawoski.
III. Carren beg als Cavanteeragh .
1. Fearnamuckley 2 Liscormully.
IV. Armaghbreaghie •
1. Bealeatallon
2. Annagh .3. Knockbracke. 4. Menemaeowan .
V• Corremore
l . Fernagheeshaly.
2. Mullnglnnoy • 3. Teavegor. i... Attyoo~be .
l. Tearwullin.
c!. Corbeaohin . 3. Dartanffrye •
The rough ridge~
Ford or the assembly?
Speckled hill 148.eCoane's field . Round hill . Name survives .
l . Clontiegorog
Oughtnygrowre
VIII . Tukkyneecan J
l . Drumconwell
2.. Carnvaeagh .
Aughnagurgan . Ballymanab
Ballintemple,, Ballymoran an ;f
Cashel
. Clady Beg.
Clady More
Carnavanaghan
Cavanakill
Drumconwell
Dundrum
Foley
Killyfaddy
Latmacollum
Tullyvallen
Grant to Sir TobyCaulfield [Caulfeild] 22 May 10 James I .
(Irish Corran ) (Scotch Gorran) (The Grey Stone) Lislea
Tullynagin
Farranamucklagh (Tullyvallen
The White Water rises south of Carrigatuke and there a re t h ree chalybeate springsg s or s pa wells also in t h e townland of Armaghbreague bra gue.
Lough Hill in this townland.
( Highest points. White Hill under 1000. Dangry 1000; Dungormly 900. Knockowen a hill of 700 feet in Altnamackin Cortamlet?
Ballymacoan Mill in Tanderagee townland.
Ballymacone River rises in Corran and flows into the Callan at Tassagh.
McCone 1 s Bridge, Cashel town.land.
Tullyvoney Bog, Farranamucklagh?
Antiquities shoymon a.boveMaps.,
The Grey Stone of Corran; and Fort in Carran.
Ea rt h en-rin ged fort Lisnadill and second fort on border between tha t town.land an d Drumconwell where Ogham Stone, so-called Dan e•s Ca st cro s ses this tovmland. Also Bull's Track.
O. S . M4E~ pf Co. Arma~~- - Sheets~ ..16,20,24 . 1908 .
Armaghbrague )
v.Thite Ro-ck _ 1082)
Beans 821 ,, )
Lisnadill
Tu.llybrone
Tanderagee )
Cor rabeltin Hill)
( Irish Co:rran )
( Scotch Corran}
( The Grey Stone )
· Lislea · Tullynagin
Far:ra:na.muckla.gll
( Ttulyvallen
The White Water rises south of Carrigatuke tand there are three chalybeate spr'ings or spa wells also in the town.land of Armaghbra.gue .
Lough Hi.lJ. in this town.land .
( Highest points . v~1ite Hill under 1000.
Dangry 1000; Du.ngormly 900 .,, K.nockowen a hill of 700 feet in Altnamackin Cortamlet?
Ballymacoan Mill in Tanderagee townland .
Ballyr.aacone River :"tses in Corran a.r.td flows into the Callan at Tassagh . McCone' s Bridge, Cashel tovmland . Tullyvoney Bog, Farranam.ucklagh?
The Grey stone of Corran; and Fort in Corran ~ Earthen-ringed fort Lisnadill and second fort on border between that tolmland and Drumconwell where Ogham Stone·,~ so - cal l ed Dane • s Cast crosses this tovmland . Also Bull ' s Track .
Two forts and Bull' ' s Tra ck in Ballymacnab . ort Lislea .
A Ca hel in Co.shel . Cnirn at Vicar ' s Cairn .
C lrn 111 , Cla dybeg .
Th above maps show -
art.l-ten-r:i.ngedfort • . School ·house. Church and graveyard. Dane1 s Cast. Highest point ~18 feet.
LisleasJaa.9,.s.1p._
Earthen-ringed fol?'t. Highest point 446.
TullynaginQ.J,l.-lb,
No -antiqw.:ties. filghest point. l+SO.
Farranamucklagh ,eh .o.s..2.0.
No antiquities. · Highest point s20.
Armaghbreague 0, s, 2.0::?4•
SehoOl• Church. Tatton's crossroadssCross Roads. White rock Rock 1082. lligb.est point 1200 feet .• Fort site,,, School house. Magee's Glen. o t1qu1tias.
Tandragee o,s.J16 sP4 20.
Highest point 490 .
lsate& The torementioned maps show that the clochan system of grouped houses had pra.etioa.lly disappeared in the Fews, the townl.ands being dotted with isolated houses instead .. There a.re, however,-indicators on. Rocque's Map of 1760 that bear out Donaldson-ts statement and at least one sueh group remained in Farranamucklagh and is shown on the maps of 1835' see Sheet 20. .
~. S, Map§ .Q.f ,1832-
The above maps show -
Lisnadill o.s,16._
Earthen-ringed fort. School house. Church and graveyard. Dane 1 s Cast. Highest point 418 feet.
Lislea o,s.16.
Earthen-ringed fort. Highest point 446.
Tullynagln o.s,16.
No antiauities. Highest-point 480.
Farranamucklagh o,s.20.
No antiquities. Highest point 820.
Armaghbrague o,s.20-24.
School. Church. Tatton's Cross Roads. White Rock 1082. Highest point 1200 feet.
Corrano,s,20,
Fort site. School house. Magee 1 s Glen. No antiquities.
o,s. MaR~ of 1835, (cont I d).
Tanderagee O. S, 16 and 20.,.
Highest point 490.
Note: The forementioned maps show that the clochan system -of grouped houses had practically disappeared in the Fews, the townlands being dotted with isolated houses instead. There are, however, indicators on Rocque 1 s Map of 1760 that bear out Donaldson 1 s statement and at least one such group remained in Farranamucklagh and is shown on the maps of 1835 - see Sheet 20.
Commissioners of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England.
Letter to the Council of State
This last Thursday a party of the enemy met with a small convoy of 2o horse and 40 foot and cut them off who were conveying 1200 loaves to Col. Venables party at Armagh. The loss to the convoy was occasioned by the captain not observing his orders of eight miles about being a secure way through the Moyry, where they were fallen upon by Tories that keep in those mountains who are reported to be in number 200 horse and 300 foot.
Dunlop, Vol.I, p.17.
Letter
to Sir Charles Coote,
A. party of 20 horse and 40 foot going from Dundalk to the army about Armagh to convey bread to them was lately cut off in the field by the enemy, an~ the bread l?st t~rough th~ unadvisedness of the officer in not observing his directions. Col. Venables is now marched towards the Fews to fall on that party of the enemy and clear those parts.
Belfast 8 Aug. 1651. Dµnlop VQl,I, Pe25.
The Barony of Fewsin 1655.
The soyle is a cold mountainous coarse sand for the most part pastureable, coarse arable and much red bog but it yields very little graine without store · of manure and' labour.
The mountain in part is pasture mixt with ffurze, fearne and heath. The low land is very much mixt with bogs and shakeing corroghs so intermixt as undistinguishable. There are many small rivers running through it which come from the Mountains of Oryer whose channells and courses being stopt by the ·extreame thickness of ye overgvown heathy grasse that hath turned that land which was formerly meadow-land into corroghs and shakeing bogs and these corroghs incompassing the small hills where the natives live.
There hath been noe improvement of either building or hedging thereon, onley one castle unroofed. It hath formerly been a woody countrey but nowe all decayed and destroyed by the war.
Observations on Map of the Fews.
In the Barony of Orier -- nthere hath been no manner o~ improvement made in the f?rfeited here ~enconed forth~ Irish inhabitants always lived in creaghts which they removea from place to place to inrich the small spo~s o~ arable_fo~ tillage 11• In Loghgilly parish 11there is little building, hedging or any other improvement 11 •
Down Survey Maps. Public Record Office, Belfast.
Lands of Ballymaconein 165u,
A~ showp.by the DownSurveyMaps 1655 -Baronyof Fews,
No particulars for townlands ofTullybrone Lislea Farna ghrnucklagh Corran.
8. Sometimes called the Census of 1659. Copy in Royal Irish Academy Library.
Shows:
The Poll Tax of 166.Q...
10 English tenants . L. d. 71 in isna _i_. 10 Irish tenants in Tandragee.
Ballymacowen 172,2-:1749.
Sale 17 April, 1729. Hector Graham of Co. Monaghan to Arthur Graham of Ballyheridan.
Three ballieboes or town.lands and one half-townland in the eight tmwnlands of the Territory or Precinct of land called BallyMcOwen -ArmaghBrage, Tullybrone, Tandragye and Tullynagin.
Deed of Assignment 22 March, 1749. Registered 20 March, 1750. William Stewart of Killyrnoon, Co. Tyrone, William Agnew of Kilaughter, Co. Antrim, and Mary Stewart, widow and exor. of Patrick Stewart of the city of Eublin.
Those three ballyboes or townlands and half-a-townland in the eight townlands of the Territory or Precinct of land called Bally Mcowen.
Armagh-Brege Tandragye Tallagan Tullybrone.
otherwise called Annaghbrarne. n u Tauraghie n u Tullmagin
Note:
The Registry of Deeds, Henrietta Street, Dublin, to be examined for references to above territory and for aliases of townlands therein.
Charlemont Estate Rental 1752-1764.
Granemore "·
James McGoan 1752-1764. Name spelt McGonan in 1759. Cashel, Peter McKeown 1752-1764.
Freeholders Lists.
Michael McGoan, Cashel. ) James McCoane Foley. ) John McCone, Foley. ) James McGoan, Cashel. )
Michael MeGoan, Cashel. ) Bernard McGoan; Cashel. ) Francis McGoan, Ballymanab.) Henry McGoan, Cashel. ) Phelimy McGoan, Cashel. )
Michael McGoan, Cashel. Bernard McGoan, Cashel. Thomas McGoan, Cashel. Arthur McGoan, Cashel.
Lisaraw Cormick. Francis and Patrick McKeown. 1813-1820. 1825. 1851-1852. 1852-53. 1853-1854. 1855-1856.
John McKeone, Farnarnuckla. Laurence McKeone, Farnarnuckla. Bernard McKeone, Umerinvore. Charles McKeone, Ballintate. As above.
Bernard McKeone, Farnamuckla. Charles McKeone, Ballintate. Bernard McKeone, Um. Thomas McKeone· Lisraw. John McKeown, farnamuckla. Peter McKeown, Ballintemple.
Charles McKeone, Ballintate. Bernard McKeone~ Farnamuckla. Peter McKeown, ballintemple. John McKeovm, Farnamuckla.
All of whomhad leases renewed in the period 1815-1819.
Charles McKeone, Ballintate. Bernard McKeone, Farnamuckla. Thomas McKeone, Lisraw. John McKeone, Farnamuckla. Peter McKeone, Ballintemple.
·
Charles McKeone, Ballintate. Bernard McKeone, Farnamuckla. John McKeown, Farnamuckla. Peter McKeown, Ballintemple. Thomas McKeown, Farnamuckla.
Charles McKeon, Ballintate. Bernard McKeon, Farnamuckla. Thomas McKeon, Lisraw. John McKeon, Farnamuckla. Peter McKeon, Ballintemple.
Charles McKeown, Ballintate. Bernard McKeown, Farnamuckla. ThomasMcKeown, Lisraw. John McKeown, Farnamuckla. Peter McKeown, Ballintemple •
Bernard McKeo'Wl1,Farnamuckla. Thomas McKeown, . Lisraw.
Same and spelled same. Charles McKeon of Ballintate
Blayeberry [Blayberry]Sundays.
At present there is only one spot in County Armagh at which such gatherings take place, a hill known as Carrigatuke 1 some seven miles south of Armagh City. It rises to a height IS . of 1,204 feet and i n the highest point in Armaghbrague a townland in the historic Barony of Upper Fews, one of the eight towns of the ancient territory of Ballemcoan.
The peak was of some note in Pagan days and as the district figures in the Red Branch Cycle of Folk Tales it has been · suggested as the probable location of the famous "White Carn of Guard That it was at one time earn-crowned is evident from local tradition but practically nothing remains to show the site.
From time immemorial it seems to have been a place of great importance. Immediately south of it in the adjoining townland of Tullyvallen2 is the hill known locally as "Shee Fina 11 or the Fairy White Hill, whose summit, tradition says, was the abode of Lir, and within the confines of Armaghbreagueitself the White Rock and the source of the little stream known as the White River. -What the district was like in those legendary days, which also link it up with another famous king called Fuat cannow only be speculation. Tracks of some kind must have passed
1. o. s·. Sheet 25.
2. o.s~ Sheet 24.
through it even then for in the Bronze Age and probably right through the Iron Age into early Christian times such communications were mainly on the ridges, so no doubt its elevated situation played an important part in the story of its prominence in County legend and history.
Cuchulain traversed it on his way to and fro between Emain Macha and Dun Delgan; and near it, or on it, the spot whereon · he captured the live stags and the magic lake from which arose his famous chariot-horses, the Grey of Macha and the Black Steed of the Glen. When he went forth from Emain to the wooing of Emer; he travelled by the same route -many another time as well he must have crossed its slopes before he fell covered with glory in that great final combat in the adjoining county of Louth.
Other famous figures in the Red Branch Saga might be mentioned in connection with the neighbourhood, but the greatest personage of all was of later date. He was not a warrior but only a humble Christian missionary, yet his is the name with which Armaghbragueand Carrigatuke are now most closely associated. Almost forgotten are the heroes of the earlier days but noCso St. Patrick. Local tradition credits the saint with having attempted to build his first church in the county with stones from the cairn on Carrigatuke and tells of a ghostly bull that pushed over each night all that Patrick erected by day, ·so that . in the end he deserted the spot and built at Ardmacha instead. The saint is still very real to the
inhabitants of the Brague, most of whom feel that they are specially under his protection, but underlying that assurance is a wistful regret that uthe oul' bull bate him awayn.
It is reasonable to suppose that the 11White Carn of Guard 11 was in fair preservation in the early fifth century. It was in
all probability a signal-cairn and not a burial place. Why it was so designated the uWhite Carn 11 is not now clear. It may have had a covering of white quartz stones, like the great cairn on Carnavanaghan, some miles north-east, which, by the way, is linked in local tradition with the vanished cairn on Carrigatuke, and the cairn on Mullyash, a few miles south-west of the former, by tales of the devil doing penance in the district, equipped with four huge creels of stones nsuspended from some sort of yoke attached to his shoulders". The burden was . heavy and his Satanic Majesty grew weary, eventually spilling a creel on each of the three hills, but as I have often been told 11gettin 1 safe till hell with the other".
In early days the townland of Armaghbraguemust have been sparsely populated, but as to that we have little information available to guide us. It is conclusive that it was of importance in primitive times because of its position, so t h erefore we must pay due attention to traditionary material tha t su rv i ves re garding it. Its summit is the highest peak in the Fews , on e of the County'; most famous districts, a countryside With Of stor~s that suggest a Bronze Age back- a se quence
ground as a possible beginning. Later in Iron Age times, in the days of Emain Macha greatness, it was a link in the southern defences of Ulster's ancient capital. In the days of the Christian mission to our island it again became the source of further stories. The tale qf Patrick and his adventures with the bull on Carrigatuke is still told in the fields and at the firesides. We know that the saint came to Armagh from the south and so passed through the district where he probably found on the peak some custom of which he disapproved. What does not emerge clearly with regard to the church-destroying activities of the bull is whether the story may not disguise the operations of a band of people hostile to the new faith. That may well be so, but if so, Patrick must have made some converts there for the inhabitants of the district were to the fore in the hunt that ended in the slaughter of the bull and his burial on Corran nearby. Strangely enough, though all the local accounts of nthe defeat of the bull 11 credit the natives of the district with its destruction, there are traditions elsewhere in the County affirming that it was killed by Ossian who after being dead for many centuries was ubrought back 1 ' by Patrick, so that the saint might learn something of the past deeds of that famous warrior a nd h is companions. It may be worth while to put on record a fe w l ocal versions of the stories.
VII. Carrick was always a gentle place.
The top of Carrick was always a gentle place. It was mebbe that before St. Patrick's Day for he wus keen to build on it. An• he wud hev hed a wee church there but that the oul 1 druids disliked it. They ·raised a bull that gored the walls to bits ivery night, so that the saint wus no farther forrard in the mornint · . That went on for a long time an 1 in the end Patrick lost heart an• went on to Armagh. It wus mebbe then that the people riz an• destroyed the bull. Better they hed done it earlier, then the saint might hev stayed. Not so long ago thousands wud be there on the first Sunday in August. There'd be games an• dances an• lots of harmless f.un, though to be sure there might be too much drink be times, strong stuff too, that paid nothin 1 till the Excise man. It wus mebbe on that Sunday that the bull was killed. There must hev been somethin' till start the thing1 But who knows now? Now they say it's blayeberries they come for an• till meet their sweethearts, but indeed it might be that sich gatherin•s were on the hill before Patrick's day an• hev lasted iver since. The oul' people used till say Carrick wus a cultivated place when he come an' that - the rest of the country was scrub and tr e e s an• full of wild pigs an 1 even worse, things that n o t hin •s knowed of now, God be thankitl
The above stories are, I think, of some significance. They do not prove a blayeberry pilgrimage to Carrigatuke in the days of Ossian for instance, nor do they prove that such pilgrimages have continued from Patrick's days to the present. They are, however, suggestive of some cult that may actually have its roots in a forgotten Pagan custom. Locally the only reason advanced for the custom is the tentative suggestion that it might have begun as a thanksgiving for "the· defeat of the bull that spoiled the wee churchu. How much truth there is in that we cannot now say. · It is quite possible that Patrick found a festival there and had some trouble in converting it to Christian usage or it may herald the harvest.
It is very difficult to induce the inhabitants of Armaghbrague to reason why the pilgrimage should continu~ or consider how it began. Most of them are quite content to accept it as an established fact, like St. Patrick's Day andother festivals, and to leave it at that. As far as the younger people are concerned they show little interest in the whys and wherefores of Blayeberry Sundays -to them they are merely 0 good crack".
Carrigatuke is somewhat unusual in having two Blayeberry Festivals each year -one on the last Sunday in July, the other on the first Sunday in August. On those two days the journey to the mountain begins early in the afternoon but I have been told that in past days it was considered the proper procedure to go direct to the hill, from morning chapel, taking
sufficient food for the day. Young and old it seems made the pilgrimage, but it is mostly the younger people who attempt it now.
I first saw the pilgrimage over a quarter of a century ago and on that particular Sunday most of the 11company11 on the mountain consisted of men and women under and up to about thirty years of age. Some were evidently sweethearts, b~t there were a number of husbands and wives, besides a few unattached elderly persons of both sexes. I conversed with many of the pilgrims on that occasion, but none of them were able to give any reason for being there beyond the fact "that it was an oul 1 custom to go to Carrick on that day an 1 ate blayeberries 11 • Some old people whom I met later in the day, at the base of the hill, and with whom I also had a talk, had heard in their younger days that the pilgrimage was in some way connected with St. Patrick, but they did not remember any religious ceremony ever held in connection with the festival. They mentioned that the clergy as a rule disapproved of the pilgrimage and did not attend the 11Blayeberryings". One old man, however, asserted that it had not always been so for he had heard uor a priest having blessed the people from Patrick's Chair one Sundayu.
I was present a second time in 1932 with Mr. H.G. Tempest, but on that afternoon I had no opportunity of conversing with the pilgrims as Tempest was engaged on a survey of the places visible from the summit, a task requiring a telescope,
theodolite, and other heavy apparatus, which we had to carry up the hill in broiling sunshine. We were early so the place was less crowded than it would have been later. We soon, however, became the centre of attraction to those present. It was a somewhat embarrassing position and made worse by the persistent attacks of wood-wasps which were new to the pilgrims as well as ourselves. I mention that visit specially because of the fact that Tempest was trying to identify Carrigatuke as the viewpoint of an old poem in the Book of Leinster, and his subsequent paper in the Louth Archaeological Journa1 10 provides an accurate picture of the huge extent of country visible from the peak -for so moderate a height it commands an exceptionally wide view, mountains like Slemish (50 miles away), Cuilcagh (48 miles), Bessy Bell (45 miles) and Sawel (40 miles) being clearly visible to the naked eye, besides a host of other summits. It is certainly one of the finest views in Ulstera great expanse of highlands and lowlands, rolling plains and distant mountains -but there is more than a beautiful v.iew at Carrigatu.ke, there is a definite atmosphere of past days and a feeling of communion with those days and on the right Sundays ·blayeberries in plenty.
I append a few accounts of the custom. The first was t aken down in turf-cutting time in May 1941, from an old man 10. Vol. VII, pp.455-471. 0 An Anaient Poet's View from Sliabhu.
then aged 85, and the ot her _ in June-July 1942. The first sugge st s a considered sto ry of the problem, an account that has been handed dovm, but there is, of course, the possibility that the bull-slaying story has accidentally intruded into an ancient hill-festival and so become a reason for the ori g in of the pilgrimage.
I. They go to pick bilberries,
On the last Sunday in July and the first in August ye 1 d see swarms of boys an 1 girls footin' it to the top . They go to pick bilberries an 1 for a whiles dancin' an ' carryin' on . I niver heared how it begun, but the c ountryside always k.nowed of it as the "Bilberry Sundays" an ' many a body met his wife for the first time on that same hill on sich a day . The sweethearts wud all be there an' them that had none wud be · 11 lookin• for them that wur fixt li ke the mselv es . Them that go sit in "Patrick's Seat" an' hev a wish but the crowds are not what they were.
11. Armaghbrague.
This fact was commented upon by Donaldson in 1818 who states - nThe acquaintance and courtshipof_the parties often commence and are carried on at fairs, patrons and other public places of rural sports and amusements. See Account of the Barony of Upper Fews. Tempest, Dundalk, 1923.
II. I don't know why they do it.
On the last Sunday in July and the first Sunday in August there's always a gathering on Carrick. The young people, boys and girls, go to gather blayeberries and to sit in 11Patrick 1 s Chair". I don 1 t know why they do it. Somebody on the Brague may know . My people only came here about a quarter of a centur y ago. There ' s an even bigger blayeberrying on Carn Hil1. 12 Granemore.
III. I mind them on Carrick since I was a boy .
The Blayeberry Sundays were always the last in July an 1 the first in August. I mind the m on Carric k since I was a boy -they're not so crowded now. Armaghbrague.
H·11 Local na me for Mullyash mountain 12. Carn 1 • nearby~
IV. Blayeberry Sundays ~lways bri~ the crowd. Blayeberry Sundays always bring the crowd to Carrick but years ago the gathering wud hev been a lump bigger than now. In the oul• days they used till dance on it an• ye 1 d hev heared the fiddle goin' for most of the day - ayl right into the heel of the evening. An• at one time there was races an' games like Mullyash, but now they just knock about an' pluck blayeberries. The people are gettin 1 duller these days. They don't know how till enjoy themselves anymore. Armaghbrague.
V. I niver went blayeberrying.
I niver went blayeberrying. It's a long way up from here an• when I wus a wee one I got enough of that mountain. All the farms here had half-an-acre or an acre or more up there an' we wee ones wur tormented with turf-cutting an' grazing. But lt's not for blayeberries they go. It 1 s for a big day•s crack. But sure it's fallen out of fashion of late years an• in no time there'll be no sich things as Blayeberry Sundays. Tanderagee.
The next account, though noted down 1·n C t oun y Armagh, deals a lmost exclusively 1vith blayeberry festivities on Mullyash Mountain on the Monaghan-Armagh border. It was recorded in Cullyhanna, County Armagh, a village less than two miles from Mullyash, and about four miles south-west of Carrigatuke. VI. Many a change the world t'akes.
Oehl many a change the world takes. •Tis sixty long years since I wus first at a blayeberrying. I wus as big then as I am the day an• that wus not big at all, but sure I'll be 89 come November the twenty-seventh an! mebbe I'll clear the hundred yet.
I blayeberried at Mullybawn once with a fella that wus coortin' a wee girl over there -he married her after -but it was Mullyash nearby that wus best. Scores of people wud be there, over the hill an 1 roun' the earn an' damn all there'd be but dances an' fun. The capers on the hill wud hev made ye split yer sides with laughin 1 • There'd be a pole stannin 1 up all covered with soap an' a hole full of water aroun• it -an• t he water wud be eighteen inches deep or more. An• the head of t he pole wud be flat an' there'd be two half-crowns upon it, for the one who cud speel it. Great God, but it wus fun to see them drop ba c k into the water. $ights for sore eyes they wurl · An• there ' d be I rish reels an' the best dance of all wud be a
-20-
three part reel. A boy'd go out in the middle an' dance with two girls time about and together. He'd birl them one way an 1 then another an' make figures of eight out of them. There'd be great sport on that Sunday I can tell ye. There'd be runnin• of races an' jumpin' an• there'd be a ball hung high atween two stic k s with a prize for hittin 1 it. But all the prizes were not in money. I mind a man that met his wife there. He hed a sister, the divil for scouldin•, but she hooked a man an• he wus left on his own. But·he didn't stay that way long. I met him after at Newtown fair an 1 we'd a drink to-gether. At that time I'd thoughts of marryin 1 meself. An 1 I said to him, 0 How do ye like it now that you are caught in the clift?"
Said he, ur declare to me God but I 1 11 tell ye the truth me boy. I fell right out of the frying pan into the middle of the fire 11 • God made the two of them but sure it wus the divil matched theml
Harvesting Customers
The spirits that the scythe set free Do they exultand doth flyree, · Sower of Life, again t 0 8 fhee:'l
The cuttingof the Calliagh, Armaghbrague
I .• A little handful of corn was gathered up an• plaited an• tied in a knot. It was done on the last day of the h · 1 It t f b ·s earin • . was cu rom a utt, an• the fella who cut it carried it off to the house where he put it above the durehead for luck an' left it there till nixt year. That night there'd be a bit of a spread an' . plenty of whiskey for it was as cheap then as buttermilk is the day.
II. I saw the Calliagh cut by the hook an• I mind well seeing eleven or twelve oul' weemin' in one fiel' shearin'.
The lan 1 was then in rigs an' ivery woman hed a rig. When it was cut it was taken home an• hung in 'the kitchen.
1. AE [George Russell]11The Sower". Voices of the Stones.
Harvest Customs- The Cuttingng of t0e - - Calliagh(cont'd).
Harvest Home Toastlng song.
Here's a health unto the t We hope to God h. mas er, the founder of the feast, Whilst here it i~sosoui ~aytrest w~ere a~l is love and peace, And t , . t ur u Y o consider his demands aKe l as a pleasure to work at his cornm~nds.' Corran.
So drink boys drink And see you do not ;pill For ..that is the master's' will. Drink boys, drink your fill. '
I. When it come to the last lock they looked for the best they cud see an ' divided it in three an' plaited it. They then tossed for who wud throw first an' then stud back five or six yards an' threw hooks at it. When it wus cut, an' they might be some time doing it, they'd raise a cheer. Him that cut it carried it in an' it wud be hung up till the next year so that the house might never want corn. That night there'd be a feed. I saw a Calliagh in Tom Kelly's of the Grey Stone lately that was cut last harvest.
II. I saw the Calliagh cut at Lisnisk in Loughgilly Parish as late as 1914 on Francis Bell ' s farm there. I heard of it here also. The Bell ' s did it always. It was plai~ted an' then snigged off with the scythe. The plaiting was done from the roots an• the head tied with string an' dressed with a
b d After i t was cut it was takeµ in an• hung on the corn e.n .•
Haryest Customs -The Cutting f ·th . o e Calliagh (cont'd).
jamb wall. I saw harvest knots and made them. They were wore in the buttonhole as a bit of "fr· · 11 igari. Some were knotted but others were shaped like hearts and diamonds.
III. I flut the Calliagh I t · t 1 cu i ast year but in a short time it ·will be clane quit for I'm no longer fit till do it. In the oul' days it was better fun. It was done then be the hook ant the fielt would be full of yo1Lngsters. It was plaited an• dressed before it was cut. I mind a blind man who used till be at all the cuttin 1 s. It was him that toul' me the first male that· come after was the Churn. We called it all the Calliagh.
I mind once working for Paterson of Lisnadill. He wasntt at the cutting for he had pains. When we brought it in we were goin' to put it about his neck but he said 11Nou. uBoysn, said he, nthere's a rule for the Calliagh, -it's roun• the woman of the house it should always P'O II 0 • So we put it roun• his wife ant she put her han' in her purse an' gave me five shillings for I was the one that cut it. That brought two quarts of whiskey an' we had great fun. He was a wellread man so I am sure he was right, an' his wife niver missed the money. She had plenty. They were a dacent family but sure their house is empty now. They rvn to girls an' girls don 1 t carry on oul' names.
HarvestCustoms - The Cutting ft _ 9 he Calliagh, (cont 1 d).
Granemore,
At th e finish of the cuttin' they'd take t hr ee han 1 fuls an' plait them. That was the Calliagh Then they'd cut it. In the days of the hooks it was done be throwin' an' wus tricky. When it wus cut there'd be a che er, an' the one that do....m..ed it wud throw it roun 1 the neck of the man of the fiel r an' houl' him prisoner till he promised them all drinks. When I wus young there wus still a little shearin' done, but I niver saw it cut but be the sweep of a scythe.
Killyfaddy
I still cut the Calliagh. It was done in me gran 1 father 1 s · time an• in me father's day as well. When it would be cut in their time there'd be a cheer an& they'd send for a quart of whiskey or mebbe they'd have had it in, but there's nothin 1 of that kind now. I just plait an' swing me scythe through it, but long ago it was done be throwingthe hook. In the oul' days they shouted something when they cheered but I have no memory of what it was now. It goes into the house for luck. I•m not the only one here that does it still an' there's always a special ·tea that evening. Always at the end of the Calliagh there was a feast an' often a wee bit of merriment as well. That used till be called "the Churn".
I. I saw the Calliagh cut an• with a hook too ' w_as long ago. Th 1 ey P aited the last wee bit of the but that corn, an' then they stud back an• threw hooks at it. The man that cut it, put it roun• the neck of the man of the house an• threatened till hang him -but he always bought his liberty · with trates all roun 1 • .
II. I saw the Calliagh cut and fired at with hooks. Whoever cut it ran and put it roun 1 the neck of the woman of the house. At the throwin' everybody stood the same distance back. Many a house roun' here had Calliagh goin' back for twenty ·years. We bring the Calliagh in still.
Cassidy. (In whose house I saw four Calliaghs.
Tullybrone, _
I. My faitler told me all about the Calliagh. Everything was shorn then by the hook an' in a field every man would have his own rig to shear. There'd always be a handful of the best corn plaited from the roots an' tied at the top. Then the men that were shearing would stand up an' cut it 'IArithflings of their hooks. The one that cut it put it around the neck of the o~mer of the corn an' 1hreatened to choke him if he did not get a gift. The prize was mostly the first drink at 11the Churn 11 , a great featt that followed after.
Harvest Customs - 7n e Cutting of the Calliagh .. ( c ont ' d).
Tullybrone.
The Calliagh is niver cut now, sure there ' s no hooks till throw at it. Sometimes they made a game of it and vmd only let the single ones try for it . Him or her that got it had a chance of spli c ing that yearl
Noteor the Festivals kept 1n Ballymacone
Christmas
The ChristmasRhymers.
The chief characters in the local version are:-
st. Patrick . St~ George~ The Turk. Beelzebub . Divil Doubt
The Turk' s father~ The Doctor" Cromwell. Big Head. and a Master of Ceremonies.
Costumes are largely the .product of the imagination or the players and do not always suggest individual parts • . The Turk as a rule wears a turban with a gilt crescent rising fTom it, but he is quite frequently portrayed as a negro . The Doctor, as a rule, carries an immense box of pills whilst Patrick and George are equipped with mitres, sometimes carry swords and shields and on other occasions only crozier-shaped ·staves .
· Players someti mes wear J.ong shirts over their clothes, tied at the ·waists by coloured scarves , and carry swords made from the t-tback ribs" of worn.out scythes . With . that form of attire, long black stockings are worn, and tall cone-shaped hats decorated with coloured streamers .
festivals, NewYear'sDay,
Cakes formerly baked for this day~
Water of no kind to be thrown out on New·Year 1 s Day. ' '
What comes in first on New Yeart-s Day said to be plentiful for the year.
Unlucky for a red-haired person to be the first visitor on that day.
Graves must never be opened on NewYear's Day.
(Cassidy.)
Festivals (cont'd). St. Stephen's
The hunting ot the wren is a thing of the past . (Cassidy.)
·~ Festivals
R1eh1l,W)B&Yn . . J Twelfth Day
(oont 1 d).
All Christmas decorations must be removed on or before twelfth night. (Cassidy).
§t, Brigid s eve @d. nw,·.
n.1Kflk1ugQt Brigid's crosses
No early evidence is available as to when the making of Brigid ' s Crosses on , the Eve and Day of Brigid's Festival first began, though there is reason to believe that.the custom pre-dates the Christian Period and is a su.rv1val of an earlier cult . The earliest local account is contained in a pamphlet printed in 1689.
In County Armagh in such homes as the old custom continues the rushes are gathered on the last day of January and brought to the house. They must be pulled and may not be cut . As a rule they are not taken inside until after sunset. On that evening it is usual to have a special meal in which pancakes figure . This mostly takes place before the rushes are brought in, and when partaken or, a female member of the household is ehosen to bring the rushes into the house . She is sent out in the darkness of the night and the door carefully closed . She immediately lifts the prepared rushes from some convenient spot near the door, knocks three times and cries ~•Goon your knees, open the door and let Brigid in 11 • ~• door• is then opened and all kneel in prayer after which the :rushes a.re divided and the members of the household begin .the task of fashioning the crosses .
- ~e ritual of the making of the crosses seems to vary somewhat 1n different districts , In some places a cross is ma.deand pla0ed upon the table berore the meal is partaken ot . The meal itself is generally spoken.of as 11Brigid ' s Tea" or "Brigid'sSUpper" and though pancakes always feature as to the chief dishi it is usual in certain applegrowing districts have an apple griddle-cake or apple dumpling as well . .
t In County Armagh1 Brigid's Cross now seldom appears as a 8 raw cross . It is al.most invariably. made of rushes, though te interlaced varieties are chiefly fashioned from reeds .
• 1!l8king of straw crosses presents a rather perplexing pr:!~lein . It suggests in some ways links with the harvest and ma~s one wonder whether Brigid took over·some of the •t t r1butes ot the Cal liagh besides those of her Pagan namesake .
(cont ' d) ,
~e rush oross is sometimes varied by having weather exposed rushes of ~he previous year intermixed with new green rushes. rhis provides a pleasant contrast or colour but of course the cross eventually bleaches to a straw colo~r and the effect is not ·then noticeable.
ln days past when mo-st or the country cottages were devoid of ceiling the inner side of the thatched roof was considered the prop.er- place for the crosses or preceding years and ·they usually remained there until they crumbled away .
Brigid'sCrosses when fashioned must not be lightly th rown aside .. When they can no longer be preserved they Should · 1,e burned -or buried•
, ThoW?h it 1s tho1,1ght more proper to make the Crosses on Brigicf•s l>,q or iVe 1 they a.re quit! often mad~ specially tor presentation to i'~J.ends • The making and giving of such erosses is said to honour st . Brigid and confer a blessing on the per-sons who ma-dethem, their welfare being increased by the gift~ bestowal, and friendship strengthened between t he donor and recipients .
Early potatoes should be 1n the ground on this day.
'?h~ warmstde of the ·stone turns up ·•
On Candlemas day throw the candle away
On• Patrick'ss Day throw candle and candlestick away.
Rosettes made ot coloured ribbons and called st. Patrick's crosses were formerly worn on this day. The ribbon was mounted on a bit of linen as in the sketch. !he custom has now degenerated into a green rosette • .
. 01ris wore cardboard crosses covered with coloured wonl v . cf. (McFarland).
2; March. Lady Day . A holiday•
FesttvaJs ,
{ cont ' d) .
0 The first or April some do say Was set apart for All Fool'ss Dayt But why the people call it so · Not I, nor they themselves . do known.
Children fool their elders and they themselves are sent on "Fool Arns" for «round squares and other impossible th:lngs .
Cuckoo Swallow and Corncrake are said to arrive on this day
(eont•d).
Easter ·
Eggs boiled ·with tea leaves and whin blossoms. When really hard and sufficiently coloured were then trundled on the s-lope of a ·gentle hill or in a meadow .
(Cassidy, McParland, 0'Neill, etc ,).
May eve
nan. MayEve we•d be s,ent to gather Rowan tree branches an • get May flowers an• when we brought them home they•d be put on the duresteps [doorandstep]windows". Tanderagee.
May Day was sometimes kept by the very old peop1e on May, the llth .
"We gathered May flowers always an • put a lock at the well an ' at the house dure, [door] the byre du.re an• the stable dure . It was done for luek an.' protection from mischiefs, but sure the childer [children] the day are careless 0£ such things an• lazy besides - they•d ha.rdJ..y go for them now."
Armaghbrague.
"On the day ot May Eve we,• a all be gathering May flowers to throw aroun* the dures [doors]to keep the witches an• fairies at a distance, , ant the man or woman who got the first go of water f'rom the well on May mornin 1 got . the flower of the yearts wate:r ant the luek as well . "
Armaghbrague.
"May flowers were gathered then on May Eve an ' put on F the doors an • window sillscattle houses an • all, an • hey were al.ways put at the well.
Corran ..
"WhenI was a wee one I t-d always be out on May Eve but not a£ter sunset mjnd ye . It wasnt t thought right till be out then . We'd all gather togither an • pull bushes an t kaYf.lowers . An• the May flower we would tie on the bushes an t we all had posies we' d march the townla.n t over . I don ' t """ why we did it, but we did it an • liked it weuu ..
Corran
111 have seen twenty children gathering May flowers in the w holme They t d put a few of them on every door, even the duck 1rouse door, and always at the well. n .
Cassidy, . tanderagee .
Unlucky to fall asleep out of doors on May Day. Hares should not be slaughtered on May Day.
McParland.
Mid Summer eve
~On Mid Summer Eve there•d be bonefires but they have vanished. I mind an oul• woman who lived nixt us, an• the Ev never passed that she did not go out on the hill an• light a whin or a bottleof straw." Corran.
"When I was young theretd be a bonefire on the night of Mid Summer s Even• Armaghbrague.
"On Mid Summer :Eve there-fd be a bonfirewith a torchlight procession ant music all the young people wud be there. Thei-e•d a.lways be a few oult han' s too ,rJhotd wait till the crowd wud be gone, then they'd collect a halfburned turf or two antake the m home with the m to put on the .flax an• · corn crops •.•' -
Tanderagee,.
uThey used to have gr&at bonfires here on Mid Summer Eve, but that has all passed. Every hill had one even ir it was olll7 a bottle of straw on a pole.,''
Tullybrone
"There were bonfires on the hills up to about 40 years ago. Cassidy, Tanderagee.
FestixaJa , ( cont ' d) .
29th June [east gist , Peterand St. Paul,
Pilgrimage to St . Patrick'sWell at Armagh or to st . Patrick ' s Lough near Crossmaglen . Bonfires on the Carrick (Carrigatuke) and other high hills . "Ashes from such fires had a. cure in the m but what it was t forget .
Cassidy .
Lady Day
Hibernian Celebrations .
This season known as Summer's End or Holllntide.
Boys d ssed 1n sheets w1th.ka.1l runts for horns, and ls of straw ropes, used to parade on this night and frighten people to death 0 •
applesdunked for around farms possessed of appl
Nuts burned
On this night the dead come back .
Games were played. A cou-11+-eor boys would pick sJ.des each calling another boy or girl from the crowd until they had teams ..
Doors and gates taken.
Horses see ghosts on this night ...
Folk Tales from the townlands
Armaghbrague, rush light resin slut
I remember the rushlight candlesticks in use here an' I mind the rushlights made. Strong full rushes were the kind an' they were cut at the full of the moon. The oul' people thought they had a stronger and fuller stem then. When they were brought in the skin was carefully peeled fro m them, all but a · wee strip do·wn one side. That was left to hold the pith together. In them days there'd be a wee dish called the cam always at the fire an' it would be full of rendered fat. The rushes wou.}.dbe dipped a nd drawn through the fat an I then dried ant then dipped again and again. The cams were made by the blacksmiths but a broken pot did just as -well. I saw resin sluts made too. strips from old coats.
The wicks for them were made from
Hop step and ·Lep,
Hop, step an• lep was the great game when I was a boy. Ye hopped on one leg an' then took a step an' a lep. The boy Who could cover the greatest distance wax the winner. It was Played on the roads or in a flat field.
HJmgrygr:ass..L
Hungry grass only grows on spots whereon a person has eaten Without dropping crumbs.
Ballymacnab,
Folk
Tales, (cont'd).
Cricket§ are lucky.
Crickets are lucky. They niver die nor will they be in a house where death is. That's true as night follows , the day. I mind hearin I an oul I man say they ,,ror wise as Solomon an• that if we cud understan' their chirpings we'd hear many a crack of things that happened long ago.
A Through-other old bit.
She wus a through-other oul 1 bit an' none too sonsy at that, for it ·wus often said she wu.s given till ridin 1 a broom stick. But all the same the wus come of oul 1 residenters an' when she wus past fendin 1 for herself the neighbours wur good to her, an' sent the wee ones with milk an' male many a time. But they wur always afeared till go in, for they'd heared many a crack they shouldn't. An 1 when they thumped the dure their hearts wud be in their mouths till she slithered out till them for there wus always the chance that she might not appear as herself at all, at all.
An~ she wus the last one till see the wee people here. ~afore they left the country they went till the house to her. An• what do yo~ think for, why they went till tell her they 1-TU.rgoin• till war. An' she an• them bein' sich frien 1 s they bid til l her.
Folk Tales, (cont'd).
uAn • 11 , says the spokesman, 11we may ni ver be back 11 •
An 1 she up an• she says, nochl but ye will now. Sure it's die I wud without ye's". An 1 with that she started till yammer. Says she, nr cud ni ver thole the whole ·winter through without news of ye's".
Says he, uwe'll leave ye a sign 11 •
uAn, what will it ben, says she.
11Keep yer blinkers on the well", says he. "If we're · bayte it I s bludy the water 'ill be u.
_ An• bludy water it wus an' she tuk a brash an' died heart loneliness for them an• that wus the en' of her.
An• mind ye, all be it she was but a wee croul of a woman, she wusn•t afeared of man or brute, even in the bad times when it wus far from safe for a man till be alone, let be a woman. An• them that toul' me the story of her knowed all about her and her fairy frien• s. ·
The fairyThorn,
In that field over the road there wus the finest thorn iver, though it 1 s wasting now. Ant Larry McParland, he's the one that caused it. Sure he tried till stub it down, ant WU.sn•the thrown right across the field till the very road itself, as many another can tell ye besides meself. An• now it Will soon be down with the cattle -scratching it, but the div11 a one wud lay han• till it otherwise, an• it in as good a fi e ld a s iver wu.s.
Foll\ Tales. (cont'd).
The Banshee,
I 1 ve heared it. It follows us an 1 it follows the McParland's too. I've heared it arovn 1 this very house. It cried for our Arthur, an• Barney O'Toole heared it too. That wus in 1 85. I niver saw it but there's them that say it's like a wee woman. It's some kind of spirit I'm thinkin', mebbe a kind of the wee people.
cashel,
The fairiesand Finn, I heared me grandfather say that many a night when he wud be bringin 1 ~ome the cattle he had to git on the ditch in thi~ very loanin 1 till let them pass on their way till the glen.
An 1 there ·wur giants here as well as wee people, but sure the wee people wur last. Fin MacCool he's self spent many a day on this very hill. An 1 it vrus here he put an en' to an impident foreign giant that wus lookin' for fightin•. Ayt ant he buried him in under yon stone on the brow of the hill.
Cashel
The Ploughing of the Relig.
Shure it wus in oul 1 McParland's time it wus done an' the country side wus afeared for him, but nothin' happened. An' he had the finest corn ye iver saw. From far an' near they come till see an' wonder at it.
The headswur as long as yer arm an' reachin' far above the walls of the Relig. An 1 it ripened. An 1 one evening himself an' some other wur there. An• he says, says he, 0 I 1 11 cut it come the morrow if help can be got st • An' they who wur with him promised till give a hand. But in the mornin' when they got there sure it wus bare as yer fist - deil the corn or anything -not even a stubble. An 1 it give them such a fright they niver tried it again.
An.1 I remember me mother tellin' me -she's the one had all the oul' stories -but it's seldom I listened for I used till think the oul 1 people wur crazy -of someone crossing the Relig one evenin 1 • An 1 tne music was so good he cudn•t keep from steppin 1 till it. An' he jigged till it long an• well t~ll he foun• it right under he's feet. An• then he got the fear upon him an' he hooked it as quick as he cud. An' it WU.sWell he wus able.
An• there wus me father's sister who tuk some dry branches from the oul' fairy thorn at the foot of the hill. She Picked them to light the rire with. But they flewright out and couped her over an• sure it wus well she met with no "10l'se.
An' in Segahan river beyant, they did their wee bits of washin'. Sure there's the purtiest pots ye iver saw, an' they in the stones themselves -just where the river divides Geordie Armstrong from Paddy McKee. Many a time I have seen them an' many a time the oul 1 people saw the fairies washin'.
The Cabin under: the h.illi
On this very farm on the groun 1 you're stannin' on there wus a cow in me grandfather's time. An 1 when the rest of the cattle ~md be comin 1 till the byre she wud always disappear. One night they caught her goin' an• they grabbed · her tail, an 1 swung_till her till she reached a shough in the bank of the glen. An 1 they held on an' soon they found themselves in a wee cabin under the hill. An 1 in it there wus a wee woman, an• a houseful of wee ones, an' niver a taste of milk. An• she .begged them till lave her the cow, but they wudn•t. They spoke ill to her an' toul 1 her it wus wicked she wus till be coaxin' the cow. An' sure they might as well have left her for in the mornin 1 she ~ms dead at the stake.
(cont'd).
Tge Fairy Last
Me father wus hoardin 1 in the Religg one day - he wus sarvent-boy till the m that had it. An• he saw a cobbler's sate an• the purtiest wee last ye iver saw beside it. An• into he 1 s pocket he put it, but when he got home the oul 1 people wur so afeared he put it back. An 1 he marked the spot, an• the very nixt day when he looked for it sure it wus gone.
Cladybeg.
LQQking for a dance.
I remember myself an' three others one night. It 1 s many a long year ago. It wus lookin' for a dance we wur but divil a thing we got but a fright. We wur ta k in' the short cut over the fiel' till the loanin' an' the wee people vrur there in hundreds. Playing games they wur. An 1 there wus step-dancin' too. Sich clappin 1 of han's an' merrymakin' ye niver did hear. They had a fife an' a fiddle an' mebbe the best of a band -but we wur afteared to go near. We footed it quickly for them" that falls under the spell of the wee· people 1 s music are goners completely.
Cladybeg,
Tales. (cont'd).
In themorning it wasstones
Sure the only sort of fairies that do be goin 1 now are the sort that are about ye all the time. I mane them that's like you or me. But bedad it vru.sn 1 t always so, for I mind , oul I Robert Stevenson of Corran beyant -as dacent a man as iver trod shoe leather tellin 1 how he an' long John Williamson comin' from a wake wur axed to a dance in the fairy forth above. An' hell till sich a night's sport they iver had. But they wur afeared till stay till mornin' though the fairies spoke them kindly. There wus lashin's an' lavin's of mate an• drink but divil a bite crossed their jaws. An 1 rather than ·have _the wee people think them cornaptious, an• partly because of the crack they'd had, they agreed till a present of money. An 1 indeed and doubles in the mornin 1 it wus stones, ant that I s a ·s true as I tell it.
Cladymore
on thi5 very ro~d it bappeneq.
It wus a coul 1 an• frosty evenin' a)l 1 the night showed signs of bein• worse. I only heared tell of it, but I knowed the man well. The night wus frosty an• he wus out late burnin' straw in his praties to k.eep them warm an• save them from tak1n• the frost. On this very road it happened -where you an• me 1s now. He wus goin 1 home an' met a wee man an' woman
Folk TalesL (cont'd).
who axed how far it wus till Clady Chapel. He toul' them an' they said, u1ave us a bit of the road". An• he did. An' when they got there the wee man said, said he, "Mebbe ye haven't had yer supper yet?" _
Bu~ he said, said he, nr had, just before I left home for the pratie-fiel 1 ".
An' the first thing he seen after that wus a wee fire an 1 a griddle of bread atop of it. An 1 the wee man rayched for a farl of bread an 1 broke it in two an' give it till him with a silver half-crown. But he put both in his pocket for indeed he wus afeared till ate the bread • . An 1 he thanked them both an' - bid them 11Good nightrr, an' niver stopped runnin' till he got till Donaghy 1 s below. An1 when he put he's han' in he's pocket sure he only had a stone.
TAe time§ are changed.
The very childer used ·till be afeared till daunder on the hill in the heel of the evenin 1 • An' no wonder. Sure it wus said the wee people wud be dukeing in the shoughs ready till. Many a mallyvogin I got myself because of them. An' sure the cattle themselves wudn1 t munch a bite once darkness had come. Ay, divil a blade wud they let in their gubs. Home they'd ramp as far as they cud. Sure it wus quare altogither. An• now if ye mention fairies to the wee ones they think your full of whigmaleeries -or mebbe worse. God, ay, the times are changed. But it 1 s speyed -the fairies will come again.
But it wus an oul 1 harl of bones without gmnption or sense who said it an' mebbe they'll niver.
Jhe Butterlep
A wudn't be stayin' too long aroun' that place. It has a bad repute in these parts. It wus a place of call in the oul' days but the travellers wur often murdered in it, that is if they wur worth the killin'. It's not one . ghost but many that's about it an 1 the worst of all is a headless dog.
An' on the other side of the road is the Butter Lep. Long ago when the . people wud be goin' till the market of Newry with their bits of firkins of butter, the robbers wud set uoon them an• cut the firkins free of the backs of the .I: ponies. When that wusdone the butter wud roul' down the
hillside ti .11 the bottom, where other villans '41Udbe wai tin' till take it. away. An' the people of that house wud know nothin' about it.
Tne Fairy Fort.
Th~ wee people owned it an' wur for iver houlin' balls an' dances in it. Me father heared an' saw them. An-i!J oul' John McKee who is living till this very day both saw an• heared them. Once they nearly had him away. He wus bringin 1 home the cattle when they come upon him. An1 he wus hard
put till to escape, but he got a grip on the tail of a cow an' sure he . wus saved. Indeed it 1 s the smallest an' purtiest fort ye iver saw. An' well might it b~, for it wus niver touched be mortal but once, an' that be oul' Pat Rafferty that's gone. An' it wus only a spadeing he dug till he tuk a pain in he's leg that niver mended an' he wus lame for the rest of he's day. Drumconwell.
A crowd of hares used till gather in the wee forth at night. They used till jist sit there an• even the agrue 11 that cud ·see them well wud luk the other way. Me gran 1 father himself went in once when they were there. He saw the lot of them in the centre of the ring, but when they saw him they slipped into the sheugh of the fort. As soon as he left they ' were back on the rampar. He was sorely bothered be them an' one night he borrowed a gun an• let them have it. An' sure as Yer here the nixt mornin 1 there was hardly an 1 oul woman aroun• that vrusn 1 t in bed.
Drumconwell, -
Fairies gn tpe loom
Near the forth in the oul 1 days lived a weaver an• often at night she heared the fairies at work on her loom. Many an' many a time she heared them talkin 1 an' laughin', but always when she tried till see them they wud be gone. He could never bear the sight of a hound
In a hous_e on the roadside near the oul I forth, there lived a man some fifty years ago who had a great weakness for hunting. He woke up one fine night to find a pack of hounds in the field at the side of his house and wus so overjoyed at the prospect of a hunt that he hardly tuk time till dress. He no sooner reached the hounds than off they went in full cry and they tuk him backwards and forwards and roun 1 about tpe countryside until at long last he foun• himself in the oul 1 forth. An 1 there the fairies set upon him. An 1 they pulled his hair and beat him hard ant well, but at:ast they let him go an' till his dying day he could never bear the sight of a hound.
Farranmucklagh..
Theheadstrong man~
Me grandfather, God rest him, wus aye a headstrong man. one day the cows wur breakin' something tarrable. An' he laid a·han• on one of the gentry bushes to cut a branch till stop a gap. But sure he got a fall he niver overed. He 1,ros threw
righ:t through the scrubbery in till the river below an' he wus a ~one man from that very day.
The Fairy Glen
It wus aye a gentle place. The finest gentry bushes in the country are there. Three of them made a chapel in the oul' days an' Mass wus said there many a time. T~ere wur three wee steps u.p an' a place for the blessed altar, but now sure the cattle do be trampin' over it - it's hard till keep them off it. The bushes are hundreds of years of age, an' a purty sight they are in the spring. _Ye cud sit under them the wettest day that iver wus an• not git spot or jap of rain.
Greed for land.
The Boyle'sin Farlagh beyant . wur greedy for lan 1 • An' they \I/Urfrien' s of me ovm too. An' they broke up a gentle place for bye they had bother in ploughin 1 • An• the very next mornin• th eir two ho:i;ses, as good bastes as ye'd fine in the whole of the country, killed their selves be runnin' away an' breakin' their necks 1n the glen. An• th t t ft a par o he Boyle's went to clean
Farranmucklagh,desolation, an' soon they had neither horse, cow or calf till their backs.
The Bonni§ Wee Woman.
A mind me aunt an' me - I wus the . wee nipper then - goin' down till the river for water, an' there · on the other side ,rus the bonniest wee woman ye _ iver saw. An' me an' me aunt, well me an' her, run back till the house an' toul' me uncles. An' off they come as fast as their legs wud carry them, but not a hate they saw at all, at all. That wus sixty years ago or more, an' she wus the size of a wee one of two or three.
The cow that 11ved in a cave,
There wus once a cave near till the Fairy Thorn, an' often in the oul' days a wee woman wus seen in an' about it. An• she had a cow, an• the cow wus for iver grazin' in the field, but no one cud iver git near it, for it always went back to the cave.
Fallen Angels,
Some said the wee people wur fallen angels, an' that some stuck in the sky an' niver reached the groun 1 • There's something in our prayers about it but I can't remember. The Lord was in a passion an• He cleared them all out, because they wur so i mpid ent like. Thought they wur as goqd as Himself. But He calmed in the middle before they'd all fallen an' that's why some are still in the air. It•s harm they'd do till Ireland too, membe, only that they hope to get back to heaven some day.
Latmacollum,
The Fairy whip
McIntyre had the farm then an' he held it with another
Where Bertie Gray is now. An' he used till pitch buttons and marbles on the bridge, night a~' mornin' -he an 1 many another. Themornin• the whip was foun', it was a wet night the day before an• the whole road was covered with their wee foot marks an' blud. An• there was the whip, bludy red as ye like. An• McIntyre lifted it an• it all blud though he was toul he shouldn't. !n• do Ye know he nearly died after.
Lisnadillsnadill , Cricketsare lucky.
Crickets is lucky but aisy huffed. I heared of a man on he's cailey who come home late at night an ·~ foun• all the crickets suppin 1 he' s milk an I porridge. He wus rea££-yangry he wus. An 1 s he grabbed the tongs an• shoved crickets an' all in the fire. But when it come Sunday an' he went to put on he's bits of clothes, sure the whole of the back was cut out of he's coat. He had till I go to the tailors with it before he cud be seen again in it~ An 1 the crickets riz an' left the house and niver come back an' all his luck went with them. Tanderagee.
Elf shot,
Cows were sometimes elf-shot when I wus wee. I mind a man cud cure the bother. He'd take a bit of kindled turf from the !ire be the tongs an• move it from side to side an• say a bit of a prayer. It wus then put under the cow's nose an' she was soon better.
Folk Tale~, (cont'd).
Tanderagee L
He could get no milk,
A man in Granemore cud get no good from his cows. Some body wus takin 1 the best of the milk. He put a charge in his gun one night an• a han'ful of silver for colpher. He watched an' he saw a hare slip in till the byre. As it come out he blazed at it. He hit it about the hips an• it got away, but the country said it wus Jane Hanlon. She wus lame after anyhow.
Tally Sticks
I mind my father sayin' that long ago the workers kept Tally Sticks because few of them cud read or write. He used till tell of a girl who kept one an 1 made long nicks an• short nicks for t he days an 1 half days she worked for a bachelor man near this. But he tried till cheat her, so she threatened till law him. Sa1.d he, nsure what wud ye do that for, sure ye wud only be bringin•· it back to me some day? It may jist as well stay with me nowtt•
But she wusn 1 t aisy fooled with them promises. She knowed well he'd no notion . of marryin 1 her. She tuk him to Coort an• she went in the box with her Tally Stick an• the judge believed her an• she got her money. My father was a witness an' some of the neighbours. Shewent barefoot to Coort but she put on her 1 lastics at the en' of the town. At that time the bogs wud be full of barefooted girls at turf-makin' time and they'd all have white bonnets. McCreesh.
Folk Tales._ (cont'd).
Tanderagee.,
Red-head people are not always sonsy -especially women. I well mind hearing a woman whose son was gettin' married to one , make a great moan about it. uGod help him 11 , said she, 11Ivery body will be jumpin I the ditch rather thah ·meet her. If I had my way she'd niver set a toe in the house. It's a quare affront to · a dacent body a daughter-in-law likre that". But sure, it would just have been the same if he had married a saint _ from heaven. She was ill to plaze that one.
Cassidy.
When I was a boy I drank Bull's milk many a time. People had till use it then. I can tell you how to make it. You took some oatmeal and steeped it with just enough water to cover it. Andafter it was well moist you poured scalding water on it. Then You left it alone for twelve hours. It was a right good substitute for milk and many a one seldom had anything else at times for tay or Porridge.
Cassidy.
I knowed a man that reared a family in the Hatter s Bog. He had nothing to live on so the Graham's let him squat there. He cut sods and built - himself a house. He placed the - sods in rows like bricks and drove pointed sticks through them to keep them from 811 PI>ing. It had only one bay and a broken wooden barrel for a chimney. I knew another such house that one had almost to crawl
Folk Tales ...
(cont'd).
into an' an oul 1 man lived there alone. He just lay on a lock of straw on the floor. There was no door only whins or heather. Both houses are gone now -they only lasted while they were lived in. The thatch was anything - grass or rushes or mebbe scraws. Cassidy. Tullybrone ,
By~iness of his own,
Sure in Granemore above Pat Conran wus out one night on business of his own. An' there wus a public house in his way, but before he cud reach it he wus caught be a party, an 1 he not knownin 1 \lno they wur or what. An1 they had a jar of whiskey, an• for pace sake, he carried it. An 1 they all went along the road till they come till a house a wee bit off it, at no great distance. It wus lighted an' the fiddles wur goin 1 an 1 there wus playin' an' dancin 1 • Conran left down the whiskey an' tried till git goin' for he suspicioned what they wur -but they made him dance. An' he had a bye-name - "Nate Coat" [ NeatCoat]itvrus. An 1 they nearly murdered him with steppin' it out. An' the better he footed it, the more they yelled, "Nate Coat, yer doing it we11 1 •. Chokin' with thirst he wus, when they offered him whiskey an' hard put to till refuse it for he wus no temperance looney. But sure if he had he wud niver have got back till te11 the crack.
Tullynagin in,
The~ gQt no KQOdof he~ after .
The McGaughey•s had a co w on the Cashel, an ' it wus supposed, indeed it• s as true as t h e Gospel, that the cow ':.'US tuk from the m at times. One night they saw it bein ' tuk, an ' followed it all the way to Ballymanab. An' there in an oul ' house now down, they foun• it. An 1 it wus being milked, an 1 there wus a houseful of childer, an ' some of them ill wid the faver, or so they wur toul 1 • The people in the house axed that the cow wud be left, an' said her milk wud increase. But no the McGaughey 1 s wud have it away . An' away they tuk her but the got no good of her after.
Tullyvallen
I don't mind the fairies,
I don•t mind the fairies but I do mind Dan Molloy ~ho lived in the house nixt till the one where the ghost is . He had a sweetheart an 1 that wus near till a ce ntury ago . An' till see her he be till cross the river near the gentry bushes . A.n• many a time he toul 1 it he 1 s self. Said he, 11 t night I WUdbe takin 1 the short cut till s ave me legs . An 1 the aisyest Place ti· 11 b e crossin 1 wud be t h e thorns. An' sure as yer there ·siJC nights out of seven, a voice wud say, "Dan, ye cleared it 1'lell that t · n . ime • An I I wud say, "Och! ay, 11 an • go me wayo. An• I always respected the.thorns for it's mortal unlucky till annoy them. Mebbe your cattle wud bog in a_drain or worse .
(cont'd).
any a good man we n t till the bad because of takin' liberties wit h t hem kind of bushes. Many a ti me I heared that story.
Me brother-in-law, hi m that wus caretaker to oul' Stitt of Newtown, had a venture once with the wee people. Sure the cattle wur breakin' somethin' awful an' trampin' down the crops beyond anythin g . An' he poor man wus fair bothet'with them an' with cutting branches all over the place till stop their capers. He wus out with a bill-hook for the best of a day, an 1 at lon g last he wus so late, he said till himself, . said he , "I'll lop a branch or mebbe two from the oul 1 thorn -they'll niver be missedn. But the very first chop he give there wus a tarrable moan. He looked everywhere but there wus nobody near. An' he thought he 1 d be safe in broad dayli ght so he hacked it again an• out come the billy-hook smothered in bludl An• he wus fair tuk With fri ght at what he had did. So back he put the branch an• boun• it up with splinters. An' in a day or two it wus as well as iver. It 1 s a marcy he didn't cut if off.
I. The stories maynot be St Patrick and the Bull
The bull pushed over during the night all that Patrick set p be day. An' Patrick wus very annoyed an• cursed the bull an' it went mad. The whole of Armagh was after it. It raged an' tore for miles roun• but whether it wus killed be Patrick's curses or died of a temper I don't remember.
It wus wonderful the way the saints cud curse3 in the oul' days. The same Patrick wus good at it be all accounts. He'd ring his bell on ye an• curse ye for little. An' ride over ye too if he tuk the notion. He killed his sister that way. An' ivery time she riz he turned the horses an' drew the chariot over her again. She soon died of it. But God wasn't always pleased with him for capers of that sort. He tried it once on a man too but God raised .the groun' an' the wheels did no damage. That should have · been a lesson till him. But the ; stories may not be true. The oul 1 people toul' them anyhow!
Armaghbreague
3. Patrick's successors at Armagh were capable of doing so on 14ro6vocation. Archbishop Prene's Register under date March 5, 1 1 contains a particularly vjJjjictive example wherein the 1arties were "cursed standing, sitting, walking, riding, fling, sleeping, waking, eating, drinking, bread, liquor, esh, fish, butter, leeks, onions, garlic etc. and in all ~~her occupations from the sole of the foof to the crown of Bell head, at the same time being excommunicated by Book l, and Candle. '
II. It frightened even Patrick.
When I wus a boy it wus often I'd be on the mountains above wi' oul 1 SammyMorrison who was herd till the Moore's of Lisnadill. An' it's often he toul me brothers an' me that a bull of the oul' days, mebbe indeed the one that chased 4 Patrick he's self, is buried under the Grey Stone. The marks of its feet are on stones till this very day.
That was in the oul 1 days an' the oul' people always had it that the Bull's Trackin Ballyrnacnab wus made be that very animal. They said it went clane mad when Patrick tried to settle on Carrigatuke. An 1 the dancin' an• roarin' of it put the fear of God in the whole countryside, an' no w,onder for sure ivery night it wud be wreckin' all that Patrick hed built be day on Carrick beyant. Ah! sure only for that bull Armagh WUdbe on the fine site! That's if the story is true an• mind Ye there's something in oul' stories or they wudn1t be toul.
The bull went mad, ay, completely crazy. An 1 he riz at Carrick an• lit at Ballymacnab, an' the noise wus awful. It frightened even Patrick an• he gathered the country from far an• near, an• they slew the baste an' dragged him till Corran •• An• th ey fetched the biggest stone they cud find. An• they dug the
4. A standing stone that figures in local folklore.
5. One of a three hoof-indented boulders linked by tradition with the bull that drove Patrick from Carrigatuke.
e deepest hole that iver wus an' they dumped him in. An 1 they ut the stone on top they were so afeared he'd rise again. An' when we wur childer we wur so afeared of him rising we niver went near the stone at all.
Corran.
III. Patrick bate the bull at long last.
The bou.11 Patrick bate the bull at long last. It give him bother on Carrick dancin 1 roun 1 him, but when the bugger followed him till Armagh he wus fair angered. · Say 1 s he till himself "I must show the baste who's the master hereu an' with that he grabbed it be its four pins an 1 ,.swirled it into the sky. · When it come down again it bounced leek an ingy-rubber ball from one hill till another all roun• the town an• iverywhere it fell it left its marks. They're plain till be seen in many a place still. There•s marks at the Navan6 itself and in a couple of places on th e way to Newtown But the bull couldn't have been the divil as some people would have it, for feth the oul' boy's here yet1
Ballyheridan.
6. Navan Rath.
7. Lisnadill and Ballymacnab.
IV. And Patrick was real sorry.
It wus in the days of Ushen an' Patrick wus sore tormented for iverything that he'd be building on the Braguewud be down the next morning. An' Ushen wus jist back from the lan 1 of niver die, where he might have been livin' still only that he liked Ireland better. An 1 that's that1
Sure it wus on the other side of Carrickbroad 8 it all happened. Ushen on he's big white horse was careerin 1 up the mountain when a woman with a bag of turf • - bad luck to her anyhow for it wus the greed of her caused it. Why cudn I t she be after filling what she cud carry an• not be burdenin' herself with the lazyman•s load? But sure all the sorrows of Ireland come be the weemin' an• if ye axe me they're the cause of many a heart-burn still. An• mebbe some of them are worth it an' more like some are not.
How an• so iver, till be slicing a long story short, sure Ushen forgot he wussafe on he's horse only so long as he didn't be after - droppin 1 he .• s legs on the groun 1 an• dovJn he hopped an 1 helped her up with the turf on her back. An' och anee, that wus the harm. Ushen soon felt the death upon him an• down he lay upon the hill-side. An 1 the woman who ~as mebbe the Cally [Calliagh]Berry9 or some like her, went away~
8. A town.land many miles away, on the Armagh-Louth border.
9. One of the chief figures in the folk-tales centred around Slieve Gullion.
An' Patrick wus passin• along an• he heared all about it, an 1 up he goes. An• says Patrick till Ushen urtts sorry I am to see ye so wake now. Sure it's yerself can have the wish three times on before fedie nown. An• Patrick talked to him of heaven but Ushen wusn•t in much of a bother.
Says he, HAre there houn•s and baygels there?".
"The divil a onett says Patrick.
lfWell, I 1 m not goin' there at all 0 says Ushen, an• Patrick wus sore put about for he wus takin' a likin 1 till him.
Says he 111 Tween you an' that brute of a bull on the BragueI 1 m like to be breakin 1 me heartn.
An Ushen had a wish-: says he uwill ye bury me on Slew Gullion, an• will ye bury me high an 1 dry an• clap a stone or two above me".
"Deed an• I w111u, says Patrick.
Then says Ushen nFor me last wish 1 1 11 have me strength again till I take a look at yer bull. Give me back my st rength an• I'll rid ye of him 0 says he.
Ant Patrick says nrise me boul 1 boy an• be after doin 1 Yer best.u
An• Ushen went an' sarched for the bull an• when he foun• it he struck it a mortal box in the face that knocked it as Stitt as you like. An• it's buried on a mountain somewhere
near till the Armaghbreaguewith a stone above it, like a Christian himself. An 1 when Patrick come till look for him, thinkin 1 as like as not he wud be totally destroyed, there he wus asleep in the . skin of the baste. But sure he woke no more.
An 1 Patrick was real
Usin 1 it for a blanket he wus. An1 they brought him back till ou.11 Slew Gullion an• buried him there. sorry.
v.
The Bull's Track,
It•~ on the way till Armagh like, an• there's nothin 1 till touch it the whole world over. Sure I niver believed it meself untii me an• $Omeothers footed it down. An1 there it wus as plain as ye like. I saw it with me own two eyes an• I tell ye it 1 s the grandest scenery ye iver saw. Sure the marks of the baste 1 s cloots are as plain this blessed day as th ey wur when Patrick himself wus here. An1 that•s so many Years gone by, none but them as has the larnin 1 can tell.
Ay, many a time I heared the story of how the Bull riz on the Brague an• niver touched earth till he lit at Ballymacnab. An• th en he riz again an• came down on the side of Navan Rath. An• he back an• he leps on another in Lisnadill. An..' ~ after that he Wentclane mad. An• the country up an• slaughtered him. An• th ey buried him on Corran, an• there he lies under a · lump of a stone. An1 some say he wus no bull at all but the very oul• div11 himself - an• mebbe he wus. Who knows?
VI. St. Patrick and the Bull.
It's often I heared tell . of the Bull that jumped off Carrick above. It wus the one that stopped the building of Armaghin the Armaghbreagueabove. Night after night all that wud be built by the saint wud be undone in the mornin'. At last a guard was set an' the bull was seen. But sure it lepped from there till Ballymacnab an' wus in such a temper it lepped again. An• in its anger it went right over the hill where Armagh is the day. So it back again but it knowed it was bate. An 1 the . roars of it wur somethin 1 tarrable. It frightened the country roun•. An 1 they gathered from far an• near. An• the strong ones among them killed the baste near the Corran above. An' the largest stone in Ireland wus drawn till the . top, for sure it wus no ordinary bull - at all, but a wicked spirit of sorts sent to torment Patrick he's self. An' there it WU.slaid an• the stone above it, an• there it is till this very day on the mountain for all till see.
otes on the antiquities Qf theterr;ltQr~ of Ballymacone and some adjoining townlands
Territory JJ..f Ballymacone
I. Armaghbrague.
Carrigatuke, highest point, Repute .d site of an ancient cairn associated with the Red Branch Saga and St. Patrick's church-building adventure ·with the bull. Rude stone seat on summit knovm as St. Patrick's chair. Location of an annual blayeberry pilgrimageo Old name of district south of Carrigatuke and from Cairn Hill to Newtownhamilton was Moin Fuad - authority Mr. Arthur McParland whose informant was an old man born about 1830.
II. Corran
The Grey Stone of · Corran. A pillar-shaped stone marking the burial- -place of the bull whose destructive activities prevented the erection of a church on Carrigatuke. Remains of an old "green roadJ which tradition states once ran from Emain Macha to Tara, -part of which was in use in the 17th and 18th centuries as a highway from Armagh to Dublin. . Single-ringed fort on farm of Peter Kernan. A cylindrical case of gold was found in this townla_nd in 1~33. See Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (Lewis) under Lisnadill,and Wilde's Catalogue of Antiquities in the Royal Irish Academy, p.89.
Irr. Farrananucklagh,
Local]y called 11Farlagh 11 •
The Fairy Glen on the farm of Arthur Boyle contains a Mass tltar on which tradition says Mass was celebrated in Penal ays. The altar was rudely shaped of earthen sods and is now much defaced and overhung by three large thorns. ~1:,elast McCone of . Farlagh died in October 1942 aged 85 years. is name was James.
rv• Lislea
Fort sho\im in this town.land on Maps of 1835 and then evidently in fairly perfect condition. No,,.,.a site only on farmof Mr. Samuel Craig. Tradition says ill-luck followed he fort•s removal.
V. Lisnadill
Contains t h e re mains of two earthen-ringed forts (on the Me nary and Moor far ms) and a hoof-indented boulder linked wit h stories of St. Patrick and the Bull, as well as a travel l in g eart h work, commonly called 11the Cast 11 • Linked by tradition with Navan Rath near Armagh and locally believed to have been a boundary of the old district·of .Emain Macha. Cast traceable but very imperfect on Moor and Williamson far ms.
VI. Tanderagee,
Ballymacone Mill in this townland was formerly for the grinding of grain but is now converted into a scutch- mill. In old days part of the corn or wheat was retained by the miller as his fee for grinding. The custom was knovm locally as mutterwhich may be a corrupt form of Multure".
VII. Tullybrone,
Booley Hill on James Gillespie
1 s farm. A relic of the days before the hill was divided up into enclosed fields. Was shown in the Johnston farmhouse a christening robe of linen, made from flax grovm and ·woven in the house over a century ago. · The Johnton's have been in occupation of their farm from before the Battle of the Boyne and the present house is said to have been built 150 years ago. Some old glass remains in the windows -greenish-tinged, not quite clear and with 11Bulls 1 eyes". House ·had a canopy type brace over an open hearth but this was removed in recent times and a kitchen ran ge inserted. Windows in gable-end light two . attic rooms upstairs. Centre-room upstairs kno1,m as the 11Black Loft because it has no window. The 1 Cutting of the Calliaghhas been discontinued - on this farm. Quilting frame at this house.
rr • Tullynagin
1 o antiquities.
Adjoining To:wnlan~s •
• Aughnagurgan,
A group of three prehistoric burial places for which see the 11Preliminary Survey of Northern Ireland".
Old road pas sing through this toi;mland by Tullynawood Lake associated with pre-christian tales and also linked with St. Patrick.
The "Calendar of State Papers of Irelandu 1592-1596, po246, show the name as Aughe Magoregan and record that Conor Oge McCardill rescued certain kine there.
£• Ballymacnab
Earthen-ringed fort on farm of James Mcilroy. Single-ringed but partly destroyed. Known as Devlin 1 s Forth" and so called in commemoration of a previous owner of the farm.
A second single-ringed fort locally called n O' O'NeillI s Fort 11 situate·on farm belonging to Bernard Curran. Near it there is a Fairy Thorn that figures in many local tales.
11The Bull's Track-a hoof-indented boulder associated with St. Patrick's encounters with the Bull from Armaghbrague.
Mass Garden in sub-denomination of townland called Carrickclay and . on farm of Arthur (Joe) O'Toole
• Ballintemple •.
In the cutting of turf in this townland some habitation sites were discovered, in one of which 11a coat or jacket of a very peculiar cloth, brown in colour and of a coarse texture likesacking or canvaswas discovered. It ·was dug out in bits and the pieces were eventually lost. With it was found sorne leather footwear of a shoe or slipper shapeu. The coat had buttons and according to Mr. WilliamIsaac Johnston they were 11wood or horn
v • Ballymoran
~eputed church -site on hill knovm. as KirkHill. Greatly destroyed earthen-ringed fort on farm of the Cunningham arn11y, also a fort site on farm of John Hughes.
V. Cashel'-
:tone-walled ·enclosure or cashel, locally known as "The religbecause of its use in former times as a burial-place ao~ still-born children. Wall greatly reduced in height 1n Width by the taking of stones for building purposes th,:rgest amber bead ever found in Ireland discovered within :rin •
There was once a cairn on sa me hill but it has been completely removed. It was probably situate in the field knoi.•m lo c ally as ncarn 11 or in the adjoining field named Carnaeggit
VI. Cladyb eg ,
Contains line of an old trackway linked with Emain Macha and Tara, that later became a well-known hi ghway continuing in use in parts. In the 17th and 18th century was the reco gni zed route from Armagh to Dublin and much infested by highwaymen. Passed through the Dorsey entrenchments, and tradition affir ms that Brian Boru's funeral c~~e to Armagh fro m Clontarf by this route, and that James II traversed it on his way to and from Derry in the days immediately preceding the Battle of the Boyne ·
A Barracks was erected here in 1700 in which a small party of troops were quartered to safeguard travellers on their way to a.Y1dfro through the hills of the Fews and to protect them from the attention of highwaymen for whom the district was somewhat notoriouss At that time there was an Inn near ·to the barracks kno1-m as the Black Di Ditch which probably took its name from the peak spoken of locally as the Black Bank
Cairn site on Dead Man's Hill, alias Cairn HillTradition says that the cairn was removed by the Synott family when building Ballymoyer House and that they had the then Lord Charlemonts permission to dis mantle it~ Bonfires were lighted on - the cairn in the old days on Mid summer Eve and there was music and dancing. This continued until about 50 years ago and the games, etc. were very similar to those taking place on Bilberry Sundays at Armaghbrague. The site of the cairn is now a circular green patch very free of heather.
Cairn site on Cairn Hill in which, when the graves were being broken up some pottery was found and removed to Ballymoyer House . .
Habitation sites found in the cutting of peat in this townland. Informant Mr. Anthony O'Hare. In 1930 when cutting turf a bronze spear-head was found by Hr_ Hugh O'Hare and at the same time a bronze palstave was dis covered by his brother John. The two brothers were sons of the a bove Anthony O'HareThe spear-head and palstave were found · within a few yards of each other.
Cavanakill
II. Cladymore •
This to,mland was formerly part of the lands of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul of Armagh and contains the site of a gran ge chapel.
Granted to Sir Toby Caulfeild in the early 17th century, who founded a village therein and was given a patent for a Saturday market and two fairs in 1612. · Site of a small friary probably established during the Civil War of 1641, possibly in 1644 or 1645 -see Friar O'Mellan Journal under Nay 1644 and January 1645. Fort sites on farms of Joseph McCullaghJames Boulter, and Patrick Vallely, and a perfect miniature earthenringed fort on the Raftery farm.
rx. Drumconwell
A very perfect earthen-ringed fort on farm of Peter Donnelly and a greatly destroyed fort knovm as Rainey s Fort" nearby.
In this tovmland was found the only Ogham Stone so far found in Co. Armagh.
x. Dundrum -
Double-ringed earthen-ringed fort on farm of Mr. John Little. Two other -double-ringed forts in immediate . vicinity.
XI • Killyfaddy
Contains a very fine section of the so-called Dane's Caston the Cunningham and Gray farms. Reputed castle site on · farm of Henry Price. Field known as the Fish Pond Field, and another called the GraveyardFieldare probably relics of a grange chapel of the Abbey of St. Peter and St. Paul of Armagh, a building shown on the Escheated Counties· Map of 1609.
XII. Latmacollum .
XIII.
Se?tion of Dane's Caston farm of Mr. John Hughes. In this tovm.land the Cast is commonly kno·wn as the Rampar Tullyvallen•.
Shee Fina or the Fairy White Hill, the reputed abode of KingLir.
Donnelly's Hill. Once surmounted by a cairn enclosed by a rin~ of boulders or standing stones.
BloodyBogsaid to take its name from a battle fought there
in 1650-51 between O'Neill'stroops and Cromwellian's under Ireton.
Souterrain on Warmingtonfarm. Harrymount. Cairn from which a Bronze age Food Vessel was obtained. • 0
Cross inscribed stones in Tullyvallen Tipping on farms of Peter Donnelly and Henry Savage. Newtownhamilton village founded about 1770 by the Hamilton family who acquired 3,275 acres in the district by purchase earlier in that century. Hamilton's of Hampton Hall, Balbriggan and Hamwood,Co. Meath, present representatives.
Corp of Irish Volunteers raised by Edward Tipping circa Yeomanry Corps in 1798.
Copper halberd found in Tullyvallen Boy -See J.R.S.A.I. June · 1930 •
HOUSINGANDHOUSETYPES, CO. ARMAGH, Introductor_y.
This is not a comprehensive study of the house types of the county, but a short essa .y that had · t 1 s origin in a survey of a little territory of eight townlands in the Barony of Upper Fews. Known as the precinct of Ballymacone, it derives from a sept of the McCones who appear in the Archiepiscopal Registers as early as 1264 and are still represented and resident. 1
The ground plans used as illustrations are chiefly of houses in Ballymacone and its surrounding townlands, but for comparative purposes documentary material relating to the Baronies of Armagh, Orior and 0 1 Neiland has also been examined.
In the county generally the old houses are being · 11 · the Orchard Country, replaced by modern homes, especia Yin a district embracing a large slice of countryside st retching from Lurgan on the east of the county to Charlemont and Blackwatertown on the west.
I 1954 pp 132-1501. See SEANCHAS ARDMHACHA,'Vold its Ass~ciations with Territory of Ballymacone an McCones.
The the
At the Plantation of Ulster one of the grea .t difficulties encountered was the problem of the settlement of that part of the pastoral population which had been accustomed to wander without fixed habitations after their herds of cattle. Many of the inhabitants of Ulster seem to have been then living that kind of life and, indeed, were encouraged in it by their chieftains who saw in the policy a method of making their lands less useful to an invader. Under those conditions agriculture was somewhat discouraged and the building of houses looked upon with disfavour. It was a shrewd plan, for in war the native people were able to retreat with their cattle into bogs, woods and other safe places and so deprive the enemy of meat and butter. That, coupled with the fact that at that period oats were sown in very limited quantities, made the food problem a serious affair in the various incursions by the English from the days following the Anglo-Norman invasion down until almo5t the end of the 17th century. The adjoining counties of Louth, Downand Antrim had by then been long colonized and planted f th umotes and baileys" With strong castles the successors O e , . s but they made practically first erected by those doughty warrior, is now county Armagh. No great no headway in the territory that foundations · arose within the Norman castles or ecclesiastical
The county t or occupation. err1tory to mark their progress was in a state of great then, and for many centuries after,
unrest and the ancient See f A o rmagh suffered in consequence. The portion of it that was situate in County Louth became English in life and thought, but the Armagh and Tyrone portions resisted English influence to such an extent that it was often necessary for the Archbishop to resort to excommunication in the enforcement of order within the diocese -not that such a threat greatly troubled the o•Neills or 0 1 Hanlons of those days who preyed upon the church when necessity arose and sought absolution before embarking upon new depredations. Certain of the Archiepiscopal Registers of Armagh survive and provide a grim picture of the continuous local feuds of the 14th and 15th centuries, quarrels in which the church suffered many indignities, and in which the Archbishop's tenants on the church lands were often despoiled. Unfortunately we have no See Rentals for those years and no knowledge of the types of habitations on th9 lands of the Archbishopric, but the fact that particular families were tenants of certain lands 11time out of mind11 tenure tha n the creaght system, at suggest a more settled least in so far as the church lands were concerned.
O'Neill placed a curse In the reign of Henry VIII, Con h l d "learn the English Upon such of his posterity as s ou l I I . s" • At t .hat period there language, sow wheat or build house l-lv>e.,~~lQ. e v1r.-c:.~i"fwi'-11 <M vf.JN~ "1rt4.4 h the Castle of f<r ~ere two O'Neill castles in County Armag ' A
Gla ssdru mmond in the Fews, d t es royed in 1641, and t he Ca st l e of Portnelli g an (now known c as reevekeeran), beseige d and taken in 1531 by the English who were bro ught t here by disagreements amongst rival factions of the O'Neill-11 e 1 s.
For instance, Sir Samuel Bagenal in a letter date d 28th April, 1600, 2 states that on the way fro m Newry ·to Armagh "h e burnt a good store of houses in the woods11 • Henr y Bi r d , Commissary to the Army, who was with Bagenal on t ha t occasion refers to the soldiers having, within fo u r miles of Armagh, set "fire to many houses wherein was store of corn and other manner of provisions of such plenty it was a wonder to behold and brought away many cows, garrans and shee p ". 3 On the 6th April, 1601, we have a further notice of an a s sault of an island in Lough Lorean on which certai n hou ses were fired and afterwards ua great house on the shore and ot h er houses also 0 • 4 On the 2nd of the same month Lord Mountjo y ' 5 a r my t Rawlaghtany where or ders marched from Armagh three miles o to uburn some t went y fair were given to Sir Henry Danvers 5 Facts such a s these timber housasu which he performed. defi cient i n su ch tend to disprove that the county was Openl.·ng days of the 17th century. amenities in the
2. S.P.I. 1600, p.148.
3. Ibid, 1600, p.172.
4. l d part II, ( 1615 Edition) Ire an' oryson's Itinerary pp.97-98.
5. I bid, Pa rt II, p.117.
In the Carew M.ss.6
we have a description of two types of houses that were then being erected in Ulster.
I. An English house with three rooms beneath, a chimney, an oven and a loft.
II. An Irish house with a chimney at the end made of wattles and consisting of two to three rooms.
1be first type can be identified in certain districts and is easily recognizable because of its long attic or loft and small windows in its gable-ends. I know of one such house near Armagh town, recently deserted and now almost a ruin.
The second class is less easily identified for comparatively few gable-end chimney types remain, excepting in houses of a single bay, or occasionally in examples containing two bays, but those that I have seen of the latter type have been remodelled and the second fire-place and chimney are undoubtedly modern intrusions. Further references from the same source disclose
7. Carew M.SS. 1603-1624, PP• , 'fa pair of inclined An obsolete form of couple -.~neo~ the slope of a roof, rafters or beams on each si 8 r•xed at the bottom by a that meet at the top and 1 ar~ p 1 ort of the roof. tie and form the principa P
and the somewhat bewildering statement that the inha.bi tants of Charlemont, Co. Armagh, both English and Irish had ''built good houses of coples after the English manneru. 8 There are similar references in the Calendar of State Papers · D -1.n onegal, for instance, many of the Irish had ubuilt cople houses after the manner of the English Pale". 9 There is no doubt, however, · but that many of the houses erected by the British settlers were just as primitive as those of the native population -in Co. Down the settlers on the Montgomery estate "soon made cottages and booths for themselves because sods and saplins of ash, alder and birch trees with rushes for thatch were at handu.lO
The earliest local census of house-types that we possess as a guide in the development of building in the county is a 11General Survey of the Town of Armagh taken on ·the 20th hit September, 161su 11 a document of absorbing intere st , th0 ug
th . t The types shown may only deals with houses within ·e ci Y• roughly be divided as under:-
Little creates. Creates.
Forked creates.
Copled creates.
Long copled ereetes.
Little copled houses.
Copled houses.
Fair copled houses.
Great copled houses.
Long copled houses.
Forked houses.
Old houses. stone houses.
8. S.P.I. 1611-1614, p.127.
9. Ibid, p.123.
lo. Montgomery M.ss., p.59.
ll. Archiepiscopal Archives, Armagh.
Somewere provided with barns and stables and most of them had gardens attached.
The term creaght seems to have been first used in connection with the pastoral population who were somewhat nomadic in their habits, but it later came to have a secondary meaning and was used to designate a particular tYPe of house. In the later sense it owes its origin to the primitive dwellings made of wattles and boughs of trees, covered with long turves and sods, built by the creaght upon their lands. It has been suggested that when they moved to new grazing grounds they dismantled them and re-erected them on fresh pastures • . It is very probable that the framework of sueh houses being easill transportable was the only portion removed. To rebuild their home each time the cattle were so driven must have been rather a nuisance, but when one remembers that in the southern end of the county gaps in stone field fences are still filled loosely With stones, that have to be taken out and replaced during tillage and harvest operations, the procedure becomes somewhat more understandable. · the second One rather useful guide as to house-types in \ . survey made by Arthur half of the 17th century survives in a · \ . Co Armaghin the Brownlow of the Manor of Brownlow's Derry in • tion (which bears many Year 1667. From the document in ques l earn something of the annotations of later date) we . b ·1t on that property in the dimensions of the houses being ui f r ty feet long buildings were o Period 1666-1700. The largest
by twelve, sixteen and eighteen feet wide ' thick and eight, nine, and ten feet high. With walls two feet The next measured thirty feet in length, by sixteen, eighteen, and twenty feet in width with walls eight, nine and ten feet h.lg•h A third tYPe was twenty feet long by sixteen feet wide, with walls nine feet high. All types had brick or stone chimneys and in almost every case they were lofted in oak. In some instances there is a suggestion that the walls were not always completely u stone and limen as the foundations were ordered to be built three feet high in those materials. In a few cases shingles were mentioned as roofing. That similar houses were already in bein g on the estate is evident from the fact that when certain te nants on the property were given additional leases they were compelled to build new houses as good as those they then lived in. Roughcasting with lime appears very frequently but, unfortunately, there are no particulars as to interior arrangements. It is probable that if a survey of houses within the Manor was now made that date m]. . ght still be found. Old some examples of that f . t storey thatc h ed houses of the smaller types and some_ ine wob k to the late 17th residences still survive which may go ac~ t ys high, thirty century. A few houses, two and a half-s ore feet long, by eighteen feet broad appear also. ·c in 1703 the lands of the Archbishopr1 Ashe 1 s Survey of t on the See Provides much general information _ on house ypes b divided into grou p s La n d s in that year. Roughly they may e
as under:-
I. Farmhouses of stone and lime . and parlours well floored. with good chambers
II. Good stone houses with floors above stairs.
III. Houses, the walls whereof are t brick. Good rooms above andpbarl clay and part e ow stairs.
IV. Stone and brick houses without upper rooms.
V. Good stone houses two storeys high.
VI. Small stone houses.
VII. Stone and clay houses.
VIII. Mud-wall houses.
IX. Cottiers who have each a small tenement with a potato garden, etc.
In almost every case, barns, stables, cowhouses and turfhouses are mentioned with occasionally a pigeon house. On one farm na new ox-house built with stone 11 appears with a cowhouse. Malt houses and corn-kilns are also listed as well as orchards and fruit trees. Unfortunately there are very few notes as to dimensions and no ground plans. Certain maps for this period surVive in the Archbishop's Registry on which houses are delineated on particular farms but the drawings seem to be conventional map decorations. According to some published Hearth MoneyRolls (Tracts on Ireland, Vol. II, p.410) there were 9,003 hear th s paying taJt in the county in 1712. By 1718 the number had increased to 9,586 arid by 1725' it had reached 10, 5'39 hearths, but in the following year it had dropped to 10,5'31. Between the ,,. ·
latter date and 1790 the inhabited h 12 ouses of the county had doubled.
From about 1750 onwards there was a great deal of rebuilding of houses, amongst the larger or more well-to-do farmers, and many of the bigger two-storey houses of the district were built between that date and the end of the century. Few of them, however, are interesting architecturally as they have mostly suffered so-called improvements in the form of new windows. Such houses sometimes show windows that were built up to evade the Window Tax and that have not since been re-opened, features that give queer effects to otherwise quite nicely proportioned houses. Many of the houses of that period have bars of iron in position outside the windows, relics of the days when the area was disturbed by robbers and the later political disturbances for which the county was notoriousthis applies to single-storeyed dwellings. The bars at present are mostly to be found on the back windows and th ey usually when new windows have remain in their original proportions even been placed in the front of the house.
t O f co. Armagh in 1766, Arthur Young visited certain pars bu to Armagh by the Fews so we this journey did not bring him that he might have written are therefore deprived of notices t area at that time. Figures on housing and agriculture in he
12 • Beaufort Memoir of Map of Irela nd ' P 08 • from HearthMoney Rolls of 1790 •
Total compiled
re given for earnings in the manufacture of linen and nformation on the rotation of crops, but housing generally is ittle noticed though mention is made of the custom of farmers 0 when their sons grow up and marry universally divide their farms with them, build new mud cabins for them, by which means 1arms grew less and less, until eventually they became economically impossible and were no longer sufficient to supply their owners with necessaries. 1 3
We have quite a pleasant picture of housing conditions in the county in the early 19th century. Coote in his Survey of 804 comments on the fact that uthe miserable hovels that so often wound our feelings in other parts of Ireland are scarcely o be seen here nor does that squalid poverty and filth tlisgust the travellers, which most southern provinces display and which is perhaps less to be found in Armagh than in any other county in UlsterH. He specially mentions the whiteashed walls, well-thatched roofs and neatly enclosed gardens of the labourers• cottages, and gives the expense of building one as under: -
Mudwork and plastering
Roofing.
Thatching and straw.
Door and leaded windows.
£3. 8. 3.
£1.14. 1-½.
£2. 5. 6. 11. 4-}.
13 • A Tour of Ireland V 1 I 162 ' 0 • ' p. •
at the s ame time stating that some tt co ages were put together at a cost of fro m three to five pounds but of inferior material. Fences were well taken care of but there was a scarcity of gates, a feature that p ersists in some areas to the present day.
Shaw Mason• s Parochial Survey of Ireland, 14 . comp11 ed in 1816, gives a rather pleasing account of housing in the parish of Ballymoye r in the Fews. We are told that 11the cottages are in general neatly thatched and many of them whitewashed and roofed with foreign timber as bog-oak which formerly supplied them is nearly exhausted. Their feather beds, quilts, sheets and blankets are mostly manufactured in their own houses. The inside of their dwellings is in general clean and provided with everything essential to the . comfort of a plain farmer and a state of society not entirely debarred from luxuries. The clock has universally taken the place of the hour-glass a nd in fJ..lled with cups, saucers, etc. someof their houses cupboards u arranged with rustic taste are common •
h Co. Armagh in the Most of the people w~o passed th roug ·n who were interested i late 18th and early 19th centuries, a nd the farmhouses of the social conditions in Ireland agreed th at ·th any other county in county did not suffer by comparison W1 th t in 182211 mentions a Ireland. Reid in his 11Travels in Irela ndl4 . Vol . I I, p.82.
he spent some days riding through Armagh and that the excursion afforded him much satisfaction. He found that the humblest cottages uhad a superior degree of neatnessu and that they conveyed 11an idea of comfort beyond what is commonly found even in those of a higher order in Tyroneu • l 5
A rental for the year 1818 of an d. . . t t 16 a Joining es a e gives a more comprehensive picture. It informs us that the great majority of the houses were thatched and that in that year there was a great scarcity of food resulting in a decrease of farm stock. Another point stressed in the rental was the "great defect in common cottages or cabins in the want of separate bed apartments for the different members of the family 11 , a flaw that even extended uto farm houses of a more respectable description". For a suggested plan for an improved cottage and farmhouse see Figs.
The provision of space for a loom will be noticed, and the rental in question, which is in reality both a census and survey or the above Manors, comments on the introduction of double spinning wheels and the great want of looms owing to increased weaving l5. p.158.
16
• Su!~~YAof the Manors of Coolmalish, Baleek, Hamilton• s Bawn of O rdgonnell, part of the property of Archibaldi Earl GosfordSurveyed by William Greig, November 818.
In 1825 the house of a farmer who had a large portion of ground was generally comfortable and consisted of three apartments, a kitchen, and a couple of rooms with a loft or attic above. At that time people with three or four acres of land seldom had more accommodation than a kitchen and one small room. The general food then of the lower orders was potatoes and oatmeal but there was more use being made of wheaten bread than formerly. 17
A slightly later account 18 gives detailed particulars of the building of small houses on the Gosford estate in Lower Fews in 1837. "The tenants build their own houses of clay and straw or rushes. They make the walls solid and raise the m two feet at a time with mud and rushes, allowing them ten days to dry between the several layers. The doors and windows are cut out with a spade and the sides made dry and smooth. These dwellings including windows cost the tenant 50/-. The landlord frequently finds in addition some fir or poles of other sorts of wood for the roof. They contain two bays or rooms each 11+feet square".
Donaldson, writing circa 1818, mentions nthat the houses in Upper Fews were generally built in clachons or clusters and
17. 1ia:trtn R of Aeport of the State of Ireland, p. 505, Examination rthur Irwin Kelly, Sovereign of Armagh. lS. Binns Miseries and Beauties of Ireland, p. 157.
had two doors, which were closed up with bundles of sticks or hurdles, alternately, or a.s answered to keep out the wind and The whole was enclosed by a bawn or kind of pound to rain. protect themselves, their cattle and property from thieves and robbers which then invested the country 11 • 19 From other authorities it is, however, clear that the author must have been thinking of events in the last half of the 18th century when that area was much troubled by such gentry. Rocque's Map of 1760 and the o.s. Maps of 1835 show such grouping to a limited extent.
Most of the older houses under survey have been rebuilt and there are comparatively few thatched houses in the county. Many of the smaller ruined houses show traces of brace or canopy chimneys. I did not find any examples of such chimneys in houses visited though I did see cottages where canopies and braces had been removed. Most of the single storeyed houses have jamb walls 11with spy holesu of various shapes -some filled with glass, others unglazed.
Some few houses are thatched with rushes, but only where th e land is marshy or mountainous and little ground for tillage available. On such farms the owner is usually able to do the necessary thatching and the rush being shorter-lived as a covering . than straw, thatching is a fairly frequent work.
19 • 8t at1stical and Historical Account of the Barony of Upper Fews, p.17.
A number of houses on the hillsides in the higher lands occupy sites scooped out of the sloping ground, so that from a distance they look as if they were partially buried. Few buildings of that type have windows in the back walls and, of course, are devoid of back doors. Despite their primitive ? appearance none of them sho '1 signs of any great antiquity i n interior or external features. Many of the ruined houses show 11keeping holes" in the
wall on each side of the fireplace and some have low stone table-like constructions just inside the door, usually a gainst the front wall and evidently planned as rests for crocks, etc. Such houses were probably central-hearthed, but it is difficult where walls are collapsed and interiors overgrown to be quite sure whether that feature is original or due to the building of an extra room whereby a gable chimney became a central one by accident instead of design. The -byres and stables of such houses contain 11cubby holes" for curry combs, brushes, and 0th er horse and ca.ttle requisites. Occasionally, too, one Will see a badly rusted candlestick of the tYPe known as a still hanging on a broken wall but so decayed II weaver's stick" bears handling, flaking and crumbling at the th at it scarcely slightest touch. Other deserted houses have come into use as II t ea tle shedst• and I know of no more pathetic sight than a house so degraded. One cannot forget the past generations who tound it home and no doubt were happy in it. Outside one rt11ned house I saw an old and badly decayed settle-bed that I
am sure formerly sat in the customary place -alongside the fire against the inner side of the jamb-wall. I would have liked to have saved it but as it had been used for many years to stop a gap at the gable end of the house its state did not admit of repair. It is a curious feature of country life in some di strict s that when roofs give way no effort is made to salvage material that may be buried by fallen rafters and thatch. I have seen many kitchen dressers in place in ruined houses, some still bearing whole or partly broken plates. None of the house types in the area show 11out shots" in the back wall wherein to house the bed. That, however, is an uncommon feature in Co. Armagh. Here and there the old half-door remains in occupied houses. So far as I could discover no wooden kitchen-cranes survive though they are still to be found in the district north of Armagh city. Some of the houses contain churns and butter-prints that have served several generations but piggins and noggins have disappeared as well as pewter plates though all were common enough half-a-century ago.
A number of mud-wall houses are still occupied. Some are in tolerably good order and there are a few ruined examples to st udy. Some have outer-gables and side-walls of stone with mud-wall interior divisions others have mud side-walls and ' stone outer gables.
An unusual feature on some farms is the so-called udung hole 8 u 'apertures in the walls of the byres and stables
through which the ''animal droppings" are thrown out into the dUngpits.
In various parts of the county tradition affirms that in the past it was considered the proper thing to bury the head of someanimal, preferably a horse, in the floor of a new home. Donaldson 20whom I have earlier quoted, wrote uthat the frontal bones of a horse's head were regarded as particularly sonsie 21they were often buried in barn floors and under threshholds of dwelling houses for that reasonu. In the destruction of old houses, heads of animals are sometimes found under the hearths as well and usually the walls yield a coin or two. I know of one such house that provided a horse's skull and a coin dated 1693.
It is still believed to some extent that ill-luck will attend a house begun on a Friday and that the kindling of a first fire in a new house should be live turf or coal from a long "lived-in st habitation.
20. Statistical p.??. and Historical Account of Barony of Upper Fews, 21• Lucky.
Armaghbrague.
Corran
Farrana-
In the Barony of Upper Fews in the year 1821 there were 3 925 inhabited houses and 221 uninhabited. In the year 1~31 the inhabited houses had increased to 4,542 and the uninhabited houses decreased to 178. In 1841 t h ere was a further increase in inhabited houses, the fi gure for that year being 4,846, with another 241 uninhabited. The Census of 1851 provides more detailed information in the for m of townland tables incorporating ,.a house census for t h e y ear 1841 as well.
Note the steady decrease in number of occupied houses following the Census of 1841.
Appendix U.....a.
Griffith 1 s Valuation of County Armagh for the year 1839 shows that Alexander Armstrong carried out a valuation of ...s_evenof the e~ht towns of Ballymacone in the period December 183b - January 1837.
The town.lands are shown in the following sequence: Lislea.
249 acres 1 rood O perches.
Soil described and rates and valuation shown. There were then 10 holdings in the to1:m.land but no houses worth £5 per year. Valuation dated Dec. 23, 1836.
Tullynagin.
188 acres 3 roods and 15 perches. Like information.
6 Holdings but no houses worth £5 per an. Valuation dated January 5, 1837.
Lisnadill
324 acres 3 roods 19 perches. Like information.
12 Valuedholdings. 4 January, 1836.
Farranamucklagh.
478 acres 2 roods 34 perches. Like information.
17 Valuedholdings. 10 January, 1837.
No houses in town.land worth £5 per year.
Corran
1 1421 acres 2 roods and 1 perch. Like information.
39 holdings. Valued 17 January, 1837.
Ho houses in toi.mland worth £5 per year.
Tullybrone
265 a cres O roods 23 perches. Like infor mation.
10 holdings .
Valued 19 January 1837.
Armaghbreague.
2 ,895 acres 3 roods 23 pe rches. Like information. 76 holdings.
