Category Archives: Monaghan

King James’ Supporters, Co. Monaghan

Monaghan gentry and farmers who died with King James, who were outlawed and who had property confiscated.


Terence O’Connolly, Parish of Clones – Gent
Conn M’Rory McMahon, Kinshanlis – Gent
Turlough M’Sorley M’Collin, Kinshanlis – Husbandman
Bryan O’Grend, Kinshanlis – Husbandman
Rosse McRurey oge McMahon, Kinshanlis – Gent
Turlogh McArdle, Parish of Tedavnet – Husbandman
Philip oge McGranan, Parish of Clones – Husbandman
Arthur Murphy, Parish of Tedavnet – Husbandman
Patrick Glass O’Howen, Parish of Tedavnet – Husbandman
Patrick M’Toole McKenna, Parish of Tedavnet – Husbandman
Edward McKenna, Parish of Errigle – Husbandman
Hugh McGonnell, Parish of Donagh – Yeoman
Art McKenna, Parish of Donagh – Yeoman
Cochonnaght McDunslevy McKenna, parish of Errigle – Gent
Patk. McManus McArdle, Parish of Mucknoe – Husbandman
Tirlugh O’Downey, Parish of Aughnamullen – Yeoman
Hugh McKilarney, Parish of Tullycorbut – Yeoman
Bryan Roe O’Duffy, Parish of CLontibret – Yeoman
Neil O’Duffy, Muckney, Parish of Clontibret – Yeoman
Donagh Boy O’Mulligan, Muckney, Parish of Clontibret – Yeoman
Patk. Modders McMahon, Parish of Kilanny – Yeoman
James Leese, Parish of Magheracloone – Yeoman
Patk. McArdle McMahon, parish of Donaghmoyne – Yeoman
Toole Boy McKenna, Parish of Magheracloone – Yeoman
Neill O’Hugh of Carrickmacross
Patrick Murphy, parish of Magheross

Ecclesiastical Remains, Co. Monaghan

Sections of the County Monaghan Ordnance Survey Map (1909) – Sheet 3 showing the location of some churches and graveyards on this sheet


The following is extracted from ‘Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan, compiled by Anna L. Brindley and published by the Stationary Office Dublin, 1986. ISBN 0 7076 0029 4. (Government Publications Sale Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2) The Ordnance Survey map references are listed for each site and for most there is a date on which it was visited by the Archaeological team. This listing helps to give some idea of the location of older churches in Co. Monaghan, and whether or not there is anything left to be seen. There are other churches and graveyards which are also old in the county and many with standing headstones.

ANNAGHKILLY
Ordnance Survey: 12:14:4 (24.2, 6.5) ‘Graveyard (disused)’
Church Site: Local tradition of church and cemetery. No visible surface traces.
25th May 1983

ANNAHEAN
OS: 34:8:4 (71.7, 36.7) ‘Graveyard (disused)’
Cemetery. Circular area. Parts of stone with inscribed cross.
13th July 1984

CAMAGHY
OS: 33:4:3 (85.8, 59.7) ‘St. Molua’s Church’
Church (site) Pre-reformation parish church repaired in 1622 according to Royal Visitation Papers. (Leslie, 1929. pp. 222, 289)

CHURCH HILL
OS: 20:15:4 (46.8, 3.3) ‘Church (in ruins)’
Church: Foundations of a simple rectangular structure (c. 24.6m x c. 8,3m) aligned E-W with probable entrance in N. wall. On site of pre-Reformation church (Leslie, 1929. p. 289). Situated in sub-circular cemetery.
27th August 1968

CLONAMULLY
OS: 8:12:3 (86.7, 27.9)
Monastic Site: According to local tradition, a burial place. Pyramidal cross base now stands in field. Some years ago, portion of stone cross found while cutting drains here, subsequently reburied in the same area.
11th May 1983

CLONFAD
OS: 21:2:3 (40.6, 59.6)
Ecclesiastical Remains: Approximately circular area (101m N-S; 91m E-W) surrounded by artificial scarp. According to local information, human bones and four cross-inscribed stones have been found here.
27th March 1968

CROAGHAN
OS: 14:16:6 (89.0, 2.5)
Church: Foundations of plain rectangular structure (6.3m x 5m) oriented E-W, with entrance at W. Masses were said here formerly.
21st August 1968

CROSSMOYLE
OS 11:16: 3/6
Early Monastic Remains. Sixth-century foundation associated with St Tigernach. Church, Round, parts of two High Crosses , stone, house-shaped shrine and two cemeteries are the chief visible remains of an extensive area of early Christian activity. (Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries Ireland 1874-5, 327-40; Harbison 1970, 200)
8-6-1983

DONAGH
OS 7:9:1 (2.7, 26.8) ‘Church (in ruins)’
Church and Cemetery Reputedly Patrician foundation. Ruins of plain rectangular structure, pyramidal cross-base, portion of wheeled cross and cup-marked stone. Almost complete unpierced wheeled cross and metal processional cross (latter in National Museum Ireland) found in nearby bog. (Leslie 1929,172,289; Ulster Journal Archaeology 1939,26–8;
Proceedings Royal Irish Academy XXXIII C (1916–17),6–8)
6th May 1983

DONAGHMOYNE
OS 28:15:4 (50.9,3.6) ‘Church (site of)’
Church (site) Church reputedly founded by Victor, who was made its bishop by St Patrick. Shrine of St Adamnan removed from here in AD 830. Rebuilt in 1641 after being ruinous in 1622. No visible surface traces. (Leslie 1929, 175-6, 289)
25th June 1984

DRUMARD
OS 11:8:5 (79.8,33.5) ‘Church (in ruins), Graveyard (disused)’
Church Plain rectangular structure (9m x 4.6m) of roughly coursed and mortared stones, aligned E-W. At least one window in S wall. No trace of entrance. In oval cemetery (33m N-S; 37.5m E-W) surrounded by low bank.
26th March 1968

DRUMSWORDS
OS 17:9:2 (13.2,28.7) ‘Church (in ruins), Graveyard’
Church Plain rectangular structure (20m X 7m) aligned E-W with entrance, now blocked, in W gable wall. Two windows in N wall, one in E wall, three in S wall, all round-headed with key-stones. (UJA 1938, 140-1)
23rd May 1983

GALLAGH
OS 14:7:4 (51.8,34.2) ‘Church (in ruins)’
Church Site of pre-Reformation church (Leslie 1929, pp.149-50). According to some sources, earliest church stood W of road which bounds present graveyard at W. Square tower with round-headed doorways, probably of seventeenth century date.
20th August 1968

INISHKEEN GLEBE
OS 29:14:4 (29.1,5.6) ‘Round Tower, Church Grave Yard’
Monastic Remains Sixth-century foundation associated with St Daig, who died AD 587 (Leslie 1929, pp.210, 287; Livingstone 1980, 25). Portion of Round Tower in cemetery, no other visible surface traces.
29th June 1984

KILLEEVAN GLEBE
OS 12:14:5 (38.0, 1.1) ‘Graveyard’
Church W gable wall and fragments of N and S walls of simple rectangular structure (13m x 6m); aligned E-W, stand in approximately circular graveyard. (UJA 1940, 72-3)
19th June 1968

KILMURRY
OS 28:8:2 (80.4, 40.2)
Church Indicated on Down Survey (1591). Foundation and W gable wall of simple stone and mortar rectangular structure (17.5m NE-SW; 6m NW-SE). Low plinth (2.5m x 0.5m) abuts wall at S corner. No visible trace of entrance. Immediately
NW and parallel to this structure are traces of a second, slightly smaller, rectangular building (min.L 11m NE-SW; W 4m NW-SE). (Leslie 1929, pp.176,289)
27th June 1984

KILNAHALTAR
OS 9:10:4 (27.5,17.5) ‘St. Aidan’s Church’
Monastic Remains According to Royal Visitation Papers, church of St Aidan was ruinous in 1622 (Leslie 1929,216,289). From W-N remains of high, artificial scarp (H 4m) with external fosse (W at base, 3m) and external bank (H c. 2m). Two bullaun stones present.
26th November 1984

LATTON
OS 13:12:4 (72.0,18.8)
Church Foundation of apparently L-shaped structure possibly representing undivided nave and chancel with annexe aligned either N-S with annexe at E or E-W with annexe at N (internal L 12m E-W; min. L 6m N-S, W at N 4.2m; at E c. 3m).
4th April 1984

MAGHEROSS
OS 31:6:5 (34.4,32.2) ‘Church (in ruins)’
Church and Cemetery Monastery is recorded as having been burnt in AD 685. Inscription in tower of present structure states ‘this church was ruined in the Rebellion of 1641 and rebuilt in the year 1682’. Rectangular building with well-preserved square
tower surmounted by conical cap at W. Entrance through N wall of tower, Walls show signs of rebuilding. Stands in oval cemetery. (ITA Survey 1940)
17th July 1984

MOYLE MORE
OS 23:7:3 (69.0, 40.0) ‘Christ Church’
Church (site) State Papers for Ireland (March 1628/9) refer to church of Aughnamullan. The present church is of eighteenth and nineteenth century date. (Leslie 1929,pp. 118,289; CR 1957, 98, 108)
4th April 1984

MULLAGHMONAGHAN/ROOSKY (Part of)
OS 9:11:6
Friary Franciscan Friary founded in 1462, possibly on site of ancient abbey. Destroyed in mid-sixteenth century and used as source of building material for
later castle.

MULLANACROSS
OS 3:7:2 (54.8,44.9) ‘Church (in ruins)’
Church (Parish: Errigal Trough) Gable walls and foundations of side walls of plain rectangular structure aligned E- W. Present entrance through E wall modern. Large window in W wall may be original. In ruins by 1622 according to Royal Visitation Papers (Leslie 1929, pp.196, 289). Two carved heads, bracket coping and sheela-na-gig now in Ulster Museum.
28th April 1983

MULLANACROSS
OS 13:1:1 (4.5,53.4) ‘Graveyard’
Church (site) and Cemetery (Parish: Drumsnat) Founded by St Mo Lua in sixth century .Associated with the now lost Book of Drumonat. In ruins by 1622 according to Royal Visitation papers (Leslie 1929, p.187). Parts of two corbels
with heads and chamfered door jamb but no other traces visible.
28th November 1984

MULLANAROCKAN
OS 6:14:2 (34.6, 10.0) ‘Church (site of), Graveyard’
Church (site) (Parish: Tedavnet) Traditionally seventh-century foundation associated with St Dympna. Small portion of wall said to belong to early church now incorporated in funerary monument, probably of fairly recent construction. Visitation
Papers describe church as ruinous in 1622 (Leslie 1929, pp. 257 ,290). Stands in subrectangular cemetery containing cup-marked stone.
3rd May 1983

RACKWALLACE
OS 14:5:3 (18.2,45.3)
Church Foundations of plain rectangular structure (15m x 4m), aligned E-W with internal partition wall, may belong to church possibly built in 1622 (Leslie 1929, p. 233). Skeleton found N of cemetery may indicate that it was originally more extensive.
22nd August 1968

SELLOO
OS 8:11:5 (59.1, 21.9) ‘Children’s Burial Ground’
Monastic Remains Large, approximately circular area surrounded by low artificial scarp now only faintly visible and enclosing small subrectangular area surrounded by boulderfaced wall. Portion of decorated shaft of stone cross and parts of several
quern-stones, cross-base, bullaun stone and bones recorded from smaller enclosure
10th May 1983

SHANTONY
OS 27:1:5 (10.0,46.6) ‘Abbey (in ruins)’
Monastic Remains According to tradition, site of abbey and school destroyed in Cromwellian times (Leslie 1929,p. 289; IFC Schools’ MSS 940,57-8). The
present structure appears to be an eighteenth-century summer-house.

TEMPLETATE
OS 10:5:2 (11.5,41.8) ‘St. Cilian’s Church, Graveyard’
Church (site) Foundations of church said to have been founded by St Patrick or one of his followers (IFC Schools’ MSS 951, 155). Situated S of present 1788 church, in circular graveyard

TEMPLETATE
OS 12:7:3 (67.6,42.5)
Church (site) According to local tradition, church stood here fonnerly. Burials took place here until nineteenth century (IFC Schools’ MSS 945,151; 946,
58).

TERRYGEELY
OS 14:13:2/3 (15.9,8.0) ‘St. Patrick’s Church, Graveyard (disused)’ Church (site) (Parish: Tullycorbet) Site of pre-Reformation church (Leslie 1929, pp.254, 289). Royal Visitation Papers (1622) state that church was repaired. Corner portion of gable coping with carved head lying in cemetery may be of fifteenth century date
22nd August 1968

Possible Churches

CAPRAGH
OS 31:3
Monastic Site (possible) Tradition of monastic site and cemetery at mouth of stream into Capragh Laugh. (ITA Survey 1940; Leslie 1929, 289) No remains visible.
12th July 1984

KILLARK
OS 34:7:2 (57.0, 43.0)
Church (possible, site) According to local tradition, site of ancient church.

KILLYCOONAGH
OS 12:14:1 (28.8,7.8)
Convent (possible, site) Rectangular area surrounded by low stone walls. According to local tradition, site of convent burnt in 1703 (IFC Schools’ MSS 950,201; 473).
27th May 1983

KILLYKESKEAME
OS 12:11:3
Church (possible, site) According to local information, church stood here prior to Cromwellian times (IFC Schools’ MSS 951,325). Not located.
22nd May 1983

Caldraghs, Cemeteries, Killeens

ANNY
OS 23:3:3 (63.1,57.8)
Cemetery Large, irregular but approximately circular area surrounded by artificial scarp from W-N-E and field banks from E-S-W. Rectangular enclosure with words’ Ancient Burial Ground’ marked on 1835 OS map, but not now visible.
4th April 1984

CARRICKANURE
OS 14:15:5 (60.9,5.0)
cemetery Rectangular area (23m X 13m), orientated ESR-WNW , covered with stones. According to local information, a cemetery.
23rd August 1968

CORGREAGH
OS 26:12:3 (87.8, 23.2) ‘Graveyard ( disused)’
Cemetery Irregularly shaped area (c.91m NE-SW; 111.5m NW-SE) enclosed by stone-faced artificial scarp. At S a D-shaped area (22.5m NE-SW) is surrounded by low bank with entrance at N. According to local tradition, bones found in main enclosure during cultivation but smaller enclosure has not been disturbed.
13th September 1967

CORLAT
OS 27:1:6 (18.8,52.3) ‘Killahean Graveyard’
Cemetery Marked’ Ancient Burial Ground’ on 1835 OS map. Rectangular area surrounded by stone-faced artificial scarp, containing eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century headstones and many unmarked ones. Small stone-walled enclosure (8m square) with entrance in mid-NW wall lies in centre of cemetery.
5th April 1984

CROSSBANE
OS 17:5:6 (22.6,33.6) ‘Caldragh
Cemetery Oval area (96m NNW-SSE; 69.5m ENE-WSW) surrounded by artificial scarp and bank with external fosse. Entrance at SE.
18th September 1968

DRUMGRISTIN
OS 32:1:4 (3.7,47.2) ‘Caldragh Grave Yard (site of)’
Cemetery Part of artificial scarp visible from S-W-N. Tradition of bones and headstones found during ploughing. St Derrig said to have had a monastery here. (IFC Schools’ MSS 932, 105, 325; Leslie 1929, p.289)

EDERGOLE
OS 18:13:1/2 (7.7 ,8.4)
Cemetery Raised, approximately circular cemetery .No visible traces of church although one may exist. (Irish Schools’ MSS 944, 266)
2nd April 1968

FARAGHY
OS27:10:1(27.7,26.1)
Enclosure Subrectangular area surrounded by low, narrow, grass-covered wall foundation at ENE and SE and by steep scarp with traces of stone facing at
SW and NW .Corners well rounded. No visible surface trace of fosse. Entrance at SSE.
3rd August 1967

GOLANDUFF
OS 17:1:4 (1.6,46.5)
Cemetery (site) Known locally as ‘Kilderry’. Small but prominent elongated drumlin in wet area. No visible surface features.
22nd June 1983

GORTGRANARD
OS 17:1:3 (17.3,56.0)
Cemetery (site) Known locally as children’s burial ground (ITA Survey 1940). Circular area (c. 14.6m) surrounded by earthen bank with external fosse.

KILCORRAN
OS 8:10:6 (41.8,16.8) ‘Graveyard (disused)’
Cemetery Circular area (D 18m), surrounded by earthen bank, in which burials have taken place.
20th October 1967

ROOSKY (Part of) (ED Monaghan)
OS 9:11:6 (63.1,19.8)
Cemetery Burials uncovered during construction of public facilities in Church Square, Monaghan town, in 1940s.

SHANE
OS 24:3:6 (65.5, 52.0) ‘Graveyard’
Cemetery Rectangular, slightly raised area (23.4m NE-SW; 27. 7m NW-SE) enclosed by foundations and remains of wall faced with slabs set on edge. Slab-lined entrance in mid-SE side. Contains grave markers, chiefly lines of small stones and several
thin slabs. According to tradition, used in Penal and Famine times (IFC Schools’ MSS 938,257).
16th May 1984

SLIEVEROE
OS 13:15:4 (52.9, 49.7) , An Caldragh Grave Yard (site of)’
Cemetery (site) Traces of earthen bank visible at E and W. Charcoal, stones and burnt bone have been observed in soil.
10th September 1968

URLISH
OS 3:2:2 (36.0, 53.8)
Cemetery {site) Small square enclosure known locally as graveyard where bones have been found (ITA Survey 1940; Leslie 1929, p.290).

Possible Caldraghs, Cemeteries, Killeens

INISHDEVLIN
OS 6:3:5 (56.2, 45.2)
Cemetery (possible) Known locally as ‘Caldragh’ or ‘Mound’. Oval mound with traces of bank (L 38.5m, W 28m). Rabbit burrow produced charcoal, thirty-six pieces of slag and part of possible crucible

KILCREEN
OS 8:7:5 (58.9, 32.7)
Burial (possible) According to local tradition, grave with bones found in tree-ring here.
20-10-1967

KILLATTEN
OS 8:4:5 (82.0, 46.0) Cemetery (possible) According to local information
several burials found in disused sand pit.

LANTAUR
OS 19:5:1
Cemetery (possible). Now used as a field. Once belonged to Tullycorbett Church. No burials here within living memory. (IFC Schools’ MSS 938,365)

RACAULFIELD
OS:17:5:1
Cemetery (possible site). Believed locally to be a cemetery. Approximately oval, level area (c.37mx c. 46m).

SHANMULLAGH
OS: 14:13
Cemetery (possible). Reference to field called ‘Caldra’ (IFC Schools MSS 936, 6). This suggests a former cemetery.

Gravestone References, Co. Monaghan

Aghabog: Graveyard Inscriptions Killeevan and Aghabog. Patrick Mulligan, Hugh McCaughy, P. P. & Michael McGourty, C. C. Clogher Record, 1982, Vol. XI, No. 1, pp. 119-149


Clones, Abbey Lane: Early Memorials in Clones Round Tower Graveyard, Clones Abbey Graveyard and St. Tierney’s R. C. Graveyard, Roslea. Dr. patrick Mulligan & Theo McMahon. Clogher Record, 1984, Vol. XI, pp. 420-448.

Clones, St. Tighernach’s, Church of Ireland. Inscriptions from St. Tighernach’s Church of Ireland graveyard, Clones. Theo McMahon, Sean Slowey and Maire O’Neill. Clogh

Clones, The Diamond, Church of Ireland. Clogher Record, 1988, Vol. 13, No. 1

Clontibret: Clogher Record, 1974, Vol. 7, No. 2

Drumswords: Graveyard Inscriptions in Drumswords Cemetery, County Monaghan. Dr. Patrick Mulligan and Theo McMahon. Clogher Record, 1985, Vol. XII, No. 1, pp. 18-126

Errigal: memorials in Old Errrigal Cemetery, Co. Monaghan. Dr. Patrick Mulligan, Fr. Patrick McEntee and Theo McMahon. Clogher Record, pp. 373-385

Donagh: Inscriptions in Donagh Cemetery, Co. Monaghan. Clogher Record, 1957, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 192-203

Errigal Old: Memorials in Old Errigal cemetery, Co. Monaghan, Clogher Record, 1987, Vol. XII, No. 3. pp. 372-387

Glaslough, St. Salvator’s, Church of Ireland. Inscriptions from St. Salvator’s Church of Ireland Graveyard, Glaslough. Clogher Record, 1978, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 351-366

Killanny Old: The Inscriptions of Killanny Old Cemetery. Rev. P. Ó Mearáin. Clogher Record, 1966, pp. 191-196

Killeevan: Graveyard Inscriptions Killeevan and Aghabog. Patrick Mulligan, Hugh McCaughy, P. P. & Michael McGourty, C. C. Clogher Record, 1982, Vol. XI, No. 1, pp. 119-149

Kilmore: Some Additional Gravestone Inscriptions in Kilmore cemetery, County Monaghan. Dr. Patrick Muligan, Theo McMahon and Brendan O’Neill. Clogher Record, 1985, pp. 127-128

Magheross, Carrickmacross: The Inscriptions of Magheross Cemetery. Rev. P. Ó Mearáin. Clogher Record 1963, pp. 123-130

Rockcorry Town, Church of Ireland. Clogher Record, 1966, Vol. 6, No. 1

Great Hibernian Central Junction Railway Proposal

It is proposed to form a railway from the south to the North of Ireland, commencing at Limerick and ending at Clones, a distance of 122 miles with a branch from Parsonstown, through Roscrea, to Templemore of 18 miles. The Railway will proceed northwards by Killaloe, Nenagh, Cloughjodan, Shinrone, Parsonstown, Banagher, Shannon Harbour, Athlone, Ballymahon, Kennagh, Longford, Granard, Arvagh, Cavan and Ballyhaise, to Clones, at which point it will meet the traffic supplied by the Belfast and Ballymena, the Ulster, the Newry and Enniskillen, the Dundalk and Enniskillen and the Coleraine, Londonderry and Enniskillen Railways, thus concentrating in its northern Terminus, the intercourse of all the lines in that important portion of the country ; and on the South being in direct communication with the various existing and projected lines to Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Tralee &c., it will bring the two extremes of the kingdom into immediate connection, effectually open up the interior of the country, and necessarily tend to develop its almost hidden resources, while the fact of the line crossing from East to West of the country, without competing with any of them forms a singular and strikingly advantageous featured in the undertaking.


To those intimately acquainted with Ireland, its capabilities and requirements, this general outline might suffice ; but for the information of others, it may be requisite to enter more into detail of the advantages to be derived from this important project, as well as with reference to the benefit to be afforded to the country at large, as to the certain advantages which it promises to the Shareholders.

This line will afford facilities, heretofore unknown, fo exporting Agricultural productions of Ireland to the markets of England and Scotland, whether of livestock, grain, flour, butter or poultry, as well as the valuable minerals of slate, marble, lead and copper in which the country in its vicinity abounds, while to the merchants of Galway, Sligo, Londondery, Belfast, Newry, Dundalk, Waterford, Cork and Limerick, it will give means of communication with, and of supply to and from the central towns, fairs and markets from the want of easy and direct communication. Taking the natural level presented by the valley of the Shannon, above 2/3rds of the line will pass through the great wheat district of the country, in which the principal Corn Mills are situated, and from which the Northern and North Western counties are at present chiefly supplied with flour by long and expensive cartage.

It will render the Water-power and Mill sites of the Shannon and its tributaries now improved by the Shannon Commissioners, and about to be disposed of by them, available to the commercial enterprise of the country ; but as the importance of this feature may not be sufficiently known, the following extracts taken from the valuable work of Professor Kane, upon the “Industrial Resources of Ireland” are submitted, pointing out, as they do, not only the extraordinary advantages presented for the formation of a Railway parallel with the Shannon, but also describing many of the benefits to be derived from the work, the remarks on the facilities afforded by the river as a mode of communication being infinitely more forcible when applied to a Railway. The water power on the Shannon is thus spoken of by Professor Kane:-
“That great river, which penetrating the interior of Ireland, navigable from the ocean to its source, rising in one coal formation , emptying itself through another, and washing the banks of our most fertinle counties, passes slowly along falling but 50 feet in 150 miles, until it arrives at Killaloe, where its waters rush down the great rapids towards Limerick, and in a space of 15 miles present a difference of level of 97 feet of which the available power may be estimated, at least with tolerable approximation from the returns and the reports published by the Commissioners for the improvement of its navigation.”
“I shall take the average force of water available per foot of fall, at 350 horse-power ; which gives for the 97 feet of fall between Killaloe and Limerick, a total of 33,950 horse-power in continuous action, day and night throughout the year.”
“This however, is by no means the whole power of the River, for although in the upper portion of its course it flows through a district unusually level, there is yet between Lough Derg and Lough Allen, a total available fall of forty six feet six inches.”
“The total continuous power is therefore 4,717 horse, which added to that of the River from Killaloe, 33950, gives a force existing between Limerick and Lough Allen of 38,667 horse power supposed in constant action.”

Speaking of the slate quarries of Killaloe, Professor Kane continues
“The most extensive slate quarries of Ireland are near Killaloe. ***** The slates are of the very finest quality and can be had of almost any magnitude ; there are some in the museum of the Royal Dublin Society of 10 feet square area. The stone is for building purposes one of the best in Ireland. ***** These two quarries produce about 10,000 tons of manufactured slate per annum, and if a greater demand occurred the water and the spout quarries could be put into immediate operation. By the operation of this Company (the imperial) employment is given to more than 700 men and boys, and all who visit the district are equally struck with the unexpected size and magnificence of the quarries, as with the good order and appearance of the men.”

Of the marble quarries immediately upon the line he says –
“At Clonmacnoise, King’s Co., and Dromineer in Tipperary, are fine grey marbles variously tinted and peculiarly sound and useful. ***** A brownish red, mottled with grey of various shades, occurs at Ballymahon in Longford. “

Again with reference to the suitableness of the neighbourhood of the Shannon, for the staple trade of Ireland :-
“The rivers which flow into the Baltic afford also, on the low grounds along their banks, the seats of the flax agriculture of Russia and Northern Prussia ; and guided by these analogies, may we not ask, where are the similar soils or districts in our own country? They are abundant and available along the line of the principle river. The lands hitherto liable to flood, by the irregular risings of the Shannon, but, by the improvement of its channel, about to be permanently rendered available to agriculture amount to not less than 32,500 acres above Limerick, whilst below that city the caucasses or marshy grounds of the extraordinary fertility mentioned by Wakefield, are to be found. Such soils afford the most complete parallel to those districts of Egypt and of Belgium, which have been for ages the seats of the growth of flax. The water power at Killaloe….. places at the hands of the manufacturer the means of every mechanical preparation of the crop”

As showing the disadvantages under which Ireland must labour in the absence of a central line of Railway, intersecting those two projected, and in progress from East to West of the kingdom, the following may be extracted from the same high authority.

The expense of land carriage is so considerable even on the best roads, as to present material obstacles to the extension of commercial intercourse. It may be estimated , for general goods throughout the country at 6d per ton per mile, and even under the conditions of steady traffic with returns as in the case of the carriage of coals from the colliery district, I have been obliged to estimate its minimum amount at 3d per ton per mile. The cost of manufactured goods as well as of produce is thus heightened considerably by the cost of carriage their use is limited to a smaller circle of the people and therefore, every means that can be devised for lowering the cost of transport should be energetically made available.

No doubt appears to be now entertained that the Government will select a harbour upon the South or West of Ireland, for the American and West Indian Packet station ; in that event it is plain that the proposed Railway must form the main trunk in connexion with the Northern lines already mentioned, from the whole of Scotland and the North of England by Belfast, for the Americans and West Indian Mails, Passengers and Merchandise. Whether the Port selected be Galway, Limerick, Kilrush, Tarbert, Cork or Valentia – the obvious advantage of such a route in saving of time and avoiding the dangers and difficulties of Channel Navigation, are too obvious to require more particular mention.

Neither need the vast importance of this line to the Government and the country, in a military point of view , be dwelt upon ; suffice it is to say that it will connect by a direct road, the several garrisons of Derry, ENniskillen, Belturbet, Belfast, Armagh, Monaghan, cavan, Granard, Longford, Athlone, Banagher, Birr, nenagh and Limerick ; and by the proposed branch Roscrea, Templemore, Fermoy and Cork – thus affording the means of concentration of the force of the country at any one point in the north, south or centre, in a few hours time while looking upon it as the medium for ordinary conveyance of Troops and Military Stores to and from these several posts, a considerable return may be calculated upon from this branch of traffic.

This line will supply he want so long and severely felt by the Agriculturalists and Dealers of England, Ireland and Scotland of direct and speedy carriage for cattle to and from the large fairs of Mullingar, Athlone, Banagher and Ballinasloe – that great emporium of Irish Stock – bringing the coast of Scotland, by Belfast within a few hours of those well known and important markets – the traffic thus accommodated ensuring the large returns of profit.

From the Census returns, it appears that the population of the several towns upon the line amounts to 128,675 ; and taking the average population of the rural districts through which it runs, and assuming that the railway will be used by those living within a range of five miles it will have the carriage of a rural population of 359,655, making, with the towns, a total, in immediate connexion with the line of 488,331 ; but taking an equally legitimate but more extended view, and looking upon this as a portion of a great line from North to South, the same authority points out a population North of Clones of 1,920,865 in habitants, making with the amount already stated a gross total of nearly 4 millions and a half, independent of collateral traffic from the counties, cities and towns lying East and West, including the important port of Galway, to which this must also form the direct line from the Northern and North-Eastern Harbours.

A few more paragraphs not included here.

Taken from :
The King’s Co. Chronicle
Vol. 1 No. 3
Wednesday, Oct 6th, 1845

Armagh Plantations, Ballynemony and Dewcorran Manors, 1622

(1) The Manors of Dewcorran (1,500 acres) and Ballynemony (1,000 acres)


Dewcorran granted to John Brownlow May 28, 1610, and Ballynemony to William, his son, June 18 of same year. Carew in his report of 1611 states that both were then resident and dwelling in an Irish house, that they had brought over 6 carpenters, 1 mason, a tailor and workmen. One freeholder and 6 tenants had been settled and preparations made for the building of 2 bawns-some muskets and arms in readiness.

According to Pynnar’s Survey of 1619 bawns had been erected on both proportions, that at Dewcorran having within it a fair house of stone and brick, the bawn was, however, constructed of timber and earth but stone and lime were in readiness to build the usual walled enclosure. At Ballynemony there was a good strong house within an island. At this date “a fair town” had arisen on Dewcorran consisting of 42 houses all inhabited by English families, the streets “all paved clean through,” 2 watermills and 1 windmill-all for corn, 57 families “with divers under them” able to make 100 men with arms and “not one Irish family upon the land “- statements open to grave doubt.

The survey of 1622 gives particulars and measurements of the bawn on Dewcorran “near adjoining which he had made a good village of 40 houses inhabited with English tenants on both sides the streete in which a good windmill stands. “As regards Ballynemony nothing new transpires other than that the number of armed men had increased to 160 and 24 Irish families were resident.

William Brownlow was knighted in 1622, served as High Sheriff of the County in the following year, and represented Armagh in the old Irish House of Commons in 1639. He died January 20, 1660. By his wife Elinor O’Dogherty (daughter of John O’Dogherty of Derry and great-granddaughter of Sir John Oge O’Dogherty, Lord of Inishowen) he had issue three daughters, of whom the eldest. Lettice Brownlow, married firstly Patrick Chamberlain of Nizelrath. Co. Louth, member of an old Anglo-Norman family established in that county previous to 1312. By this marriage she had with other issue an eldest son Arthur Chamberlain born 1645, who assumed the name of Brownlow as directed by the will of his maternal grandfather.

Arthur Brownlow alias Chamberlain was High Sheriff of the county in 1679 and 1686 and Member of Parliament from 1692 until his death in 1710. He was a man of cultured tastes and took a deep personal interest in the management of the property especially in the welfare and housing of his tenants. His chief claim to our admiration, however, lies in the fact that he was the saviour of the Book of Armagh, that priceless treasure of the Primatial See and earliest of our Irish manuscripts that can with absolute certainty be dated. He was succeeded in the estate by his eldest son William, High Sheriff 1711 who followed his father in the representation of the county, retaining the seat until he died in 1739, leaving a son William (High Sheriff 1750, M.P. for the county 1753-1794) whose second son, Charles Brownlow, was the father of Charles Brownlow, M.P., created Baron Lurgan of Lurgan, ancestor of the present Lord Lurgan.(1) The estate was considerably enlarged in the early 18th century by the purchase of additional lands including the Manor of Richmount, Co. Armagh,(2) in 1706. The family also possessed property in Counties Louth and Monaghan.

(1) For detailed information on the Brownlow, Chamberlain, and allied families see L.A.J. Vol. x. pp. 318-326 and Vol. XI, pp. 173-185.
(2)See (6) Manor of Aghivillan and Brochus.

from “County Armagh In 1622 A Plantation Survey”
Edited byT. G. F. PATERSON, M.A., M.R.I.A. published in Seanchás Ardmhaca

Armagh Plantations, Dirricrevy and Dromully Manors, 1622

(4) The Manors of Dirricrevy and Dromully (3,000 acres).


These proportions were granted to Lord Saye and Seale. His Lordship did not, however, take possession so the lands were passed to Sir Anthony Cope, Knt. July 5, 1611, but whether by purchase or because of the original grantee’s defection is uncertain. Carew informs us that Sir Anthony had sent over a sufficient overseer and assistant, both of
whom were resident in 1611. A fair castle of free stone was then in process of erection upon which 14 or 15 workmen and 9 carpenters were employed, 16 mares and horses being engaged upon the transport of materials from a quarry some eight miles away. This castle, commonly called Castleraw, survives in a somewhat fragmentary condition in the townland of Ballyrath in the Dirricrevy proportion and is not to be confused With the bawn of lime and stone described by Pynnar eight years later who, curiously enough, makes no mention of the castle, contenting himself with noting 2 water-mills and 1 windmill with 24 houses erected near the bawn. The latter with the houses and mills was situate, however, on the portion known as Dromully close to the lake where its walls now enclose a garden.

In 1622 the castle at Ballyrath is referred to as “a house of lime and stone three and a half storys high” wherein Anthony Cope, Esq. resides with his wife and family. At that time the bawn on the Dromully proportion had “four good flankers three of which contained small buildings of lime and stone 2 ½ storys high in one of which William Pierson dwells” the latter the ancestor of the Pearsons of Loughgall and Kilmore parishes. On the two estates there were then 72 men furnished with arms and 40 Irish families.

Sir Anthony Cope of Hanwell in Oxfordshire is believed to have purchased these lands for the benefit of his second and third sons, Anthony and Richard, but if so he took out the Patent in his own name and by his will settled his County Armagh property upon his son Anthony. There must, however, have been some kind of family arrangement for Richard was subsequently of Drumilly.

Sir Anthony was born in 1548 and in 1606 admitted to Gray’s Inns. He was High Sheriff of Oxfordshire three times between 1582 and 1603, and also served as a Member of Parliament for Banbury and Oxford. Having presented to the Speaker a Puritan revision of the Common Prayer Book and a bill abrogating the existing ecclesiastical law he
was committed to the Tower and there remained from February 26, 1586, until March 23. 1587.

In 1606, and again in 1612, he entertained James I at Hanwell and in June of the year previous to the King’s second visit was created a baronet. He died at Hanwell and was buried there in the family vault July 23. 1615.

Sir Anthony was succeeded at Hanwell by his eldest son William for whom he had purchased an estate in County Tyrone. Sir William, however, did not retain his Irish property, which by 1633 had passed from his ownership into other hands. Five years later he died leaving a son John, ancestor of the succeeding baronets down to the eleventh baronet at whose death in 1851 the title reverted to the Rev. William Henry Cope of whom later. Anthony Cope, second son of Sir Anthony above, was the builder of Castleraw alias Ballyrath and possibly of Drumilly also, leaving with other issue a son Henry who succeeded him at Castleraw but later moved to Loughgall and was the ancestor of the Copes of the Manor and of a son Anthony who settled in Dublin and was the direct ancestor of the above mentioned Rev. Sir William Henry Cope, from whom the present and 15th baronet. Sir Anthony M.L. Cope descends.

Castleraw was badly damaged in the Civil War of 1641 and is not believed to have been repaired. It seems to have been of the fortified manor-house type and was enclosed by a ramparted trench much of which remains in tolerable order.

Drumilly an interesting old mansion. occupies a fine position on a hill overlooking the lake, its crannoge and the old Drumilly bawn, with an excellent prospect of the Loughgall Manor House on a like eminence on the opposite shore. In the Civil War of 1641 Richard Cope the then owner was taken prisoner with his wife and two sons at Monaghan, in which county he also had lands, and imprisoned at Carrickmacross. His son Walter returned to Drumilly and after the Restoration is believed to have built the present house. He was resident there in 1673 when visited by Archbishop Oliver Plunkett whom he describes in a letter as ” a man of gentle birth and much learning.”

The Cope estate was largely increased in the 18th century by the acquisition of the Manor of Mountnorris in April 1738 and the Manor of Grange O’Neiland in the same year.

from from “County Armagh In 1622 A Plantation Survey”
Edited byT. G. F. PATERSON, M.A., M.R.I.A. published in Seanchás Ardmhaca

Good Luck Charms in Foundations, Co. Monaghan

Items were buried in the foundations of the house and these were of two kinds: religious or superstitious. The main place for burial was under the foundation stone of a house. A new coin with the date of the year in which the house was built was the most favoured. A coin was supposed to bring prosperity, the owners of the house would never be without money. Again, the old English florin was considered very lucky with it’s ‘cross’ on one side. People liked to have a silver coin, those who were rich enough used a gold sovereign or a half sovereign.


As with other things, we can see customary items being buried in specific counties. In counties Offaly (King’s), Westmeath and Monaghan the people liked to place St. Benedict’s medals in the four corners of a house. A small piece of ‘Gartan clay’ -earth from St. Columcille’s sanctuary at Gartan was put into the foundations of many Donegal houses. Donegal people also used clay from Tory Island, another sanctuary of St. Columcille, the patron saint of Donegal. We are told that if this clay was in the foundations, the house would not go on fire.

Small containers of holy water have been recovered from foundations, written prayers or holy pictures in containers. Small pieces of iron in houses in Carncash, Co. Sligo; Emyvale, Co. Monaghan; Dualla, Co. Tipperary; in Inistiogue in Co. Kilkenny a horseshoe has been found; a piece of tobacco in Co. Monaghan and some whiskey in Kerrykeel, Co. Donegal. Only the people who put in their good luck charms know why they included what they did in their foundations, we can only guess.

The History of Monaghan for 200 Years, Registered Priests, 1710

From chapter 4. History of Monaghan for 200 years, author : Denis Carolan Rushe B.A., T.C.D., F.R.S.A.I. The first table lists the name of the parish and the priest, the second the names of those who acted as guarantors of the good behaviour of these priests with the residence or address of each person.


Parish Priest Residence
Aughnamullen
Donaghmoyne
Tullycorbet
Magheracloon & Kilanny
Kilmore & Drumsnatt
Tedavnet
Errigle, Lower
Errigle
Donagh & Tehallen
Killeevan & Curran
Rackwallace
Monaghan
Clontibret
Magheross
Clones
Galloon
Mucknoe
Inniskeen
Bryan, Rev. McCabe
Dionasius, Rev. McGuin
Bryan, Rev. McMahon
Patrick, Rev. Casey
Patrick, Rev. Duffy
Bryan, Rev. McMahon
James, Rev. McKenna
James, Rev. Treanor
Art., Rev. Connolly
Con, Rev. McMahon
James, Rev. Duffy
James, Rev. Duffy
Torlough, Rev. Duffy
Bryan, Rev. Hulthahan
Turlough, Rev. Connolly
Philip, Rev. Beggan
Owen, Rev. Mulligan
Ross, Rev. McMahon
Redmond McCabe
Frances Duffy
Owen Duffy
Patrick Duffy
Rory McMahon
Phelim Connolly
Patrick McKenna
John Treanor
Phelim Connolly
Turlough Maguire
Philip McArdle
Philip McArdle
James McArdle
Patrick Duffy
Francis Forster
Philip McArdle
Philip McArdle
Francis Matthew
Residence Surety 2 Resi Address
Carrigaldarra
Monaghan
Drumlanekill
Benmore
Mullanavanog
Edenbrone
Mullinacask
Cloghnart
Edenbrone
Killynenagh
Monaghan
Monaghan
Laragh
Corrigattyduff
Drumrest
Monaghan
Monaghan
Stephenstown
Hugh McMahon
Bryan Brennan
Patrick McMahon
Owen Duffy
Bryan Loughran
Philip McArdle
Patrick McKenna
Patrick McGeough
Edward Hughes
Rory O’Cahan
Torlough Duffy
Torlough Duffy
Patrick Greenan
Patrick McMahon
Earthur Ennis
Torlough Duffy
Torlough Duffy
James Stanley
Annaghscue
Pullins
Enagh
Cornacreeve
Monaghan
Monaghan
Kilfahven
Tonnynumery
Middletown
Latroe
Monaghan
Monaghan
Castleshane
Enagh
Aughnashalvy
Monaghan
Monaghan
Williamstown
Garryduff
Edengilrevy
Cordevlish
Mullaghloist
Cabragh
Knockballaronia
Drumbristan
Dunmadigan
Doagheys
Killynenagh
Legnacreeve
Tandragee
Doohamlet
Corduff-Kelly
Derryledigan
Latnamard
Tullycollive
Ballyphelan

The History of Monaghan for 200 Years, 1660-1860

Denis Carolan Rushe B.A., T.C.D., F.R.S.A.I.


Published 1921

Chapter I

After the defeats of the Irish in the reign of Elizabeth the estates of most of the Irish gentry in the County of Monaghan were taken from them and bestowed on English soldiers and court favourites, but some portions were returned to the Irish gentry. The County Monaghan was not planted in James I’s reign, and the only settlers were the personal followers of the new aristocracy and discharged soldiers who resided in the towns and villages. The majority of occupiers of the soil were allowed to remain in enjoyment of their farms as tenants to the new owners. Many of the old gentry sold their estates, but there were enough still in possession after the Cromwellian war to tempt further confiscations, so whatever portions of the County still held by “Irish Papists” was taken from the owners and given to the Cromwellian undertakers and soldiers about 1657 for arrears of pay. The undertakers were those people in England who subscribed money to enable Cromwell to fit out his expedition to invade Ireland.

Of course this subscription was an investment, and the subscribers expected a good return for their money, and both they and the soldiers were sadly disappointed at the smallness of the return, for all the valuable properties were seized upon and held by officials. After the officials had been satisfied, the undertakers came next, and although they were not satisfied, still they were treated better than the soldiers. Many of the common soldiers were so disgusted with what they got that they sold their lands either to their officers or to the old natives at a very low price. An interesting letter from Dr. John Leslie of Glaslough, the Protestant High Church Bishop of Clogher, of which the following is a copy, is still extant, and explains the dissatisfaction amongst those who expected more of the spoils than was given to them:

“Bishop John Leslie, to Sir Edward Dering (British Museum MS)

Castle Leslie,
4th March 1666

Noble Sir, – Though I did enjoy the honour of your acquaintance, yet could I expect nothing but punctual justice from a judge of your worth, and now though unacquainted I can look for no less, if you please to take into your consideration the reason and equitie of my request, which is the reducement of accreadge of Termont Mogra to what it is really worth. The surveyors return of two and twenty thousand accres will not be with you (I hope) an uncontrollable Rule of Justice, who heightened that land for their own advantage, they being payed their salaries out of the accres. The land I assure is the worst and most unprofitable in the Province of Ulster and will not afford fourteen hundred accres useful to the tenant, though the bogg and mountains be of a larger extent. My interest in Termont Mogra is nothing but a lease for the See of Cloghor, for which I have already paid more than it is worth. Upon the truth of my information I humbly desire and expect what justice in conscience and honor you refuse to no subject. So wishing you God’s blessing; direction and protection, I shall ever remain Your Most humble and affectionate servant JOH. CLOGHOR”

The Cromwellian undertakers and soldiers do not appear to have taken much root in the soil, and many of them sold their estates, but those who held on and the new purchaser preferred receiving rents from the old tenants than bothering themselves with tilling the land. In a few localities the landlords brought in other planters from other parts of Ulster, who were principally the sons and grandsons of the anglicised Scotch of James I period. A few such settlements were on rich lands in the barony of Dartrey. One extended along the northern part of the parish of Drumsnatt and the parts of Tedavnet and Clones parishes which adjoin it, and a few smaller localities in other parts of the County. As a general rule the method of planting the land with alien tenants was not followed in County Monaghan, as it had been in other parts of Ulster. The manner was much more subtle and gave less cause for irritation by evicting an occasional tenant and gradually filling the vacant holdings with descendants of planters, which was continued with occasional periods of cessation until the rise of the Land League in 1787-79.

Early in the reign of Charles II a tax was imposed on all householders of two shillings for each hearth in County Monaghan; the list of payments is called the Hearth Money Roll. The roll for that County exists for two years 1663 and 1665. As it is from this roll the modern history of the people of our county proceeds, it seems advisable that it should be given in full which will enable most inhabitants of the County to trace their ancestors. The date at the head of the first is given as XV in the Reign of Charles II. The years of his reign are counted from the death of his father, not from the date of his accession to the throne. In reading this list, it must be remembered that those who gave their names spoke only Irish, which accounts for many of the forms in which they are written as being unintelligible. It is probably that the person entering the payments could not catch the sounds accurately so they were written phonetically: many of the Gaelic sounds could not be reproduced in English. It appears that in many of the parishes the collectors of the tax were satisfied with one person paying the assessment in each townland where only a single hearth is returned. In the parish of Monaghan, however it will be observed that the one person whose name is returned paid for as many hearths in the townland as the collector was aware of. Monaghan being the garrison town, it was harder to escape payment in that parish than in farther away localities. Many townlands are missing altogether, for out of the 1,850 townlands in Co. Monaghan, only 1,016 are recorded as having rendered any contribution to the Hearth Tax. The list of 1663 consists of 1,748 names, while that of 1665 contains 1,391 names.

It is probable that many people evaded payment and escaped from both lists. There are over 850 names on the second list which are not discoverable on the 1663 list. These, when added together bring the total up to 2,600. Some of those omitted were in isolated localities which probably had not many inhabitants, or the houses of the people who lived in them were inaccessible to tax collectors. Besides, there are groups of townlands which must have been inhabited from which no payments are returned. These people may have resisted payment, the collector may have forgotten to give up the money, or no person may have been obtainable who would undertake the task. It is therefore probable that little more than half the house-holders are recorded; allowing six for each family, which is a fair estimate of the families of that period and taking all circumstances into account, the population of County Monaghan would have been 15,000 to 20,000 in the middle of the 17th century.

Few paid taxes on more than one hearth, and where there were two or more the number is indicated by the figure after the name. None but the very rich or very loyal people paid for a parlour as well as a kitchen hearth. The names of those who paid for more than one hearth indicate that they were, with few exceptions, not of the Irish, or if they were, had ‘Englished’ their names, so that very few of the original land owners had been reinstated in their properties after the restoration of the monarchy. When claims were made they were generally met by accusations of treasons, murders, &c., and the claimants called for an enquiry. A commission was accordingly issued, and at the first sitting the charges preferred against the older gentry broke down, with the result that the commission was suddenly recalled.

It was clear that the influence of the new proprietors was so great at the seat of government in Dublin and London that there was no chance of justice being done to the rightful owners of the land. Had the Commission continued its labours it is probably that all the stories of massacres and spoilations which gave excuses for confiscations of properties of the owners as well as having supplied materials to the anti-Irish writers from that day to this would have exploded. Very few of the county Monaghan estates were restored, even the coming of James II brought little relief to the plundered gentry.

From a perusal of the Hearth Money Roll the position of towns and villages are difficult to ascertain. There were then three towns in the County Monaghan – Monaghan, Clones and Carrickmacross The village of Castleblayney was on the east side of the lake in the parish of Muckno. It was around the site of an Augustinian friary, but the only remnant of the old town is the graveyard and ruins of Ballintoy. Early in the eighteenth century the residence of Lord Blayney and the town were moved to the west side of the lake, being more convenient for traffic along the road from Dublin to Derry, and the adjoining townlands of Clontibret were transferred into it and became part of the parish of Muckno.

There is very little record of the old Monastery of Muckno. After its destruction, Augustinian friars kept travelling about in the neighbourhood but owing to the number of Planters brought from time to time by the Blayneys, the Catholics appear to have diminished in the locality. There are records of Priors but whether they were titular Priors who did not live in the County or some travelling Friars who ministered to the religious wants of the neighbourhood is not known. A Prior is mentioned in 1776. Ballybay did not then exist as a town, though there probably was a village at the ford from which it was named; there is only one person given as paying the tax in it.

In Coolmain in the parish of Monaghan there appears to have been a village which was afterwards removed to Knockbuee in the same neighbourhood. In Donaghmoyne, there were villages or clusters of houses at Mullinahunchina, Leamchoill (now Longfield), Laragh, Kiltybegs, Lurganboy, Drumharriff ; in Magheracloon : Tonniskea and Aghavillard; in Currin: Drum ; in Clones: Ballintoppin ; and in Donagh: Glaslough and Killyboley. There must have been many villages and groups of cabins out of which no tax could be obtained.

Chapter II

An examination of the literature written about the period of James and William wars in Ireland discloses that what we are in the habit of accepting for histories are generally political pamphlets, so that it is difficult to find out the truth of the several occurrences of that period. In order to avoid the confusion created by the writers and public men of the period calling each other rebels, the names Jacobite and Williamite will be used in these pages as distinctive enough.

The troubles began in County Monaghan at the Hilary Session 1689, when Major John McKenna, the Sheriff appointed by James II’s Lord Lieutenant, came to take up office. The Protestant gentry who were Williamites, called on the Rev. Charles Leslie of Glaslough to come into the Sessions and oppose the King’s Sheriff, for the reason that he (Leslie) knew law, from which it appeared the other justices did not. Leslie came and lead the Magistrates in their refusal to acknowledge McKenna: the grounds of the opposition appears to have been that McKenna was a Catholic. McKenna’s reply being that he was of the King’s religion. The Magistrates issued a warrant against him. McKenna as Sheriff was the person entitled to execute the warrant to arrest himself. Those of the gentry who sided with William and whom the Jacobites termed rebels had the grounds for dreading that James II and the Irish Parliament might seek to restore the estates confiscated by Cromwell’s agents to their original owners and deprive the descendants of the Cromwellian soldiers and adventurers of property which they had enjoyed for twenty or thirty years. Besides many of the landowners had purchased the property from them, and some lands had changed hands more than once, so that it is not surprising so many should have joined the Williamites fearing a re-settlement of the land of Ireland. The incident of the refusing to acknowledge the Papist Sheriff passed over without any immediate consequence. However, shortly afterwards the Jacobite army took possession of the Town and Castle of Monaghan, whether there was a fight, or whether the Williamite garrison evacuated or surrendered without resistance there is no reliable evidence to show. The Williamites who left Monaghan went to Glaslough, and according to the Williamite accounts Major John McKenna the Sheriff with 400 followers tried to arrest them and several people of quality who were going to Derry, but on the Garrison of Glaslough sallying forth under Matthew Ancketell and Captain Richardson the Jacobites fled to a “Danish fort” where they were followed and scattered by two troops of horse and three companies of foot. The accounts vary as to the number of Jacobites killed. One Williamite historian says 6, another 90, and another 180 – however all agree that none of the Williamites was killed; but that Ancketell was killed after the battle by a man hidden in a bush. This has been called in local history the ‘Battle of Durmbanagher’ Some points require investigation before accepting any of these versions of the incident. The statement that a battle was fought in which no one was killed on one side and many killed on the other excites the reader’s suspicion. Some of the early accounts state that the fort was one mile from Glaslough, another fixes it at half a mile from the town, but all later writers in order to avoid anachronisms fix it at Drumbanagher beside the town. One of the early accounts dates this battle in 1688, a year sooner than the others.

The Jacobite version is that the garrison of Glaslough went out to arrest the Sheriff, Major John McKenna at his residence which was at Monmurry (the site of the ‘fort’ on which his house was situated was marked on the early Ordnance Survey Maps and was one mile distant from Glaslough) and that some of his retainers resisted and were killed by the soldiers. The Williamites after arresting McKenna hanged him. The head was severed from the body and brought besmeared with blood in a trencher to his afflicted widow. All accounts agree that Ancketell was killed after the incident, the local tradition being that the assassin was a discharged servant of his own.

The reader can do as the writers of the period did, select whichever version pleases him best.

The following letters were written by the agent of Lennard Barrett Clones estate to the owner who lived in England about these times: –
Fletcher (agent) to Dacre Barrett (Nov 21st, 1682)
“We have had a very severe winter, and I think without a new Creation we shall never leave this County see Cock, Blackbird or Thrush.”

(Feb 21st 1685)
“I hope the death of our good King will make no alteracon; we proclaimed James ye Second in this town on Thursday last……….there’s noe money now stirring in the country. I have not received one farthing from the tenants since the King’s death and to drive these Cathlcs. is to noe purpose. I am ashamed to tell how much they are in arrear.”

(Jan 29th, 1688)
According to your desire and commands I have been in the country and have made a stay for some days at Clownish in order to settle your affayres………in the country I found the British for the most pt. had quitted ye houses and were gott into little sort of garrisons; Captain Townley’s one, Red Hill another, the Montgomery’s a third and several other places; the Irish on the other side were raysing a vast number of soldiers, 20 companyes as I believe in ye Countyes of Monaghan and Ffermanagh…….as to the estate in general I find no more disorders that I know well how to redress, yet the tenants are very miserably poore and almost every towne a nest of beggars that destroy the corne that grows; till times settle my advice is, if you please, to make a general abatement except in any particular cases………as to the Tenants yt. have noe leases there’s noe way but to take what they will give, if they will but stay on the lands till times mend, ffor that country and soe indeed generally all the North is perfectly in armes.

The whole country passed under the Jacobites, who remained in control until after the coming of William’s army. During that period the ancient Monastery of Monaghan was restored, and a great ecclesiastical ceremony was performed at the opening of it by Dr. Tyrrell, the then Catholic Bishop of Clogher.

In the Irish Parliament which met in Dublin in May 1689, the County Monaghan was represented in the House of Commons by Bryan McMahon, Esq., and Hugh McMahon, Esq., both of whom took their seats in July. Lord Blayney is returned as sitting in the House of Lords.

The Borough was not represented, as the Charter had been called in and not restored when Parliament had been summoned. Eighteen Boroughs were in similar position for Charles II began to cancel some of the Borough Patents which had been affected by the Commonwealth Revolution and James II continued the disfranchisement of the Boroughs. Whether it was Charles or James disfranchised Monaghan is not certain, for the Borough does not appear to have returned any members to Parliament from 1661 until 1692.

On 20th June, the Committee who acted as a Parliament in London, gave leave to introduce a Bill to attaint for High Treason those in Ireland who sided with James. While towards the end of the same month the Irish Parliament brought in a Bill to attaint those who sided with William. Unfortunately all the papers connected with the Jacobite Parliament were burned by order of the Williamite Parliament in 1695, and we can only depend on the writing of Archbishop King, Harris, &c., on the one side and on Leslie, Jones, &c., on the other for information on the doings of the former body.

King gives a list of those whom he alleges were attainted by the Irish Parliament, but there is evidence that many of the names were not in the original, but were inserted as likely to gain friendship for their owners from the Williamite Government. There are 153 County Monaghan men’s names in King’s list, and it is probably that all of them were connected with risings of WIlliamites in the north-west. (Names given in Appendix II) The list is sadly defective in not giving the part of the County in which the attaints resided. Those of them who lived in Ireland were given until 1st August to signify their loyalty to James II. Those who resided in England had up to October.

The following is the Oath of Allegiance required by James II
“I hereby acknowledge, confess, testify and declare in my conscience before God and the World that our Sovereign Lord King James is lawful and rightful King of this Realm and His other Majesty’s Dominions and Countries, and I will bear faith and true allegiance to His Majesty, his heirs and successors, and him and them will defend to the utmost of my power against all conspiracies and attempts whatsoever which will be made against his or their Crown and Dignity and do my best endeavours to disclose and make known to his Majesty his heirs or successors or the Lord Deputy of Chief Governor or Governors of this Kingdom for the time being all Treasons, Traitorous Conspiracies which I shall know or hear to be intended against His Majesty or any of them, and I do make this recognition and acknowledgement heartily, willingly and truly upon the true faith of a Christian. So help me God.

And I also declare and believe that it is not lawful upon any pretence whatever to take arms against the King, and that I do abhor the traitorous practises of taking arms by his authority against his person or against those that are commissioned by him. So help me God.”

Whether any of the County Monaghan attaints took the oath of allegiance and returned to their duty and loyalty and were pardoned does not appear. If any of them did so, care must have been taken afterwards to keep the fact secret from the Williamite Government, as it would have placed the parties who did it under suspicion and prevent them from getting any of the spoils. At all events this list shows the names of those who had joined the Williamites in the end of 1688 and beginning of 1689. There is no evidence of their property being handed over to Jacobites, but it is not at all improbably that some of the former owners tried to get back their lands.

Rev. Charles Leslie was not attainted, for he appears to have been a Jacobite all the time. The fact of his opposing the appointment of a Catholic Sheriff does not show that he favoured a change of dynasty. The Williamite historians assert that he was recruiting in County Antrim for the Williamites at the time of the Battle of Drumbanagher. It was necessary to show that he was absent from Glaslough in order to establish their version of the alleged battle. The following interesting account of the Rev. Charles Leslie is from the pen of Shane Leslie:
“Charles Leslie was born in 1650 and so named after his sacred Majesty King Charles, whom devout Catholics and Anglicans regarded as a martyr for his principles. Charles remained a family name with the Leslies of Glaslough until the death of the late Charles Powell Leslie, M.P.”

The first Charles Leslie was one of the first journalists and the ablest pamphleteer of his times. The list of his works covers six pages in the British Museum Catalogue. With his father, he is one of the few County Monaghan men to be commemorated in the Dict. of National Biography. His life and Writings are described in a 500 page book by R. J. Leslie, issued by Rivington’s in 1885.

The first edition of the Enclyclop. Britann. Contained an unwarranted legend, that the old bishop hoped before his birth that Charles should prove ‘the greatest scourge the Covenanters ever seen!” 1650 was an ‘annus mirabilis’. In it were born Leslie’s two great enemies, William of Orange and Archbishop King, both of whom his keen pen wounded and disgraced beyond the cure of party-physicians. In the same year, Cromwell, the aversion of his father, defeated David Leslie at Dunbar. The Leslies held out long for the Stuarts both in the Church and the Camp. Charles was the most rabid and devoted Jacobite in literature. He was ordained Deacon by Dr. Sheridan of Cloyne, ancestor of the great Sheridan, and served in the parish of Donagh, from whose pulpit, only destroyed in memory of man, the two greatest controversialists of the time preached – Leslie and Swift.

Leslie disputed with voice and pen against everybody, against the Catholics in Monaghan and Tynan Church; against Socinians, Jews, Deists and Quakers. His only convert seems to have been a Quaker who relapsed! Everybody convinced only themselves. As his Biographer writes “So it was at Monaghan.” Protestants loudly proclaimed Leslie to be the victor. Romanists were as confident their bishop had the best of the argument.

Archbishop King accused Leslie of being “the first to shed blood” in Ireland at the Revolution, referring to the battle of Drumbanagher; but during that skirmish he was in the Isle of Wight, as Clarendon’s Diary testifies. Refusing to take the oath to William, he became Clarendon’s Chaplain and administered to non-jurors in London. He preached at the commemoration of King Charles at Ely House “a most excellent sermon to about 60 persons, a great auditory at this time”. His powers won Dr. Johnson’s encomium that he was a reasoner not to be reasoned against. Hallam attacks him with the venom of a Whig, but Macaulay gives him his meed and place in history. Stephen in his History of English Thought, describes him as a ‘rationalist in principle’. His great rivals in his time were Defoe, who wrote ‘Robinson Crusoe’ and was the most vindictive journalist on the Whig side, and Archbishop King whose ‘State of the Protestants in Ireland’ Leslie demolished from Glaslough, left an indelible stain upon King’s memory. The book was suppressed and the manuscript seized at Glaslough. It was anonymous and is of the greatest rarity. He also exposed King William’s part in the Massacre of Glencoe in a bitter pamphlet called ‘Gallenienus Redivivus’, which secured the real story for history. Defoe issued a reply to exculpate William, but the historians have taken Leslie’s view. Leslie edited the ‘Rehearsal’, a Jacobite journal, which in two years ‘had nearly driven the review of Defoe out of the field’. The government then suppressed it with the same high hand with which they had prosecuted Sacheverell, like Leslie, a Jacobite and High Churchman. Leslie had been accused of coining the phrases High and Low Church. Of Sacheverall’s trial he wrote, “they brought me to trial in person of the doctor.” He had a tremendous conflict with Bishops Hoadly and Burnet. Burnet attacked him in Salisbury cathedral and after his death in his ‘History of His Own Times’. He replied to Burnet in ‘The Good Old Cause or Lying in Truth’, a very keen attack. In 1710 Leslie was outlawed, and a proclamation issued against him for ‘tending to bring in the Pretender.’ Leslie retired to the Pretender’s Court at St. Germain and pursued the policy of securing a Stuart succession. Though the Pretender was a Catholic, Leslie acted as Anglican chaplain to his household, and wrote the famous description of the Pretender, which the Tories reprinted in 1715 in his favour ending ‘He is a Stuart perfect in your language, and though driven by you into another nation yet his and his father’s court was still English.’

Queen Anne died and the House of Hanover prevailed. Sacheverall took the oaths but Leslie remained true to Stuart allegiance. He had been out of Ireland since 1691, and as he was outlawed, Glaslough was left to his son Robert, but King George I declared that ‘the old man should come home and die in peace.’ The university of Oxford then published his theological works and five hundred members of the Houses of Parliament subscribed. In 1721, he returned to Glaslough without withdrawing an opinion or soiling his conscience. The next year he died and was buried at Glaslough.

The County Monaghan’s proportion of the sum required for the maintenance of the royal army of King James was £1,052 4s. 0d., which was collected by the following Barony Constables – Captain Hugh McMahon, Captain Bryan McMahon, Captain Farrell Ward, Doctor Henry Cassidy and Alexander McCabe, Esq.

There were two County Monaghan regiments in King James’ army called after their respective Colonels. The officers of the first were principally County Cavan gentlemen, but the names of only a few of the officers of the second regiment are available. Many of the County Monaghan Jacobites served in Colonel Gordon O’Neill’s 1st Tyrone regiment, while others served in the County Louth regiments of Lords Bellew and Louth. There is no record of Major McKenna’s regiment which was said to be at the Battle of Drumbanagher. It’s non-existence goes to throw further doubt on the story of the alleged battle.

Names of the officers in the County Monaghan regiments

After the overthrow of the Jacobites in Ireland about 2,000 gentry and farmers who had sided with James II were outlawed and their properties confiscated. The following are the County Monaghan names in the list:

POPISH RECUSANTS

Claims were made by some proprietors of estates to be entitled to retain them under the Articles of the Treaty of Limerick and 782 succeeded, most of whom were in the centre of Ireland or had powerful connections in Dublin and London.

The Treaty was violated and the Penal Code soon deprived the Catholics of the remnants of their properties.

The following are the names and dates of the judgements given in favour of the few County Monaghan claimants who were adjudged within the Military Articles of the Treaty of Limerick:
Major John McKenna, Donagh, 7th Dec 1694
Capt Jas Rice, Leitrim, 5th July 1699
Patrick Deery, Donagh, 24th Nov. 1694
John Hartford, Derrynalosset, 24th Nov 1692

The following were found to have covered their estates by mortgages, probably made to evade the Penal Laws and save the family properties:
Murtagh McGuinness, Drumhirk, mortgaged to Joanna Graham
Patrick Matthews, The Tates of Latton, mortgage to William Fortescue
Richard Fleming, Lisrerran, a judgement to Francis Stoyle of Latton and Lurganearly

Patrick Matthews estates was sold by order of the court in 1703, and purchased by Capt. Wm. Fortescue, who was probably a relative or friend for £240.

The following are some of the forfeiting persons who failed to have their estates restored:
Richard Fleming, Monaghan – 3516 acres
Patrick Matthews, Cremorne – 120 acres
Lord Slane, Farney – 200 acres

It will be noticed that some of those who still held property had ‘englished’ their names – e.g.
from Mac Mathghamhna : McMahon to Matthews
from O Maol Craoibhe, O’Mulcreevy to Rice
from O Doighre to Deery
and from O h-Aontaigh or Mac Arta to Hartford.

After all the confiscations there were many Williamites still unsatisfied, and an enquiry was instituted for persons who lived abroad and still held lands in Ireland. There being no one to defend the interests of the owners of these estates, judgements for high treason were easily obtained, and the estates so sought were confiscated. The persons who held property in the County Monaghan and who came under these judgements were the following:
Hugh Roe McMahon, Farney
Eugene McMahon, Farney
James Patk. McLoughlan Roe McMahon
Bernard Roe McEaver McMahon
John Duff O’Connolly, Dartrey
Art McConn McTotlogh Oge O’Connolly, Drumgolin
Martin Fleming, Monaghan
Arthur McMahon McArdle McColl, Monaghan
Thos. Conn McTorlagh Oge O’Connolly, Drumackguillin

It is probably that some of these were amongst the estates which subsequently brought William into trouble with his parliament. There was no plantation of Williamites in Ireland. The army with which he conquered this country consisted principally of Continental soldiers – Dutch, Danes, Germans and Huguenots. Efforts were made by the Jacobites and Tory gentry in England to have them restored to their native countries after their return from Ireland.

There was little land left to the older Irish proprietors most of them realising that they could not hold free-hold land owing to the penal laws, sold their estates, either left the country or became merged in the farming community. Some got grants or leases from the new owners of the lands which had formerly been their own, while some opened businesses in the towns. It will be seen later on how they fared.

The state of Clones after the Williamite war appears from the Lennard Barrett correspondence:
Westgarth (July 31st, 1690) writes:
“The whole country from Kells to Clownish except a few at Cavan being only a wilderness with a few houses uninhabited ; the town of Clownish is something better, what escaped being burning being for the most pt inhabited either by townes people or strangers, the accs on the side will informe you how the towne is…..the mill of Cumbre is quite destroyed, that of Anlore standing but the front gone, the Castle wants a deal of slating and one of the joysts above the dining room floor is from the wall. It was I am told full of dung, but it is now clean and a part of it inhabited by Eugene Lee, Tom Morgan is in another pt for a while. I thought fitt to affix the paper on the Cross which I left there sticking.”

Chapter III

Registered Priests, 1710

Chapter IV

During the early part of the eighteenth century Ireland was in the lowest economic condition it had reached since the Cromwellian wars. Trade with foreign lands was prohibited; all industries except linen manufacture had been suppressed; the sole market for Irish produce was England, and that only for such goods as did not interfere with the English producers or manufactures. It is difficult to trace the social or economic history of any single Irish county for that period. Such histories as we have of the times deal almost entirely with political events, and it is only by the greatest assiduity that anything can be ascertained of how the inhabitants of the County then lived. The whole country was getting poorer all through those years, for men’s minds were directed to political matters, to the neglect of the more material needs of their nation. The cause of the decay was in the first instance due to the penal enactments against the industries and the religion of the large majority of the people. It is probable that William III would have acted justly by both had he been able to do so, for he was bound to those who had furnished him with means of overthrowing his father-in-law to treat Ireland and her people in an equitable manner. But unfortunately shortly after he ascended to the throne of these realms he got into trouble with his parliament, owing to his attempts to appropriate some of the confiscated estates and bestow them on a favourite. The representatives of the English people were very indignant at this. It was bad enough to try to enrich his Dutch followers, as he had been trying to, but this act they looked on as a fraud on the nation and a public insult to the Queen, so they refused to allow it, and considerably curtailed his powers thereafter, and when parliament enacted laws destroying Irish trade and industries seeking to suppress the Catholic religion he was powerless to stop them. Some of the confiscated estates were in the County Monaghan, and had there been no objection to William’s generosity to his friends the landlords of the County would have included amongst them a descendant of the ducal house of Villiars and Orkney, who could have borne the arms of William III with a bar sinister. The English merchants insisted on crushing out woollen manufacturing, then the staple trade of Ireland, and curtailing the export trade of Irish ports, so restrictions were placed on all the wealth producing industries of the county except linen. The English climate did not suit the culture of flax and handling of linen, so it escaped the general destruction.

The bigots of both England and Ireland insisted on crushing out the Catholic religion, and the Penal Laws against Catholics were enacted. No doubt some of those in power in Ireland believed they were doing right in persecuting the Catholics, but there were many others who used the penal laws for the purpose of taking from the Catholics whatever remnants of property they still possessed. When any efforts were made to draw public attention to the manner in which the country was being robbed, the government excited the bigotry of the Protestants and enacted additional penal laws. The anti-Irish feeling was kept alive amongst the landlords by the fear that in the event of a foreign invasion the Stuarts would be replaced on the throne of these countries and the confiscated estates returned to their former owners. Thus little was done by the resident gentry to improve their properties or benefit their country, while many of the larger landowners were absentees and consumed “above one-half the rents of the nation abroad.” It is not therefore, to be wondered at that there are so few records from which any knowledge of the inner life of the country can be gathered.

The records of the inland counties consist of letters about proclamations about Peace and War, of the enactment of the Penal Laws against Catholics, and proclamations against Rapparees. There are a few documents of national importance which contain references to Monaghan. One of the first of these occurs in the year 1704 under the following circumstances: –
Early in the reign of Queen Anne an Act of Parliament was passed permitting the Catholic Priest of each parish to live and exercise his calling provided he registered his name &c., during the year of 1704 with the Clerk of the Peace and gave two sureties for good behaviour. The parish priests complied thinking they would be allowed to live at peace, but soon afterwards in 1710, the registered priests were required to take the oath of abjuration (denying some of the tenets of their religion). This they refused to do, and became liable to the penalties against Regular Priests.

The Monaghan registered priests, all of whom appear to have refused to take the oath of abjuration, continued their ministrations in their respective parishes, but there are few records of their after lives. In County Cavan some of the Protestant landlords became sureties for the priests in their parishes, and when the Act of 1710 was passed the bigots of that county sent up a presentment to the Grand Jury to have the priests outlawed for refusing to abjure and their recognizances estreated. The Grand Jury, which contained many of the Bailsmen, were very indignant and rejected it. The bigots then sent up bills to the quarter sessions Grand Jury to have the recognizances estreated, but the gentry brought the proceedings into Superior Courts where the magnitude of the bills of law-costs put an end to the ardour of the bigots.

Monaghan Registered Priests 1710

A grandson of Patrick O’Connolly of Drumsnat, a small landowner whose estate was confiscated by Cromwell.

“Parra Glass’s” father was said to have married a peasant’s daughter and settled down as a farmer in Cornaglare. There is no record or tradition to account for why Patrick and his family left their farm, but it is probable that he may have served in the Jacobite army, and that after its defeat he became an outlaw. He was described as a tall, powerfully built man of strange appearance ; instead of a hat he wore a mass of shock hair and an unkempt beard, both of a greenish grey colour, from which his cognomen was derived. He kept the country for miles around Monaghan in terror. All his family became outlaws and lived by plundering all the well-to-do people within a day’s journey of Monaghan. He lived in a cave near Tullygillen, where the mill now stands, and one of his women had a hut in the Glen near Monaghan, from which information as to the movements of the authorities in the town was regularly dispatched to Tullygillen. It was necessary to proclaim him an outlaw and to put aprice upon his head, so that anyone could kill him.

At the Summer Assizes, held on 24th August, 1711, the following proclamation was read in open court:

PROCLAMATION
“We present Patrick Glass O’Connolly, late of Cornaglare, Parish of Kilmore, James O’Connolly, late of Cornaglare aforesaid, formerly in Sligo Gaol, married to Reggie O’Connolly, daughter of Patrick Glass O’Connolly’s sister, Peter O’Connolly, son of James O’Connolly’s brother married to Paralone O’Connolly’s daughter, and Peter and Jas. O’Connolly, reputed sons of John O’Connolly, formerly in the Gaol of this County, to be dangerous Robbers, Tories and Rapparees out upon their keeping, in arms and not amenable to the laws, but robbing and plundering His Majesty’s good subjects.
ALEXANDER MONTGOMERY, sheriff.
“Presentment duly read in Court and confirmed, Humbly Certified to Counsellor Barard in order to have said persons proclaimed as by Act of Parliament is directed.”
JNO MULLAN, J.

Parra Glass was such a formidable outlaw to have roving about the country that seventeen Grand Jurors – a large number for those times – assembled at the Assizes at which this Proclamation was “presented”. They seemed determined to have him captured, and the following signed the Presentment:
Alexander Montgomery, W. d. Wildman, Wm. Robinson, Edward Lucas, Jos. Wright, John McKenna, William Irwin, John D’Alton, Adam Listole, John Fford, Michael Ennis, George Tumcks, James Stannus, Charles Conveg, John Hamilton, W. Johnston and Aldboro Wrightson.

There were three Catholics on this Grand Jury, but by the operation of the Penal Laws they were gradually deprived of their property and their social position.

There is a tradition that Parra Glass was captured, but the story of his arrest exactly corresponds to the story of similar arrests of other Raparees in other parts of the country, so there is considerable doubt on the point, and there is no evidence of such in any record, although there is evidence of the capture of some of his gang.

There were many old songs and ballads recounting his prowess and deeds of daring. His strange appearance while he lived, alarmed many, both young and old, and for many a long year after he died, the mention of his name was used to frighten children to sleep.

The other proclamations of Raparees at that time were:
1707, Bryan Roe O’Murphy ; 1710, a presentment of £5 to reqard Daniel Boy (Buee), servant of Samuel Eyre for taking a Tory ; 1711, three robbers whose names the governments did not know were proclaimed ; 1712, two robbers names unknown were proclaimed ; 1714, presentment against Patrick Duffy & Patrick Kerr for being Tories and having “Broke Gaol,” i.e. escaped from prison ; 1716, Thos. Murphy, son of Loughlin Murphy of Dernasell, Parish of Tedavnet proclaimed ; 17177, John Lamb, of Castleblayney proclaimed. There were no Raparees proclaimed south of Castleblayney in this County.

The attempts to colonise the Barony of Farney with English or Scotch planters had failed, and except in the town of Carrickmacross there was no element of the population favourably affected towards the government. The landlords were absentees, and consequently the Reparees had a very friendly people to quarter themselves amongst.

The inhabitants of the town at that time were Protestants, and the Catholics who carried on business there during the day were obliged to lie outside the walls at night. The following petition, dated 17th December, 1717, was forwarded to the Government by some inhabitants of Carrickmacross : –
“To His Grace Charles Duke of Bolton, Lord Lieutenant General and General Governor of Ireland.
The humble petition of Francis Dobbs and Edward Dixie, Esq., on behalf of themselves and the inhabitants of Carrickmacross
Sheweth
That there are many proclaimed Tories, Robbers and Rapparees who do infest the above County and parts adjacent and convenient. Many robberies and barbarous murders have been committed to the great damage and sorrow of the country, and are often harboured by the Popish inhabitants near said town, and lately are growing so insolent as to appear publicly in great numbers well armed and mounted. Your Petitioners therefore in order to suppress said robbers and murderers most humbly pray that your Grace will be pleased to order that an active Quartermaster or Sergeant and eight Dragoons be forthwith quartered at Carrickmacross aforesaid, whom your Petitioners with great submission humbly conceive may be conveniently detached from Atherdee, Dundalk or Monaghan, and may be of great service at Carricmacross, especially if orders are given them to obey the Civil Magistrate, and your Petitioners do promise to provide convenient quarters there for that number of Dragoons and that they shall be supplied with other necessaries at moderate rates.
And your Petitioners will ever pray
Francis Dobbs and Edward Dixie”

The following endorsement appears on the Petition:
“Proposals of several gents to apprehend Rapparees by the Military assistance being at the discretion of the Civil Magistrates as occasion shall require, 17th December 1717, Received from Mr. Secretary Webster.”

No appeal was made to the local gentry, for the larger landowners about Carrickmacross took little interest in the country, and did nothing to improve it. Many of them were absentees, and only a few of them bothered about local affairs. They seldom attended the Assizes, and left the work of the Grand Jury principally to middlemen, agents and the smaller holders. The Grand Jury did scarcely any but criminal business and “present” proclamations for outlaws. The Monaghan Grand Jury in 1718 was as follows: –
Alex Montgomery
E. Lucas
John Mulholland
Gilb. E. Ellis
Thos. Corry
Geo. Johnston
Michl. Ennis
P. Cassert
John Hamilton
James Hamilton
Anthony Allen
John Gilmore
J. Andrews
Archa. Moore
Sherriff, Andrew McKerr and
Clerk of the Crown and Peace, John McMullen

Channen Rock, between Carrickmacross and Dundalk, for some centuries was looked on as the boundary of the Pale at that point ; the country about it being very wild and formed good shelter for outlaws from the Pale. In after years it became the shelter of the Raparees and robbers who infested North Louth and South Monaghan. At that period, two infamous Rapparees held sway from the fastnesses about Channen Rock. They were Neil McShane, alias Johnston, nicknamed ‘Forty Rags,’ and Bryan Byrne, called ‘Bryan na Poreen.’ They were both proclaimed at Dundalk in 1718.

There appears to have been a fight in January 1718, near Carrickmacross between the Rapparees and the Tory Hunters, at which, one of the former, named Richard Gainshenan, and one of the latter, James Boyle, were killed. Soon after ‘Bryan-na-Poreen was captured by one Edward Lucas, of Moynalty, and two others of the gang ; Ever Roe McMahon and Edmond McKenna were captured by James Hughes (a Tory Hunter) and his assistants. Amongst those of the gang who escaped were John Reilly and Charles Carraher. The last Rapparree captured in the County was Bryan McKenna, on 14th February 1722, except those mentioned in Bashford’s petition, referred to below. The greatest Raparee, Edmond O’Hanlon, infested North Monaghan. O’Hanlon’s Walk is still shewn in the old wod at Glaslough. Carleton heard about him when schooling at Donagh, and wrote a book of that name.

But, whether or not the Sergeant and the eight Dragoons to whom Messrs. Dobbs and Dixie promised to sell cheap provisions became their customers there appears to have been little improvement in the state of the country for some years after. It therefore became necessary to admit Catholics to reside in Carrickmacross, and soon afterwards they began to live in the town. A very remarkable fact is that many of the Catholic business men were educated, although the Penal Laws enacted that Catholics should be illiterate.

At Carrickmacrosss, in 1723, on a Coroner’s Jury – the only sort of Jury Catholics could serve on, and then only when there were not enough Protestants available – there were six Catholics – viz., Art O’Neill, Edmond Carrollan, James Carrolan, and Randal McDonnell. The handwriting of the four literates is exceedingly good and shows evidence of great care in their schoolmaster’s teaching. The signatures of the last three are very neat, and bear a marked contrast to the scribble in which these pages were originally written by their last descendant in Monaghan.

It must be remembered that it was against the law to educate a Catholic, and that those who taught such persons to write did so at risk of their liberty first and the peril of their lives afterwards. This produced the class of educationalists known as ‘Hedge Schoolmasters,’ truly depicted in the old ballad as
“Paddy Byrne, was a big man of a very great knowledge, oh,
Behiond a quickset hedge in a bog he kept his College, oh.”

Although in after years many of their successors deteriorated into Carleton’s “Philomath,” their existence added a glorious chapter to the history of education in Ireland, and a worthy tribute was paid to them by Dr. Douglas Hyde, when he recognised their public services in his short and terse dedication of ‘Beside the Fire’ to the memory of the Hedge Schoolmaster.

Cholera in Clones, Co. Monaghan, 1834

Extract from a letter dated Feb 2nd 1834, Clones, from Dr. M. Keating, Clones to Dr. Bernard, Ballybay. Taken from Carolan Rushe MSS and published in the Clogher Record.


Already there are near fifty deaths, scarcely any survivors …Subscriptions have been sent in from all quarters. Nothing to exceed the consternation…..From forty to fifty families have left Fermanagh St., Shamble St. is also deserted. Our town presents the appearance of having undergone a great siege…..So frightful a scene, I hope in God I may never witness. We distributed a beef cow on Thursday. We are giving the poor now meat and turf, together with blankets and straw. We have a young Doctor Mitchell from Monaghan and one to-day from Cavan of the name of Byrne or Burn, who, I am told, is on the Cavan staff. We are leaving nothing undone. Our visitation has far exceeded yours. ..The deaths have, as you remarked, been confined to the very poor or dissipated