Loughrea: A Parish History

by Declan Kelly

Overview

The material included in this volume comes from a variety of sources, including the archives of the diocese of Clonfert and that which was gathered in 1931 by an t-Athair Eric McFhinn, a noted polyglot and scholar of the diocese. Taken in conjunction with the Schools Folklore Commission's work a few years later, this material now has a value beyond even that which was foreseen at the time. In June of 1922, in a singularly unhelpful exercise, some doughty Irishmen set off a landmine in the Public Records Office of the Four Courts. Thousands of old documents were destroyed, including the remaining censi from the nineteenth century and many of the Church of Ireland registers. Happily, just before this happened, Thomas T. O'Farrell had taken the time to type out extracts from the censi taken in Loughrea in 1821 and 1841 and they are also reproduced here in print for the first time. What emerges from this parish history, covering the areas of Cappatagle/ Kilrickle, Carrabane, Leitrim/Kilmeen, Loughrea, Mullagh/Killoran, New Inn/Bullaun, Killeenadeema/Aille and Kiltullagh/Killimordaly/Attymon is a curate's egg of information which we hope will hold something for everyone in the diocese, and which will add in its own way to the process of preserving a record of our past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780750961325
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	02/03/2014
Sold by:	INDEPENDENT PUB GROUP - EPUB - EBKS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Declan Kelly is a local historian and author. His previous books for The History Press include Images of Ballinasloe.

Read an Excerpt

Loughrea

A Parish History

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By Declan Kelly

The History Press

Copyright © 2014 Declan Kelly
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7509-6132-5

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CHAPTER 1

MULLAGH AND KILLORAN

Formerly known as Abbeygormican and Killoran, it took its name from the abbey founded there for the Canons Regular of St Augustine under the invocation of the Virgin Mary. Dermod O'Feighen was prior there in 1309 and was sued by William Hackett for 5 acres of turbary in Corballynenegall. Richard de Valle also sued the prior for 54 acres of land with their appurtenances in Fynounta (Finnure). In 1534, Henry VIII granted the abbey to Ulick, 1st Earl of Clanricarde. Today its precincts are used as a cemetery and the remnant of the abbey until recently held one of the finest extant examples of a Jacobean tomb.

In the sacristy of St Brendan's church in Mullagh there is the top of a Penalera altar inscribed with the name of the parish priest Fr John Dolan and the year 1760. An account book from Coen's of Eskerboy bears the name of Revd John Dolan who died in August 1828, so Dolan bids fair to have been the longest-serving parish priest on record in the diocese of Clonfert. He was obviously well established when Mullagh and Kilrickle were still united as one parish. This changed in 1809 when Killoran, which had been a parish in its own right, was annexed to Mullagh and Kilrickle was given to Cappatagle due to the not inconsiderable influence of the Donelan's of Bally Donelan. Cappatagle parish register records the main reason for the union, noting 'ob causam paupertatis', i.e. the cause was poverty. The people of Kilrickle, however, were not best pleased as they loved their old parish priest and when Fr McKeigue of Cappatagle came to celebrate his first Sunday Mass there, he found the doors and windows of Kilrickle chapel barred against him. A stalemate held for three weeks with the people demanding Dolan back but Bishop Thomas Costello would not budge. The matter was not aided by Dolan's residing just down the road from Kilrickle with his brother, in a house just opposite Finnure Cemetery. Eventually, the people relented. Though Mullagh church has been much modified since its erection in 1762, it is the only church in the diocese to be built in the Penal-era that is still in use. The parish has given several vocations to the diocese of Clonfert. Fr Pat Coen was from Eskerboy and was parish priest in Woodford during the heady days of the Land War. Fr Tom Coen, who died as parish priest of Aughrim in 1891, came from Abbeygormican. Others include Revd Briscoe from Castletown, Martin Larkin from Boleyroe, Ferdinand 'Fardy' Whyte from Corbally Beg, Peter Greaney from Bettaville, Killoran and Fintan Daly SMA from Poppyhill.

The parish is peppered with the remains of native enclosed settlements (more popularly called ringforts), once homesteads which were defended with wooden palisades. These were usually built on the principle of inter-visibility in the event of attack. Later, with the development of stone houses or wattle-and-daub cabins, these ringforts likely became regarded as the former dwellings of the ancestors which may be the origin of the belief that many were the haunts of fairy folk. A belief which runs deep in the rural Irish psyche is that to touch or interfere with a ringfort is to invite disaster upon one's head and to cut a lone bush is to incur the wrath of otherworldly beings. Some hold implicitly to belief in the púca, whom they claim roams Ballylogue in Killoran. This spirit was said to appear in the form of a horse and was given to running under people's legs to carry them away on a nightmarish gallop. Those venturing out at night wore steel spurs as a defence against the demon. The púca was also reputed to spit upon wild fruit in November in an act of otherworldly bad-mindedness, making it unsafe to eat. Locally, as in other parts of the diocese, there are tales of the cóiste bodhar or death coach, a carriage driven by a headless man whose wheels were so loud that even the deaf could hear them. The coach was taken as a portent of a death and those walking home late who heard it were advised to throw themselves prostrate and face down on the ground until it had passed. Folk beliefs generally had a germ of old wisdom embedded in them as Henry Morris noted in 1915. When a morsel of food fell to the ground, it was believed it should be left there for the fairies. The wisdom underpinning this belief was, of course, linked to hygiene given that old country floors were usually earthen and thus crawling with all manner of deadly microbe. The death coach and tales of things that went bump in the night were possibly linked to the necessity for belief in God and to prevent late-night ramblings by younger folk.

Killoran

Dedicated to St Oran, he was believed to be the charioteer of St Patrick and was martyred by being buried alive. In 1953 Revd Dr Kevin Egan interviewed 70-year-old Darby Byrnes who lived in Ballylogue. It was there that ordinations took place in the Penal-era which were presided over by Bishop Tadhg Keogh and latterly Bishop Murtagh Donelan. Behind Darby's home was a sycamore tree on the boundary of a paddock where a Penal church once stood with a priest's residence just to the north of it. He claimed that misfortune befell those who interfered with it. A few hundred yards south-west of this site is the spot known as Cathaoir an Easpaig where the ordinations took place. In 1976 Fr Peter Dunne had the place cordoned off with railings and a chair was made from grave-slabs by Johnnie Hardiman of Gortavoher townland. Bishop Thomas Ryan performed the confirmations there that year under an awning. When Bishop Dignan penned a history of the diocese in the early 1940s, he referred to the 'ordinations which had taken place in Penal days in the bogs of Killoran'. Having given a copy of the work to parish-native Fr Peter Greaney to proofread, his Lordship received it back with the offending line amended to read 'in a bog in Killoran'.

Folklore

There is a killuhuan or lisín in the townland of Drimatubber. It is believed that agents of Lord Trench drained the land in order to deprive the holy well there but the water sprang out of an ash tree instead. This well was attributed to St Brendan whom the people said rested there while on his travels. A pattern was also held at Oran's Well, known as Tobar Oran, though not within living memory. In reality it is simply the point at which three drains meet and is located to the rear of the parochial house in Killoran.

Killoran Mills gave the only steady employment up until the Second World War and slightly beyond. The only other work outside of farming was in the making of the roads. The mills were built by Healy's and owned successively by Scully's, Pelly's and finally Glynn's.

The first postal pillar box came to Killoran in 1894 and electrification did not arrive until 1955, people having to make do with tilly and hurricane lamps.

The church of 1837 was erected by Fr John Griffin and was used for a time as a school. It was at a station Mass in Malachy Kelly's in Ballylogue around 1840 that it was first proposed that it be slated, being at that time thatched, and so £1 per house was collected for that purpose, no mean feat in times prior to the Famine. The chapel had been constructed and partly slated by a man called Curley from Ballylogue. When the church was being rebuilt in 1953, six brick-lined graves were unearthed in the sanctuary. As the post-Reformation church also stood on the same site, it is likely these were the graves of clergy who served the parish up until the 1830s.

The curate's residence, which is among the smallest in the diocese of Clonfert, was commenced in 1884 and completed in 1886, the first resident being Fr James Cahalan. It was started by William Glynn of Springfield, who died shortly into the project, and completed by two masons called Flanagan and Lysaght. Thomas Pelly also claimed that around 1861 he went to Ballinasloe with his parents and bought the first wall oil lamp known in 'the valley'.

Schooling

Three hedge schools are recalled in this district, with one in a small house belonging to John O'Gorman in Clare Road and run by Frances Martyn and her father. After the father's death, Frances continued by herself. She was a native of Duniry and lodged at neighbouring houses. About forty children attended the school. At weekends Miss Martyn would go home and the people would give her tea, sugar and bread to take with her. Beyond these kindnesses, she received no other remuneration. She moved the school from Clare to Cormack townland into a small house on John Briscoe's farm but d'fhág sí an ceantar around 1880, returning to Duniry where she died. A third school operated at Springfield, Killoran, under the auspices of Mr Sullivan. According to Thomas Pelly of Springfield, Killoran (aged 78 in 1931), he went to school in a mud cabin in Springfield run by Mr Sullivan and Mr Bermingham, both natives of Lusmagh, Banagher. This was around 1860 and there were some forty pupils. The charge was one penny per week. Sullivan had a married son named Barney and two daughters, Maggie and Nancy and the latter married a soldier. Afterwards, a Tyrol McMahon taught school in the chapel at Killoran but went begging and died in the workhouse. Sullivan lodged for a time with the Pelly's. An obsolete form of punishment from Thomas Pelly's childhood was to put one child on another's back for caning. Pelly claimed that the first resident of Springfield was a man called Spring, hence came the name of the townland.

Under the Road

When the hill on the road outside the old teacher's residence in Mullagh was being cut, two skeletons were found. They were reinterred on the side of the road at a stile leading into the well opposite the residence which itself has remained unoccupied for some time.

Castellated Houses

Castlenancy Castle was spread across two adjoining fields in Castlenancy townland. The owner was Nancy Daly, but this was prior to there being a village there and at that time, we are informed, the townland was called Béal átha na néan or the mouth of the ford of the birds. The last owner of the castle died in 1815 and it became ruinous, its remnants now peppering the field-walls and older tenant dwellings of the townland. At that time there were only about sixteen or seventeen houses in the townland though at the time of the Ordnance Survey in 1838, O'Donovan stated that there were only 'a few'.

Older people believed that there was a river or canal flowing from Castlenancy to Abbeygormican and that some of the stones of the castle were brought to build the church that is now in ruins there.

Ballyfintan Castle stood on Fahey's land and was believed to originate with Fintan, an eighth-century Norseman. Shortly after his death, his wife was murdered there under a hawthorn bush by Irish chieftains.

An obscure tradition notes a castle at Corbally which in the late nineteenth century was dismantled and used in boundary walls.

Industry

While the main employer up to and slightly beyond the years of the Emergency was Killoran Mills, linen manufacture was still a vital cog in the local economy of the nineteenth century, with several families growing their own flax. It was then prepared and spun for the weaver. The Whelan's and Hanrahan's of Castlenancy were known as extensive flax growers. By 1930, linen wheels were still to be found in Cormican's of Cappanaughton, Coen's of Lurgan and Kilkenny's of Lurgan. Warping bars and hackler were to be found at that time in Hobbins's of Gurtymadden. Mullagh had three weavers, namely Reid of Gurtymadden, Mrs Hanrahan of Boleyroe and Mulkerrin of Hollyhill. Reid was the principal weaver and had the help of two sons.

More economically beneficial than linen was the carding, spinning and weaving of wool and each person wore their own tweed and frieze (a shaggy, woollen fabric). Woollen spinning wheels dotted the parish until about seventy years back and the wool was coloured with barrógs (branches of a certain tree which grew in Woodford) and bog-black. The barrógs were boiled for two days and two nights in a huge pot called the colouring pot. Only one such receptacle existed in Gurtmadden and was owned by a man called Gavin.

Poitín Galore! Cigarettes not so Galore

An illegal still existed until around 1870 at John Fitzgerald's in Foxhall and another at Kitty Duggan's in Ballyfintan. The law at the time was obviously more honoured in the breach than in the observance, as the local constabulary actually assisted in its distilling. It was sold for 1s 6d per pint and Kitty often walked with a supply to Galway and back on the same day. The more stately beverage of tea first came to Mullagh around 1860, a good 250 years after the Dutch first introduced it to Europe. A novel but ill-judged enterprise was the growing of tobacco leaves by one Pat Hanrahan who lived at Castlenancy. A 'returned yank', he brought with him large amounts of tobacco leaf and attempted to plant it from seed but the leaves never attained great size and the project was abandoned.

Card Sharks and the Musical Genius of Denny Delaney

Card playing is still a popular pastime and until the years of the Second World War, one could expect to find fowl, bonhams, sheep, onions and even socks as gambling material. Some pisreoga surrounded the game such as how the placing of a needle in a person's coat without their knowledge was believed to bring good luck. Changing places with partners also brought a change in luck while lending or counting your winnings prior to a game boded ill. Card games included Twenty-Five, Fifteen, Solo and Nap.

Other forms of entertainment included music. Denny Delaney, a piper who hailed from Tulrush in Ballinasloe, was remembered clearly by locals until recent years as he played at virtually every dance. This musical genius deserves a few lines in remembrance. Struck blind by smallpox at the age of 13, he had acquired a gift for the Irish pipes at this stage and at 56 years of age in 1897, he defeated Martin O'Reilly, the champion piper of Connacht, at a pipers' competition in Galway. He would go on to play at the Queen's Theatre and at the Covent Garden Theatre in London and by the end of his remarkable life, his total prizes numbered forty-four firsts, sixteen seconds and six thirds. In 1916 he was arrested in Mountbellew for playing 'seditious' tunes, but released within a short time. What a curious thought, that the musical prowess of this humble little man sans sight should threaten the might of the British Empire! A small plaque commemorates him at the entrance to what was once 'Bolger's Lane' at the top of Main Street in Ballinasloe.

Lost Similes

Some lesser-known similes from former years include:

As crooked as a ram's horn
As dark as a dungeon or a bag
As yellow as a duck's foot
As clever as a judge
As ignorant as a bag of brogues
As drunk as a stick
As tough as a gad (a pointed tool used in breaking rocks)
As supple as an eel
As grey as a badger
As old as a bush
As cross as a bag of cats
As old as Methuselah's cat (the owner being claimed by the Book of Genesis to have lived to the age of 969)
And the still current as hard as flint and as bold as brass

Pisreoga on Death

Then, as now, death was a grave affair (no pun intended) and required the strict observance of old beliefs. The crowing of a cock at unusual hours was always a portent of death. If rigor mortis didn't set in quickly, another member of the family might well die soon. An odd number of candles were lit in the corpse room, mirrors were covered (for fear of catching a glimpse of the spirit of the deceased) and house clocks were stopped. To meet a funeral brought bad luck unless you took a few steps with the cortege in the direction of the cemetery. The bier that brought the coffin to the place of burial was to be destroyed. A grave could never be opened on Mondays. Finally, no short cut could be taken to the cemetery in the belief that the longest route would confuse a spirit bent on returning to haunt or wreak vengeance on the living. Few if any of these customs have survived into the twenty-first century, though the last mentioned is still observed in Killoran out of respect for custom.

Weather Portents

A dog eating grass was a portent of rain and if the cat sat with his back to the fire, then it was time to get the umbrella out!

CHAPTER 2

LOUGHREA

The town of Loughrea takes its name from the lake which is often referred to as the grey lake or Loch Riabhach. The changing colours of its shores (caused by the reflection of the lake's white sandy or marshy bottom) gives grounds for this interpretation. However, in an old document called the Dinnsheanchas or the Lore of Places, another interpretation is given. The passage runs thus:

Lough Riach; from whence did it get its name? The answer is not difficult. Four kings held sway in Maenmach whose names were Caimeall and Edar and Casta and Riach. Caimeall indeed had a daughter and Edar another. Casta and Riach wooed these princesses but their suit was neglected. They then declared war on Caimeall and Eder but none survived the battle but Riach alone, from whom is named Loch Riach, in which he was afterwards drowned.

Legend has it that Loch Riach was one of those lakes which suddenly appeared in old Ireland. Roderick O'Flaherty, the Galway man, relates that in 2937 BC it began to overflow and the Four Masters record that in the year of the world 3506 'Loch Riach burst forth'. Due to the belief that so much blood had been spilled on its shores, the waters of the lake had the reputation of dyeing sheep's wool red. As the Dinnsheanchas relates, 'It was customary to drive sheep of all Ireland every seventh year into it ...' Five miles in circumference, the lake is said to be supplied by seven distinct springs, once called the Seven Sisters, and this is the source of yet another origin legend. A poor man longed to own a horse but lacking the financial resources, he set his heart on one fine mare that belonged to the fairies. While the good folk were feasting, he stole their horse and as he had bested them they told him he could keep it for a year and a day but only on condition that it never saw the sun set on Galway Bay. Overjoyed, the man entered the horse in the Knockbarron Races and won successive contests. Hitting for home, he unwisely chose to rest on Monument Hill and in the distance the sun began to set. The brilliant glow from Galway Bay blinded his mount and it bounded down the hill in seven huge leaps. From each spot its hooves hit, there gushed a spring and each flowed down the hill to form the great lake. Lurking beneath the surface of the lake and adding to its mystique are the remains of five crannóg's, defended lake-dwellings established on artificial islands in medieval times.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Loughrea by Declan Kelly. Copyright © 2014 Declan Kelly. Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Title,
Dedication,
Foreword,
Introduction,
Glossary,
1. Mullagh and Killoran,
2. Loughrea,
3. Leitrim and Kilmeen,
4. Kiltullagh, Killimordaly and Attymon,
5. Cappatagle and Kilrickle,
6. Carrabane,
7. New Inn and Bullaun,
8. Killeenadeema and Aille,
Copyright,