*
 
 HISTORY 
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET.
 
 HISTORY, 
 ANTIQUITIES, AND PRESENT STATE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PARISHES 
 
 OF 
 
 BALLYSADAKE AND HLVAENET, 
 
 IN THE COUNTY OF SLIGO; 
 
 WITH 
 
 NOTICES OF THE O'HARAS, THE COOPERS, THE PERCEVALS, 
 AND OTHER LOCAL FAMILIES. 
 
 BY T. O'EOEKE, D.D., P.P., ABCHDEACON. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 JAMES DUFFY AND SONS, 15, WELLINGTON-QUAY, 
 
 AND 
 
 IA, PATEENOSTEB-EOW, LONDON.
 
 f ritrftb fcg lanus $u 
 2, CBAMPTOJT QUAY.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAEISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 BaUysadaro, .. .. .. .. .. 1 
 
 SECTION i. Early Annals, . . . . . . ib. 
 
 , , ii. Remains of Churches, . . . . . . 19 
 
 ,, in. Sir Frederick Hamilton, .. .. 31 
 
 iv. Conflict of Jacobites and Wffliamites, .. ,34 
 
 v. Social State, .. .. .. 35 
 
 vi The Cholera, .. .. .. 37 
 
 ,, vii. Scenery and Capabilities, .. .. 40 
 
 ,, viii. Ballydrehid, .. .. .. 44 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 (Jollooney, .. .. .. .. ..49 
 
 SECTION i. Situation and Name, . . . . . . ib. 
 
 ,, ii. Earlier Civil and Military Events, .. 54 
 
 m. O'Donnell and O'Rorke, .. .. 59 
 
 iv. 1641 and 1691, .. .. .. 61 
 
 v. Battle of Carricknagat, . . . . . . 72 
 
 ,, vi. Noteworthy Houses, .. .. .. 79 
 
 ,, vii. Ecclesiastical History of Collooney, .. 87 
 
 vin. Statistics, ... .. .. ..142 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Markrea, .. .. .. .. ..148 
 
 SBCTION i. Former Owners of Markrea, . . . . ib. 
 
 ii. The Coopers in Markrea, . . . . 154 
 
 ,, in. Edward Joshua Cooper, .. .. 168 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Cloonamahon, . . . . . . . . . . 196 
 
 SECTION i. Old Owners, . . . . . . ib. 
 
 ii. Right Rev. John Hart, .. .. .. 199 
 
 in. The Merediths, .. .. ..211
 
 vi 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 
 Carrickbanaghan, etc., 
 
 .. 
 
 214 
 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 
 Tullaghan, etc., . . 
 
 .. 
 
 223 
 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 
 Camphill, etc., 
 
 .. 
 
 243 
 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 
 
 Beltra,etc., 
 
 .. 
 
 251 
 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 
 Coillte Luighne, etc., 
 
 .. 
 
 274 
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Old Church of Kilvarnet, etc., . . . . . . 297 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Templehouse, .. .. .. .. ..311 
 
 SECTION i. The Knights Templars and the Croftons, . . ib. 
 
 ii. Siege of Templehouse Castle in 1641, . . 322 
 
 ,, in. Templehouse under the Percevals, .. .. 337 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Annaghmore and the 0' Haras, . . . . . . 363 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Saints Nathy and Fechin, .. .. .. .. 410 
 
 SECTION i. Saint Nathy, .. .. ..411 
 
 ii. Saint Fechin, .. .. ..425 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Parish Priests of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet, . . . . 470 
 
 Right Reverend Doctor Durcan, .. .. ..489 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Conclusion, .. .. .. .. ..516
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 OLD CHURCH OP BALLYSADARE, . . . . 20 
 
 TOWER OF ABBEY OF BALLYSADARE, . . . . 24 
 
 CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION, . . . . 109 
 
 KlLDALOUGH, . . . . . . . . 278 
 
 PROTESTANT CHURCH OF COLLOONEY, . . . . 285 
 
 MARKREA CASTLE, . . . . . . 286 
 
 OLD CHURCH OF KILVARNET, . . . . 300 
 
 BALLINACARROW CHAPEL, . . . . . . 306 
 
 SHALL TOWER OF O'HARA'S CASTLE, TEMPLEHOUSE, . . 315 
 
 O'HARA'S CASTLE, MEEMLAGH, . . . . 372 
 
 MR. C. W. O'HARA'S RESIDENCE, , , . . 398 
 
 COLLOONEY WATERFALL, . . . . . . 522 
 
 OLD CHURCH OF COLLOONEY, . . . . 526 
 
 BALLYSADARE RIVER AND MILLS, 527
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE following pages are a small tribute of love and 
 duty to a district which has the strongest claims on 
 the services of the writer, as being at once his 
 native place and his ecclesiastical charge. Hardly 
 any other motive except the sense of obligation, 
 resulting from this special connexion with the sub- 
 ject, could bring him to put hand to a task, so light 
 in appearance and common estimation, but so 
 troublesome in reality, as the one here undertaken. 
 
 For it is not so simple as some think to write the 
 history of an Irish parish. On the contrary, strange 
 as the saying may sound, it might be easier to draw 
 up a readable account of an Irish county, than of an 
 Irish parish. For numerous passages, regarding the 
 county, may be had in published histories of Ireland 
 and other books ; and, by extracting these passages, 
 recasting them, and arranging them in chronologi- 
 cal sequence, adding here and there a little local 
 colouring and description, one would produce a 
 history, not, of course, original or profound, but far 
 from being, for all that, devoid of interest for the 
 run of readers. But it is quite another thing in
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 respect to the parish ; for there being, as a general 
 rule, nothing, or next to nothing to hand, in publica- 
 tions of any kind, one has to go to the original 
 sources ; to rummage manuscript surveys, inquisi- 
 tions, patent rolls, and such documents ; to acquaint 
 oneself by actual inspection with the remarkable 
 objects natural and artificial of the district ; and to 
 gather together and sift local traditions and legends, 
 so as to find out, as far as may be, the facts they 
 contain. 
 
 This at all events is what has been done in the 
 present instance, no pains having been spared to 
 procure information. For this purpose every perch 
 of the two parishes has been examined ; the manu- 
 scripts of the Public Record Office, of the Royal 
 Irish Academy, and of Trinity College, have been 
 consulted ; and inquiries have been made of all kinds 
 of persons, from the village rustic, with nothing but 
 the rude tradition of his native village to communi- 
 cate, up to Mr. W. M. Hennessy of the Public Re- 
 cord Office, with the rare acquisitions of his own 
 mind and the unrivalled resources of the great re- 
 pository with which he is connected, equally at the 
 disposal of every student of Irish history and 
 archaeology. Under these circumstances it is 
 hoped, that the following narrative will not only be 
 welcome to the parishioners of Bally sadare and Kil- 
 varnet, and the inhabitants of the County Sligo 
 generally, but will also be acceptable to many others 
 besides, as containing authentic information on in- 
 teresting incidents or episodes of important national
 
 PREFACE. XI 
 
 events, such as the ministry of Saint Patrick, the 
 labours of Saint Columba, the wars of Elizabeth, 
 the insurrection of 1641, the Cromwellian settle- 
 ment, the invasion of the French, and the ravages 
 of the cholera. 
 
 Anyhow, these parishes are free for the future 
 from any share of the reproach lying on the pro- 
 vince of Connaught. The Rev. Dr. O'Connor, in 
 the Prolegomena to the Catalogue of the Stow 
 library, complains that " there is no history of the 
 province of Connaught, neither is there of any 
 town or district in that most populous part of Ire- 
 land, except this unpublished chronicle (i.e. Annales 
 Cqnnacice). The barren Orkneys, and the wilds 
 of Caithness. Sunderland, and Morey, can boast of 
 their histories ; while the rich plains of Eoscommon, 
 Maio, Sligo, and Galway, and their towns and capi- 
 tals, are unrecorded and undescribed." Since these 
 lines were written things have greatly improved ; 
 for Hardiman, by his History of Galway and 
 learned edition of O'Flaherty's West Connaught, 
 and O'Donovan, by the Tribes and Customs of Hy 
 Many, the Tribes and Customs of Hy Fiachrach, 
 the copious notes to the Annals of the Four Mas- 
 ters, and his other publications, have cast great 
 light on the history of the province. 
 
 But much remains still to be done, and not less 
 by Sligo men than others. " Noblesse oblige ; " 
 and lagging behind in the good work ill becomes 
 a county that has done more, perhaps, for Irish his- 
 tory than any other in Ireland ; for you would
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 search in vain elsewhere for services equal to those 
 rendered, by Sligo, in giving to the world the Book 
 ofBallymote, the lost Book of the O'Duigenans, 
 the Book of Lecan, and the Yellow Book of 
 Lecan ; in forming such masters of ancient lore as 
 Solomon O'Droma, Manus O'Duigenan, and the 
 long line of the MacFirbises, from Giolla losa 
 MacFirbis in the thirteenth century to Duald 
 MacFirbis in the seventeenth ; and in furnishing 
 the Four Masters with a patron, in the person of 
 Ferghal O'Gara, Member of Parliament for the 
 County Sligo in 1634, without whom they never 
 could produce their invaluable Annals, as Brother 
 Michael O'Clery himself thus testifies in the dedica- 
 tion of the work : " I, Michael O'Clery, a poor 
 brother of the order of Saint Francis, have come 
 before you, O noble Farrell O'Gara .... to write 
 this book in your name and to your honour, for it 
 was you that gave the reward of their labour to the 
 chroniclers by whom it is written ; and for every 
 good that will result from this book, in giving light 
 to all in general, it is to you that thanks should be 
 given." With such examples before them, County 
 Sligo men can badly afford to be ignorant or indif- 
 ferent on the subject of Irish history. 
 
 With respect to the contents of this volume It 
 gives an account of the chief occurrences that have 
 happened in the two parishes concerned ; of all the 
 curious objects, natural and artificial, belonging to 
 these parishes ; and of distinguished natives and 
 inhabitants of thedistrict ; and when it is remem-
 
 PREFACE. XU1 
 
 bered that some of these occurrences are of con- 
 siderable civil, ecclesiastical, and military moment, 
 that the curious objects include two of the Mirabilia 
 Hibernice, or Wonders of Ireland, and that among 
 the names of inhabitants treated of are those of 
 Saint Nathy, patron of the diocese of Achonry, of 
 the great Saint Fechin of Fore, of conspicuous 
 members of leading county families, and of the 
 Parish Priests and Protestant Vicars of Ballysadare, 
 it will be seen that this little history has far niore 
 than a local importance. 
 
 The plan adopted is, to treat the two parishes 
 separately, beginning with Ballysadare and following 
 on with Kilvarnet. Starting from the town of 
 Ballysadare, the writer passes through Collooney, 
 Markrea, Cloonam'ahon, Carrickbanagan, Tullaghan, 
 Beltra, Coillte-Leyney, Streamstown, and Abbey- 
 town, stopping at each of these places to tell all that 
 is known about it, and continuing thus till he has 
 completed the circuit of the parish and got back to 
 Ballysadare. And proceeding then to Kilvarnet 
 he moves about in the same way till he has given 
 a detailed account of the chief portions of that 
 interesting parish, including the picturesque and 
 historical localities of Templehouse and Annagh- 
 more. 
 
 Those who know the writer need hardly be told 
 that the following pages are perfectly free from 
 party and sectarian bias. If there is one man in 
 the County Sligo that dislikes, more than another, 
 the antipathies and animosities, on the score of
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 religion, which are, or used to be, so common in the 
 county, it is the man that traces these lines. All 
 through life, a chief object with him has been, as 
 far as limited influence extended, to allay or put an 
 end to such bad and bitter feelings ; and the same 
 impartiality towards Catholic and Protestant, to- 
 wards high and low, that has always guided his con- 
 duct, shall now guide his pen, the thorough impar- 
 tiality of Dido's famous maxim : 
 
 " Tros Tyriusve mihi nullo discrimine agetur." 
 
 It is well to observe that a few paragraphs, in the 
 division of the volume that is occupied with the 
 parish of Ballysadare, have appeared already in a 
 local newspaper, but, substantially, even that portion 
 sees the light now for the first time, as does every 
 word of the part devoted to the parish of Kilvarnet. 
 
 Before closing these remarks, the writer takes 
 occasion to perform a pleasing duty, in acknowledg- 
 ing the obligations he lies under to Colonel Cooper 
 and Mr. O'Hara for allowing access to family 
 papers, and for evincing friendly interest, in other 
 respects too, in this publication.
 
 PAKISH OF BALLYSADAEE.
 
 HISTORY, ANTIQUITIES, AND PRESENT ST/TE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND K1LYARNET, 
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BALLYSADARE. 
 
 SECTION I. EARLY ANNALS. 
 
 BALLYSADARE, the Toicn of the Cataract of the Oak, has its 
 name from the waterfall, or rather the series of waterfalls, 
 over which the river Uncion discharges its waters into the 
 sea. Daire, or oak, forms part of the name, because, ac- 
 cording to some, the bridge or pass over the river, in olden 
 times, was made by intertwining the boughs and branches 
 of the oak trees that grew on the opposite banks ; or, accord- 
 ing to others, because both sides of the cataract produced 
 superior timber of that species. There are some, however, 
 who maintain a different etymology of the word, and assert 
 that it signifies " the town of the cataract of Darra," an 
 Eiremonian druid, who was slain in the river by Lewis the 
 Long-handed. 
 
 Ballysadare has not always occupied the site on which it 
 stands at present partly on the east and partly on the 
 west side of the river. Until a comparatively recent period 
 it was entirely confined to the left bank. In 1361 * the 
 
 * Annals of Four Masters, Anno 1361.
 
 2 PAK1SH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 town was connected with the Sligo side of the river by a 
 stone and mortar bridge, which was erected that year by 
 Cathal O'Connor, and which spanned the TJncion about 
 one thousand yards below the present bridge, as appears 
 from the discovery some years ago of its foundations, on 
 the spot on which the eel-house now stands, within a hun- 
 dred yards or so of the waterfall. 
 
 Before the rise of the town, the spot on which it subse- 
 quently stood was called simply Easdara cataract of the 
 oak without the prefix Bal, town. It is this name it bore 
 when honoured by the visit of St. Columbkille and a mul- 
 titude of other saints ; which is the first important event 
 in connection with the place of which we have any record. 
 This visit happened in the year 585 (Reeves's Adamnan, 
 Ixvii). The Saint left Ireland for Scotland in the year 563, 
 which was the forty-second of his age, and established the 
 great monastery of Hy, or lona, from which came forth the 
 missionaries that converted the North of Great Britain. 
 He revisited Ireland in the year 575 * to assist at the 
 famous convention of Drumceat, at the close of which 
 meeting he repaired to Drumcliffe, and founded there a 
 church and monastery. From Drumeliffe the Saint pro- 
 ceeded to Easdara, where immense numbers, from all parts 
 of Ireland, had come to receive him and do him honour. 
 We may form some idea of the crowds in Ballysadare, on 
 this occasion, from the following extract of Colgan's Life 
 of St. Farannan f : " Before the Saint (Columba) returned 
 to Britain he founded one church in the district of Carbury, 
 
 * Dr. Keeves in Adanman's Life of Saint Columba, p. 91. 
 
 f Acta Sanctorum, 337. This meeting Father O'Hanlon calls " The 
 great Council of Ballysadare." Lives of the Irish Saints, Fehruary 17, 
 Article xxii. Colgan gives the names of many of the saints or holy men 
 who were in Ballysadare on this occasion ; and adds, in a note, " What is 
 said of ' the multitude that could hardly be counted ' may give rise to doubt 
 in some minds, as it did in mine, till I ascertained, hy great labour, that 
 most of the saints mentioned flourished about this time."
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 6 
 
 and proceeded from thence to a place called Easdara, where 
 all the prelates of the neighbouring regions, and vast num- 
 bers of holy men and women had come to meet him ; and, 
 to say nothing of the rett of t/te multitude, which was almost 
 beyond counting, a great many distinguished saints of the 
 race of Cumne are recorded to have been present." All 
 these, Colgan adds, received Columba " with the kiss of 
 peace and the welcome of the heart," and accompanied him 
 across the strand, called Traigh Eothaile, and on to the 
 district of Tireragh. Ballysadare has seen many remarkable 
 days in its time, but assuredly the most remarkable and 
 honourable in its annals is that on which St. Columba 
 entered it attended by a retinue of twenty bishops, forty 
 priests, fifty deacons, and thirty students in divinity,* and 
 met before him so many anchorites, doctors, virgins, and 
 bishops, who had flocked from rath and valley and island, 
 to greet one who was regarded as a " second Patrick," as 
 the " head of all the monasteries of Ireland," as the " Patri- 
 arch of the monks and nuns of the West." And if a pro- 
 cession is generally imposing in proportion to the numbers 
 and dignity of those who take part in it, it is hard to con- 
 ceive one more solemn than that which formed at Easdara 
 to escort the Saint to Tireragh, consisting, as it did, of 
 hundreds of thousands from all parts of the country, and 
 filling nearly all the space between the sea and the Ox 
 Mountains, as it wended, with slow and measured step, 
 bearing banners and chanting hymns and canticles in 
 honour of God and His great servant, Columbkille. 
 
 It is doubtful whether there was any church in Ballysa- 
 dare at this time, as there is no mention of one in the 
 
 * Keating's History of Ireland. See, also, Eeeves's Ecclesiastical Anti- 
 quities of Down and Connor, p. 132, where an old poem is cited as authority 
 for these numbers : 
 
 " Two score priests was their number, 
 Twenty bishops of excellence and worth ; 
 For singing psalms, a practice without blame, 
 Fifty deacons and thirty students."
 
 4 PARISH OF BALLY SAD ARE. 
 
 accounts of Columbkille's visit ; though, on the other hand, 
 it is not likely the Saint would select, for the rendezvous of 
 himself and friends, a place where they could not assemble 
 together round the Altar of God. The first church of 
 Ballysadare of which we have any account is that founded 
 by Saint Fechin,* which was commonly called the great 
 church of Ballysadare ; an appellation, perhaps, which tends 
 to show that there already existed a smaller. 
 
 * It is strange that Dr. Lanigan should deny, or seem to deny, in the 
 teeth of tradition, of the Annals of the Four Masters (Anno 1230), of Col- 
 gan (Secunda vita S. FechiniJ, and of our other hagiologists, that Saint 
 Fechin founded the monastery of Ballysadare. The absence of allusion 
 to a monastery at Ballysadare, in Colgan's First Life, is the great argu- 
 ment that tells with Dr. Lanigan against Fechin heing the founder of 
 the institution ; hut there is really nothing in this argument, for the so- 
 called Life is not a biography at all, but merely a short account, in de- 
 clamatory language, of the Saint's miracles, as appears from the very first 
 paragraph of the production, which is as follows : " The holy and vene- 
 rable abbot Fechin, illustrious for the stock he came from having 
 Colcharna for his father, and Lasrea for his mother was famous, from 
 his infancy, for the great number of Ms miracles, of which we shall glance at 
 a few, as it would be quite beyond our strength to enumerate them all." 
 Colgan and Dr. Lanigan have formed very different estimates of the two 
 lives, as the doctor evidently regards the first as the chief authority on 
 the history of the Saint ; while Colgan calls the same publication ' ' a mere 
 short compendium of the Life of Saint Fechin," composed " by a rather 
 modern author Augustine Magraidin, who died in the year 1405 ; " and 
 the Second, which Lanigan sets little store by, Colgan, who compiled it, 
 regards as of the highest authority, as well on account of the sources from 
 which it was derived, as because it " tallies perfectly with all the authen- 
 tic history of the country." And this Second Life, compiled by most 
 competent authors, out of materials the most abundant and authentic, at a 
 time when there were traditions and other helps that have long since 
 ceased to be available, recognized and approved by all our leading anti- 
 quarians and historians such as Ware, Ussher, Harris, O'Flaherty, Keat- 
 ing, and the Bollandists and harmonizing wonderfully with all the known 
 facts of the period of which it treats, we must, according to Dr. Lanigan, 
 throw aside in favour of a production that looks like a rambling sermon 
 on the Saint ; that makes no pretence to be a Life at all ; that merely pur- 
 ports to make some passing allusions to a few of Fechin' s miracles ; and 
 that is characterised by competent critics as a "short and mutilated 
 epitome of his acts." In treating of Fechin, Dr. Lanigan has two weights
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSAUARE. 
 
 The monastery of Ballysadare was the origin, so to speak, 
 of the town. What occurred so generally near other 
 religious houses, as at Kildare, Deny, Lismore, etc., hap- 
 pened also at Ballysadare, and a town soon rose up under 
 the walls of the abbey. The inhabitants of the little town 
 were the tenants or retainers of the monastery ; and as the 
 monastery was then not only what a monastery is now, but 
 also what a church, an alms-house, a dispensary, and a 
 school are now ; so the inmates of the abbey were not only 
 the landlords of the neighbourhood, but also its clergymen, 
 guardians of the poor, doctors, and schoolmasters. 
 
 The following are some of the more remarkable events 
 that have taken place in the town and the monastery of 
 Ballysadare, as they are recorded in the annals of the 
 country : 
 
 In 1158, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, 
 O'Duillenain, Erenach of Ballysadare, brehon, professor of 
 law, and chief of his territory, died. It would seem that 
 this family obtained hereditary authority at Ballysadare, for 
 we meet in the Annals with several of the name holding 
 office in connection with the abbey. 
 
 In 1179, according to Archdall, quoting some anonymous 
 annals, Ballysadare was burned " by the men of Moylisha 
 and Moyleterary," dwellers somewhere on the banks of the 
 Moy. 
 
 In 1188 the redoubtable John de Courcy and the English 
 made an incursion into Connaught, accompanied by two 
 degenerate Irishmen, Conor O'Dermot and a son of Roderick 
 
 and two measures. He will not admit him to be the founder of Kilgar- 
 van reckoned in the Second Life among the Saint's foundations 
 because, forsooth, " its name indicates that its founder was not Fechin, 
 but one Garvan ; " while he quite forgets his own argument when coming 
 to speak of Ballysadare, which he will not allow to be the work of Saint 
 Fechin, though it is called in the old annals of the country Tempul 
 Fechin and Tempul mor Fechin, and though its abbot is expressly styled 
 " Comarb of Saint Fechin," in the Annals of the Four Masters (A.D. 1230), 
 and in those of Loch Ke (A.D. 1229).
 
 6 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 O'Connor. They first bent their steps towards the western 
 parts of the province, setting fire to such churches as fell in 
 their way, but they soon wheeled round in the direction of 
 Ballysadare, intending to pass through it to the north, but 
 finding, when they had reached the town, that they were 
 pursued by the Munster and Connaught forces, who had 
 nobly joined against the common enemy, and that the 
 troops of Cinell Connell were ranged round Sligo to repel 
 invasion, the proud De Courcy, thus caught between two 
 fires, had to submit to the humiliation of flight, and led his 
 followers across the Curlews ; taking care, however, before 
 quitting Ballysadare, to burn the entire town, with its re- 
 ligious establishments. The exasperated Irish hastened 
 after the fugitives, and, coming up with them near Boyle, 
 inflicted heavy losses " Many of their principal men," says 
 the Annals of Loch Ke, " were slain. Murchadh, son of 
 Ferghal O'Mullrooney, and Maelsechlaiun O'Matadhain 
 fell there also, et alii multi cum eis, and the foreigners left 
 this country without injuring much of it on this occasion." 
 If Irishmen had combined elsewhere as at Ballysadare how 
 different would have been the fate of the invaders ? The 
 union that forced John De Courcy, the great hero of medi- 
 eval history and romance, to turn his back, could easily sweep 
 every Norman and Saxon in Ireland into the sea. 
 
 In 1199 another battle was fought at Ballysadare, but this 
 time, unfortunately, the combatants were, for the most 
 part, Irish. On one side were Hugh O'Neill, O'Heigny, 
 Prince of Fermanagh, and the men of the North ; and on 
 the other Cathal Caragh O'Connor, William Burke, and 
 their respective followers. The Northerners were defeated, 
 O'Heigny and many others slain, and O'Neill detained a 
 close prisoner in the church of Ballysadare until he made 
 peace and gave hostages to Cathal Caragh. From this 
 incident we learn that churches were sometimes used for 
 prisons, as we learn from other occurrences that they were 
 made to serve as fortresses.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 7 
 
 In 1228 Ballysadare was laid waste in the war that raged 
 between Hugh and Turlogh O'Connor, as was almost the 
 entire of the two present baronies of Leyney and Tireragh. 
 In 1230 Gilla-Coimdeadh O'Duillenain, Coarb of St. 
 Fechin, and Abbot of the Church of the Canons at Easdara, 
 died. This obit is given in the Annals of the Four Masters 
 and in those of Loch Ke ; and as the latter were compiled 
 within a few miles of Ballysadare, their authority is quite 
 decisive as to the connection of Saint Fechin with the church 
 of that place. 
 
 In 1235 large parties of English, under the leadership 
 of William Burke and the Lord Justice, Maurice Fitz- 
 gerald, ravaged many parts of Connaught. They laid waste 
 Ballysadare, and took from it a great prey of cattle that 
 belonged to O'Donnell. Their object was to punish that 
 chieftain for the asylum he gave their enemy, Felim 
 O'Connor. 
 
 In 1239 O'Donnell' s territory was again despoiled by the 
 English. Ballysadare, which was subject then to that chief, 
 was occupied by the Lord Justice, Maurice Fitzgerald, 
 whose troops overran Carbury, as far as Drumcliffe. 
 
 In 1249 an attack was directed against the castle of 
 Sligo by a party of English, in the interest of the Berming- 
 hams. Felim O'Conor defeated the attempt, and slew 
 Pierce Poer, David Drew, and some other English noble 
 youths, who were conveyed for interment to Ballysadare. 
 
 In 1261 the Berminghams profaned the church of Bally- 
 sadare (styled again Tempul mor Fechin in Easdara both 
 by the Annals of the Four Masters and those of Loch Ke, 
 under the year 1261), slew Cathal O'Hara and five other 
 Leyney men within its walls, and carried away, as booty, 
 some sacred objects belonging to it. This outrage was 
 avenged the same year by Donnell O'Hara. He conducted 
 an expedition against the Berminghams, or Clan Feoaris, 
 and slew Sefin Bermingham, who had on his head, at the 
 time of death, the bell, or bell-cover, taken from the
 
 8 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 church of Ballysadare, thinking, doubtless, that the sight 
 of this object would alarm the conscience and arrest the 
 arm of O'Hara.* 
 
 In 1267 Ballysadare was plundered by the English and 
 "Welshmen of West Connaught. This was in retaliation 
 for injuries inflicted on the foreigners by the O'Connors 
 and O'Haras, who exerted themselves greatly about this 
 time to dislodge the strangers from Tireragh and Tirawley. 
 In 1 266 Lochlan O'Connor, and the son of Donnell Dhu 
 O'Hara, brought back from the west of Connaught thirty 
 one heads of " Britons," and presented them to O'Connor 
 Sligo ; and in the same year, " Donnell O'Hara, King of 
 Leyney, was slain while burning Ardnaree against the 
 foreigners." 
 
 From another quarter f considerable light is thrown on 
 these proceedings, which, viewed in themselves, and as 
 they are given in the Four Masters, look like mere out- 
 rages, without other object or plan than the gratification 
 of wanton cruelty, but, regarded under this new light, turn 
 out, like most Irish outrages, ancient and modern, to be 
 connected with land ; the Berminghams striving to wrest 
 from the O'Haras the abbey lands of Ballysadare, and the 
 O'Haras trying to maintain their rights and punish the 
 aggressors. It would appear that for some centuries after 
 
 * The Irish, word that John O'Donovan translates " bell," in the 
 Annals of the Four Masters, Mr. Hennessy translates " bell cover " in the 
 Annals of Loch Ke. In a paper on " Ancient Irish Bells " in the Kilkenny 
 Archceological Journal (vol. ii, p. 5,) the writer says, " The Four Masters, 
 at the year 1261, relate that Donnel O'Hara plundered the sons of Ber- 
 mingham in revenge for the killing of Cathal O'Hara and violation of the 
 Church of Saint Fechin at Ballysadare, in the County Sligo ; and the 
 Annalists add, that he slew Sefin, son of Bermingham, the weapon with 
 which he killed him being the bell which Bermingham had carried away from 
 the Church of Ballysadare. This, truly, was a murderous and sacrilegious 
 use to be made of the relic of Saint Fechin ! ! ! " To this it is enough to 
 say, that the author of the paper has quite mistaken the meaning of the 
 Four Masters. 
 
 f Evidence on Athenry Claim of Peerage, p. 13.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 the English invasion the invaders felt themselves free to 
 take from the Irish, and, at times, from one another, such 
 lands as they could secure with the sword, on Rob Roy's 
 
 " Simple plan 
 
 That they should take who have the power, 
 And they should keep who can." 
 
 The Berminghams were like their countrymen in this 
 respect, and, not content with fine possessions in Galway 
 and Eoscommon, laboured to appropriate in Sligo the 
 fertile barony of Tireragh, as well as the lands belonging 
 to the abbey of Ballysadare ; and that their efforts were in 
 great measure effectual, we learn from an ancient deed 
 containing the settlement of the family estates of Gilbert 
 de Bermingham in 1330, by which he disposes of parts of 
 Tireragh and all the abbey lands of Ballysadare (totam 
 terra m del Tearmuynd de Assdara), in the same way as he 
 disposes of his lands in Athenry and Eoscommon (Evidence 
 on Athenry Peerage). 
 
 It is pretty certain that the Berminghams were not 
 suffered to enjoy pacific possession either of Tireragh or 
 Ballysadare ; for we find the O'Haras and O'Dowdas, some- 
 times separately, sometimes conjointly, assailing the inva- 
 ders. We find the O'Haras attacking them separately in 
 the case mentioned by the Four Masters, in which " Don- 
 nell O'Hara was slain while burning Ardnaree against the 
 foreigners." We have an instance of united action in the 
 same Annals, under the year 1278, where it is stated that 
 " Brian O'Dowda and Art na g-Capal O'Hara, Lord of 
 Leyney, gave battle to, and defeated, the Claim Feorais." 
 And, under the year 1371, we read that Donnell O'Dowda, 
 single handed, " took the castles of Ardnaree and Castle- 
 connor, drove out all the English that were in them, and 
 parcelled out the country amongst his kinsmen and his 
 own people." This, no doubt, was the time at which the 
 Berminghams were driven definitively from Tireragh and
 
 10 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Ballysadare, after holding precarious possession of these 
 places for about a century and a half, if not longer, as we 
 read in Baron Finglas's Breviate of Ireland : " Item, As 
 concerning the Porcion of Connaught, Gilbert de Clare, 
 Earl of Gloucester, whyche marryed the secunde Daughter 
 of William Earl Marshall, Sir William de Burke, and SIR 
 WILLIAM BERMINGHAM Amery under King Henry Fitz- 
 Empresse wer the principail conquerors of Connaught; who 
 wyth their complices did inhabitt the same, and made it 
 English, and obey the Kyng's Lawes, from O'Brien country 
 to Sligoe, in length above sixty Miles and more ; which 
 continued so in Prosperity forty Yeres to Kyng Edward 
 III d his Dayes" (Harris's Hibernica, p. 85). From this 
 it would appear that this part of Connaught was not only 
 tributary but peaceful and obedient to English law for at 
 least the forty years specified. 
 
 In 1258 a battle was fought at Lec-essa-dara the flag 
 of Ballysadare between the English of West Connaught 
 and -Adam Cusack on the one side, and Manus O'Connor 
 and the Irish on the other, in which the former were 
 defeated and many of them slain. Colin Cusack, brother 
 of Adam, was detained as hostage for the fulfilment of the 
 conditions imposed on the vanquished. The leac or flag of 
 Ballysadare is not identified, some placing it at the water- 
 fall, some a little to the south-east of the spot on which 
 Mr. Middleton's flour mill stands, others in the bed of the 
 river, and others again, supposing, not improbably, that 
 Lec-essa-dara was only another name for the town.f 
 
 In 1291 Cathal O'Connor's people plundered Ballysadare 
 and the whole of Carbury to Knocklane. The pillage took 
 place immediately after a battle fought at Collooney, be- 
 tween Cathal and Manus O'Connor, in which the former 
 was victor. 
 
 * See Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach, 359. 
 
 t John O'Donovan applies Leac-easa-dara to " a flat rock in the river." 
 Annals of Four Masters, Anno 1308, note.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 11 
 
 In 1308 the sons of Donnell O'Connor, who had heen 
 assailed this year on several occasions by the M'Dermotts, 
 the O'Dowds, and their English allies, seizing the oppor- 
 tunity afforded by the retirement of the Irish, gave chase 
 to the foreigners, pursued them to Lec-essa-dara, and slew 
 there Thomas M'Walter, constable of the castle of Bun- 
 nnne, in the present parish of Dromard, his brother, and 
 many others. 
 
 In 1360 a bridge of lime and stone was built across the 
 Ballysadare river by Cathal O'Connor, as has been already 
 mentioned. This was one of the first stone bridges erected 
 in Ireland, these structures having been previously made 
 of wood such as the wicker bridges erected by Turlough 
 O'Conor at Lanesborough and Athlone, across the Shan- 
 non, the bridge of plank across the same river at Killaloe, 
 and the bridge of boughs, said by tradition to have existed 
 at Ballysadare. 
 
 In 1444 the Abbot of Ballysadare, son -of Melaghlin 
 Fitz-Cormac M'Donagh, died at Rome. Great numbers of 
 the clergy of Connaught and Ulster went to Rome this 
 year, including "Wm. O'Hetigan, Bishop of Elphin ; Thady 
 M'Donogh, Abbot of Boyle ; William O'Flanagan, Prior 
 of Roscommon, and the Abbot of Ballysadare, and most of 
 the pilgrims left their bones in the Eternal City. Accord- 
 ing to Archdall, in his Monasticon Hibernicum, Edmund, 
 Abbot of Ballysadare, died in the year 1450, but this is a 
 mistake, as the Edmund mentioned was not abbot of 
 Ballysadare, but of Assaroe, or Ballyshannon.* 
 
 In 1544 Conatus O'Shigal, who was, according to Arch- 
 dall and "Ware, Abbot of Ballysadare, was appointed Bishop 
 of Elphin. He was a nominee of Henry VIII ; and as a 
 canonical incumbent, Bernard O'Higgins, sat in the See at 
 the time O'Shigal must have been a schismatic. In this 
 case, Ballysadare men would fain suppose that Archdall 
 
 * Annals of the Four Masters, Anno 1450.
 
 12 PARISH OF KALLYSADARE. 
 
 and Ware are in error as to his abbey, as Archdall cer- 
 tainly is with regard to the monastery of the aforesaid 
 Edmund, and that, in one case as well as the other, there 
 is a question of Assaroe and not Assadare. Nor is the 
 supposition devoid of all show of foundation. For the 
 name O'Shiagal, or O'Shiel, is rare, or rather altogether 
 unknown in the neighbourhood of Ballysadare, while it is 
 quite common in and around Bally shannon. Again, the 
 office of chaplain to Manus O'Donnell, which O'Shigal 
 filled, points in the direction of Assaroe, the head- quarters 
 of the O'Donnells, and not to Ballysadare, of which the 
 O'Haras and the O'Connors were patrons. Nor was it 
 strange that a Bishop of Elphin should be taken from 
 Assaroe at the time, as a bishop for the neighbouring See 
 of Achonry Nicholas O'Hedran had been appointed pre- 
 viously from the same abbey. All this would have con- 
 siderable force if there were nothing except what has been 
 alleged from Archdall and Ware to be opposed, but it 
 must be stated, that O'Shigal is not only called Abbot of 
 Assadare, but is also said to have been " Prior of Achros ;" 
 and as this monastery (if there be question of the one so 
 called in Tireragh) seems to have depended on that of 
 Ballysadare, his connection with one place would imply 
 connection with the other, unless, indeed, we say that he 
 was called at one time, " Abbot," another time, " Prior," 
 and that Achros was put for Ashroe another form under 
 which we sometimes find the town and abbey of Bally- 
 shannon designated in history. 
 
 In 1586, according to the Annals of Loch Ke, the 
 " Bridge of Ballysadare was finished by O'Connor Sligo." 
 Bridges, like those who pass over them, are mortal ; and 
 this is the second bridge recorded to be erected at Ballysa- 
 dare, both structures being built by the O'Connor Sligo. 
 The builder of the one at present under consideration was 
 Donnell, or, according to his English title, Sir Donald 
 O'Connor, who took a very active part in the politics of
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 13 
 
 the period. His rule extended from the Moy, on the one 
 side, and Keash Cargin on the other, to the river Bun- 
 drowes, taking in Tireragh, Leyney, Corran, Tirerill, as well 
 as his hereditary patrimony of Sligo and Grange. Over 
 the former territories he had only a chiefrie, the imme- 
 diate rulers being the O'Dowds, the O' Haras, and the 
 M'Donoghs ; and he himself had to pay tribute to O'Don- 
 nell, as lord paramount of all Lower Connaught.* 
 
 In 1599 Eed Hugh O'Donnell passed through Ballysa- 
 dare with his creaghts, on the way to Ballymote. The 
 inhabitants of Ballysadare were already sufficiently accus- 
 tomed to the sight of Eed Hugh, as he had often traversed 
 their streets in expeditions against the English and their 
 Irish allies, but from this time he lived, for the most part, 
 in the neighbourhood. Having purchased the castle of 
 Ballymote for 400 and 300 cows from the M'Donoghs 
 of Corran, who offered it for sale to the highest bidders, be 
 they Celts or Saxons, he made that splendid fortress his 
 chief residence up to the close of his career in Ireland. It 
 was in it this great chief organized some of his most bril- 
 liant enterprises, as it was from it also he started, at the 
 head of the Cinel Connell and Connaught men to the disas- 
 trous battle-field of Kinsale. 
 
 In 1602 Roderick O'Donnell and O'Connor Sligo en- 
 camped at Ballysadare, while at war with the English. 
 After the departure of Hugh Roe for Spain, Roderick, his 
 brother, liberated O'Connor Sligo from captivity, in Lough 
 Esk, near Donegal, and these two chieftains acted in con- 
 cert till they both submitted to Lord Mountjoy at Athlone. 
 It was at Ballysadare they made their last stand against 
 the Saxon. 
 
 There is reason to believe that the Canons had quitted 
 the Abbey before this date. The absence of all mention of 
 
 * This superiority was repudiated by O'Connor, who made the preten- 
 sions of the O'Donnells a matter of complaint to Queen Elizabeth.
 
 14 PARISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 
 
 them in the documents of the period suggests this, and the 
 state of ruin into which the building had fallen confirms 
 the supposition. The act for the suppression of monas- 
 teries became law in 1537; a commission to carry out the 
 law was issued in 1539 ; the richer and more accessible 
 establishments were immediately seized or surrendered; 
 and though several institutions continued to exist, if not to 
 flourish, for fifty, and some even for a hundred years after 
 the legal suppression, in less frequented parts of the 
 country where they were practically beyond the reach of 
 the law, the situation of Ballysadare, exposed by sea and 
 land, and adjoining one of the chief thoroughfares of the 
 kingdom, deprived it of any such immunity.* 
 
 And the injuries which the place had been sustaining 
 for centuries left it unfit to offer or organize resistance. 
 Welshmen from Tireragh and Tyrawley ; the Berming- 
 hams of Athenry, and Burkes of lar Connaught; the 
 Normans of the Pale, arid the unnatural Irish themselves 
 burned or plundered and profaned it by turns ; and the 
 wonder is, how it was able to survive so many attacks, and 
 to rise so often from its ashes. Nothing, perhaps, so afflicts 
 nd startles the Christian reader of our medieval history as 
 the outrages he finds constantly offered to churches. It is 
 natural enough that Pagans should attack and demolish 
 Christian temples, as the Danes did in Ireland ; it is con- 
 ceivable that professing Christians of one denomination 
 should, in their false zeal, commit excesses against the 
 places of worship of other denominations ; but that Catho- 
 lics, belonging all to the same religion, professing to hold 
 the humblest church in which Mass is celebrated as pre- 
 cious and holy, should still profane and destroy these 
 churches, should make them the chief object of attack, 
 
 * But the work of suppression was so vigorously and effectually car- 
 ried out under William and Mary, and, more especially, under Anne, 
 that Burke, in fheHibernia Dominicana (page 155), writes " Nullatamen 
 religiosa domus in universe, qua late patet regno haud suppressa evasit."
 
 PARISH OF BALLTSADARE. 15 
 
 should count the number ruined with the feelings of 
 triumph with which the barbarous Indian reckons the 
 scalps struck off in a savage foray, is a fact so bewildering 
 and shocking that one could never believe it if it were not 
 proved beyond doubt in all our annals. The only thing to 
 explain or excuse this conduct, if anything can extenuate 
 such enormities, is the fact that, in times of war these 
 churches were used as storehouses of valuables, as prisons, 
 and as fortresses, so that, in attacking them the assailant 
 turned away his thoughts from their sacred character, and 
 regarded them merely as strong places of the enemy. But 
 though Ballysadare had to bear more than its full share in 
 the calamities of the times, it was not abandoned without a 
 struggle ; for we learn from certain unpublished documents 
 that the O'Connors of Sligo tried hard to avert or stay the 
 spoliation decreed against it. In an inquisition, taken at 
 Sligo on the 8th of June, 1588, before John Crofton, in the 
 matter of Donald O'Connor, lately deceased, we read, that 
 "Charles alias Cahall Oge O'Connor, on the day of his 
 death was seized of the Abbey of Ballassadara, and that the 
 aforesaid Charles intruded on the possessions of the queen, 
 in respect to the said monastery, under pretext of certain 
 bulls of the Roman Pontiff, commonly called the Pope's 
 Bulls, and that the aforesaid Charles entered into and 
 received ecclesiastical minor orders, viz. : Bennet and 
 Collect (sic) .... and that the aforesaid Charles, while 
 thus in forcible possession of the Monastery of Ballysa- 
 dare by intrusion, departed this life on the 16th of 
 May, 1582." 
 
 It is clear from this that the Pope and the O'Connors 
 acted in concert to baffle the designs of the queen, and it is 
 quite certain that no nominee of Elizabeth got footing in 
 Ballysadare during the lifetime of Cathal Oge ; nor did the 
 "forcible possession" cease at his death; for we learn, 
 from an inquisition (taken in the town of Ballyasadara) 
 before Nicholas Brady, on the llth September, 1607 (4th
 
 16 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 of James the First), that intruders occupied the monastery 
 in despite of the authority of the king. To use the words 
 of the inquisition, the jury and witnesses having been duly 
 sworn, aver " that King James is seized of all abbeys, and 
 among them of the abbey, or house, of the Canons, at 
 Assadara ; that there are three houses within the precinct 
 of the glebe, commonly called the church-yard of Temple- 
 more, that is, the Great Church of Assadara, belonging to 
 the aforesaid monastery, which have been for a long time 
 concealed (concellatta) both from the said king and from 
 Edward Crofton, the farmer of the same monastery, and are 
 now in the occupation of Laurence M'Gilleboy and Thady 
 M'Gilleboy, and unjustly detained by them without leave 
 or licence from the king." 
 
 But though the O'Connors and others used every effort 
 to save the venerable " house of the Canons," nothing 
 could keep her prey from the Imperial lioness, and, accord- 
 ingly, we find her, in spite of all opposition, disposing of 
 the abbey and its appurtenances in 1588. An inquisi- 
 tion was taken the preceding year, 1587, the 29th of 
 Elizabeth, before John Crofton, at Sligo, to ascertain the 
 property of the abbey, and to make out an inventory of its 
 possessions ; and on that occasion the abbot was found 
 seized of a church partly thatched, a dormitory, and the 
 ruins of two other buildings ; three cottages, with their cur- 
 tilages or gardens, and a cemetery in a state of ruin, and 
 of little value ; three small quarters of land of every kind, 
 with their tithes, etc., situate in the townland of Assadara ; 
 forty acres of arable and pasture, and sixty of stony moun- 
 tain, value 20s. ; and the townland of Trinebally, in the 
 barony of Leyney, containing thirty acres of arable and 
 pasture, with the tithes, etc., annual value, 6s. 8d. ; the 
 rectory and vicarage of the parish of Ballyassadara (com- 
 monly called Templemore), containing three parts of the 
 tithes in the land called the Termon lands, annual value, 
 besides the curate's stipend, 13s. 4d., all English money ;
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 17 
 
 the vicarage of Enagh, in the barony of Tirerill;* the 
 vicarage of Drumrat, in the barony of Corren ; the vicarage 
 of Kilnegarvan, in Mac Jordan's country, all which, besides 
 the stipends of the curates, were of no value." 
 
 All this property was granted by lease, dated 26th August, 
 1588, for the term of 21 years, to Bryan Fitzwilliams, Esq., 
 " one of her Majesty's servants," a relative, probably a son 
 or brother of Sir William Fitzwilliams, who succeeded Sir 
 John Perrott as Lord Deputy, on the 30th June, 1588, and 
 whom history stigmatises as one of the most avaricious and 
 rapacious Englishmen that ever set foot in Ireland. 
 
 The abbey and its appurtenances formed only a small 
 portion of the property granted by the lease to the afore- 
 said Bryan Fitzwilliams, " one of her Majesty's servants ; " 
 for we find countless broad acres in Tipperary, Galway, and 
 Roscommon, as well as seven quarters of land in Leyney, 
 (forfeited by the attainder of Donald O'Hara,) made over 
 in the same instrument to this minion of the Deputy. The 
 document is too long to be given here in full, but the 
 
 * The other places mentioned in this inquisition are well known hut 
 no one can tell where the vicarage of "Enagh" lay. There was an Enagh, 
 or Annagh, in the Barony of Carbury, (the place now called Hazelwood), 
 another in Leyney, (now Annaghmore, the residence of Mr. O'Hara), but 
 the Enagh of the inquisition could be neither of these, as it belonged to 
 Tirerill. The writer conjectures and believes that the Enagh in question 
 is the spot now known as Springfield, or Carrowmire ; for, first, this spot 
 is in Tirerill; secondly, Springfield, or Carrowmire, signifies the same 
 as the Irish word Enagh, which, according to Dr. Joyce, " means literally 
 a watery place" (Irish Names of Places, p. 415, First Series); thirdly, 
 a part of Springfield is known as Cuilnabragher the wood of the friar ; 
 fourthly, the place contains the foundations and some other ruins of an. 
 old church ; and fifthly, it passes in the neighbourhood, and always passed 
 as having belonged to the monastery of Ballysadare. 
 
 Since this note was written, the conjecture put forth in it has been con- 
 firmed by the witness of two inhabitants of Grlancgulough. One of these 
 says that his father, who died about forty years since, being very old at 
 death, and who was tenant under the Coopers of what is now called Cul- 
 nabraher, used always to name the place Annagh-na-braher, The other 
 inhabitant states that, when a little boy, he often heard the spot spoken of 
 as Annagh-na-braher. 
 
 C
 
 18 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 following are the portions that relate to this part of the 
 country and to the matter in hand : The lease after men- 
 tioning " Carrownakippie and seven more quarters of land, 
 of late belonging to Donald O'Hara, attainted," next con- 
 veys to the lessee " the site, circuit, and precinct of the late 
 monastery or priory of Balliassadara, otherwise called Astara, 
 in the county of Sligo aforesaid, containing one ruinous 
 church, covered with straw, one ruinous dortoir, two houses, 
 one churchyard, with three small gardens, three small 
 quarters of land with appurtenances, heing parcel of the 
 temporal land to the said priory belonging, the third part 
 of the tithes of the said rectory or church belonging, yearly 
 collected, and gathered in the towns and villages of Ter- 
 mons, the vicarage of Erenagh (Enagh) in Tirerill, the 
 vicarage of Erumratt (Drumratt) in barony of Corran, the 
 vicarage of Kilnagarvan in MacJordan's country, with 
 their appurtenances, all which are parcels of the possessions 
 and lands of the aforesaid priory of Balliassadara, in the 
 county of Sligo aforesaid, and of long time concealed and 
 detained from her Majesty .... all manners of mines and 
 minerals, &c., the tithes and altarages due to the curate of 
 Balliassadara only excepted, allowing him, the said Bryan 
 Fitzwilliams, sufficient hedge-boat and plough-boat, from 
 the day of the date of these presents, for twenty- one years, 
 the said Bryan giving 11 8s. of the current money of 
 Ireland every year, to be paid at Easter and Michaelmas, 
 
 viz (here are given the rents for lands in various 
 
 counties), and for the quarters Carrownakippie and seven 
 others of Donogh O'Hara, late of Carrownakippie, 26s. 8d., 
 and for site and precinct of Balliassadara, spiritual and 
 temporal, 8s. 4d., he finding, keeping, and maintaining upon 
 the premises one able horseman of the English nation, with 
 the ordinary clauses, and with the clauses of forfeiture and 
 double value of the rent, to be paid within six weeks, &c." 
 If Fitzwilliams, " one of her Majesty's servants," was 
 only a lessee under this grant, he could not, at least, com-
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 19 
 
 plain that lie was rackrented. ' He held the richest lands 
 in the most fertile counties in Ireland, at an annual rent of 
 less than one halfpenny an acre. Eight shillings and 
 four pence was an odd rent for the hundreds of acres 
 belonging to the abbey, and for all its rectorial and vicarial 
 tithes in the Counties of Sligo and Mayo, to say nothing of 
 the concession of " hedge-boat " and plough-boat," a con- 
 cession by the way, from which we may infer that Ballysa- 
 dare was then well wooded. 
 
 Bryan Fitzwilliams did not continue in possession of the 
 abbey lands and other property for the full term of the 
 lease, for, in the year 1605, the third part of the vicarage 
 of Ballysadare, and the third part of the tithes of the rectory 
 or church, were granted, by King James, to John Crofton, 
 Ballymurry, County E-oscommon, who had come over to 
 Ireland as Auditor- General with his friend and patron 
 Essex, and who is the common ancestor of the Sligo, Eos- 
 common, and Leitrim Croftons. In 1618, Edward Crofton, 
 son and heir of John, received a Koyal Patent creating 
 the manors of Ballysadare and Ballymurry, and giving the 
 right of holding fairs and markets in these places ; and, Ijy 
 a deed dated 10th September same year, this Edward 
 granted to certain persons the parsonage and vicarage of 
 Ballysadare, the vicarage of Drumrat, the parsonage and 
 vicarage of Enagh, the vicarage of Kilnegarvan, and the pre- 
 bend and two quarters of Killasser in the County of Sligo.* 
 
 SECTION II. REMAINS OF CHURCHES. 
 
 THE buildings mentioned in the preceding documents still 
 exist, and in wonderful preservation, considering the time 
 that has elapsed since they were thus described and the 
 situation on which they stand, where they are greatly 
 
 * Killasser is the place, so called, that lies between Annaghmore and 
 Billa, and must not be confounded with the parish of Killasser, in the 
 County of Mayo.
 
 20 
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 exposed to the injuries of the weather. They must have 
 been very solidly constructed ; and it would seem, that at 
 the time of their erection Ballysadare huilders and trades- 
 men had already acquired the cunning of hand for which 
 they are so distinguished at the present day. Two of those 
 buildings are commonly regarded as the remains of 
 churches. One of them stands on the rock that rises 
 perpendicularly to a height of sixty feet above the basin of 
 the waterfall ; while the other, popularly called The Abbey, 
 reposes five or six hundred yards to the west in the lowest 
 part of the valley. 
 
 The former is an oblong quadrangular structure, mea- 
 suring externally seventy feet in length, and thirty-three 
 in breadth.* The door entrance is on the south side, at a 
 
 OLD CHURCH OF BALLTSADA1E. 
 
 * " Our very early churches appear to have had no chancels." Brash's 
 Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, p. 16. The illustration was drawn 
 on the wood by W. F. Wakeman, F.R.H.A., A.J., from a photograph 
 taken by Mr. Edward Smith, and was engraved by Mrs. Millard, Dublin.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 21 
 
 distance of eighteen feet from western gable ; the height of 
 doorway is nine feet six inches from sill to apex of arch, 
 and the breadth, five feet ten inches on the outside face of 
 the wall, but contracted by jambs to four feet on the inside ; 
 the head of door consists of a double Norman arch, filled in 
 with masonry, and is three feet three from line of spring- 
 ing to apex of lower arch, and three feet eleven from the 
 same line to the apex of the higher ; eleven carved human 
 heads project, in bold relief, from lower arch, and there 
 are two more, one at each side of springing, making in all 
 thirteen, and representing, in all likelihood, our Lord and 
 the Twelve Apostles ; * there are three windows, one in 
 eastern gable and two in southern sidewall ; the latter are 
 lancet, each four feet nine inches high from sill to soffit of 
 arch, and seven inches wide on outside of wall, but splayed 
 to four feet ten inches on inside ; the eastern window seems 
 also to have been of the lancet kind, but owing to a part 
 of the gable having fallen, one cannot be now sure of its 
 dimensions.f 
 
 There is a marked resemblance between this church and 
 that of Killaspugbrone, near Dorrant's Island. The for- 
 mer is larger, stronger, and statelier, but still, the likeness 
 between them in the general cast of construction, and in 
 many of the details such as the situation and size of 
 windows, the position of door, the character of the masonry, 
 and the quality of stone in quoins is so striking that one 
 looks like a copy of the other, or both like copies of a 
 common original. In Killaspugbrone there is a recess for 
 sedilia, which is not found at Ballysadare ; but in both 
 there is the same provision for a gallery, as well as a 
 peculiar open of about four feet four inches high by one 
 
 * Carved human heads are also over the door of Cormac's Chapel in 
 Cashel. 
 
 r Since writing the above it has been ascertained that this window had 
 a mullion, and consisted of two lights. The sill remains still in situ.
 
 22 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 foot eleven inches wide in the western gable. * This would 
 indicate a high antiquity for Ballysadare ; for, if Dr. Petrie 
 has any grounds for his opinion that " the present church 
 of Killaspugbrone may be well supposed to be the original 
 church erected for Bishop Bronus, by St. Patrick, in the 
 fifth century," we should have good reason to suppose that 
 the edifice now under consideration is the church built by 
 Saint Fechin in the seventh century. This observation 
 applies only to the body of the building ; for it is plain that 
 the structure, some time after its erection, underwent 
 alterations. In looking at the southern side wall one sees 
 traces to show that breaches were made in it, and that the 
 present door and windows were inserted, f The change 
 probably was made in the thirteenth century. 
 
 Two other houses, or what remains of them, stand on 
 
 * This open, though pretty high in the wall, the sill being five feet from 
 the ground, would seem to have been the primitive doorway. There was 
 a church in the North of Ireland with the door similarly placed. "A 
 church and monastery," says a writer in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 
 vol. i, p. 306, " were erected at Banagher, near Dungiven, in the eleventh 
 century, by a man named O'Heney ; the walls of the church are still 
 standing and a part of the monastery, which is remarkable for having its 
 door several feet from the ground like those of the Round Towers. Killa- 
 spugbrone is another example of the door being placed high in gable. Is 
 it not likely that churches, with doors of this kind, were intended to sub- 
 serve the purposes of round towers as well as of religious edifices ? The 
 door in the Round Tower of Antrim is "four feet four inches in height, 
 one foot ten inches in width at the top, and two feet at the bottom" 
 (Petrie's Round Towers of Ireland, p. 400), about the exact dimensions of 
 the door or open of Ballysadare church. It should be mentioned that this 
 open or door has inclining sides or jambs, as the circumstance goes to 
 prove the antiquity of the structure. 
 
 There are also in this church two "Peep-holes," as they have been 
 termed one in western gable, the other in the northern side wall 
 through which the inmates could descry the approach of enemies, the 
 church thus serving one of the purposes of the Round Towers, which, 
 whatever else they may have been, were certainly watch-towers. 
 
 f The more this church is examined, the more extensive the alterations 
 that happened in it are found to have been. The masonry of the 
 northern side wall belongs to three different periods, and it is clear that 
 this wall was lengthened more than once after the original erection.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 23 
 
 the cemetery plot, along with the church, one on each 
 side of it, but distant about twenty feet. The three build- 
 ings lie in an easterly direction, and are nearly parallel, 
 but the church is further east than the others, its western 
 gable being nearly on a line with the eastern gables of the 
 other two. The dimensions of the southern house are 
 fifty-two feet long, and twenty-three wide, measured ex- 
 ternally. The northern structure is, internally, thirty-three 
 i'eet long, and fourteen wide. Both these buildings were 
 vaulted with stone, and contained each two apartments at 
 least one in the basement, and the other a croft, between 
 vault and roof. The northern house was singularly well 
 lighted for so old a building, having three opens for the 
 upper floor, two in side walls (opposite one another), and 
 two for the basement one in western gable, and one in 
 northern side wall. It is likely that these houses were the 
 refectory, or prointeach, and the Abbot's house, both 
 which, as Petrie remarks, " always existed in those ceno- 
 bitic establishments, where monks did not dwell in any 
 single building, but in a multitude of separate cells, 
 arranged in streets in the vicinity of the church," to which 
 class, tradition informs us, Ballysadare belonged.* 
 
 The church, known as The Abbey, stood at the west end 
 of the town, quite near the shore, where its ruins are still 
 seen. It was a tower church ; and from the style of the 
 building it would seem to date from the thirteenth century, 
 or thereabouts, and is manifestly a more recent structure 
 than that on the hill. It was built of quarried stone, while 
 the other was constructed with boulders or large surface 
 stones. The abbey is ninety- six feet long, and twenty feet 
 six inches wide in the clear. The northern side wall is in 
 
 * Speaking of the earlier times of the Church in Ireland, Sir William 
 Wilde says, "All the clergy, and, possibly, a portion of the people, lived 
 in community round the little church in cells, oratories, cloghauns, 
 wattled huts, caves, or forts." Kilkenny Arch&oloyical Journal, vol. xi, 
 p. 51. Archdeacon Lynch tells us that Ballysadare contained 300 monks. 
 Pii Antistitis Icon. p. 84 ; Duffy, Dublin.
 
 24 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 good preservation, and is thirty-three feet high ; but there 
 are only a few feet of the southern wall standing. Neither 
 of the gables exists. The distance from foundation of 
 western gable to the tower arch is fifty- four feet ; the tower 
 arch, at the springing, is twelve feet two inches ; and ten 
 feet eight inches beyond the tower there is an arched 
 recess for sedilia in the side wall, eight feet seven inches 
 long. It is certain that cloisters or lateral chapels were 
 attached to the southern side wall, in accordance with the 
 common practice of the period ; but they can no longer be 
 traced, as more than twenty feet deep of quarry rubbish is 
 now accumulated on their site. 
 
 TOEE OP ABBEY OF BALLTSADAEE. 
 
 But it is necessary to notice here a difficulty, suggested 
 "by the inquisition and lease that have been given above. 
 Hitherto we have been speaking of two churches that on
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 25 
 
 the hill and the Abbey ; but in these documents there is 
 only mention of one. Why, then, talk of a second when 
 there is no mention of it in the records? If there had 
 been two, would not the legal instruments have included 
 both ? And yet, the inquisition and the lease are equally 
 precise in mentioning only "the church covered with 
 straw," the " dormitory, or dortoir," and the " two other 
 buildings." This is a serious objection, though raised now 
 for the first time, and it seems to go the length of proving 
 that, at the time in which the documents were drawn up, 
 there was only one church that called The Abbey. And 
 yet, there can be little doubt that the building over the 
 waterfall, if not used as a place of worship at the time of 
 the suppression, had been so used at an earlier date. The 
 usage of the inhabitants of the district, giving it always 
 the designation of " the church," or the " old church," 
 the style and attributes of the edifice with its orientation, 
 its sanctuary and chancel windows, and its striking 
 resemblance to the ruins of Killaspugbrone ; and the 
 adjoining cemetery, marking, as old cemeteries always do, 
 the site of a " kil," or " tempul," all go to show, beyond 
 any reasonable doubt, that the structure was once a 
 church. 
 
 But when or how did it cease to be such ? Probably, at 
 the time the Abbey was built, and this time the writer 
 would be inclined to fix in some part of the thirteenth 
 century, and towards the end, rather than the beginning 
 of that period ; as there was little opportunity of building 
 during the first sixty or seventy years of that century, 
 Ballysadare being then the theatre of almost perpetual 
 war. But the closing years of the thirteenth century were 
 comparatively undisturbed in the neighbourhood (Harris's 
 Hibernica, p. 86); and, most probably, it was in these 
 years the abbey was built. John D'Alton, in his History 
 of Ireland and Annals of Boyle, writes, that the " Monas- 
 tery of Ballysadare was, in the beginning of the thirteenth
 
 26 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 /, restored, and so existed until the general Dissolu- 
 tion ; " but lie gives no authority for the statement, which 
 it is hard to reconcile with the character of the time. 
 "Whenever the abbey was erected, the old building, at that 
 time, ceased to be a house of worship, and was adapted to 
 the use of a dormitory.* The discipline, too, of the com- 
 munity was changed, and the Canons, who had lived in 
 separate cells through the town, began to dwell under the 
 same roof; and the place, from being, in great part, an 
 heremitical establishment, became cenobitical. A similar 
 change took place, about the same time, all over Ireland, 
 owing to different causes such as the example of Saint 
 Malachy, the English Invasion, and the diffusion of the 
 Carthusian Order ; and in this way old establishments, 
 founded by primitive Irish Saints, conformed to the spirit 
 of the times by adopting such improvements in discipline 
 as they observed in the new order, without, however, 
 relinquishing their own independent existence and self- 
 government. 
 
 It is right to give here a word of explanation with 
 regard to a difficulty arising from the denomination of the 
 townland on which the buildings, above described, stand. 
 It is commonly called, by the inhabitants of the district, 
 Kilbolasky, but is written in Erck's Ecclesiastical Eegister 
 (1830) " Kilmollash, alias Killvolasley " An old man of 
 
 * A somewhat similar change occurred in other places; as, for instance, 
 at Cashel, of which Dr. Milner writes : " His cathedral, Cormac Cuil- 
 linan consecrated to God, in honour of Saint Patrick, A.D. 900. A much 
 more spacious and elegant cathedral was added to this above two centu- 
 ries later, being consecrated and a synod held in it, A.D. 1134, at which 
 time the former church began to be used as a chapter -house." Milner'a 
 Inquiry into certain vulgar opinions concerning .... the Antiquities 
 of Ireland, p. 130; London. In these times the Canons were obliged to- 
 sleep in one dormitory. We read, in a Commission of Primate Colton's, 
 addressed to the Abbot and the Convent of the Black Abbey, Deny, the 
 following injunction : " We ordain that thou and the Canons eat 
 together in the common refectory, and sleep together in one dormitory." 
 Ulster Journal, vol. 1, p. 237.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 27 
 
 the neighbourhood, on being asked the meaning of the 
 word Killbolasty, said, it signified the " church of the grey 
 fort of the cow," (from kill, a church ; las, or Us, a fort ; 
 ly, or ley, grey ; and bo, a cow) ; and that it alluded to some 
 legend, associating the hill on which the old church was 
 erected with a cow ; but when pressed for his authority, 
 he admitted there was none, and that the interpretation 
 offered was altogether of his own invention. Erck's ver- 
 sion of the name points to another solution : " Killmolash " 
 signifies the church of Molash ; and as Saint Molaise (pro- 
 nounced, at least in this county, Molash) lived in the 
 neighbourhood, founded and governed a monastery at 
 Aughriss, in Tireragh, and is said to be buried in Innis- 
 murry Island places about half a-dozen miles each from 
 Ballysadare, it looks as if one of the Ballysadare buildings 
 was dedicated to that Saint, and thus occasioned, the 
 denomination of the townland. According to this view the 
 two churches would have had different patron saints. 
 From what has been already said, Saint Fechin was cer- 
 tainly the Patron of Tempul Mor Fechin ; and if Erck's 
 version of the name of the townland be correct, Saint 
 Molaise would seem to be the Patron of the other church. 
 But if we regard Kilbolasley as a corruption of Kilbolaise, 
 the 1 in ley, coming from the second syllable las (a change 
 very natural in spoken language), we shall, probably, have 
 the true solution. Kilbolasley, then, like Kilbolaise, 
 (Kil-baile-easa) would signify the church of the town of the 
 cataract, or fall* 
 
 That the inmates of the " house of the Canons at Bally- 
 sadare" became Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, and 
 the house passed under the rule of that Order, as some 
 suppose, is doubtful, or rather improbable ; for of the his- 
 
 * This seems the correct explanation of the appellation. There is 
 nothing in tradition or in Irish history to warrant the supposition that 
 Saint Molaise left his name to the place. Erck is singular in the spelling 
 of the word, and must have mistaken his original.
 
 28 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 torians that treat of the Canons Regular, Lubin only sets 
 down Ballysadare as belonging to them. Herrera, Torelli, 
 Ware, Allemand, Lanigan, and others, exclude or omit it 
 from the list of Augustinian houses ; and Lubin is notori- 
 ously so extravagant in what he writes of the Canons 
 Regular in Ireland, that his statements carry little weight 
 when unsupported by others. The more probable opinion 
 then is, that the " house of the Canons" at Ballysadare, as 
 the place is called in the annals of the country, belonged 
 to secular canons, that is, to secular priests living in com- 
 munity, ruled by a superior, called Prior, joining at stated 
 times in prayer and ecclesiastical offices, and performing 
 missionary duty by themselves, or by vicars, or curates 
 appointed by them.* The livings of Ballysadare, Drumrat, 
 Attymas, Kilnegarvan, and Killasser, belonged to the 
 abbey. In them the Canons exercised the cure of souls ; 
 and this is the reason why the incumbents of these places, 
 under the rule of the late established church, were called 
 vicars and not rectors, the rectory residing all the time in 
 the venerable house of the Canons. 
 
 The tombstones of the graveyard attached to this church 
 are all of more recent erection than one would expect in so 
 old a cemetery, the place having served as burying-ground 
 for about a thousand years. If there formerly existed 
 others, and some of a more ornate character than any we 
 now see, as there is good reason to suppose, considering 
 the fine quarry of the locality, and the carving that is still 
 visible on the old church and the abbey, these monuments 
 may have been destroyed about the time of the change of 
 religion, in the sixteenth century, as happened elsewhere, 
 or may have been covered with earth ; the present level of 
 the ground, both within and without the walls, being seve- 
 ral feet above the old level. It is said that, when the Pro- 
 testants took possession of the old church of Ballysadare, 
 
 * It was so with all the older religious houses in Ireland.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 29 
 
 the Catholics suspended interments there, burying their 
 dead, for the time, in Kilnemonogh, Bille, Cloonmucduff, 
 and other places ; but, that they came back to this cemetery 
 about the beginning of the eighteenth century, we learn 
 from the tombstones, the dates of which range from the 
 first decade of that century down to the present time. 
 
 The epitaphs on the monuments, with one or two excep- 
 tions, are sufficiently commonplace. Besides the poetic 
 effusion (see Lives of Parish Priests] that is found on the 
 vault of Father Wat Henry there are one or two other 
 inscriptions in verse. On the handsome sepulchral struc- 
 ture belonging to the Milmos one of the oldest, as it is 
 one of the most respected families of the parish of Ballysa- 
 dare, though its representatives now live in Ballymote 
 we read the acrostic lines : 
 
 May heaven rest the souls of those 
 In peaceful bliss who here repose ; 
 Let angels come their souls to meet ; 
 May heaven's queen with welcome greet ; 
 On them may Jesus God of love 
 Serenely smile in realms above. 
 
 They fought the fight they gain'd the prize 
 On which on earth they kept their eyes ; 
 May we like them when life is o'er 
 Be crown'd with bliss for evermore. 
 
 On the tomb of an old mariner, named John Benson, 
 who died in 1808, aged 80 years, may be read this sprightly 
 sally:- 
 
 Laborious blast on Neptune's waves has tossed me to and fro, 
 But spite of all, by God's decree, I harbour here below ; 
 And now at anchor here I lie with many of our fleet 
 I hope to sail some day again our Saviour Christ to meet. 
 
 This was probably -the composition of Benson himself 
 who was what is commonly called a " character." It is 
 told of him that such was the love of cleanliness he had
 
 30 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 brought with him from the navy, that on a cow coming one 
 day casually into his dwelling-house, and soiling the floor 
 of the kitchen with her droppings, he took up an axe in a 
 rage, and slew the peccant beast on the spot. 
 
 The oldest epitaph in the interior of the ruin is this : 
 " Here lyeth the body of "Will m . Thomson who dyd Dec 
 1708." The next oldest is that of John Braxton, running 
 thus : " Here lyeth the body of John Braxton who parted 
 this life 5th day of Aprel 172980 years his age." The 
 oldest monument on the outside of church, and the oldest 
 yet discovered in the parish, if we except Sir Albert 
 Conyngham's, is that of the Horans, which bears the in- 
 scription : " Here lyeth the body of Green Horan, Edward 
 Horan, Henery Horan, John Horan, and the rest of the 
 children of Edmund Horan and Moad Connor, 1704." 
 Besides the Latin inscription on Father O'Connell's tomb- 
 stone (see his Life,) there is one other in Latin in the 
 churchyard. It is on a stone in the plot of the late 
 Charles Gilhooly, and runs as follows : 
 
 An. Dom. MDCCLIII ult 
 
 Kal. Feb. setatis vero suse 
 
 Ixvii obiit Thadeus 
 
 M c Mulrunisin - hie 
 
 tumulatus. 
 
 Ora pro eo. Beq in pace 
 De Profundis.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 31 
 
 SECTION III. SIR FREDERICK HAMILTON. 
 
 THE next grave event in the history of Ballysadare is the 
 raid and ravages of Sir Frederick Hamilton. The memory 
 of this monster is as odious in Ballysadare as that of Crom- 
 well in Drogheda and "Wexford. The period from 1641 to 
 the Restoration, so prolific in men of " blood and iron," 
 such as Cromwell, the two Cootes, Sir William Cole, Lord 
 Inchiquin, etc., did not produce a heart more corrupt and 
 sanguinary than that of this Sir Frederick. The " reduc- 
 tion" of Sligo, and one or two of the neighbouring coun- 
 ties, was committed by the Lords Justices, chiefly to the 
 three furies, Sir Charles Coote, Sir William Cole, and Sir 
 Frederick Hamilton. There is extant a kind of diary of 
 Sir Frederick's doings, or rather misdoings, from October 
 1641 to the close of 1642, and from beginning to end it is 
 only a sickening repetition of scenes of slaying, spoiling, 
 burning, and wasting. His chief aim was to exterminate 
 the O'Rorkes of Breffny, who had been the owners of the 
 lands he occupied, and who struggled to recover their pos- 
 sessions ; but while attending to this object he found time 
 to visit every district, within twenty or thirty miles, that 
 showed signs of national or religious spirit. The diary has 
 no account of the attack on Ballysadare, nor is it detailed 
 in any published history, so that we are left to tradition 
 alone for our information on the subject. The date of the 
 occurrence is not fixed, but it happened probably in some 
 part of 1642, as Hamilton was very busy in the neighbour- 
 hood during that year. It was in 1642 he swooped down 
 upon Sligo, burning a good part of the town, and filling its 
 sewers with the blood of more than three hundred 'men, 
 women, and children, put indiscriminately to the sword ; 
 and he would have proceeded to still greater extremities, 
 had he not been called suddenly away^to defend Manor-
 
 32 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Hamilton castle, which was attacked by the O'Rorkes, for 
 the double purpose of avenging their own wrongs, and of 
 creating a diversion in favour of friends in Sligo. In 
 regard to Ballysadare, the tradition is, that he fell on it 
 when he was quite unexpected, and when there was no 
 resistance ; that he murdered all he met, without 
 distinction of age or sex ; that he pursued with the sword 
 fever patients, who fled totteringly away, covered with the 
 blankets which they had snatched from the sick bed ; and 
 that he burned, or ruined in some other way, every house 
 which the town contained. It is certain that Sir Frederick 
 put an end to old Ballysadare. Of the town that had 
 lasted for a thousand years from the middle of the seventh 
 to the middle of the seventeenth century that had 
 survived the less ruthless attacks of Dane and Norman, 
 and that was venerable for so many associations of 
 holiness and learning, not as much as one house was left 
 habitable by this barbarian of bigotry, the most barbarous 
 of all barbarians. 
 
 Though the foundations and other remains of edifices 
 that are still traceable extending through most of the 
 valley that stretches from the river to the abbey, and 
 covering a good part of the hills on either side would of 
 themselves prove the place to have been very considerable, 
 it is pretty certain that the town was much more exten- 
 sive than the present traces of it indicate. Indeed the 
 traditions respecting the size, antiquity, and importance of 
 Ballysadare, are so strong as to make one think that it is 
 the site of the famous Nagnata, of which Ptolemy makes 
 such special mention, calling it a "noble city," episemos 
 polls. About the situation of JNagnata there is great 
 difference of opinion, some placing it in or near the city of 
 Galway, some in the village of Mayo, others in Drumcliffe, 
 and others in Sligo. But there is little probability in any 
 of these opinions. To say nothing of other formidable 
 objections against Galway and Mayo, they lie far to the
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 33 
 
 south west of the position assigned by Ptolemy to Nagnata ; 
 as to Drumclirfe, it has no marks of having been a great 
 city, at least in the first century ; while Sligo is much too 
 modern a place to make good its claims to the distinction. 
 But Ballysadare agrees well in geographical situation with 
 Nagnata, of which Sir James Ware remarks : " Ptolemy 
 calls this a noble city, and by the situation seems to point 
 out some place not far from Sligo."* 
 
 And the probability derived from geographical position 
 is greatly strengthened by the admitted antiquity and fame 
 of Ballysadare, which is thus referred to by Lady Morgan : 
 " The literal meaning of the word Sligo is the town of 
 the shells, and the derivation of the epithet is traced by 
 local history and oral tradition to the following curious 
 origin. Many of the inhabitants of Esdara (now Ballysa- 
 dare) a flourishing and neighbouring town, having been 
 driven by civil dissensions from their native place, fled to 
 the shore, and of the shells and pebbles, flung by the 
 violence of the tide along the coast, erected a number of 
 huts which formed the infancy of Sliyo." f Further proof 
 for the historic past of Ballysadare may be drawn from the 
 name of the hill, Knockmildowney, that rises over the fall, 
 on the right bank of the river ; the name signifying " the 
 hill of the whirlpool of the Domnans J or Firbolgs, thus 
 associating the place with colonists that came to Ireland 
 more than two thousand years ago. These arguments are 
 not indeed conclusive on the subject, but it is confidently 
 submitted that they are much stronger than any that have 
 been alleged by writers who would identify other places 
 with Ptolemy's eTno-^aoj 
 
 * "Ware, by Harris, vol i, p. 42. 
 t Patriotic Sketches, vol i, p. 7. 
 J Joyce's Irish Names of Places, p. 91.
 
 34 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 SECTION IV. CONFLICT OF JACOBITES AND WILLIAMITES. 
 
 A SMART action was fought in Ballysadare during the siege 
 of Sligo, in 1690, between the respective followers of 
 William and James, commanded by Colonel Mitchelburne 
 and Sir Teague 'Regan. 
 
 The occasion of Sir Teague's coming to Ballysadare was 
 this. Mitchelburne meditated some surprise from that direc- 
 tion on Sligo, and invited the assistance of Colonel Ramsay, 
 governor of Enniskillen, a very able and efficient officer. 
 Ramsay answered the call, and moving at the head of five 
 hundred men, part belonging to the militia and part to the 
 line, came round through the lower part of Leitrim, and pro- 
 ceeded to Tireragh, pretending that the object in coming 
 from the North was to procure a supply of cattle. But 
 Teague was too " old " and experienced to be thrown thus 
 easily off his guard, and knowing well it was no light matter 
 which had brought Ramsay from the important post of 
 Enniskillen, marched to Ballysadare, at the head of eighty 
 horse and two hundred foot soldiers, to meet any attack 
 that might be made from that quarter. If Ramsay, on 
 return from Tireragh, expected to steal a march on Sligo, 
 he was soon undeceived on reaching the bridge of Ballysa- 
 dare, where the enemy was most advantageously posted to 
 receive him. A conflict immediately ensued. They fought 
 with great resolution on both sides ; but after an hour's 
 engagement, the Enniskilleners made no impression 
 on the immovable array of the enemy, but on the 
 contrary were themselves driven back from their first 
 positions, and were retiring in disorder, when overwhelming 
 reinforcements arrived.* On their arrival the action was 
 
 * The reinforcements, according to Harris, consisted of " a party of 
 the militia tinder Sir Francis Hamilton, supported by a troop of Colonel 
 "Wynne's dragoons." Life of William III, p. 330.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 35 
 
 resumed. Sturdy Sir Teague still held the bridge, with 
 a heart as fearless 
 
 "As his who kept the bridge so well 
 In the brave days of old ; " 
 
 hut feeling the evils of further exposing his men without 
 necessity, he directed them to fall back on Sligo, and con- 
 ducted them in good order to the town. 
 
 SECTION V. SOCIAL STATE. 
 
 No event of public importance took place in Ballysadare 
 during the eighteenth century. 
 
 Ireland improved greatly during the second half of the 
 eighteenth century, and Ballysadare shared fully in the 
 general prosperity. About the close of the century there 
 were five mills in the place three for grinding oats and 
 one for making flour and as many kilns. There were 
 also several kilns in the neighbouring villages, as those in 
 the town were unable to keep the mills agoing. There was 
 a saltpan a little below Ballysadare, and another, to the 
 east, at Streamstown. The town had a brewery, and a 
 tanyard the former on the left and the latter on the 
 right bank of the river. There were three small mills for 
 dressing frieze and flannel. At the same time the silver- 
 and-lead mine was worked, and the grass land that now 
 adjoins the town was in tillage so that between tilling, 
 milling, brewing, tanning, and saltmaking, there was brisk 
 employment. 
 
 And linen-making gave occupation to considerable 
 numbers. Thirty looms were constantly at work, and 
 there was hardly a house in the town but had a spinning 
 wheel or two. The woman, or mistress of the house, spun 
 as well as the daughters ; and spinning formed so large a 
 part of the work of servant girls, that wages was usually
 
 36 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 regulated by dexterity at the business. A shilling a cut, 
 per quarter, was the proportion of wages to work, so that 
 the girl that produced twelve cuts of yarn in the day was 
 hired at twelve shillings a quarter. 
 
 Tobacco from America, and potteen from Teelin Hill, 
 formed the staple of the trade. The leaf was made up into 
 oblong parcels of about half a hundred- weight each, well 
 wrapped and sewed in canvas covers, and thus taken away 
 across horses' backs to convenient depots. There were no 
 carts in those days, but by carefully packing and padding 
 the tobacco in a sack, the contents were made to look, 
 when on' the horses' backs, like oats on the way to the mill 
 or the market. 
 
 Indoors, there was " full and plenty of everything" in 
 Ballysadare. Oatmeal stirabout was the ordinary break- 
 fast ; oatmeal bread was the staff of life, the great piece de 
 resistance of the dinner, and with milk or butter or eggs, or 
 all three together, as often happened, afforded a palatable 
 and wholesome meal ; flummery, an extract and decoction 
 of meal seeds, served for supper ; and, before going to bed, 
 it was usual to fortify the stomach with a posset of groats, 
 diluted with sweet milk when available, and seasoned with 
 salt and sugar, according to means or taste. 'Several 
 " mangers " killed a pig occasionally, and saved their own 
 bacon; and on Sundays and Thursdays sat down at dinner 
 with their families to a goodly piece of it, well garnished 
 with white cabbage or greens, and served up on a large 
 wooden platter. Those who were fond of fish could indulge 
 the taste, for they might easily procure for two or three 
 pence a fine trout, which would cost as many shillings at 
 present, and purchase salmon in abundance for a penny or 
 three halfpence a pound.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSABARE. 37 
 
 SECTION VI. THE CHOLERA. 
 
 THE most remarkable event that has ever occurred in new 
 Ballysadare was the ravages of the cholera in 1832. No 
 spot in the three kingdoms suffered so much from this 
 terrible visitation. Bad, however, as was its true con- 
 dition, the most exaggerated reports got abroad, and 
 magnified the evil a hundred fold. 
 
 The first victim of cholera in Ballysadare was a stranger 
 from Sligo, who had come to see a relative, and who died 
 of the epidemic the second day of the visit. A respectable 
 inhabitant, Mr. James McDonald, was the next person 
 affected. The attack was so severe that the patient was 
 already pronounced dead by the doctor, and ordered to be 
 coffined, when he was saved from the horrid fate of being 
 buried alive by the affection and energy of an intelligent 
 and devoted wife. She refused to comply with the direc- 
 tions of the doctor and the entreaties of others, to give up 
 what they called the corpse ; and as the medical man 
 retired in great indignation at the slight offered him, there 
 was nothing for it except to take the case into her own 
 hands. Having, accordingly, had a large pot of water 
 warmed, she rubbed the already rigid limbs and arms of 
 the sufferer, assisted by one or two charitable women in 
 the devoted work ; and after continuing for a couple of 
 hours the friction and warm applications, she had the 
 happiness of seeing her husband open his eyes and hearing 
 him speak, and thus give hope of the recovery that had 
 already begun, and that was complete in a few days. 
 
 With such an instructive case in the outset there should 
 be little danger, one would think, of premature interment 
 during the visitation, and still there are grounds for fearing 
 that several persons were committed alive to the grave. 
 This, at least, is what one is led to infer from a remarkable
 
 38 PARISH OF BALLTSADARE. 
 
 instance : Mrs. Doyle took the disease, and after great 
 suffering was believed to have expired. A messenger was 
 sent off for a coffin to Collooney, on whose return the body 
 was coffined and taken from the bed ; there was difficulty 
 in getting the corpse down from the second floor, as the 
 stairs were narrow and tortuous, and while those who car- 
 ried it struck it against the ballustrade and the wall, and 
 made great noise in shouting their directions and wishes 
 one to another, the lid was suddenly started from the coffin, 
 and the poor wretch enclosed screamed. Of course, she 
 was brought back to her room, and that person lives hale 
 and active at the present moment. The visitation lasted 
 for a fortnight, during which fifty- eight cases are said to 
 have proved fatal in a population numbering, at the out- 
 break, five hundred and forty-six, but reduced, by depar- 
 tures from the town, to four hundred or something over. 
 As many as could take themselves away fled in the begin- 
 ning, but, later, there was no egress, and such persons as 
 tried to escape were forced back by the inhabitants of the 
 surrounding districts, who left nothing undone to keep 
 their respective localities clear of the infection. 
 
 Meantime the people of Ballysadare seemed doomed to 
 inevitable destruction, without leave to seek safety in 
 flight, and without the prospect of any relief from without. 
 All business was suspended ; the mills were stopped ; the 
 shuttle and spinning wheels were abandoned ; and for the 
 hundreds of vehicles that used to pass daily through the 
 street not as much as one was now to be seen. People 
 lived constantly in their houses, and no one appeared out- 
 side except those who were engaged in removing the 
 plague- stricken to the temporary hospital. One man 
 fancied he had heard unearthly sounds ; another, that he 
 had seen portentous sights in the heavens ; and all agreed 
 in saying that a dark cloud hung over the devoted town 
 an opinion which derives probability from the well-known 
 dependence of cholera on the electrical condition of the
 
 PARISH OF BALLTSADARE. OV 
 
 atmosphere. In the midst of these evils, real as well as 
 imaginary, and under this fearful strain on intellect and 
 feelings, the chief, almost the " only strength and stay" 
 of the people, under God, was the presence and services of 
 their faithful clergy : Very Reverend Dean Durcan, 
 Reverend James Henry, and, particularly, Reverend 
 Michael Flynn, to whose charge Ballysadare district more 
 especially belonged. 
 
 "When the leading inhabitants fled Father Flynn has- 
 tened to the post of danger. Though lodging in Collooney, 
 the priest spent most of his time in Ballysadare. It was 
 a puzzle to all whether the good man took any sleep, for 
 his cheery and sonorous voice was constantly heard in the 
 streets and houses, solacing the sick, reassuring the timid, 
 and comforting all. In this way Father Flynn proved a 
 temporal, as well as a spiritual benefactor ; and while 
 smoothing the pillow of the sick and dying by surrounding 
 it with the helps and consolations of religion, he toned and 
 fortified the minds of such as were still free from the 
 disease, and thus served to prevent Ballysadare from 
 becoming that " habitation of the dead," so graphically 
 described by Mr. Senior.* 
 
 Dr. Courtenay, too, the medical man sent down by the 
 Government, discharged his duty in a way that deserves 
 the highest praise. 
 
 Speaking of the cholera at Ballysadare, it would be 
 unfair to omit a passing tribute to the volunteer attendant 
 on the infected, a kind and stout-hearted blacksmith, Billy 
 Tighe. The priest and the doctor may have acted under a 
 strong sense of professional duty, but the only pressure 
 which this heroic man could feel was that of his own 
 manly and Christian heart. Placing himself at the dis- 
 posal of the clergyman and doctor, he carried out their 
 
 * JOUENALS, CONVERSATIONS, and ESSAYS relating to Ireland, by Nassau 
 William Senior, vol ii. p. 35.
 
 40 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE, 
 
 directions through the place assisted such sick as had 
 nobody else to look after them ; administered to them the 
 prescribed medicine ; cleansed their persons and beds ; put 
 them, sometimes single-handed, in the coffin ; and, like 
 good Tobias, had on more than one occasion to rise at 
 midnight to commit the dead to the grave. Praise as you 
 will, and as he deserves, the hero of the battle field, but 
 for the highest kind of Christian courage, for that which 
 approaches nearest to the divine courage of the Cross 
 giving the life for the fellow-man commend me to the 
 faithful clergy of Ballysadare in the dread days of the 
 cholera, and to their worthy fellow-labourers, the humane 
 Dr. Courtenay and the brave Billy Tighe. 
 
 SECTION VII. SCENERY AND CAPABILITIES. 
 
 IT will not be amiss to say a word or two here of the 
 scenery and capabilities of the place. It would be hard to 
 find a spot combining so largely, the useful and the 
 beautiful. If Horace's line 
 
 " Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci " 
 
 could be applied to localities as well as to authors, the 
 eulogium would well suit Ballysadare. Like all the 
 founders of primitive churches in this country, Saint Fechin 
 exhibited consummate taste in the selection of a site for 
 his religious foundation. Standing near the ruin over the 
 fall, you have around you a prospect very extensive, and 
 as varied as extended. Under you the river wends its way 
 on to the bar, a distance of three or four miles, in bold and 
 singularly graceful curves ; just the other side of the chan- 
 nel rises the stately and symmetrical Knocknarea, the 
 Olympus of County Sligo, with the famous Misgan 
 Meidhbhe on its summit ; in the distant background are 
 several ranges of mountain, all converging towards
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 41 
 
 Knocknarea as a centre, and looking as if they were drawn 
 up there in lines to keep watch and ward before Misgan 
 Meidhbhe, the tomb or the cenotaph of the renowned 
 Semiramis of Con naught ; within these bounds there is 
 great variety of landscape the bold hills of Knockroe and 
 Union, the timbered tracts of Union Wood and Tanrago, 
 the well-fenced tillage farms of Coolerra, and the neat, 
 white, and smiling cottages and offices of Lord Erne's 
 tenants. 
 
 After all, the gem of the collection of objects before you 
 is the Owenmore, from the bridge to the bay. You have 
 not here, to be sure, the volume of water which the 
 Shannon rolls from Athlone to the sea, nor the wooded 
 banks that impart such ornament to the Blackwater, 
 between Youghal and Cappoquin ; but, notwithstanding 
 those advantages in their favour, you will look in vain to 
 either of those rivers for as many beauties, in the same 
 length, as this part of the Owenmore discloses. A score 
 of cataracts, rising in nearly measured gradation to the 
 topmost ; the diversified movements of the waters, now float- 
 ing smoothly on the horizontal plane of some spacious 
 ledge, again, playfully whirling in the numerous eddies of 
 the stream ; here rushing noisily and precipitately through 
 gaps in the rocks, and there falling softly over a sloping cas- 
 cade, like a covering of lace; the ascending vapour, glittering 
 in the sun, and reflecting all the tints of the rainbow ; the 
 thousand sounds, arising from the multiplied action of the 
 waters combining with the great bass of the waterfall and 
 making a natural symphony ; all those sights and sounds 
 together form a picture and a scene which cannot be 
 surpassed, at least in those countries. It is no wonder that 
 travellers of taste greatly admire the view ; and lest any- 
 one should take the above appreciation to be the worthless 
 estimate of a local enthusiast, it will be of use to give here 
 the judgments of one or two competent and disinterested 
 critics. Arthur Young visited Ballysadare a century ago,
 
 42 PARISH OF BALLYSAUARE. 
 
 and wrote as follows at the time : " Went to Ballysadare, 
 when I had great pleasure in viewing the falls ; the river 
 breaks over rocks in the most romantic manner from edge to 
 edge in many falls for the space of two hundred yards before 
 it comes to the principal one, which is twelve or fourteen 
 feet perpendicular ; the scenery about it is bold, the features 
 of the mountains are great, and Knocknaree in full relief. 
 If the falls were through a dark wood the scenery would be 
 among the finest in the world." Lady Morgan, when Miss 
 Owenson, visited Longford House, the seat of Sir Malby 
 Crofton, and lived most of the years 1806 and 1807 there, 
 partly as governess, and partly, to use her own words, " as 
 a poor relation, in consideration of the credit she had 
 become to the family." She became well acquainted with 
 the scenery and antiquities of the neighbourhood, and 
 acknowledges herself indebted to them for some of the best 
 things in her two early works " Patriotic Sketches '' and 
 " The Wild Irish Girl." She passed often through Bally- 
 sadare, on the way to and from Sligo (where, by the way, 
 she was near marrying one of the Everards, leading mer- 
 chants of the town) ; and in the Prefatory Address to her 
 " Wild Irish Girl " she gives the following highly com- 
 plimentary description of the scenery and surroundings of 
 Ballysadare : " Such are the picturesque views, caught 
 and lost at intervals, along the road that passes directly 
 through the village of Ballysadare : an old hamlet lying 
 on the banks of a river, which has its source in the 
 mountains, and forms, in its rapid course over a steep and 
 unequal bed, a beautiful succession of waterfalls, which 
 wear the singular appearance of an aquatic amphitheatre ; 
 the rapid and repulsed stream breaking over rocks from 
 point to point till it reaches the principal steep, which is 
 upwards of fifteen feet perpendicular. These romantic 
 cataracts when seen through the dark woods which once 
 surrounded them, and with the full relief of Knocknaree 
 in the rear, must have ranked amongst the noblest scenic
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 43 
 
 features in the ^corZd." The artists, Messrs. Beranger and 
 Bigari, in their Tour through Connaught . . . in 1779, 
 write : " Viewed the cascade of Ballysadare, occasioned by 
 several falls over rocks of the river Owenbeg ; the principal 
 one is about fifteen feet high, very perpendicular, and, with 
 the rocks about it, affords a most romantic sight. "We sat 
 down almost fronting it, and enjoyed for some time this 
 charming scene" * It is needless to add other testimonies, 
 which are at hand in abundance. 
 
 The business capabilities of Ballysadare are particularly 
 favourable. Its situation on the great high road, by which 
 most of the agricultural produce of Lower Connaught is 
 brought to market, gives its merchants a great advantage. 
 Nor is the place less adapted for the sale and delivery of 
 the manufactured grain, there being peculiar facilities of 
 sending it on by road or rail, either in the direction of 
 Tireragh and Tyrawley, or in that of Upper Sligo and 
 Roscommon. And if home consumption should leave a 
 surplus to be exported there is water enough in the chan- 
 nel for vessels of moderate draught to take it out to the 
 bay, and on to the English or Scotch markets. 
 
 But the most precious possession of Ballysadare is its 
 superb water power unsurpassed, probably unequalled in 
 these kingdoms. At no time, however, was the quantity 
 of water utilized equal, nor is it equal at present, to the 
 quantity running uselessly to the sea. In the 1,000 yards 
 or thereabouts lying between the bridge and the fall there 
 are a dozen sites for mills or factories, and water enough 
 and to spare for working them all. f All this water, 
 
 * Beranger adds to his remarks on the cascade, the following, " On the 
 bridge of Ballysadare we were shown a stone on which a beggar uaed to 
 sit constantly, who, on receiving alms, used to bestow on the giver a 
 blessing, which is become a famous toast, under the name of the Beggar's 
 lenison." Unfortunately there is no recollection in Ballysadare of this 
 famous beggar or his benison. 
 
 ^"Letters on the Condition of the People of Ireland." By Thomas 
 Campbell Foster, (the TIMES Commissioner).
 
 44 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 however, did not prevent accidental fires, or render them 
 innoccuous when they occurred. To omit others it may be 
 mentioned that Mr. M'Donnell's corn kilns and mill were 
 burned to the ground in 1826 by a fire which is supposed 
 to have been lighted for the purpose of drying malt by 
 persons who entered the premises without the knowledge 
 of Mr. M'Donnell. About 1840 Mr. Culbertson's new mill 
 was burned down with immense quantities of oats and 
 meal that it contained; and in 1856 an explosion took 
 place in his flour mill the largest and best appointed in 
 Ireland which blew off the roof with a stunning sound, 
 shot sheets of flame in an instant through all parts of the 
 building, destroyed vast stores of bread stuffs, and caused 
 the loss of nine lives. It is supposed that this calamity 
 was occasioned, in some way not discovered, by chemicals, 
 which, it seems, were freely used for colouring the flour, 
 and were kept under lock and key in a room of the mill. 
 The person who had care of this department was absent in 
 England at the time of the explosion. 
 
 The names of those who lost their lives on this occasion 
 are, James Brennan, James Tighe, Mark Brown, John 
 Connington, Edward Drummy, William Boyd, William 
 Boyd, jun. (son of preceding), William Taylor, and 
 William Smith. Those who suffered, but survived, are 
 Edward Rochfort, Robert Mulvagh, John Brothers, Thomas 
 Tiernan, James Carter, John Carroll, and John Johnston. 
 
 SECTION VIII. BALLYDREHID. 
 
 BETWEEN the town of Ballysadare and the north-eastern 
 boundary of the parish lie the village and townland of 
 BALLYDREHID, the place being so called from the bridge 
 standing over the stream that runs from the Curragh, and 
 divides the barony of Tirerrill from the barony of Carbury, 
 and the parish of Ballysadare from that of Kilmacowen.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 45 
 
 The denomination of Ballydrehid, which is at present con- 
 fined to the south side of the stream, formerly designated a 
 portion of the north side as well ; for the castle, called the 
 Castle of Ballydrehid, stood in a field which goes still by 
 the name of the "castle field," and is in the parish of 
 Kilmacowen. And we meet the same extension of the 
 name in a grant made by James I, in the third year of 
 his reign, to Sir John King, of various lands in the parish 
 of Saint John, under the denominations of : " The 
 ruinous castle or fortress of Bealdrohide, Rathe, 1 qur., 
 Leighcarrow, i qur., Carrowmore, 1 cartron, Carrowchill, 
 1 qur., Gobbatagh, 1 qur., Carguy, 1 qur. ; out of every 
 quarter of which was paid 13s. 4d. to Donogh O'Connor, 
 Sligo ; all being parcel of the estate of Bryan O'Connor of 
 Bealdrohide slain in rebellion." 
 
 Anciently Ballydrehid was called Drchid Martra the 
 bridge of slaughter, or, the bridge of martyrdom and we 
 find the place under this name in Colgan's Life of Saint 
 Cormac, as also in an old poem on the exploits of Rag- 
 hallach, King of Connaught, in which the king's poet, 
 Fintan, informs us that Drehid Martra was so called from 
 a bloody defeat inflicted by Raghallach on Ninde, Prince 
 and Lord of Tyrconnell, who had invaded Connaught : 
 
 " The defeat of the flood we gave 
 To Ninde and his shouting hosts ; 
 We- changed the name of the cold cataract ; * 
 From thenceforth it is called Martra." 
 
 The defeat of Ninde happened about the middle of the 
 seventh century ; and since that time, as well as then, 
 Ballydrehid has been often the scene of blood and warfare, 
 as one might expect, considering the situation and nature 
 of the place. In 1495 a great battle was fought here 
 between O'Donnell and O'Eorke on the one side, and the 
 
 * Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, by E. 0' Curry, vol. ii. 
 p. 343.
 
 46 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 O'Connors of Sligo, the M'Donoghs of Tirerrill [called the 
 Clann Donogh], the Mac Dermotts, the O'Dowdas of 
 Tireragh, the O'Garas of Coolavin, and other chieftains of 
 Lower Connaught on the other. O'Donnell and O'Rorke 
 were victorious; and many of their enemies, including 
 members of the M'Donogh, O'Dowda, and O'Gara families 
 were slain or drowned in the hattle. After naming some 
 distinguished individuals who fell on this occasion the Four 
 Masters add : " Besides these, many others of the nohles 
 and plebeians of Connaught were slain, drowned, or taken 
 prisoners in this defeat of Bel-an-Droichit." * 
 
 In 1526 another, and a still greater battle took place at 
 Ballydrehid between O'Donnell, with his partizans, and 
 the chieftains of Lower Connaught, in which, as in that of 
 1495, the former were victorious, Melaghlin M'Donough 
 being slain, and Brian O'Connor thrown from his horse in 
 the melee, so that he owed his escape with life to the close- 
 ness and fastness of the wood by which the battle field was 
 urrounded," according to the Annals of the Four Mas- 
 ters. And the same authority further observes : " The 
 Connacian army left great spoils of horses, arms, and 
 armour to the Kinel-Connell on that occasion ; and from 
 the time that Hugh Roe, the son of Niall Garv, had gained 
 the battle of Ceideach-droighneach over the Connacians, 
 where many of them were slain, the Kinel-Connell had 
 not given a defeat to the Connacians which redounded 
 more to their triumph, or by which they obtained more 
 spoils, than this defeat of Bel-an-droichit.f" 
 
 In 1536 we again find O'Donnell and the Connacian 
 chiefs in conflict. This time O'Donnell was in such force 
 that O'Connor and the allied chiefs, instead of giving 
 battle, remained encamped in the strong position of Bally- 
 drehid, while the Ulster prince ravaged all the neighbour- 
 hood of Sligo, and passed three nights destroying and 
 
 * Annals of Four Masters, A.D. 1495. 
 t Annals of Four Masters, A.D. 1526.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 47 
 
 burning " the country of the descendants of Brian 
 O'Connor." After thus wasting the territory of his 
 enemies; O'Donnell crossed the strand (apparently without 
 passing through Ballydrehid and Ballysadare),* marched 
 along the foot of Slieve Gamh, (Ox Mountains), and took 
 such spoils of cattle in the march that two beeves came to 
 be sold in his camp for one bonn, or fourpenny piece.f 
 
 Though Ballydrehid had its share of the general excite- 
 ment at the periods of 1641, of the English revolution, 
 and of the French invasion in 1798, nothing special 
 occurred in that place on these occasions. Great changes, 
 however, have gradually happened in it since the time it 
 used to receive the disagreeable visits of the martial 
 O'Donnells. The castle that then existed has entirely 
 disappeared ; the wood, whose " closeness and fastness " 
 favoured the escape of O'Connor Sligo, in 1526, ,has 
 vanished, leaving hardly a twig behind ; and the ownership 
 of southern Ballydrehid passed, under the Acts of Settle- 
 ment and Explanation, to Lord Bellamont and Edward 
 Cooper, in two separate lots, the whole becoming the 
 property of Mr. Cooper's descendant at the sale of Earl 
 Bellamont's County Sligo estate in 1727. We are told 
 that a family named Ferguson, that lived in Ballydrehid 
 something more than a hundred years ago, owned a patch 
 of the place, but having neglected to pay the Crown rents, 
 
 * It was not unusual with the Northern Chieftains to lead their troops 
 direct from Carbury to Streamstown by the shallows, now called "the 
 flats." 
 
 I have reason to believe, says John O'Donovan, Ulster Journal of 
 Archceology, p. 305, vol. 3, " that fords mfarsats were still rendered more 
 firmly fixed by the ancient Irish, who inserted heavy stones into them, to 
 give them permanent fixity. In the Barony of Tyrawley, County Mayo, 
 near Killala, and in the Barony of Tireragh," (should have been, Barony 
 ofLeyney) "near Ballysadare, County Sligo, there are bars, forsats, or 
 sand-banks of this nature, which were of vast importance to the people, 
 as they were enabled by them to cross tidal rivers, in certain states of the 
 tide." 
 
 f Annals of Four Masters, AD. 1536.
 
 48 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 and having even assaulted the officers of the law who had 
 come to distrain for payment, they had to give up the 
 land, when they sold their title to the Mr. Cooper of the 
 day. Towards the close of the last century a gentleman 
 named Johnston occupied, under lease, the greater part of 
 Ballydrehid, as well as two acres of Knockmuldowney, on 
 which he built a salt pan, the ruins of which may still be 
 seen a little to the west of Arthur Mullen's house. Before 
 Mr. Johnston's time Ballydrehid was almost uninhabited, 
 being merely a grazing run, but he settled on it seven 
 families that he had taken with him from the County 
 Leitrim to work the salt pan ; and that, by the way, were, 
 with one exception, all Protestants. Mr. Johnston's 
 interest passed to Mr. Chambers of Cloverhill, whose son 
 still holds the place under Mr. Cooper. In conclusion it 
 may be remarked, that if this place got the old name from 
 its bridge, it may well now receive a new one from its 
 bridges and be called the toicn of the 'bridges; for the 
 stream of the village is at present spanned not only by the 
 famous old building, which still stands, but also by a fine 
 metal structure, that connects the two parishes, at a height 
 of thirty or forty feet above the surface of the water ; while 
 the high road is here crossed by a bridge of massive 
 masonry that is unequalled, for size and solidity, in the 
 whole length of the Midland Great Western Railway line.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 49 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 COLLOONEY. 
 SECTION I. SITUATION AND NAME. 
 
 COLLOONEY must be always a place of some importance. 
 Standing in the chief pass between Connaught and Ulster, 
 it will hold on while there is intercourse between those 
 regions. And apart from its suitableness as a place of 
 accommodation for travellers, the very picturesqueness and 
 healthfulness of the situation could not fail to make it, 
 and to keep it, the site of a village or little town. One 
 should travel far to find so noble a prospect as it affords, 
 including all the elements of the perfect landscape woods, 
 water, bold mountains, tranquil valleys, pretty cottages in 
 the distance, venerable ruins, symmetrical tillage fields 
 with luxuriant crops, and the greenest of pasture lands, 
 dotted with flocks and herds. There is a profusion of 
 mountain and hill visible the Ox Mountain, starting just 
 opposite Collooney, and stretching away to Croagh 
 Patrick; Knocknarea, with its plump outline and its 
 famous Miskan Meave perched on the summit ; Union 
 Rock, erect, like a sentinel, watching the gap of Bearnas 
 Hua Noillclla;* Slieve-da-En, so famous in legend and 
 
 * " And mountains, that like giants stand, 
 
 To sentinel enchanted land." Scott's Lady of the Lake. 
 Though Bearnas Hua Noillella is here taken to be the valley that runs 
 from Collooney to Ballysadare, in deference to the opinion of John 
 O'Donovan, the writer is unable to acquiesce in that opinion ; first, 
 because this valley is not in the district of Tirerrill at all, but in that of 
 Leyney, and, secondly, because this valley is not called, and never was 
 called, a gap or bearnas by the inhabitants. The Bearnas Hua Noillella, 
 or Gap of the Sons of Oillill, seems to be that which runs through 
 the Slieve-da-En mountains, from Lough Gill to Ballintogher. This
 
 50 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 history ; Benbulben, as fresh and majestic as when it 
 witnessed the sports and the prowess of the renowned 
 Conal Gulban, from whom it derives its name ; and the 
 Curlews and Keash, with those mysterious coves or caves, 
 which have puzzled all our archaeologists and antiquarians; 
 while to the east rises ridge after ridge, like the billows of 
 the ocean, till the extreme horizon is bounded by the 
 distant ranges of Leitrim and Cavan. 
 
 The Owenmore, as seen from Collooney, offers some 
 charming views. Coming slowly and gravely into the 
 town ; passing demurely by the beautiful glebe of Ard- 
 cotton ; leaping playfully, after it gets from under the 
 vicar's eye, over two or three hundred yards of fantastic 
 ledges, till it makes a splendid plunge, of twenty feet, at 
 the fall, and throws up a cloud of glittering globules to 
 hide its antics ; then darting rapidly away to the east, in 
 a bold and graceful curve, to pay respects to the ruins of 
 M'Donoghs castle ; and after receiving the waters of its 
 tributary the Arrow, or Uncion, moving with a sense of 
 new dignity majestically along under the overhanging 
 trees of Union Wood, and like Galatea in the Eclogue, 
 
 "Et fugit ad salices et se cupit ante videri," 
 
 coming out, now and again, from under the shade, to show 
 itself to admirers before disappearing finally from view at 
 Ballysadare, our river discloses, in a run of two miles, as 
 many beauties as any other river in Ireland in the same 
 length.* 
 
 remarkable opening is always called "The Gap," and is situated in 
 Tirerrill, so that it is in reality the Gap of the Sons of Oillill, and might, 
 with the greatest propriety have been so named. 
 
 * " The river Marne, meandering through Chalons and the finest parts 
 of France, does not in the same distance embrace more charms than the 
 TJnshion does descending from Lough-arva and Hollybrook, by Cooper- 
 hill, Mercury, and the Onion woods, till determined to die, as it lived, 
 in pleasure, it expires in the beautiful cascade of Ballysadare, and there
 
 PARISH OF BALLTSADARE. 51 
 
 In such a situation, and in the complete absence of 
 marshes and swamps, it were to be expected that Collooney 
 should be extremely salubrious ; and, as a matter of fact, 
 we have the authority of several distinguished physicians, 
 and, among them, of the celebrated Dr. Higgins in the last 
 century, and the late Dr. Carter, both intimately 
 acquainted with the locality, that Collooney is the 
 healthiest spot in the County Sligo. Precipitated by the 
 waters of the Owenmore, or filtered by the leaves of the. 
 trees, whatever impurities may be in the atmosphere are 
 destroyed before the air is inhaled. The Ox Mountains are 
 supposed to contribute a large share to this healthfulness, 
 by breaking the cutting winds of the north, and tempering 
 the winter breeze of the Atlantic. 
 
 No epidemic can effect a lodgment in this favoured spot. 
 In 1832 when Ballysadare was ravaged by the cholera, 
 Collooney escaped unharmed. Though two strangers 
 brought the disease into the village, and died of it, the evil 
 ended there, as if the virus had lost its venom in the pure 
 
 mixes with, the waters of the ocean." Statistical Survey of Sligo , 
 by Dr. M'Parlan, p. 7. 
 
 While mindful of the good old maxim, De gustibus non est disputandum, 
 one cannot still help saying of this laudation of the Uncion, that it is un 
 peu trop. The Doctor should have kept to statistics, for he had no great 
 sense of the beautiful in scenery. The truth is, the Unshion is a rather 
 common-place river, while treading its sluggish way on to Collooney, 
 where, to be sure, it is inspired with a new life by the air of the place, and 
 by contact with the dashing Owenmore; but the stream loses its in- 
 dividuality at the confluence, near M'Donogh's castle, so that the river 
 between that point and Ballysadare is rightly called the Owenmore and not 
 the Unshion, as Dr. M'Parlan and some others would have it. 
 
 The Doctor adds, " The house of Mercury stands in the centre of the 
 demesne ; it sees this river in a variety of pleasing views, and most of the 
 woodlands it pervades. Mr. Cooper is about to modernize the approach ; 
 if judiciously laid out and continued through the Onion woods towards 
 Ballysadare it could be made to exceed anything of the kind in Ireland." 
 These alterations have been effected, and are a great improvement, as 
 they give a magnificent drive from Markrea Castle, through rich and 
 picturesque lands, on to Ballysadare, and, if one desire it, to Sligo.
 
 52 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 air of the place. On the occasion of the second visitation 
 of the calamity, in the year 1849, Collooney enjoyed a 
 similar immunity, though there were several cases in 
 Tubberscanavin and other parts of the neighbourhood. 
 And fever can do no more ill than cholera. At times 
 when the surrounding villages were festering with typhus, 
 Collooney continued as healthy as ever. The sporadic 
 cases that occurred in recent years can be clearly traced 
 to bad lodging ; for it must be admitted that the great 
 drawback about the place is insufficient and insalubrious 
 house accommodation. 
 
 The present writer would much rather praise than blame 
 anything connected with Collooney, but he feels that to be 
 silent on this great glaring defect would be to forget the 
 interests of the honest and industrious poor, as well as the 
 good name of the little town; for the want of decent lodging 
 not only injures such poor by virtually banishing them, but 
 also disgraces Collooney by attracting to it tramps and 
 loafers, who are the reverse of nice as to how or where they 
 herd, and rather affect tumble -down places. 
 
 The name, Collooney, never occurs in its present form 
 in the old Irish or Latin annals of the country. Cuilmailc 
 is the name by which the place is commonly designated in 
 the Four Masters, in Dudley M'Firlis, and even in some 
 annalists who wrote in English, such as O'Flaherty, in his 
 Chorographical description of West Connaught ; but why it 
 was so called is not stated. Cuilmaile may signify the 
 angle of Mael (a man of that name) ; it may mean the 
 angle of the saint or holy person ; or it may signify, and, 
 most probably, does signify, the angle of the whirlpool, in 
 reference to the town's situation at the confluence of the 
 rivers Arrow or Uncion, and the Owenmore. "We have a 
 noted instance of this meaning of maile or mael in the well- 
 known Maelsirom off the coast of Norway. 
 
 We find Kulmunium in O'Sullivan, and Cuilmuine, 
 which is a corruption of Cuilmaile, twice or thrice in the
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARK 53 
 
 Four Masters, and it is evidently from Cuilmuine we 
 have the present word Collooney. In the sixteenth, 
 seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries the place was often 
 styled Cashell, and sometimes Killinbridge, at least in legal 
 or public documents. * 
 
 Nor does the Collooney of the present day occupy the 
 site of the old town. The latter stood between the Owen- 
 more and the Uncion, near M'Donoghs castle, the remains 
 of which form the large mound, that one leaves to the left 
 in passing over the bridge to Union Wood. There is in 
 the Royal Irish Academy the trace of a map, drawn at the 
 close of Elizabeth's reign, or in the beginning of that of 
 James the First, in which "Cowlowney" is marked in the 
 position indicated. There are two other maps in the same 
 repository, in which " Cashell " is given in the place of 
 Collooney ; and in the map of the Down Survey, Cashell 
 lies between "Clonmucdu" and "E-athrippon," the precise 
 spot on which old Collooney lay. At the present day the 
 neighbourhood of M'Donoghs castle is commonly called 
 the " Castle," which is an anglicised form of Cashell, but it 
 may be doubted whether this name comes from the castle 
 mentioned in the Four Masters, as built in 1124, f or 
 from M'Donoghs castle, built in 1408, J or from some 
 
 * Killinbridge is the name given in the Census of 1659 as also in the 
 Hearthmoney Returns of 1662-3. 
 
 t "Three castles were erected by the Connaughtmen the castle of 
 Dun-Leodhar, the castle of the Gaillimh, and the castle of Cuilmaeile." 
 Four Masters, sub anno 1 1 24. 
 
 J In the Annals of Ireland, from the year 1443 to 1468, as translated 
 by Dudley M'Firbis, we read, under the year 1467, that " the castle of 
 Culmaly (called corruptly Cooluny) was taken by Cormac Ballagh 
 M'Donnaghyes sons from the sept of Cormac M'Donnaghy." Irish 
 Archaeological Miscellany, vol. 1, p. 262. The Annals of the Four Masters 
 records the erection of this castle under the year 1408. 
 
 What a pity that the walls of this building do not survive to attest the 
 former importance of Collooney? Two castles were built in this place 
 one by the Irish, before the arrival of the English, the other by the Irish. 
 also, but after the English invasion, and little or none of either now 
 remains ! Much of the castle of 1408 was pulled down and carted away
 
 54 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 other structure older than either of those buildings. It is 
 very probable that the entire district, which has been 
 broken up into the sub-denominations of Cloonmacduff, 
 " Castle," and Collooney, was all comprehended formerly 
 under the name of Cuilmaile. 
 
 The first house that arose in the present Collooney was 
 erected by Baron Collooney for himself, about 200 years 
 ago, on an admirably selected site, adjoining the spot where 
 Mr. George Allen's cottage stands, and where a portion of 
 the baron's mansion is still to be seen. His Lordship had 
 resided previously in M'Donoghs castle, which he was 
 obliged to quit from its ruinous condition ; and it is said 
 that most of the stones that built the new house, were 
 taken from the venerable pile of the M'Donoghs an old 
 trick of the Saxon, to build up his fortune with material 
 appropriated from the Celt. But this is to anticipate, and as 
 it is better to proceed in chronological order, we shall begin 
 with the beginning, separating, however, civil and 
 military from ecclesiastical events, and considering the 
 former in the first place, then the others. 
 
 SECTION II. EARLIER CIVIL AND MILITARY EVENTS. 
 
 THE first allusion to this district in the annals of the 
 country is contained in the work of the Four Masters, 
 under the year of the world 3503, where we read " The 
 
 to build Lord Bellamont's mansion in Collooney ; and though some of the 
 walls were still so high about fifty years ago as to serve for a ball-alley, 
 they also were thrown down, and used as material for the bridge over the 
 Uncion at Union Wood. 
 
 The following extract from Baron Finglas's Breviate of Ireland shows 
 how few were the castles in Ireland before the Anglo-Norman invasion : 
 " Englishmen have grete advantage to get this londe (Ireland) now, 
 which they had not at the conquest ; for at that Tyme, ther was not in 
 all Irelaund out of City's five Castles ne Piles, and now ther be five hun- 
 dreth Castles and Piles." Harris's Hibernica, p. 88.
 
 PARISH OF BALLVSADARE. 
 
 55 
 
 second year of the reign of Eremhon over Ireland, the 
 eruption of the three Unsions of Hy-Oillella," which are 
 certainly the three rivers the Owenmore, the Owenbeg, 
 and the Arrow or Uncion, which unite at Collooney, in 
 their passage to the sea. It is true, John O'Donovan, in 
 his edition of the Four Masters, observes in a note 
 under this year " There is no river bearing the name of 
 Unsion at present in the barony ; " but the eminent topo- 
 grapher was led into this error from want of local 
 knowledge ; for the Arrow is commonly called the 
 Unsinagh or Unsion, by those who dwell on its banks, or 
 in the neighbourhood. 
 
 The situation and surroundings of Collooney fit it for a 
 battle field, and, accordingly, we find it to have been the 
 scene of several hostile engagements. If we assume Cul 
 Maine to be one of its names and we have the high 
 sanction of the late John O'Donovan, and of the first 
 living authority, William M. Hennessy, for so doing we 
 learn from the Chronicon Scotorum, that a conflict took 
 place in Collooney, in the year 673, of which however no 
 details are given, except that " two sons of Maelachdain 
 were slain " in the fight. * 
 
 Under the year 844 we read, in the Annals of the Four 
 Masters, of the "plundering of Cuil-moine by the fleet of 
 the Cailli ; " and it is probable that Collooney is the place 
 here indicated. This is the opinion of John O'Donovan ; 
 and taking the opinion as well founded, Collooney must 
 have been a place of some wealth in the ninth century to 
 thus attract the rapacity of this party of Danes.f 
 
 An important engagement was fought at Collooney 
 (Cuilmaile) or, as the Annals of Loch Ke have it, at the 
 weir of Collooney, (Caraidh- Cuilmaile) in 1291, between 
 Manus O'Connor, King of Connaught, and Cathal 
 
 * Chronicon Scotomm, A.D. 673. 
 
 t O'Donovan' s Annals of four Masters, sub anno 844 (note).
 
 56 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 O'Connor, with English and Irish auxiliaries on each side, 
 in which Manus was, at first, defeated, many of his troops 
 slain with the sword, and many drowned. He escaped 
 with difficulty himself; but, receiving next day reinforce- 
 ments from Roscommon, gave battle again and was 
 victorious. 
 
 Passing over some intermediate occurrences, which are 
 not of much moment or interest, a visit of Hugh O'Donnell 
 to Collooney, in 1526, deserves to be recorded. At this 
 time the O'Donnells claimed and exercised authority over 
 Lower Connaught, as well as over Tirconnell or Donegal. 
 O'Connor Sligo and the M'Donoghs submitted with great 
 reluctance to this rule, and rose up against it as often as 
 opportunity allowed. As Hugh O'Donnell had his hands 
 full in 1526, there was a rising of the O'Connors and 
 M'Donoghs; but the Northern chieftain lost no time in 
 putting down and punishing the insurgents ; and, as soon 
 as he had brought recalcitrants in Donegal and Tyrawley 
 to their senses, hastened to Collooney, at the head of an 
 army. The local chieftains resisted as best they could ; but 
 the Northerners overwhelmed them, destroyed their corn 
 and provisions, imposed hard conditions of peace, and took 
 away hostages to secure the fulfilment of the stipulated 
 terms.* 
 
 There were stirring times in and around Collooney 
 towards the close of the sixteenth century. Sir Richard 
 Bingham, who was made Governor of Connaught in 1584, 
 hearing that two thousand Scotch mercenaries had landed 
 in Inishowen, and had already reached the Erne, on their 
 way to aid the Burkes, hastened by forced marches to 
 Sligo, which he reached on the 27th August, having passed 
 on the way through Eoscommon, Boyle, Ballinafad and 
 Collooney, and left troops in each of these places. Mean- 
 time the Scotch moved cautiously from Bundrowes to 
 
 * Annals of the Four Masters, A.I). 1526.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 57 
 
 Kilronan, where they remained for a fortnight, leaving 
 Bingham uncertain and puzzled as to the route to Mayo 
 which they intended to take, that by Collooney or the one 
 by the Curlews. Learning from spies that the enemy had 
 broken up their camp, and would probably reach Collooney 
 on a day named, Bingham made dispositions to receive 
 them. He divided his troops, stationing part in M'Donoghs 
 castle, to watch the bridge and the Eathrippon road (then 
 a thoroughfare), and took the rest with him to Knock- 
 mullen or Cartron, where there was, at that time, a castle. 
 Here he remained out of doors, and on the alert, till ten 
 o'clock at night, when he and the troops retired to rest. 
 As a storm raged, and torrents of rain had fallen during 
 the day, he concluded that the enemy would not, or, from 
 the nature of the roads, could not, march that night, 
 which was an error quite unworthy of so experienced a 
 commander. Nothing could be more opportune for the 
 Scotch than the storm ; and under shelter of it, if one may 
 so speak, they passed unmolested through the whole line 
 of march, and on arriving at Collooney, found everything 
 so favourable that some hundreds of them had crossed the 
 bridge before intelligence of their presence reached 
 M'Donoghs castle. The troops posted there, made what 
 haste they could to the bridge, and, on arrival, left nothing 
 undone to retrieve their negligence and to stop the enemy. 
 A collision at such a place, between two considerable 
 bodies of troops, would, under any circumstances, be a 
 formidable encounter; but the horror was greatly aggra- 
 vated, as the river over which they fought, and into which 
 some were precipitated from time to time, was swollen and 
 impetuous from the recent rains, and the atmosphere was 
 pitch dark, so as to make it nearly impossible for the 
 combatants to distinguish between friend and foe. The 
 majority of the Scotch had passed to the Leyney side before 
 Bingham came on the scene. He lay in bed when news 
 was brought of the conflict, and in a minute buckled on his
 
 58 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 harness, jumped into the saddle, and was, with his troops, 
 rushing like a whirlwind along the old road leading from 
 Cartron to Collooney.- Unable, from the darkness, to 
 survey the situation, he darted, with characteristic 
 intrepidity, to the spot, which the cries of the combatants, 
 the report of fire arms, and the clash of swords, indicated 
 as the very middle of the melee. He came, however, too 
 late to turn the tide of victory, and in a short time the 
 Highlanders were safe on the north side of the river, 
 large numbers of them having passed over by the ford at 
 Knockbeg. 
 
 It was a disgrace to Bingham to leave so important a 
 point as the ford unguarded, and to save him from the 
 blame so richly deserved, friends gave out everywhere, and 
 particularly in England, that this ford was unknown till 
 discovered by the Scotch that night.* Sir Richard marched 
 
 * The following is Sir Henry Docwra's relation of those events : "Att 
 the Length, although Sir Richard kept the Passage straightlye upon the 
 Scotch (ffor the watchinge of which he was driven to divide his companies) 
 yett in an exceedinge ffowle Tempestuous and darke night, they deceyved 
 him ; flfor after he had Watched and waighted for their cominge till Ten 
 of the Clocke at night (hearinge before night that they had removed 
 their campe, and weare eyther goeinge back agayne, or comeinge towards 
 him, he left to watche abroade any longer, and Bestowed himselfe 
 and his companyes in places of succoure, which he did supposeinge thatt 
 by reason of the abundance of raigne that ffell that eveninge, their longe 
 Absence tyll that time of the night, and the words of Occonnor Sligo, 
 which assured him that the said Scotts had encamped themselves agayne 
 ffor that night. But shortly after this, when the Scotts, by reason of 
 some espyalls of their owne, or some Trayterous intelligence, out of the 
 Governor's campe, had understandinge that Sir Richard and his 
 companye had reposed themselves to rest ; stale Towards the bridge of 
 Kilnowney, neare to which at a Castell nott far of, Sir Richard ffor the 
 defence thereof had placed his ffootmen and ffiftie Irishe horsemen, and soe 
 beinge come noislye to the Bridge Three or iiiier Hundred of them gote 
 over the same, beffore the Englishe Horsemen came at them, whoe as 
 soone as they came in, Beate the Scotts, and wanne the Bridge ; But the 
 Irishe Horsemen did noe servyce at all, when the Allarum was Sir 
 Richard himselfe was at a place called Knockmilleyn, about a Myle nrom 
 the Bridge, beinge also another Passadge where it was thought the Scotts 
 would have sooner passed over than at the Bridge. At this place the
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSA.DARE. 59 
 
 after the enemy for a day, but took good care to avoid a 
 collision, and to keep a safe distance in the rear ; and, 
 when he learned that they had reached Ardnaree, turned 
 hack, hoiling over with rage and disappointment, hut 
 resolved to strike a second blow on some other spot, that 
 might prove more propitious than Collooney ever showed 
 itself to the foreigner. 
 
 SECTION in. O'DONNELL AND O'RORKE. 
 
 FIFTEEN years later, Collooney was the centre of 
 important events. At that time M'Donoghs castle obeyed 
 the Queen. * From hatred of O'Donnell, rather than 
 from any preference for the foreigner, O'Connor Sligo took 
 the side of the Queen ; and as the M'Donoghs, , the 
 immediate owners and occupiers of the fortress, 
 acknowledged O'Connor as Lord Paramount, they held 
 the castle for him and his friends. That chief had 
 returned about this time from England, where he had kept 
 hanging about the court for more than a year, urging 
 sundry charges against O'Donnell, and promoting selfish 
 objects at the expense of the country's interests. English 
 statesmen, glad to find so useful an instrument ready to 
 hand, sent him back to sow disunion among Irishmen, 
 and to withdraw as many of them as possible from the 
 
 Bridge were the only straight and Passadge that Sir Richard Knew the 
 Scottes could ffind to pass over ; but they contrarelye waded over at a 
 ffourde not ffar from the Bridge, never before knowne by any of the 
 countrye that had or would conffesse the same to the Englishe. Sir 
 Richard and the Horsemen, uppon the Allarum, hasted with great speeds 
 to the Bridge, and roade over the same without damage, ffor the night 
 was exceedinge darke and the bullets and Arrowes flew to and froe ; yet 
 he charged the Scotts and Kylled and drowned about Ixtie or Itie of 
 them." Miscellany of the Celtic Society, 1849, p. 206. 
 
 * In the Report, presented by the Council of Ireland, to the Earl of 
 Essex, in 1599, it is said : " In the county of Sligo, only the castle of 
 Calony held for the Queen." Moryson's History, vol. i, p. 76.
 
 60 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 national cause. Coming over from England in the suite 
 of the Earl of Essex, O'Connor proceeded to Connaught ; 
 and, having visited at Athlone Sir Conyers Clifford, the 
 Governor of the province, advanced by rapid journeys to 
 Collooney, reaching it in the month of July. O'Donnell 
 no sooner heard of O'Connor's arrival in the castle than 
 he ordered troops to surround it, and as the place was too 
 strong to be taken by a coup de main he laid regular siege 
 to it. 
 
 Intelligence of the siege and of the critical position of 
 O'Connor was soon conveyed to Essex, who decided that 
 arms, ammunition, and provisions, should be conveyed by 
 sea from Galway to Sligo, under the command of Theobald 
 na Long Burke, and that Sir Conyers Clifford should 
 proceed by land with a large body of troops to the 
 deliverance of O'Connor. 
 
 Meantime O'Donnell and his sturdy ally, Bryan Oge 
 O'Rorke, were not idle. They placed troops in Sligo to 
 receive Theobald na Long ; they left a sufficient force in 
 Collooney to guard the castle and carry on the siege ; and 
 instead of waiting the arrival of Clifford, they proceeded 
 themselves to the Curlews to be beforehand in offering the 
 compliments of the occasion. Clifford reached Boyle on 
 the 15th of August, the Feast of the Assumption, and 
 hearing that the Curlews were unguarded, resolved to pass 
 them that very day. But Red Hugh and Bryan Oge 
 were no such novices in the art of war as to leave the 
 passage open to the enemy. On the contrary, they added 
 great artificial obstacles to the natural difficulties of the 
 place by felling trees and disposing of them in such a way 
 along the pass, as to make it impracticable to the English 
 cavalry. If this were the occasion it would be interesting 
 to dwell on the stirring speech addressed, before the battle, 
 by Red Hugh to his people, equal almost to anything we 
 find in Thucydides or Livy on the solemn spectacle pre- 
 sented by the whole army hearing Mass and receiving
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 61 
 
 Sacraments together on the critical incidents of the 
 contest on the spirit with which Bryan Oge O'Rorke, to 
 avenge the recent murder of his father* in London by 
 Elizabeth, dashed into the thick of the English ranks on 
 the self-sacrificing heroism of Sir Conyers Clifford, prefer- 
 ring death to the dishonour of turning the back on the foe; 
 but, in an account of Collooney, it would be out of place to 
 enter at length into the details of this battle ; and it will be 
 sufficient, under the circumstances, to add that the English 
 were not only defeated but disgraced. Sir Conyers, who 
 was a brave as well as an honourable man, was so enraged 
 by the cowardice of his followers, that, though officers tried 
 to force him off the ground, he tore away, and threw him- 
 self on the swords of the enemy rather than survive so 
 inglorious a day. There was great jubilee that night in 
 Collooney, for the inhabitants rejoiced exceedingly that the 
 reproach of disaffection to country was taken away from 
 among them, and that their town had proved once more 
 disastrous to the aims and interests of the foreigner.! 
 
 SECTION IV. 1641 AND 1691. 
 
 IN the upheaving of 1641, Collooney was tranquil. Bryan 
 M'Donogh of the castle, and Patrick Plunket of Markrea 
 or Rathgran, took a prominent part in promoting the 
 movement, but as there was no opposition any nearer than 
 
 *When O'Donnell urged O'Eorke to pursue O'Connor Don after the 
 battle, "No," exclaimed the patriotic Bryan Oge, "I have no enemy 
 and I never will, but those Saxons, who were the murderers of my 
 father." Memoirs of Charles O'Connor, etc., p. 118. 
 
 f The " conqueror (,0'Donnell) conveyed O'Connor Don in triumph to 
 Coloony, where O'Connor Sligo was besieged, and sent Clifford's head 
 into the castle with a message, that if Coloony was not immediately 
 surrendered, O'Connor Don's head should be sent in likewise. The castle 
 of Coloony was, therefore, surrendered." Memoirs of Charles O'Connor, 
 etc., p. 119.
 
 62 PARISH OF BALLYSADA11E. 
 
 Sligo, on the one side, or Templehouse on the other, the 
 immediate neighbourhood was exempt at least from 
 active military operations, and enjoyed comparative quiet. 
 Bryan M'Donogh and Patrick Plunket received captain's 
 commissions from the government of the confederation, 
 and fought bravely in the cause of the Confederates.* 
 
 Poor M'Donogh lost his life in the streets of Manor- 
 hamilton, while leading on Collooney men to an attack on 
 Sir Frederick Hamilton's castle. Both paid dearly for 
 devotion to the national cause; for it brought ruin on their 
 posterity as well as on themselves ; and since that time no 
 M'Donogh or Plunket has ruled the picturesque slopes of 
 Collooney, or the brown plains of Markrea. Richard 
 Coote, third son of Sir Charles Coote, the elder, obtained 
 the inheritance of the heirs of Bryan M'Donogh, and when 
 raised to the Peerage in 1660, took the title of Baron 
 Collooney. Markrea fell into the hands of Edward Cooper, 
 a cornet in Sir Charles Coote's regiment of dragoons, and 
 ancestor to the Coopers of Markrea Castle. 
 
 It is well known that before the country was parcelled 
 out to Cromwell's soldiers and to the adventurers, courts 
 of Inquisition were held to collect evidence against the old 
 proprietors. Of course deponents in abundance were 
 forthcoming to prove all that was wanted. Satan was not 
 more ready to put in an appearance against Job than were 
 men and women, without number, to bear any testimony 
 that was needed ; but when we bear in mind that much of 
 
 * In the 14th year of James I, "Bryan M'Donogh of Coolevoney," 
 received a grant of lands from that monarch, and by this grant, " All the 
 lands of Coolevoney are created the manor of Coolevoney, with 200 acres 
 in demesne ; power is given to create tenures, to hold courts leet and 
 baron ; to have free warren and park ; to enjoy all waifs and strays ; to 
 hold a Wednesday market at Coolevoney,. and a fair there on St. James's 
 day, and the day after, unless such days occur on Saturday and Sunday, 
 in which case the fair is to be held on the Monday and Tuesday following, 
 with a court of pie powder and the usual tolls." Patent Roll, James I, 
 14
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 63 
 
 this evidence was unsworn ; that it came from fierce, 
 religious, political, and private enemies ; that it was often 
 the mere echo of hearsay and idle rumour; that it was 
 taken frequently by commissioners who had themselves 
 designs on the lands in question ; that it was given hehind 
 the backs of the accused, when they were dead, or out of 
 the country, or in prison ; and that the Government of the 
 day desired above all things to get rid of the old pro- 
 prietors, we shall be prepared to find, what is certainly the 
 case, that the depositions taken at the time throughout 
 Ireland contain more falsehoods and perjuries than can be 
 found in the records of any other proceedings that ever 
 took place on this earth. Witnesses in plenty offered 
 themselves in the County Sligo to swear away the pro- 
 perties of the O'Connors, O'Haras, O'Eorkes, M'Donoghs, 
 and other chiefs ; but as the narrative regards Collooney it 
 will be enough at present to glance at the evidence against 
 M'Donogh and Plunket. Jane Stewart, wife of Thomas 
 Stewart, merchant of Sligo, deposed before Henry Jones 
 and Henry Brereton that " among those who robbed and 
 despoiled herself and her husband of their 'household 
 goods, wares, merchandize, specialities, cattle, horses, plate, 
 money, and other goods and chattels,' was Captain Patrick 
 Plunket, near Killooney ; a Justice of the Peace." 
 Edward Braxton, of Sligo, testified before the same com- 
 missioners that "Sligo was taken in November, 1641, by 
 Captain Bryan M'Donogh and Captain Patrick Plunket." 
 Hugh Gaffney deposed, before Eichard Coote that " when 
 Patrick Plunket was asked to escort a party of English to 
 Boyle, he replied, 'I will escort them to the gallows/" 
 These depositions cleared Collooney and Markrea for 
 Eichard Coote and Edward Cooper. Nor were Lord 
 Collooney and Cornet Cooper the only new proprietors in 
 the parish at the time. Indeed, the change of ownership 
 that took place at this period was so sweeping as to make 
 the term Plantation-parish, which is sometimes given to it,
 
 64 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 an appropriate one for Ballysadare.* "We see this by com- 
 paring the list of old proprietors with that of the new, as 
 they are both given in the Book of Distributions belonging 
 to the Down Survey. f The following is the former : 
 
 Kean O'Hara, Irish Protestant. 
 
 Edward Crofton, English Protestant. 
 
 The Bishop of Achonry. 
 
 Pat French, Irish Papist. 
 
 Errill O'Hara, Irish Papist. 
 
 John Bourke, Protestant. 
 
 Heirs of Bryne M'Donogh, Irish Papists. 
 
 Jasper Fallon, Irish Papist. 
 
 Patrick Plunket, Irish Papist. 
 
 Patrick French, Irish Papist. 
 
 O'Connor Sligo, Irish Papist. 
 
 Daniel M'Cahelroy, Irish Papist. 
 
 Dominick Martin, Irish Papist. 
 
 George Redcliffe, religion not given. 
 And the names on the second list are : 
 
 Sir Edward Crofton, Protestant. 
 
 Lord Collooney, Protestant. $ 
 
 * Total of forfeited land in Leyney, part of Ballysadare parish, 
 2213A. IK. SP M whereof bishop's land, 1358A. IR. 24p. Down Survey Map, 
 by William Morgan, 1657. 
 
 Total of forfeited land in Tirerrill, part of Ballysadare parish, 
 3057A. OR. OP. The total of forfeited land, in both parts of parish, 
 5270A. lu. 8p. 
 
 f " Connaught, though held by men of ancient English descent, under 
 patents from Queen Elizabeth and King James, had scarcely any English 
 Protestants. In Sligo, there were not above one hundred and forty 
 altogether, about as many in Mayo and Roscommon, and in Galway, of 
 Protestants of estate and influence, there were not one thousand." JOHN 
 P. PRENDERGAST in Kilkenny Journal, v. i, p. 398 ; giving for authority 
 Carte's Ormond, v. i, p. 212. Carte, however, in the passage referred to, 
 sets down the number of Protestants in Roscommon as about a thousand, 
 or " a like number to that of Galway." 
 
 J The grant to Richard Baron of Collooney, under the Acts of Settle- 
 ment and Explanation, is dated 8th August, eighteenth year of Charles II, 
 and was inrolled 21st January, 1666. The elder Sir Charles Coote was
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 65 
 
 Kean O'Hara, Protestant. 
 
 Edward Cooper, Protestant. 
 
 John Bourke, Protestant. 
 
 John Boswell, Mortgagee, Protestant. 
 The new settlers lived tranquil and secure on their 
 estates till the year 1688, when they felt, or affected to 
 feel, alarm at the signs of the times. The Protestants of 
 the North had just formed County Associations for self- 
 defence, as they alleged, and for " securing the Protestant 
 religion, their lives, liberties, properties, and the peace of 
 the kingdom, disturbed by Popish and illegal counsellors 
 and their abettors ; " and the Protestants of the County 
 Sligo inaugurated a similar association on the 4th January, 
 1688, under the command of Lord Kingston and Captain 
 Chidley Coote. Lord Bellamont and Mr. Arthur Cooper, 
 son of the cornet, were leading members of this body, and 
 formed garrisons, the former at his mansion of Collooney, 
 and the latter at his castle of Markrea.* This association 
 rendered good service to William while it lasted, but it 
 seems to have been virtually broken up in April, 1689, 
 when Kingston, by command of Colonel Lundy, of Deny 
 notoriety, led his associates from Sligo to Ballyshannon, 
 and, a few days later, despatched them to Enniskillen, under 
 Colonel Lloyd, where they formed a most important element 
 in the famous garrison of that place. 
 
 appointed Vice-president of Connaught in May the 17th, 1620. In 1645, 
 May 12th, Sir Charles Coote, the younger, was appointed President of 
 Connaught. The same was appointed President for life, on March 28, 
 1661, under the title of Charles Earl of Mountrath. 
 
 * " Garrisons were put into New-Town and Manor Hamilton to" keep 
 correspondence with Inniskillen, my Lord Bellimont's house at Killoona, 
 Dr. Leslie's, and Mr. Cooper's at Mercury, was the frontier garrisons 
 toward the Boyle and Ballymoat, to prevent the incursions of the Irish 
 from those parts." Statement of Lord Kingston in M'Kenzie's 'JSieye of 
 Derry, page 16. 
 
 Lord Kingston was the last Governor of Connaught. The patent 
 appointing him ia dated May the 5th, 1666. 
 
 F
 
 66 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Nothing worthy of mention occurred in the locality till 
 September, 1691 ; but before passing on to that date it may 
 be stated that, in the Act of Attainder, passed in the 
 Parliament which James II held at Dublin in 1689, the 
 names of Richard Coote, baron of Collooney ; Arthur 
 Cooper, Markrea, gent. ; Richard Cooper, Markrea, gent. ; 
 Stephen Wagget, of Cooluny, yeoman ; Thomas Crocar, of 
 Cooluny, yeoman ; James Nipper, of Tubberaghoirn, gent. ; 
 and Thomas Cashoe, of Ballysadare, gent., are on the list 
 of the attainted.* 
 
 * As it "will be interesting to many to see s a full list of all those 
 belonging to the county Sligo who were attainted at this time, the names 
 are here copied from the Act of Attainder : " Arthur Cooper of Markrea, 
 gent. ; Eichard Cooper, of the same, gent. ; William Ormsby, of Court, 
 gent. ; Francis King, of Ballysadare, gent. ; Charles Dodd, of Tyrillel, 
 gent. ; Robert Foliot, of Doonderry, gent. ; Henry Hughs, and Thomas 
 Hughs, of Crahane, gent. ; W. Harlowe, of Rathmullen ; Thomas Hart, 
 of Ballinspor ; George Cooper, of Tyrillel, gent. ; Morgan Hart, of 
 Ballinspor, gent. ; Robert Hart, of the same, gent. ; James Nipper, of 
 Tobberaghoirne, gent. ; Richard Brookes, of Tullybeg, gent. ; Doctor 
 John Lesley, of Ballytogher, clerk; Stephen Ormsby, of Castlelagh- 
 daregin, gent. ; Roger Smith, of Knocknasamer, gent. ; Henry Nickleson, 
 of Ballenegergine, gent. ; Roger Nickleson, of the same, gent. ; Adam 
 Ormsby, of Comine, gent. ; Francis Ormsby, of Carnecrow, gent. ; 
 Richard Smith, of Coolany, gent. ; Francis Gore, and William Gore, of 
 Sligo, gent.; Coote Ormsby, of Sligo, clerk; Pearce Geating, of the same, 
 esq. ; Philip Cox, of the same, gent. ; Humphrey Booth, of the same, 
 esq. ; Humphrey Booth, junr., of the same, gent.; Antony Colly, of 
 Moyhgara, gent. ; Richard Phillips, of Sligo, gent. ; James Anthony 
 Ely Soder, of Grange, gent. ; Jeremy Jones, of Ardnagless, esq. ; Lewis 
 Jones, of the same, esq. ; John Urwing, of Tenregoe, gent. ; Alexander 
 Urwing, of the same, gent. ; Thomas Griffith, of Bellingcharra, esq. ; 
 Thomas Griffith, junr., of the same, gent.; William Griffith, of Sligo, 
 gent. ; Richard Nesson, of Grange, gent. ; Ensign William Story, of 
 Rosse ; Thomas Osborne, near Sligo, gent. ; Henry Osborne, of the same, 
 gent. ; Henry Griffin, of Sligo, gent. ; William Nickleson, of Ardtar- 
 maine, gent. ; Charles Nickleson, of Lerrass, gent. ; Edward Hunter, of 
 Ballyelly, gent. ; Richard Wood, of Lacca, esq. ; Edward Wood, of 
 Court, esq. ; Stephen Wagget, of Cooluny, yeoman ; Thomas Crocar, of 
 the same, yeoman ; Samuel Nickleson, of Castle Canure, gent. ; Roger 
 Walton, of the same, tanner; Michael Jones, of Leghane, clerk; 
 William Mortimer, of Tyrillel, gent. ; William Mortimer, junr., of the
 
 PARISH OF BALLTSADARE. 67 
 
 On the 5th of September, 1691, an encounter took place 
 at Collooney between the Williamites and the Jacobites, 
 in which, as always happens in that place, the unpopular 
 side came to the wall. At this date Sligo had been 
 invested for some time by the partizans of the Prince of 
 Orange, and as his friends desired to capture the town 
 before the winter, they sent Sir Albert Conyngham from 
 Galway to co-operate with Mitchelburn, who conducted 
 the siege. Sir Albert was accompanied from Galway by 
 the mysterious Balldearg O'Donnell. Numbers of Ball- 
 dearg's men abandoned him on the road, and joined 
 Colonel Con O'Rorke, who had belonged to the division of 
 O'Donnell, and who not only left when that traitor 
 changed sides, but also used every effort to induce others 
 to follow his own patriotic example. Sir Albert reached 
 Collooney on the 30th of August, being unaccompanied by 
 O'Donnell, who, on the march, had struck off in the 
 direction of Tireragh, to secure cattle for the subsistence of 
 the troops. This we learn from the following interesting 
 letter of Sir Albert's, which throws light on the state of 
 things in Collooney and Sligo, and which is now published 
 for the first time : 
 
 From SIR ALBERT CONYNGHAM to BALLASIS, Galway. 
 
 " Culowny, 1st Sept., 1691. 
 
 " O'Donnell's regiment which was detached to stop provisions, has 
 not yet joined my dragoons, which occasions so long halt here. Other 
 we had been nearer Sligo by this time. The morrow, we expect they 
 will join us, two miles nearer Sligo. And O'Donnell and we will march 
 
 to a place, where we can encamp, with as much security as here 
 
 If there were English money to give deserters, the garrisson of Sligo 
 would be weakened soon. They are fond of silver rather than gould ; for 
 they believe all gould to be counterfeit, as do the country people here, 
 and will sell nothing for guineas. There are 16 guns mounted in the fort 
 
 same, gent. ; Thomas Cashoe of Ballysadarra, gent. ; Thomas Burne, of 
 Castle Canure, tanner ; Arthur Gore, of Sligo, gent. ; John Palmer, of 
 Knockmullin, gent. ; and Thomas Ormsby, of Comin, gent. King's 
 State of the Protestants of Ireland. Appendix, p. 16.
 
 68 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 of Sligo, and there are between 40 and 50 barrels of gunpowder and only 
 13 barrells of musket ball, tho' the gunner, who deserted, says they have 
 good store of cannon ball." 
 
 "A. CONYNGHAM."* 
 
 Such, was the state of affairs in Collooney on the 4th 
 September. Sir Teague O'Regan, and Colonel Edward 
 Scott, the first and second in command at Sligo, were very 
 efficient officers, and knew well how matters stood in the 
 neighbourhood. They had heard that Sir Albert 
 Conyngham and Balldearg had come to attack Sligo; and 
 learning, perhaps from O'Donnell himself, the double dyed 
 traitor, that he had separated, for the moment, from 
 Conyngham, they resolved to strike a blow before the 
 two commanders could combine their forces. A sortie en 
 force was organized that night in Sligo, and before 
 daybreak on the morning of the 5th seven hundred picked 
 men were on their way to Collooney, under the command 
 of Lieutenant- Col on el Scott ; and, almost before their 
 approach was noticed they had advanced, under cover of a 
 friendly fog, into the middle of Sir Albert's tents, which 
 lay here and there in all directions between the two 
 Knockbegs. There was little or no organized resistance. 
 Sir Albert was asleep in his tent when the Irish arrived ; 
 and having got out he was hindered, partly by the con- 
 fusion that prevailed, and partly by the ungovernable 
 fury of his own horse, from going into the saddle. While 
 trying to mount, he was recognized by an Irish halberdier, 
 who at once transpierced him, on a spot still pointed 
 out, observing when he made the thrust, "Halbert is 
 your name, and by a halbert you shall die." After 
 Conyngham's fall it was a regular suave qui pent with the 
 dragoons. In the effort to save life they abandoned 
 everything tents, arms, and ammunition, to the enemy. 
 The fugitives made what haste they could to Boyle ; and 
 
 * Clarke's Correspondence, being a manuscript preserved in the library 
 of Trinity College, Dublin.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 6& 
 
 the following official letter or report, written by an officer 
 from that town on the evening of the misfortune, gives a 
 vivid idea of what happened, and of the demoralization that 
 ensued : 
 
 From H. GEORGES to Colonel LLOYD, Governor of Athlone. 
 
 " Boyle, Sept. 5. 
 
 " We have been attackt at Killoon by a strong party of firelocks, 
 and been unfortunately taken at a great disadvantage, for in the morning 
 was so great a ffog that they were amongst our tents before we were any 
 way prepared ; and it being a country full of ditches and bogs, ojir men, 
 when mounted, could do no good, so that we were forced to retreate to 
 this place and leave all our tents and all our other luggage behind, and 
 what was our greatest loss, our colonel, poor Sir Albert, as he was 
 mounting, his horse was unruly and broke away, and in spite of what we 
 could doe was made prisoner, and was carried off. We are in an ill case 
 as you can imagine, for our men have not a tent or cloak amongst them, 
 and neiter they nor us anything but what is on our backs, and here we 
 are surrounded and know not what to doe till we hear from you, 
 " I am, dear Colonel, yours, 
 
 " H. GEORGES." 
 
 Sir Albert was buried in the old church at Mr. Sims' 
 mills, which was used at the time of the affair at Knockbeg 
 as a place of Protestant worship. His son, Major-General 
 Henry Conyngham, erected over him, a handsome mural 
 monument of marble, which was transferred afterwards to 
 the new Protestant church, and which still forms a 
 conspicuous object in that edifice. It bears the following 
 inscription : 
 
 M. S. 
 Alberti Conyngham equitis aurati, 
 
 Armamentarii regii, 
 
 Sub montis Alexandrini comite prsefecti, 
 
 Vixerat aurei ingenii et industriae agilis 
 
 Probitatis eximise, urbanitatis summas, 
 
 Et inter generosos, non togatos, 
 
 Eruditionis & doctrine plus quam vulgaris, 
 
 In gloriosa rerum conversione sub invictissimo Arau- 
 
 sienense,
 
 70 PARISH OF BALL1SADARE. 
 
 Religionis afflictae et libertatis casum miseratus, 
 
 Propriis sumptibus dimacharum legionem conscripsit, 
 
 Quot, tribuntis militum, pericula fortiter adivit 
 
 Quam improvisa morte quam patria, 
 
 Tribulibus et bonis omnibus luctuosa oppetivit 
 
 Hand te viator, nee seram posteritatam latere potest 
 
 Pro patria cecidit in villa hujus vicina, 
 
 5. die Septembris, A.D. 1691, 
 
 Monumentum hoc posuit Henric Conyngham, 
 
 Legionarcha, Major General, maximus ejus natus, 
 
 Nunc unicus films. 
 
 Idem Henricus, Alberti films, 
 
 Sereniss. Anna3 Angliaa Reginse copiarum in 
 
 Hispanias missarum praefectus sub Petriburgensi 
 
 Comite duce, cum parva manu, nimirum 1150, Britan- 
 
 norum et Belgarum, 5000 Gallorum, post grave 
 
 prselium, in fugam vertit prope Leridam in 
 
 Aragoniae Regno : 
 
 Ille in glorioso isto prselio vulner 
 
 ratus mortem obiit postriduo 
 
 Nempe 10. die Januarii, 
 
 Anno Dom. 1705-6. 
 
 The reader has now under the eye a faithful narrative of 
 what happened at Collooney in 1691, as drawn from the 
 most authentic sources ; but to give an idea of how history 
 is sometimes written, it may not be amiss to mention the 
 version of the transaction which we find in Lodge and 
 Archdall, writers who are regarded as superior authorities 
 on the subjects of which they treat. "At the siege of 
 Limerick," they write, " Sir Albert was ordered with his 
 men, to join the forces intended for the reduction of Sligo ; 
 but staying in the camp to receive some necessary orders, 
 he followed, accompanied only with ten men as a guard, 
 crossed the Shannon at Athlone, and marching through the 
 mountainy country near Boyle, in a thick fog he mistook 
 his way and, near Coloony, in County of Sligo, fell into the
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 71 
 
 hands of 200 or 300 Rapparees, who immediately attacked 
 them. Sir Albert made a resolute defence, and killed 25 
 of the banditti ; but being at length overpowered by 
 numbers, he and his men fell a sacrifice to these lawless 
 insurgents, within the hearing of Balderog O'Donnell, who 
 came up with his party. He however arrived too late to 
 rescue a brave and worthy officer." There is hardly one 
 of the many assertions crowded into this paragraph that 
 must not have been a deliberate falsehood. It was not 
 from Limerick Sir Albert started, but from Castlebar ; he 
 did not cross the Shannon at Athlone or elsewhere ; he did 
 not march near the mountains any more than the plains of 
 Boyle ; instead of mistaking the way in a fog he lay com- 
 posedly in his tent, surrounded by dragoons ; and as to 
 the twenty five banditti that the colonel killed in his 
 resolute defence, they were about as real as the man in the 
 moon. 
 
 The Cootes abandoned Collooney in 1727. On leaving 
 they sold Collooney, alias Cashel, and several other deno- 
 minations of land in the County Sligo to Joshua Cooper of 
 Markrea. The indenture of sale bears date the 5th of 
 June, 1727, and is quadripartite : between Earl Bella- 
 mont, first part ; Reverend John Polling, D.D., one of his 
 Majesty's Canons of Windsor, second part ; Arthur French, 
 Dublin, third part; and Joshua Cooper, Marcra, fourth 
 part. The purchase-money was 16,945 5s. 6d. From 
 that time the Coopers have owned all Collooney, with the 
 exception of the spot on which the Methodist chapel now 
 stands, which was sold as a barrack plot on the 21st of 
 March, 1729, for 60, by an indenture between Lord 
 Bellamont and Joshua Cooper, on one part, and the trus- 
 tees of barracks, on the other part. The Government sold 
 this plot by auction some years ago, when it was secured, 
 very spiritedly, for his co-religionists, by Alderman 
 Williams of Sligo.
 
 72 PARISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 
 
 SECTION V. BATTLE OF CARRICKNAGAT. 
 
 NOTHING material happened in or near Collooney from 
 1727 till the 5th of September, 1798, when the battle of 
 Collooney, or, as it is locally called, the battle of Carrick- 
 nagat, was fought between the French and British. Three 
 French frigates, containing one thousand and twenty 
 troops cast anchor in the bay of Killala, on Wednesday 
 the 22nd of August ; and, on the evening of the same day, 
 a portion of this force disembarked and took possession of 
 the town, after some opposition on the part of its little 
 garrison. 
 
 After having remained in the West longer, perhaps, than 
 he ought, Humbert set out from Castlebar early on the 
 morning of the 4th of September, at the head of his army, 
 having sent orders to the garrisons of Ballina and Killala 
 to join the troops on the march. About eleven o'clock on 
 the morning of the 5th the vanguard reached Collooney, 
 preceded by two equestrian figures that attracted the 
 attention of the spectators, and contrasted strongly with 
 each other. One was a dejected old man, who seemed 
 quite indifferent to the circumstances in which he was 
 placed, and startled those near, by exclaiming, from time 
 to time, " My son ! " The horse he rode was a contempti- 
 ble nag, with mane and tail cropped to the skin ; a wad of 
 straw served for a saddle ; and the bridle was a straw rope 
 tied grotesquely round the animal's head. The rider of 
 this jade was Mr. Knott of the Sligo yeomen, and his 
 lamentation was for a son, whom he had just seen slain in 
 Tubbercurry. The two Knotts, father and son, were toge- 
 ther in the street, when a messenger or pioneer of the 
 French came suddenly into the town, but the stranger had 
 scarcely appeared when he was shot dead by the younger 
 Knott. The youth soon paid the penalty of this forward-
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 73 
 
 ness, being shot in retaliation on the instant. And the 
 father, for the part he had, or was supposed to have had, 
 in the son's act, was treated with great indignity, and 
 paraded through the country in the way described : a pro- 
 ceeding which redounds little to the credit of the French. 
 
 Lieutenant Knott's travelling" companion was a French 
 amazon, armed cap-a-pie, and seated on a magnificent and 
 superbly caparisoned charger. Two richly-mounted pistols 
 shone in the housing of her saddle ; in her hand she car- 
 ried a glittering sword, which she brandished from time to 
 time ; and from under her helmet streamed over her 
 shoulders, down to the horse's back, a profusion of jet black 
 hair, that excited the wonder of the spectators, and gave 
 some a superstitious idea of her prowess. Such a sight, 
 and the song sung by the Irish recruits, could not fail to 
 impress the imagination : 
 
 " Erin's sons, be not faint-hearted, 
 Welcome, sing, then, Ca, Ira, 
 From Killala we are marching 
 To the tune of Vive la. 
 
 Vive la, united heroes, 
 
 Triumphant always may we be, 
 
 Vive la, our gallant brethren, 
 
 They are come to set us free.* 
 
 When the head of the French column had crossed the 
 bridge of Collooney the general ordered a halt for break- 
 fast. The word was at once passed along the line, which 
 stretched several miles back ; and the soldiers instantly 
 quitted the ranks, stacked arms, kindled fires on the road 
 and in the adjoining fields, and, in a few minutes, were as 
 engrossed in making soups, roasting fowls, and dressing 
 vegetables, as if cooking formed the chief business of their 
 lives. 
 
 Meantime a movement was in progress on the road 
 
 * Sir Eichard Musgrave's Rebellions in Ireland. Second Edition. 
 Appendix, p. 76.
 
 74 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 below Ballysadare, which was destined to spoil their meal 
 on the French. Colonel Yereker, of the Limerick militia, 
 was in garrison with his regiment in Sligo, and hearing 
 that the French were coming that way, resolved, like a 
 brave and able man as he was, to go out and meet them. 
 Having set himself at the head of about three hundred of 
 the Limerick City militia, a troop of the' 24th Light Dra- 
 goons, twenty of the Essex Fencibles, and a number not 
 specified of mounted yeomen and yeomen infantry, he was 
 already in full march when the French began to prepare 
 their refreshments. It was at Carricknagat the Colonel 
 resolved to make a stand. 
 
 Having reached the ground Yereker despatched one 
 hundred men under Major Ormsby to occupy the slopes to 
 the right. The dragoons he stationed on the public road, 
 and, behind them, but much nearer to Ballysadare. the 
 cavalry yeomen. The main body of troops he disposed 
 very skilfully, so as to have them covered by the inequali- 
 ties of the ground, and by a high stone wall, that ran at 
 right angles from the road to the river. One of the two 
 cannon brought from Sligo was placed near the river, and 
 the other on a small hill to the west, in a position to com- 
 mand the whole line of road to Collooney. 
 
 If the road lay in 1798 where it lies now, and if the 
 stone and mortar walls, some of them of formidable height 
 and strength, that at present cut up and intersect the place 
 in all directions, had then existed, it would have taxed the 
 French to the utmost to capture the position of their anta- 
 gonists. 
 
 It was Yereker that began the battle. That able officer 
 seems to have completed arrangements before the enemy 
 was aware of his presence. A man named Michael More 
 Gildea, an inhabitant of Coney, happened that day to be 
 on the Ox Mountains, and descrying, on the Sligo road, 
 the glittering bayonets of Yereker' s troops, hastened to 
 Collooney to inform Humbert of the danger ; and the story
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADAK.E. 75 
 
 runs, that Gildea was still talking to the General when the 
 same news was announced by a discharge of Yereker's 
 cannon, which was near doing great damage, as the balls 
 fell on a spot in Rinn where several groups of the French 
 were sitting about engaged in breakfast. The alarm was 
 sounded ; and French and auxiliaries came trooping round 
 their commanders, from Rinn, from Collooney, from the 
 " Castle," where some had gone to eat apples in the 
 orchards, all quite resolved to punish the enemy for taking 
 them so unceremoniously from breakfast. 
 
 At first both sides observed great caution, as each over- 
 estimated the numbers of the opposing force ; Humbert 
 thinking he had to do with the army of Lake ; Vereker 
 supposing that the entire French force was on the field. 
 The British kept strictly on the defensive, but used their 
 muskets and cannon very vigorously. It was remarked, 
 that the cannon on the hill, which was managed by a 
 gunner named "Whitters, was handled very effectively, and 
 that it did great harm to the French. Humbert, in 
 accordance with the advice of persons acquainted with the 
 locality, ordered a column of troops to cross the river at 
 Knockbeg ; to proceed through Ardcotton to Beal Ban, 
 near the summit of the mountain ; and, swooping down, 
 to take the enemy in flank. A second column he moved 
 forward by the left edge of the battle field, bidding them 
 advance slowly, so as to give time to the others to reach 
 the mountain, and co-operate in the attack. This body 
 proceeded very slowly, not only because such was their 
 orders, but also to avoid Whitter's cannon, which proved 
 very destructive when they exposed themselves. 
 
 It soon appeared to be a matter of importance to silence 
 this gun, and with that object several Frenchmen took 
 deliberate aim at Whitters, but without hitting, or even 
 disconcerting the formidable gunner. Under those circum- 
 stances Humbert's aide-de-camp, Bartholomew Teeling,
 
 76 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 performed a feat unsurpassed for its daring nature, and 
 for the heroism with which it was accomplished. 
 
 Little more than twenty years of age, tall, handsome 
 a very Mars in military bearing Teeling was the most 
 conspicuous figure on the field as he dashed about on a 
 " gallant grey " with the orders of the general. This 
 chivalrous soul chafed with indignation and impatience on 
 observing the faltering of some in presence of "Whitter's 
 cannon, and resolved to remove the cause of their anxiety 
 or perish in the attempt. Accordingly he struck away 
 towards the centre of the open field, and, setting spurs 
 to horse, galloped straight to the mouth of the gun. 
 There was a solemn pause, and every eye in the two armies 
 was upon the horseman as he pulled up the fiery grey. 
 On the moment, Teeling raised his pistol as coolly as if 
 on parade, took steady aim, and shot the formidable 
 Whitters dead behind the cannon. In the twinkling of an 
 eye the intrepid youth was returning, and though hundreds 
 of muskets were discharged, he and his horse, as if spirit 
 and not matter, passed through the shower of bullets 
 unharmed back to the French, who received the hero with 
 a shout of enthusiastic welcome, like that with which the 
 Romans of old greeted Horatius when swimming to land, 
 after saving Rome by the defence of the Milvian bridge.* 
 
 This was the turning point of the battle. The troops 
 despatched from Knockbeg had reached Beal Ban and 
 
 * No sound of joy or sorrow 
 
 Was heard from either bank ; 
 
 But friends and foes in dumb surprise, 
 
 With parted lips and straining eyes, 
 
 Stood gazing where he sank ; 
 
 And when above the surges 
 
 They saw his crest appear, 
 
 All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, 
 
 And even the ranks of Tuscany 
 
 Could scarce forbear to cheer. 
 Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Some ; Horatius, stanza Ix.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 77 
 
 were already rushing down on the British flank. The 
 other column was advancing at a rapid pace against the 
 front. There was no safety for Vereker from this double 
 danger except in retreat; and as the Ballysadare road was 
 no longer practicable, he ordered his men to cross the river 
 and make for Sligo. They broke off in disorder, abandon- 
 ing their cannon, and on getting out of Union Wood, 
 scattered over the country, each taking the path that 
 pleased him best. The French dashed after them into the 
 river, and followed for some distance, but on reaching 
 Springfield, and seeing the mountains and morasses in the 
 way, gave up the pursuit, and hastened back to Carrick- 
 nagat. The yeomen and dragoons must have been near 
 Sligo when the order for retreat was given ; for they had 
 hardly seen the French uniform appearing on the heights 
 when, without drawing a sword or firing a shot, they 
 turned their horses' heads, and scampered as fast as they 
 could to Sligo. 
 
 Humbert, still in doubt as to the numbers opposed, and 
 convinced, if those he had defeated were only the vanguard 
 of an army, that he would soon be attacked by the main 
 body, arranged his men in order of battle as they returned 
 from the pursuit or came up from the Tubbercurry road. 
 They remained some time in this position, but when he 
 learned that Colonel Vereker's troops were an independent 
 body, and that no other British force was in the neighbour- 
 hood, he gave orders for a march. Before leaving, 
 Humbert released Mr. Knott and some other prisoners 
 who were placed under guard near the Protestant church 
 of Collooney while the battle was going on ; and he also 
 buried the dead, leaving under the care of a French sur- 
 geon eighteen men, who were too seriously wounded to be 
 removed. The British official reports state that twenty- 
 eight were slain on the side of the French (not including 
 Irish), and great numbers wounded ; while Colonel Yereker 
 sets his own loss down as seven killed, among whom was
 
 78 PARISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 
 
 one officer, Lieutenant Rumley, and twenty-two wounded, 
 including himself and four officers. These returns hardly 
 tell the whole truth. 
 
 Both sides acquitted themselves at Carricknagat with 
 great credit. The French praised Colonel Vereker as the 
 only officer worthy of the name that they had met in 
 Ireland. The Government rewarded his services by 
 raising him to the peerage, as Lord Gort. The Cor- 
 poration of Limerick, elated by the news of the battle, 
 held a meeting on the 8th of October ; passed resolutions 
 of thanks to Colonel Yereker and his troops ; voted for 
 presentation to them a medal, bearing on the obverse the 
 arms of Limerick, and on the reverse, the legend " To 
 the heroes of Collooney ; " named a leading street of their 
 city, " Collooney Street ; " and inscribed in the Council 
 Book a letter of Colonel Vereker's, which furnished them 
 with a detailed account of the engagement.* 
 
 In this battle the French displayed the courage and dash 
 for which they were famous over the world ; and the raw 
 Irish recruits, who a fortnight previous had, perhaps, 
 never handled a gun nor seen one discharged, bore fire in 
 a way not unworthy of the bronzed veterans by whose 
 side they stood. The campaign, that opened at Killala 
 and closed at Ballinamuck, whatever else it may show, 
 establishes two facts on which Irishmen may think with 
 complacency and pride ;. first, that the insurgents exhibited 
 an absence of personal, political, and sectarian animosity, 
 perfectly unparalleled in movements of the kind ; " not a 
 drop of blood being shed," to use the words of the 
 Protestant bishop of Killala, " during the whole time of 
 this civil commotion, by the Connaught rebels, except in 
 the field of war ; " and, secondly, that they displayed on 
 all occasions the highest military qualities and virtues 
 courage, discipline, obedience, and contempt of death ; 
 
 * Kilkenny A.rch&ological Journal, vol. xii.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 79 
 
 " running upon death," says the same authority, " with as 
 little appearance of reflexion or concern as if they were 
 hastening to a show." * 
 
 SECTION VI. NOTEWORTHY HOUSES. 
 
 BEFORE quitting this part of the subject, a word or two on 
 a few noteworthy houses of Collooney will not be out of 
 place. In the house, now occupied by Dominick Brennan, 
 resided, a century ago, Dr. Higgins, the most distinguished 
 physician of Connaught, or, perhaps, of Ireland, .in his 
 day. 
 
 Major Leech, the famous patron and promoter of rifle 
 
 * Dr. Stock's Narrative of what passed at Killala. London, 1800; 
 p. 147. 
 
 Another extract or two from this ahle and impartial production will not 
 be uninstructive : " To do them justice, the peasantry never appeared to 
 want animal courage ; for they flocked together to meet danger whenever 
 it was expected. Had it pleased heaven to he as liberal to them of brains 
 as of hands it is not easy to say to what length of mischief they might 
 have proceeded ; but they were all along unprovided with leaders of any 
 ability ; " p. 127. 
 
 Speaking of " a party of the king's army," the good bishop writes : 
 " A train of fire too clearly distinguished their line of march, flaming up 
 from the houses of unfortunate peasants ; " p. 135. 
 
 And describing what occurred after the defeat of the insurgents, 
 Dr. Stock says: "A considerable number was cut down in the streets, 
 and the fugitives were swept away by scores, a cannon being placed on 
 the opposite side of the bay, which did great execution; " p. 150-1. 
 
 " Nor was it till the close of the next day that our ears were relieved 
 from the horrid sound of muskets, discharged every minute at flying and 
 powerless rebels ;" p. 153. 
 
 Again this fearless writer observes : " The regiments seemed to think 
 they had a right to take the property they had been the means of pre- 
 serving, and to use it as their own. Their rapacity differed in no respect 
 from that of the rebels, except that they seized upon things with some- 
 what less of ceremony or excuse, and that his Majesty's soldiers were 
 incomparably superior to the Irish traitors in dexterity at stealing ; " 
 p. 163.
 
 80 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 shooting by Irishmen, inhabited the house held at present 
 by Miss Kerr for the few years that he acted as agent to 
 the late Mr. Cooper. The major was esteemed and 
 respected in Collooney; and if he forfeited some popularity 
 by the rise of rent on the Markrea estate that occurred 
 under his agency, people continued to admire him for his 
 urbanity, his sympathy with the suffering, his warm 
 interest in the Markrea tenantry, and the honest, even 
 hand with which, as well in the rent office as out of it, this 
 humane and high-minded gentleman held the balance 
 between Catholic and Protestant ; a virtue that is said to 
 have been rather the exception than the rule on County 
 Sligo estates. 
 
 The spot on which the police barrack stands is the birth- 
 place of the late Alderman Farrell, of Dublin, who leaving 
 Collooney in search of fortune when already a grown up 
 man, rose to fill the office of Lord Mayor of the capital, 
 and to reflect on the office as much honour as it conferred. 
 
 More than forty years ago Mr. Pat Quinn lived in a 
 house, that stood between the dwellings of Pat Barret and 
 Dominick Brennan, but which has recently disappeared. 
 Mr. Quinn was married and had one child when he 
 resolved to emigrate to America, though having little capital 
 to take there, except that which Fergus Farrell brought 
 to Dublin, enterprise, virtue, and ability. Providence has 
 blessed Mr. Quinn; for he is now one of the most respected 
 citizens of the important city of Rochester, New York, 
 enjoying all the private and official honours that his fellow 
 citizens can confer. Alderman Quinn in Rochester, and 
 Alderman Farrell in Dublin, afford evidence that Collooney 
 talent will assert itself under all conditions. 
 
 Prior to quitting this country for America, Dr. Sweeny, 
 late of Mott Street, New York, lived in the house now 
 rented by John Whitesides, and was remarkable for skill 
 as a physician, and gratuitous professional services to 
 the poor. The doctor's emigration was greatly regretted
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 81 
 
 by the clergy and laity, for they felt they thus lost not 
 only an able doctor, but a cordial and loyal friend. This 
 excellent man died full of years and honours in the year 
 1873, with the love of the parish of Ballysadare as fresh at 
 heart, after fifty years' residence in America, as it was on 
 the day he departed from Collooney. It is gratifying to 
 know that the deceased left a son, a doctor too, that is well 
 able to support and augment the professional and social 
 honours bequeathed by his worthy father. 
 
 In the house of Alexander Munro was born Sir John 
 Benson, who came of a talented family, and was first cousin 
 of the late Rev. Charles Benson, rector of Shinrone, and 
 of Doctor Benson, ex-president of the College of Surgeons, 
 both natives of Collooney. Sir John was a man of un- 
 doubted ability ; and though without the advantage of that 
 long and laborious training, which engineers and architects 
 usually pass through, he soon shot ahead of competitors by 
 sheer force of mind. A prize having been offered in 1850 
 for a design of the Exhibition building, about to be erected 
 in Dublin, Sir John carried off the honour, though the 
 architects of England, Scotland, and other countries were 
 invited to compete, and many of the ablest of them did 
 compete. It was on this occasion the Queen conferred on 
 Mr. Benson the honour of knighthood, to mark her sense 
 of his eminent talents. After a brilliant career, both as 
 architect and engineer, Sir John died in 1874, at 
 Brompton, London, and was buried there, much to the 
 regret of the inhabitants of Collooney, who expected the 
 honour of having their distinguished townsman's remains 
 among them. 
 
 The building called the market-house, which has been 
 recently restored, is the oldest structure in Collooney. 
 Erected about the beginning of the last century by the Earl 
 of Bellamont, for the use of the buyers and sellers 
 attending the Collooney linen market, it was repaired and 
 re-roofed towards the close of the century by the Right 
 
 G
 
 82 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Honourable Joshua Cooper. Indeed the owners of 
 Collooney have generally been nursing fathers to the town. 
 Bryan M'Donogh solicited and obtained from James the 
 First patents for holding two fairs and one market in the 
 place ; and the edifice under consideration is a standing 
 monument of the friendly interest of the Cootes and the 
 Coopers. 
 
 The business transactions of this house were interrupted 
 in 1798. Instead of being the peaceful haunt of commerce, 
 the place became for a time the quarters of ill conditioned 
 and intolerant soldiers, who sallied from it to the 
 neighbourhood as to an enemy's country, and kept all the 
 poor people around in perpetual fear for their lives. 
 
 The linen trade reached its height in Collooney about 
 the time of the battle of Waterloo. In and close to the 
 little town there lived fifty or sixty weavers, who were in 
 constant work, and who sold the produce of the loom in 
 the market-house. The market was held on Thursday, 
 and on that day every week the town presented a pleasant 
 and animated spectacle, being crowded with weavers, 
 sellers and buyers of linen and yarn. It was not 
 uncommon on a market day in Collooney for four or five 
 hundred pounds to change hands some of which money 
 remained in town with the shopkeepers, but most of it 
 went home to meet the rent, to pay daughters' fortunes, to 
 boil the pot, or to go into the stocking for the rainy day. 
 It was good for Collooney while this state of* things lasted, 
 and it is due to the memory of Mr. Edward Synge Cooper 
 to say, that he did everything in his power to prolong it. 
 This model landlord not only employed his great personal 
 influence to stimulate the exertions of weavers and dealers, 
 but gave out of his pocket premiums in cash, for first, 
 second, and third qualities of linen and yarn, which 
 amounted annually to about 100. 
 
 The market-house ; was converted in 1841 by the late 
 Mr. Cooper into a school of trades, in which "sons of
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 83 
 
 ' tenants were to learn at his expense ig become carpenters, 
 smiths, tailors, or shoemakers."* Unfortunately the school 
 failed after lasting for two years, and entailing on its 
 generous founder the loss of 1000. 
 
 It must be told with regret that the building we are 
 considering was often used for party celebrations in times 
 when there did not exist the same good sense and good 
 feeling that prevail at present. These exhibitions, which 
 the Roman Catholics of the neighbourhood, generally 
 speaking, had the good taste to overlook, were near having 
 serious results on the 12th of July, 1816. On that day a 
 company or party of the 20th regiment were billeted in 
 Collooney ; but as the men, who were, for the most part, 
 Catholics, were kept indoors during the day, everything 
 passed off quietly till evening, when one of a batch of 
 the Rev. Mr. Duke's labourers who were standing on the 
 Leyney end of the bridge, snatched an orange lily that, he 
 alleged, was flaunted in his face by an Orangeman, and 
 trampled it on the ground. This being more than the 
 votasy of the lily could bear, the Orangeman hastened to 
 the lodge and called on the brethren to come and avenge 
 the common outrage. In an instant the inmates of the 
 lodge, after arming themselves with pistols, swords, and 
 even fleshforks, hurried to the bridge, and hunted the 
 retreating labourers into the parson's kitchen, where, how- 
 ever, the assailants were kept at bay by the butler, Tom 
 Healy, who armed himself with a pitchfork, and held it 
 like a chevaux de frise before the invaders. The officer of 
 the military party happening to be dining at the moment 
 with the Rev. Mr. Duke, both came out to see what was 
 the matter, and found the place in a state of insurrection ; 
 and when the parson, who was also a magistrate, saw 
 excited Orangemen rushing violently about, and threaten- 
 ing to use their arms, he ordered the officer, whose name 
 
 * Letter of Mr. Cooper, dated, "Brighton, 10 December, 1840."
 
 84 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 was O'Donnell, to call out the military and clear Collooney* 
 of all but its inhabitants. The word was no sooner given 
 than the bugle sounded ; and the moment the soldiers had 
 mustered and received the word of command they trundled, 
 in a very unceremonious way, every stranger they laid 
 hand on to a considerable distance beyond the town. It is 
 well that this rough handling was borne quietly ; for, had 
 resistance been offered, these scenes, which were not with- 
 out their comic aspect, would have ended in a deplorable 
 tragedy.* 
 
 An incident in another " Twelfth " may be mentioned. 
 On that day, in 1839, there was a collision between the 
 stonecutters about one hundred in number that worked 
 in Knockbeg quarry for the new works then in progress at 
 Markrea castle, and the Orangemen. As the former were 
 coming home after the day's labour they met, about the 
 
 * Not long after this Mr. O'Donnell sold the military commission and 
 entered the ecclesiastical state, for which he had made studies previously 
 to joining the army, having been a student in one of the seminaries of 
 France or Spain when the revolution invaded those retreats of piety and 
 study and scattered their inmates. While still on the continent he ren- 
 dered some signal service to the Duke of Wellington, which that general 
 requited by the offer of a commission ; an offer that the young levite 
 gladly accepted, being, no doubt, of opinion that a child of the church 
 could not be better employed than in doing battle against the enemies of 
 religion and society such as most of the continental liberals were at that 
 time. After ordination Mr. O'Donnell served in the diocese of Derry, 
 being a very hard-working and zealous priest though, not quite able to 
 put away military manners and ideas ; as an anecdote, communicated by 
 a fellow-labourer on the mission, sufficiently shows. One day a little dog 
 of his was killed by a party of police who happened to pass the priest's 
 house while the priest was absent on clerical duty ; but returning imme- 
 diately after the outrage, and learning that those who had acted so 
 disgracefully were not far off, the ex-officer put on the military uniform 
 and sword (kept always in the presbytery), and mounting the charger 
 that he used to ride in the army, galloped across the country to intercept 
 the offenders ; and drawing the sword on coming up with them, threatened 
 to treat them as they had treated the dog unless the sub-inspector, who 
 was present, offered a formal apology ; terms which that officer made no 
 scruple of accepting, to avoid a greater unpleasantness.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 85 
 
 spot where the railway bridge now stands, the Orangemen 
 returning from the market-house, in which they had passed 
 the day, Mr. Cooper, the County Sligo grand master, 
 having been present with them a good part of the time. 
 On the two parties meeting, one of the Orangemen, it is 
 said, cried out " To hell with Pope and Popery ; " but 
 the words were hardly uttered when the speaker was col- 
 lared and thrown violently on the ground by a stonecutter 
 named Fitzgerald, one of four brothers who worked in the 
 same job, and who were remarkable for physical powers 
 and for decision of character. While the Orangeman was 
 on the ground he snatched at and seized a cane that had 
 slipped from his hand in the scuffle, but this object was 
 wrenched from him in a moment by Fitzgerald, who, on 
 finding that it contained a concealed weapon, broke it into 
 pieces on the wall of the road-side. The melee, already, 
 was general, and dangerous missiles were flying about, 
 when a horse policeman started at full gallop to Markrea 
 Castle for Mr. Cooper, who lost not a moment in hastening 
 to the spot, which, from the horrid noises, the many hand- 
 to-hand encounters, and the numbers wounded, resembled, 
 at his arrival, the corner of a battle field rather than the 
 outskirts of a peaceful village. And yet, such was the 
 respect entertained for Mr. Cooper, even by those who 
 felt, and had good reason to feel sore with him for par- 
 tizanship during the day, that on the appearance of that 
 gentleman the combatants separated, and stood hushed in 
 silence, thus exemplifying Virgil's lines : 
 
 " Ac, veluti magno in populo cum soepe coorta est 
 Seditio, saavitque animis ignobile vulgus ; 
 Jamque faces et saxa volunt ; furor anna ministrat : 
 Turn pietate gravem ac meritis si forte virum quem 
 Conspexere, silent ; arrectisque auribus adstant." 
 
 But if the bad odour of sectarian celebrations sometimes 
 infected the air of the market-house, the edifice was 
 annually purified by the sweet perfume of genuine charity ;
 
 86 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 for on New Year's Day, each year, Mrs. and Mr. Cooper 
 entertained at dinner under its roof the poor of the neigh- 
 bourhood, and, after dinner, gave every poor man and 
 woman present such articles of dress as he or she needed. 
 On those happy occasions the Misses Cooper reserved to 
 themselves the duty, or as they seemed to esteem it the 
 privilege of waiting on the humble guests ; thus, not only 
 causing the poor to forget their miseries in the honour 
 conferred but also giving the parish lessons of humility and 
 charity that the most zealous preacher would find it hard 
 to inculcate as effectually. In view of this touching scene 
 one can easily afford to forgive the market-house other 
 doings that it has sometimes sheltered. 
 
 It is a pleasing duty to observe, that Mrs. Colonel 
 Cooper has established on the premises a depot or school 
 of sewing, and that through it this good lady has conferred 
 and is conferring great benefit on the neighbourhood, as 
 well in improving the industrious habits of a large number 
 of girls, as also in enabling them, by the liberal 
 remuneration she bestows, to bear, with their parents, some 
 hand in meeting domestic calls and expenses.* 
 
 Before taking leave of this structure, one cannot help 
 regretting that its capabilities, and more especially those 
 of its upper apartment, formerly the Linen- Hall, are not 
 turned to wider account. At a time when popular lectures 
 have become so common a means of diffusing information 
 through the country, it were to be wished that the lecturer 
 sometimes showed himself in this fine room, and thus 
 afforded the intelligent inhabitants of Collooney those 
 opportunities of acquiring knowledge that are so numerous 
 in other localities. 
 
 Another purpose that this apartment might well serve, 
 and without any interference with its present uses, or even 
 with its use as a market-house, in case a market was again 
 
 * It is gratifying to be aWe to add, that the work of this school 
 is esteemed very highly in London, and other parts of England.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 87 
 
 established, is that of a village or parish or estate or 
 other small local museum. The first requisite for the place 
 would be a map of the district, drawn on as large a scale 
 as convenient, and coloured or shaded, so as to bring well 
 out to the eye the physical configuration of the selected 
 area, as well as the other peculiarities of the surface. 
 
 Flanking the map, it would be desirable to have views, 
 sketches, or photographs of the principal objects, natural 
 and artificial, of the district, such as, bits of landscape, 
 ruins, gentlemen's residences, places of worship, mills, etc. ; 
 and with shelves running round the room for specimens of 
 the earths, rocks, minerals, and fossils, of the neighbour- 
 hood ; with cases and trays to hold " finds," such as 
 implements, ornaments, coins, urns or other objects 
 discovered in ancient graves ; and with some other small 
 matters, that could be easily supplied, the market-house 
 would become a source of useful and refining knowledge to 
 Collooney and the vicinity. Of course some little effort 
 and sacrifice would be needed in order to realize the 
 suggestion here thrown out ; but, considering the landlord, 
 Colonel Cooper's, culture, and love of historical and 
 antiquarian pursuits, more especially of those that concern 
 the County Sligo, and the enlightened ideas of the good 
 people of Collooney themselves, it would not be hard to 
 overcome such difficulties as should arise. 
 
 SECTION VII. ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF COLLOONEY. 
 
 COLLOONEY enjoys the honour of having had Saint Patrick 
 himself for the founder of its first church. This assertion 
 will doubtless seem bold, if not false, at first view, being 
 devoid of sanction in the modern biographies of the saint, 
 as also unsupported by the ecclesiastical historians and 
 annalists of the country, not one of whom can be quoted in 
 its favour. But its truth nevertheless may be deduced from
 
 88 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 the Vita Tripartita of Colgan, which is admitted on all hands 
 to be the chief authority on the missionary movements of 
 the Saint. And as the passage relied on has puzzled those 
 who have written about Saint Patrick, and has been much 
 misunderstood, it is necessary to go at some length into 
 the subject, and to give, in the first place, the words of the 
 Vita Tripartita; secondly, the observations of writers upon 
 these words ; and, lastly, the new view of them. The 
 following is the passage, as it lies in Colgan : Reversus 
 est denuo Patricius ad jam memoratam Cal-rigiae regionem, 
 et in loco tune Druimdaire* vocato, baptizavit Mac- 
 Caerthanum. Et cum idem locus in usum sacrum con- 
 vertendus ei donatus esset in eo excitavit monasterium 
 Druym-lias postea nuncupatum a multitudine casarum 
 et sedicularum quas S. Patricius et discipuli ibi commo- 
 rantes extruxerunt. Abbatem isti monasterio prafecit S. 
 Benignum alumnum suum, qui annis viginti ejus cur am 
 administravit. 
 
 Inde 'progressus versus orientem venit ad regionem de 
 Glinne, in qua hodie stirps Muinremarii principatum tenet. 
 E duobus ejus naribus ibi profluxit sanguis in via ; ibique 
 saxum Leac-Padruic, et arbor nux Col-Phadruic appellata 
 visuntur ; adjacentque versus orientem ecclesiee quam ibi 
 extruxit ; quae olim Domnach-Sratha id est, ecclesia prati 
 dicta ; hodie Srath Padruic, id est Pratum Patricii vocatur. 
 Mansit in ea Patricius Dominica die ; estque unica ejus in 
 ea regione ecclesia. 
 
 Lambens vir apostolicus et indefessi laboris oras ex- 
 tremas maritimasque Connacise a Caisseal-Irra per Druim- 
 chliabh venit in Magene et limites maritimos qui Rosse 
 appellantur. Et in agro de Magene extruxit ecclesiam 
 qu8B Domnach-mor, id est, ecclesia magna appellatur.f 
 
 * " The place formerly called Druimdaire is situated near the eastern 
 
 extremity of Lough Gill, in the "barony of Dromahaire, and County of 
 
 Leitrim." Lives of the Irish Saints, by Kev. John O'Hanlon, vol. 2, p. 434. 
 
 f Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga Septima Vita S. Patricii, lib. 11. cap. ciii.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 89 
 
 The English of the above is : " Patrick returned to the 
 district of Calry, and baptized MacCaerthan in the place 
 then called Druimdaire. And as that place was presented 
 to him for religious purposes, he erected on it the 
 monastery subsequently called Druymlias, from the 
 number of cells and huts constructed by Saint Patrick 
 and the disciples that dwelt there with him. He 
 set over the establishment, as abbot, his beloved disciple 
 Benignus, who continued to govern it for twenty years. 
 Proceeding then in an easterly direction, he came to the 
 district of Glimie, where the descendants of Muinremar 
 bear rule at present. His two nostrils bled on the road. 
 The rock called Leac-Phadruic (Patrick's stone) and the 
 hazel tree called Col-Padruic are to be seen there, and they 
 are near the church, in an easterly direction, that he 
 erected, and that was anciently called Domnach-Sratha (the 
 church of the river pasture), but that now goes by the name 
 of Srath-Padruic (Patrick's pasture). Patrick remained 
 in the place on a Sunday ; and this is the only church of 
 his that there is in that region. Moving along the extreme 
 sea coast of Connaught the indefatigable apostle passed 
 from Cashel-Irra through Drumcliffe, on to Maghene and 
 the Rosses. And in Maghene he erected the church called 
 Dotnnach-mor, that is, the great church." 
 
 In a note on the words, " versus orientem," in the above 
 passage, Colgan observes, " Est regio potius Septentrionalis 
 quam Orientalis Ultoniae, hodie etiam Glinne, i. e., valles 
 dicta ; in qua stirps Eochadii Muinremarii, tempore Patricii 
 et aliquando postea, principatum tenuit." (It is a northern 
 rather than an eastern district of Ulster, and is called at 
 present also The Glynns, that is, the valleys. The de- 
 scendents of Eochy Muinremar governed it in the days of 
 Patrick, and continued to govern it for some time after). 
 
 Dr. Lanigan disposes of this passage in his usual off- 
 hand manner, by saying, that it is out of its proper place. 
 " There is indeed, he says, one passage, which is evidently
 
 90 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 misplaced; for, after mentioning Saint Patrick being at 
 Drumlias in Leitrim, he is made to appear in the north of 
 Antrim, and then immediately after we find him travelling 
 along the coast of Sligo from south to north."* 
 
 Dr. Reeves adopts Lanigan's view of the subject, though, 
 as usual, he expresses himself more cautiously. " There 
 is another passage also, he observes, in the Tripartite Life, 
 which, although introduced in the narrative of the Saint's 
 proceedings in Connaught, appears to be out of its place, 
 and to belong rather to the Glynns, a territory formerly 
 comprehended in Dalriada, or the Route."f 
 
 Now Colgan's opinion or, rather, what would at first 
 sight seem to be his opinion, is utterly untenable ; for, 
 according to it, the Saint would start straight from Leitrim 
 to the Glynns of Antrim, return at once to the neighbour- 
 hood from which he had just set out, and hurry back again 
 to the North without rest or pause, founding Drumlias, 
 visiting the Glynns, and moving by Caisel-irra on the 
 same occasion, and in the same breath. Anything so pre- 
 posterous our great hagiologist never did, and never could, 
 maintain. Movements so rapid are out of the question 
 even in these railway times, but, in the fifth century, they 
 would be almost as miraculous as the translation of the 
 prophet Habacuc from Judea to Babylon by the hair of the 
 head. 
 
 Nor is the conjecture of Doctors Lanigan and Reeves 
 much less improbable. The paragraphs of a book, either 
 in print or manuscript, are not arranged like cards in a 
 pack, some of which may drop out of their place and get 
 mixed up elsewhere ; and there is no conceiving how the 
 sentence or two in question could part from their regular 
 context and settle down in a quite different portion of the 
 work. And after this extraordinary supposition those 
 
 * An Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. i, p. 258. 
 
 f Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, p.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 91 
 
 writers are as far off as ever from the solution of the diffi- 
 culty ; for they cannot identify any of the places mentioned 
 in the text. They do not even attempt this identification 
 except in reference to the regionem de Glinne, which they 
 take, without assigning any reason, to be the Glynns of 
 Antrim. 
 
 It is with regret the writer differs, on a point of Irish 
 history, from those learned and eminent historians. Had 
 they all the evidence at hand, when pronouncing their 
 opinion, he would himself feel almost compelled to bow to 
 the decision. As it is, all that he does now is to put for- 
 ward a view, which these able men would have maintained 
 themselves were they sufficiently acquainted with the loca- 
 lity. It is submitted then, that, according to the statement 
 of the above passage, Saint Patrick did not go to Ulster at 
 all on this occasion, but merely travelled through Calry, 
 along the northern shore of Lough Gill ; moved about in 
 the district to the east and south-east of the lake ; and 
 returned by the southern shore, passing through Cloon- 
 mucduff, Coolerra, Sligo, Drumcliffe, on to Magh-eni. 
 
 This view is free from the difficulties attached to the 
 idea, or apparent idea, of Colgan, and to the conjecture of 
 Lanigan and Reeves. It offers no violence to the text, 
 but issues naturally from the words just as they lie ; and, 
 according to it, the places mentioned are identified as 
 clearly as can be expected after such a lapse of time. The 
 regio de Glinne, then, is the region or tract of country 
 that surrounds the head of Lough Gill, and that was so 
 called from the numerous glens or valleys with which it 
 abounds. For several miles around the top of the lake, 
 through the parishes of Drumlias, Cloonclare, Killargy, 
 and Killenumery, the leading feature of the landscape is the 
 glens that intersect the country. The Gazetteer of Ireland, 
 in its article on Cloonclare, says " The parochial surface 
 comprises a large portion of the most scenic district in the 
 county, and contains a rich series of glen and mountain
 
 92 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 landscapes. Dark moorland hills, craggy and precipitous 
 escarpments, bold and broken slopes, winding glens, narrow 
 ravines, fertile vales, green declivities, and luxuriant de- 
 mesnes are presented in such richness and variety of 
 composition as to produce a large amount of at once 
 beauty, grandeur, and romance." And as these observa- 
 tions apply, in great part, to the neighbouring parishes, it 
 is plain that the regio de Glinne is the most graphic 
 phrase which the author of the Tripartite could employ to 
 describe that country. One might well speak of such a 
 place as the glen-district in the same way as English 
 writers at present speak- of the lake-district, the fen- 
 districts, etc. 
 
 It is strange that Lanigan and Reeves should be induced 
 by this phrase to transfer the scene suddenly from Leitrim 
 to Antrim ; and the more so, as there is no evidence that 
 the part of Antrim now called The Glynns was known by 
 that name at the time the Vita Tripartita was written. 
 The contrary, indeed, may be fairly inferred from the 
 absence of the name in that portion of the work which 
 describes and describes with great minuteness the move- 
 ments of the Apostle through that district; for, if the 
 expression was current it would necessarily have come to 
 the writer's pen while narrating the proceedings and 
 journeyings of the Saint through Dalaradia the word 
 which he always uses when speaking of the place called 
 at present The Glynns. 
 
 Druimdaire or Drumlias is somewhere in the district of 
 Calry. Of this -we are certain, as it is expressly stated ; 
 but it is now impossible to fix the exact site of the old 
 foundation, though we know the limits within which it 
 must have stood. Some assume that Druimdaire and the 
 modern Drumahaire are one and the same spot, but this is 
 by no means a matter of course, nor even probable. 
 Druimdaire the ridge of the oak ; and Drumahaire 
 (Drum-da-ethar] the ridge of the two demons have
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 93 
 
 different etymologies, and in consequence designate, very 
 likely, different localities. According to all appearance the 
 Druimdaire of the Vita Tripartita lay to the north of 
 Lough Gill, and within the limits of the present parish of 
 Drumlease. 
 
 Leac Phadruic is the spot which hears the heautiful ruins 
 of Creevelea ahhey, and which, as we learn from the 
 Four Masters,* Ware, Archdall,f and Dr. M'Parlan, J 
 went also by the name of Carrick Phadruic. Carrick 
 Phadruic seems to be a somewhat modern variation of Leac 
 Phadruic ; and it is curious, that a similar change of phrase 
 has taken place in regard to the celebrated Leac Phadruic 
 of Cashel, or, the Rock of Cashel, which, Eugene O'Curry 
 says, " to this day is called Caraig Phatraic, or Patrick's 
 Bock, but which was also anciently called Leac Phatraic, 
 or Patrick's Flagstone." 
 
 The name Col-Phadruic 'does not survive, but there are 
 several coilk or culleens near Dromahaire, one of which is, 
 doubtless, that referred to in the text. Probably it is the 
 spot in the present parish of Killenumery, mentioned by 
 the Four Masters, under the year 1435, as Coille-an-anma 
 wood of the soul. 
 
 Pratum Patricii or Srah Phadruic is manifestly Patrick 's- 
 pasture in the peninsula called Cloonmacduff,|| which is 
 formed by the river Uncion, and which adjoins the present 
 townland of Collooney. The name, Patrick* s-pastwe, was 
 
 * Sub anno 1508. 
 
 f Monasticon Hibernicum, p. 407. 
 
 J Survey of County Leitrim, p. 95. 
 
 "The once splendid monastery of Creevalea was founded in 1508 by 
 Owen O'Rorke, Prince of Breffny, at the instance of his wife, Margaret 
 O'Brien, daughter of Conor, King of Thomond." Franciscan Monasteries, 
 etc. By Eev. C. P. Meehan. 
 
 Professor O'Curry's Lecture on the MS. materials of Ancient Irish 
 History. Appendix, p. 623. 
 
 || Cluain, which is the general prefix to the names of our churches 
 and bishops sees, means a lawn, an insulated meadow, or level, fertile
 
 94 PAKISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 
 
 disused and nearly forgotten when the writer heard it from 
 a man of about one hundred years of age. The spot so 
 designated lies at the eastern extremity of Cloonmucduff, 
 and resembles the segment of a circle the TJncion being 
 the arc, and a stream running from south to north 
 forming the chord. The character of the spot could 
 not be better hit off than by the epithet, Srah. The Irish 
 word Srah, like the Saxon word Holme, denotes a low tract 
 of rich land in the vicinity of a river ; and a more graphic 
 description than this could not be given of the fine alluvial 
 soil of Patrick' s-pasture, lying on the left bank of the 
 Uncion, and known as one of the best fattening lands in 
 the county. Midway between the stream mentioned and 
 the river stands a fort or rath of one hundred and forty 
 feet in diameter, and five or six feet in height, though 
 somewhat depressed and dilapidated in parts, and particu- 
 larly at the edge, which was formerly faced with large 
 stones, forming a cashel. On the centre of the fort rests a 
 great stone, five feet five inches long, five feet two inches 
 broad, and two feet deep, which is called, by persons 
 acquainted with the locality, the Druid's Altar. In this 
 stone there is a slit about twenty inches long and three 
 wide, which was probably made for the purpose of receiv- 
 ing the blood of the victim sacrificed. Fifty feet to the 
 south of the central stone there is a cluster of five others, 
 all about the same size ; an average one measuring five 
 feet six inches in height, two feet four inches in breadth, 
 and ten inches in depth. These and a few other large 
 stones lying about seem to be the remains of cromlechs, and 
 to prove the place to have been a haunt of the Druids ; 
 and looking at the spot, situated in the midst of a great 
 
 plain, surrounded by a bog or marsb ; in fact a kind of oasis, as we know 
 is the general appearance of such localities in Ireland." Sir William 
 Wilde's Boyne and Blackwater, p. 58. 
 
 Cloonmucduff, no doubt, signifies the cluain or meadow of the black 
 big ; for the passage of that legendary animal through this district 
 holds a prominent place in the traditions of the neighbourhood.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 95 
 
 solitude, fenced round by the deep and silent TJncion, and 
 almost beyond the reach of human sight or sound, one 
 feels that it would be hard to find a scene more fitted for 
 the sombre and sanguinary rites of Druidism. 
 
 It was doubtless these impious and inhuman practices 
 that occasioned the visit of St. Patrick. At the time of the 
 journey which we are now considering, the Saint was on 
 the point of leaving Connaught, after seven years stay and 
 labour in it ; and the holy man would not quit the province 
 till he had visited and destroyed this nest of sin ; acting 
 in this on his well-known system of seeking out the objects 
 and places of Druidical superstition, purifying them, and 
 then devoting them to the worship of the true God. Such 
 was his manner of proceeding at Cashel and a hundred 
 other places, as well as at Patrick's-pasture ; and from this, 
 most probably, it comes, that the large central stone, which 
 is commonly called the Druid's Altar, is sometimes also 
 named Patrick's Altar, the different names implying, that 
 the stone, after having served the Druids for their unholy 
 rites, was also made use of by the Apostle for the 
 celebration of the Christian oblation.* 
 
 That the place was called Patrick's-pasture from the 
 Saint himself building a church there, and not, as might be 
 suggested, from others building one in the Saint's honour, 
 appears, not only from the express assertion of the Tripar- 
 tite (" ecclesiae quam ibi exiruxit ") but also from the first 
 
 * This would seem to have been the usual course with Apostolic 
 missionaries. It was so in Great Britain. It was a precept of Pope 
 Gregory," says Edmund Burke, " that the heathen temples should not be 
 destroyed ; but that, first removing the idols, they should be consecrated 
 anew by holier rites and to better purposes, in order that the prejudices 
 of the people might not be too rudely shocked." Burke's Works, Bonn's 
 edition, vol. vi, p. 243. See also, Bede's Ecclesiastical History, Lib. i. 
 c. 30, and Dr. Newman's learned Preface, to the new edition of his VIA 
 MEDIA, p. Ixxviii., where he relates a most striking instance of 
 accommodation to the notions and habits of the people on the part of St. 
 Gregory Thaumaturgus.
 
 96 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 name of the structure, Domnach- Sr ah (" quae olim Dom- 
 nach-Srptha, id est, ecclesia prati dicta ; ") for it is well 
 known that all the churches into which the name of 
 Domnach enters, such as Donagli Patrick, Donaghmoyne, 
 Donaghctyney etc., are the work of St. Patrick himself. 
 They were so called, we are told, from the word 
 " Dominica)" because the Saint built them in places where 
 he passed the Sunday or Dominica. We find this explana- 
 tion in the Tripartite, where it speaks of the proceedings of 
 the Saint in Keenaght, County Deny ; " In regione 
 Kennactie Septem diebus Dominicis commoratus Septem 
 Domino sacrarum aedium jecit fundamenta ; quas proinde 
 Dominicas appellavit.'" He passed one Sunday in Patrick' s- 
 pasture, " Mansit in ea una Dominica." 
 
 The church he raised on this occasion must have been of 
 wattle, or some such frail and humble material.* Later 
 his converts or their descendants, desirous to worship on a 
 spot consecrated by the presence and the prayers of the 
 Saint, erected a solid and durable structure. And they 
 were the more zealous to frequent this holy ground, as it is 
 the only spot in the district on which he erected a church ; 
 for it is remarkable, while the neighbouring dioceses of 
 Killala and Elphin abound in sites of the Saint's founda- 
 tions, that Patrick's-pasture should be perhaps the only 
 one in the entire diocese of Achonry. And this makes it 
 the more gratifying to identify the Pratum Patricii, or 
 Shrah Phadruic of the Tripartite, as the identification not 
 
 * The dwellings of the Ulster Creaghts, even in the sixteenth century, 
 are described as "made of wattles, or boughs of trees, covered with long 
 turves or sods of grass." 
 
 Mr. John P. Prendergast in the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal, vol. iii, 
 p. 423 "Wattles and sods were probably the material usually employed 
 by St. Patrick in his churches See Gallon's Visitation ; by Dr. Reeves, 
 p. 123. In regard to churches, the names of which begin with Domnach, 
 John O'Donovan observes ; " Every church in Ireland whose name 
 begins with Domhnach, was originally erected by St. Patrick." 
 O'Donovan' s Four Masters, A.D. 1508 ; (note.)
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 97 
 
 only clears up an obscurity in the Saint's life, but also 
 vindicates for this venerable diocese the honour of having 
 Saint Patrick for the founder of its first church. It is right 
 to mention, though there is no building or part of a 
 building at present on the rath, that there is a map in the 
 Royal Irish Academy, belonging to the last years of 
 Elizabeth, which show a church or the ruins of a church 
 on the spot. 
 
 In order to give a fuller idea of Srah Phadruic it is well 
 to add, that to the north of the large rath we have been 
 considering, but joining it, there is, on a lower level, 
 a smaller one of sixty- six feet in diameter; and to north of 
 this there is a cave, now greatly dilapidated, that consisted 
 of two rude walls covered with flags stretched lengthwise 
 from wall to wall ; while about thirty or forty feet to the 
 south of the great fort there is well, which is called 
 Patrick's well. 
 
 The situation of Caisel-irra is too well known to need any 
 observations to identify it. From what has been said, then, 
 the itinerary of the Saint on the present occasion is clear 
 beyond any reasonable doubt ; for the places mentioned, 
 Leac Phadruic or Creevelea, Col Phadruic or Cul-an-anma, 
 Srah Phadruic or Cloonmucduff, Caisel-irra or Kilaspug- 
 brone, Sligo, Drumcliffe, Magheni, point out, like so many 
 finger posts, his movements during the journey which is 
 under consideration, and which was also the last journey of 
 the Saint in the province of Connaught.* 
 
 About a mile to the west of Patrick's-pasture is the site 
 of another Collooney church, which, most probably, comes 
 
 * To the account of the journey mentioned in the text the Tripartite 
 Life adds the remark : " Thrice Patrick went across the Shannon,,into 
 the land of Connacht. Fifty bells, and fifty altar chalices, and fifty altar 
 cloths, he left in the land of Connacht, each of them in his church. 
 Seven years was he preaching to the men of Connacht, and he left them 
 a blessing and bade them farewell." The Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick, 
 translated by W. M. Hennessy, Esq., M.E.I.A. In Miss Cusack's Life 
 of Saint Patrick, p. 432. 
 
 H
 
 98 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 next in the order of time to that founded by Saint Patrick. 
 There is not the smallest sign or trace of the structure * at 
 present ; but the great solitary stone near the northern end 
 of the avenue, through Cloonmucduff, marks the spot near 
 which it stood, and adjoins the site of a cashel with which 
 this, like most other early ecclesiastical establishments, was 
 surrounded. The inclosure was used, in the early part of 
 the century by the Markrea stewards as a haggard for the 
 hay that grew on the surrounding meadows, and continued 
 to be so used till the time of making the avenue, about 
 forty years since, when the place was levelled off, and the 
 stones that formed the cashel were removed from their 
 position and sunk underground.f On a map in the Royal 
 Irish Academy, drawn in Elizabeth's reign, a church is 
 shown on this spot, and the space within the cashel served 
 for a burying ground down to about the end of the last 
 century. A row of brick coffins or sarcophagi, of uniform 
 size, such as are often found in the cemeteries of the larger 
 monasteries, was discovered, some years since, by labourers 
 who were making drains in the place ; and this circum- 
 
 * " In many cases," says the judicious Dr. Beeves, Ulster Journal of 
 Archaeology, vol i, p. 168, " we look in vain to present local conditions in 
 order to discover any remaining indications of early greatness, or even a 
 trace of ancient existence." This reminds one of Ausonius's lines 
 " Miremur periisse homines ? Monumenta fatiscunt ; 
 
 Mors etiam saxis odnibusque venit." 
 and of the words of Rutilius 
 
 " Non indignemur mortalia corpora solvi 
 Cernimus exemph's oppida, posse mori." 
 
 t This illustrates another observation of Dr. Reeves, to the effect that 
 "too often the hand of time acquires double powers of demolition from 
 the hand of man, and all vestiges of antiquity perish ." Ibid. 
 
 There were two cashels in this place, the larger surrounding the 
 ecclesiastical establishment, and the other enclosing the solitary stone 
 mentioned. This stone, which is fifteen feet long, twelve broad, and four 
 deep, seems to be the top stone of an earth-fast cromlec, as one end of it 
 rests on the earth, while the other is supported by a stone five feet long, 
 four broad, and three deep. The large stone slopes to the north, and 
 forms with the ground under it an angle of about twenty-five degrees.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 99 
 
 stance of itself would show the establishment to have heen 
 of some importance. 
 
 The writer is of opinion that this religious house is no other 
 than the " ecclesia duorum agri rivorum " (the church of 
 the district of the two rivers) which Adamnan mentions as 
 visited by St. Columba, and about the site of which there 
 is great diversity of opinion O'Donnell placing it in the 
 north, as Mainistir-anda-Shruth ; Colgan making it the 
 church of Teernacreeve in "Westmeath ; and Dr. Reeves, in 
 his learned edition of Adamnan, giving it as his decision 
 "that there can be no hesitation in pronouncing the famous 
 monastery of Terryglass, in the barony of Lower Ormond, 
 County Tipperary, to be the place in question." (Adam- 
 nan's Life, p. 153.) 
 
 It is hard to differ from such distinguished authorities, 
 but it is the less difficult, in the present instance, as they 
 differ from one another ; and the following reasons seem to 
 warrant one in thinking for one's self and breaking fresh 
 ground. The first reason for the opinion now advanced is, 
 that the situation of the church answers the description of 
 the ecclesia duorum agri rivorum, for it stood in the angle 
 of land formed by the Uncion and Owenmore, within two 
 or three hundred yards of their confluence, and would 
 therefore be most appropriately described as the church of 
 the land of the two rivers. The second reason is, that the 
 actual name of this religious house was the church of the 
 two rivers, the Oivenmore and the Uncion. The only man 
 now living in Cloonmucduff says that when a little boy he 
 heard his father, who lived in the same place to a great 
 age, call the burying ground Kil eder da Owen. 
 
 A strong argument in favour of the idea here advocated 
 may be drawn from the time at which St. Columba paid his 
 visit to the ecclesia duorum agri rivorum, which was, accord- 
 ing to O'DonnelPs life, immediately after the convention of 
 Drumceat. According to this authority, the Saint went 
 direct from Drumceat to Drumcliffe to found a church, and
 
 100 PARISH OF BALLYSADAUE. 
 
 from Drumcliffe proceeded to Ballysadare, where the 
 "Saints of Ireland " had assembled to receive him. Being 
 at Ballysadare, Columba was within two miles of Cloon- 
 mucduff ; and it was a matter of course that the monks of 
 that place would beg him to honour their house with a 
 visit, a request with which the Saint would hardly fail to 
 comply. In this supposition, then, we have the time and 
 the place of the visit corresponding exactly with what is 
 laid down in Adamnan and O'Donnell : the time that 
 immediately after he had left Drumceat ; the place the 
 church of the two rivers.* 
 
 But the other opinions can hardly be reconciled with 
 what is stated by these writers. As to Mainistir-anda- 
 Sruth, the place has never been identified nor known to 
 exist, and Colgan regards it as a pure invention of 
 O'Donn ell's. Teernacreeve (Tir da chroebh in Irish) has 
 its name from two branches and not two rivers ; and 
 Colgan's conjecture that duorum rivorum is an error for 
 duorum ramorum " savours," according to Dr. Reeves, " of 
 that school in literature which fits the author to the 
 theory." Dr. Beeves' own view is open to serious objection, 
 at least on the score of time. Columba's stay in Ireland 
 on the occasion of the meeting at Drumceat was only for a 
 few days, (aliquantis in Scotia diebus conversatus) and it was 
 not in his power to make a journey all the way to 
 Tipperary. The rush to Ballysadare of the more celebrated 
 Saints of Ireland, and of the " vast multitude of people 
 that no one could count," mentioned in the life of Saint 
 Forannan,f proves the shortness of Columba's visit, and 
 the limited sphere of his movements ; for if people could 
 find the Saint in Tipperary or Westmeath, or on the road 
 to either of these places, why come from these neighbour- 
 
 * "O'Donnell," says Dr. Reeves, in his admirable edition of Adamnan's 
 Life of Saint Columba, p. 152, " places this visit immediately after the 
 ' Saint's departure from Drumceat." 
 f Colgan, Act. Sanctorum, p. 337.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 101 
 
 hoods the great journey to Ballysadare to meet him ? 
 But it was known throughout the country, that after visiting 
 Drumcliffe, Ballysadare, and Skreen, Columba would return 
 forthwith to Hy, and his admirers hastened in consequence 
 to avail themselves of the only opportunity they could have 
 of paying their respects. This view is sustained by the 
 words employed by the writer of Forannan's life. " Before 
 returning," says this author, " to Britain, Columba founded 
 one church in the district of Drumcliffe, etc.," a form of 
 phrase which seems to imply that his proceedings in the 
 County Sligo preceded immediately the return to Scotland. 
 There is no mention of the church under consideration 
 in any of our ecclesiastical writers, Usher, Ware, Harris, 
 Colgan, Lanigan, Reeves, etc., with the single exception of 
 Archdall, who speaks of it in the following botchy para- 
 graph,* " Cashel ; a village in the barony of Corran, 
 between the rivers Uncion and Owenmore and six miles 
 south of Sligo. St. Bronan or Bronius, a disciple of Saint 
 Patrick, was bishop of Culiorra, or Cashel-irra, and died 
 8th January, A.D. 511. St. Biteus, the son of Assicus, 
 another disciple of the Saint's, was also bishop here." 
 That allusion is here made to this church is clear from the 
 the statement that it lies " between the rivers Uncion and 
 Owenmore and is six miles south of Sligo," in which its 
 situation is exactly described ; but Archdall is mistaken in 
 placing this house in the barony of Corran, instead of 
 Tirerrill ; and, in supposing Cashel and Cashel-irra or Cuil- 
 irra to be the same 'he blunders egregiously, as they are 
 notoriously different places, and six or seven miles asunder. 
 Indeed the object of the affix irra, in the words CW/-irra, 
 and Cashel irra, (the western Cuil, and the western Casket) 
 would seem to be to distinguish these localities from the 
 other Cashel, and CWY-maeil, which lie to the east, and 
 which were, as has been seen, old names of Collooney. 
 
 * Monasticon Hibernicum, p. 629.
 
 102 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 At first it might seem that an important argument in 
 proof of the identity of the " eccksia duorum agri ricorum" 
 and the church of CloonmucdufF, could be drawn from an 
 inquisition respecting the diocese of Achonry, that was 
 taken apud Aghconnor on the 18th of August, 1584, before 
 the bishop of Kildare. In this inquisition there is mention 
 of a benefice styled "The rectory between the two rivers" 
 ("Rectoria we. Inter duos amnes") ; but it appears that this 
 benefice lay in the parish of Kilmacteigue, as we read in 
 the Royal Visitation Book of 1615 the following words : 
 ' Rectoria inter duos amnes, ALIAS, Enlmcteg," where 
 " Enlmcteg " refers to what we now call Kilmacteigue. 
 
 The next church built in Collooney lay about three 
 quarters of a mile due west of Kit eder da Owen; but there 
 is nothing about it in books, and next to nothing in 
 tradition. It stood on the burying ground that adjoins 
 Mr. Sim's residence, where the ruins may still be seen, and 
 in fair preservation. There is a weak tradition that this 
 house was built by the O'Haras, who, of old, were the 
 chief church-builders in this part of Ireland. The belief 
 also, is that the church was of a monastic character, and 
 inhabited by friars ; and this opinion is supported by the 
 following satirical distich, well known formerly in Leyney 
 and Tirerrill : 
 
 Erathair mor o Dreliid a cilleen 
 
 Do Shaist Poldoba ar Probus o Lineen. 
 
 A big friar from Drehid-a-cilleen, 
 
 Christened you Dirt-bag, Probus O'Lineen. 
 
 Drehid-in-cillin y which, strictly speaking, is the name 
 only of the bridge of Collooney so called from its proximity 
 to the church served also often for the name of the vil- 
 lage ; and seems taken in this sense in the above lines.* 
 
 * Drehid-in-cillin was sometimes Englished Eillinbridge, the form 
 under which we find Collooney in the Census of 1659, and in the Hearth' 
 money returns, 1662-3. Droiched-in-chillin is the name the A.nnals of 
 Loch Ce give the bridge, when speaking of the battle between Sir Richard
 
 PARISH OF BALLTSADARE. ] 03 
 
 And it was sometimes used for the name of the 
 church.* 
 
 Soon after the Reformation this church was taken from 
 the Catholics and used as a place of Protestant worship ; 
 and it is said to have been in it that the first O'Hara who 
 changed his religion made a public profession of the new 
 faith. Sir Albert Conyngham was buried in it, and over 
 the remains was erected the monument that is now to be 
 seen in the Protestant church of the town. The cemetery 
 within and attached to the church serves as burying place 
 for some of the leading families of Tirerrill. The Coopers 
 of Cooper-hill are buried in the interior, near the eastern 
 window, in a handsome vault that bears on its pediment 
 the words " The Cooper-hill Family." In the western 
 end is interred Mr. Rutledge of Cloonamahin ; and the 
 tombstone that covers his remains bears the following 
 inscription : " Here lieth the body of Thomas Rutledge, 
 Esq., late of Cloonamahin, who departed this life the 23rd 
 of February, 1762 ; aged 29 years ; " and lower down on 
 the same stone is the following : " Underneath are de- 
 posited the remains of Joseph Meredith of Cloonamahin, 
 Esq., who departed this life the 22nd of January, 1811 ; 
 aged 69 years." Between this grave and the northern 
 side wall stands the tomb of the Phibbs family, bearing the 
 inscription that follows : " Beneath this stone lieth 
 interred the remains of the late Thomas Phibbs of Duna- 
 murray, Esq., who departed this life on the 17th day of 
 
 Bingham and the Scotts : "And the Albanachs retreated to Culmhain, 
 and some of the Clann- William came to meet them ; and they advanced 
 to Droiched-in-chillin. And when the Saxons heard that the Albanachs 
 had gone past them, down they followed them, and they encountered one 
 another at Droiched-in-chillin, and delivered a vigorous battle to each 
 other there." Annals of Loch, C6. Edited, by William M. Hennessy, 
 M.R.I.A., vol. ii, p. 473. 
 
 Droiched Cul-maoile is the term the Annals of the Four Masters employ 
 when describing the same transaction. Annals of Ireland, by the Four 
 Masters, vol. v, p. 1853. 
 
 * Some very old persons still call the church JDrehid-in-cillin.
 
 104 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 March, 1816, in the 77th year of his age ; of whom it may 
 be truly said he lived and died an honest man ; also the 
 remains of Alicia Phibbs alias Griffith, his wife, who 
 departed this life on the 20th of August, 1796, in the 42nd 
 year of her age ; to whose memory this stone hath been 
 erected by their youngest son, Burton Phibbs, Esq." A 
 tomb near this has the inscription : " This stone is placed 
 over the mortal remains of the late Eowland Carter, Esq., 
 and his wife, Sarah Carter,* as a respectful tribute of 
 affection to their memory by their son, B. Carter, Esq., 
 M.D., July 13, 1817." The oldest tombstone in the place 
 lies near the south side wall, on the outside, with the 
 inscription in raised letters : "Here lieth the body of Thomas 
 Forast, who parted his life in the aighthente of March, 
 1707." Outside the eastern end of the church is the tomb 
 of the M'Kims, who are the oldest family in Collooney, 
 unless the O'Connells are older ; and the stone is inscribed 
 with the words : " Here lieth the body of Eobert M'ftim, 
 who departed this life the 22nd of March, 1807 ; aged 80 
 years." And the monument of the Nobles, who are the oldest 
 family in Tubberscanavin, is hard by, and bears the inscrip- 
 tion : " Here lyeth the body of John Noble, who departed 
 this August 7th, aged 63 years ; 1740." There are several 
 other monuments within and without the ruins, all over 
 Protestants ; and there is no evidence that Catholics with 
 the exception of Mrs. Carter were ever buried in the 
 churchyard. Drehid-in-cillin was abandoned as a place of 
 worship early in the last century, when the existing 
 Protestant church was built. 
 
 * Sarah Carter, alias Conlon, lived and died a Catholic. The parish 
 priest, Very Rev. James Henry, performed the funeral service in the 
 grave yard, for which he had the consent of the Reverend Mr. Duke. 
 The priest and parson accompanied the funeral arm-in-arm together, they 
 being great friends ; and on the procession reaching the cemetery, Mr. 
 Duke said to Father Henry, ' ' Go now and bury your parishioner.' ' Had 
 the priest officiated without this consent he would have violated the law 
 of the land, as every one knows, and become liable to heavy punishment.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 105 
 
 About two centuries had passed from the time when the 
 Catholics were evicted from D re-hid- in- cillin before they 
 could raise a new house of worship in Collooney. Mean- 
 time, everything had changed in and about the village 
 except its natural features ; its rivers, hills, vallies, and 
 plains. Its old chiefs, the M'Donoghs, were gone, and 
 their descendants for the most part emigrated ; while 
 such as remained were forced to perform menial offices 
 to earn their bread, and, in some instances, to herd cattle 
 for hire on the lands over which their ancestors ruled 
 with almost sovereign authority, like the reduced Roman 
 nobles, of whom Juvenal gives an instance : 
 
 " Laurent! custodit in agro 
 Conductas Corvinus oves." 
 
 The patrimony of these chiefs had been conferred on a 
 family notorious for hatred to everything Catholic and 
 Irish ; for, after that of Cromwell, there is no name that 
 grates more harshly on an Irish and Catholic ear than 
 that of Coote.* The castle, too, of the M'Donoghs had 
 become a pile of rubbish ; and even the town, that used to 
 surround the keep of its chiefs in more prosperous days, 
 had abandoned the prostrate walls and followed its new 
 master up the hill on which the village now stands. Srath 
 Phadruic had become a desert ; Kil eder da Owen, a hag- 
 gard ; while Drchid-in-chillin excluded Catholics, whether 
 living or dead, from its precincts. The castle then, the 
 
 * It is due to the recent and present bearers of the name to say, that 
 the Cootes of the nineteenth century are very different from those of the 
 seventeenth, as far as the Catholic religion is concerned. The greatest 
 benefactor of this religion in the Queen's County is Sir Charles Coote, of 
 Eallyfin, the actual head of the Coote family. On visiting, some time 
 eince, the chapel of Mountrath, he observed to the parish priest, who 
 accompanied him, "You want an altar-piece and seats or benches; and 
 I shall be glad, with your leave, to supply them." Of course the priest 
 accepted the generous offer, and Sir Charles lost no time in sending the 
 painting and benches to the chapel. This good gentleman also gives the 
 parish priest of Mountrath 50 a year for the poor of the parish.
 
 106 PARISH OF BALL YSAD ARE. 
 
 churches, the lords of the soil, the town itself, had altered 
 or disappeared ; everything, in a word, had passed or 
 varied, except the old religion, which remained always, and 
 remained unchanged, with children still as fervent as those 
 who had received baptism at Srali Phadruic from Saint 
 Patrick, or invoked blessings on their knees in Kil eder da 
 Owen from Columba of the Churches. 
 
 These zealous souls longed to have an altar near them 
 to kneel at ; and on Father Wat Henry devolved the duty 
 and honour of supplying this want. There was no law at 
 the time forbidding or hindering the erection of a Catholic 
 place of worship. The landlord too, the Right Honorable 
 Joshua Cooper, whose family had succeeded to the Cootes 
 in the ownership of Collooney, was equitably and even 
 favourably disposed towards the Catholics and their clergy. 
 At first there was great difference of opinion, and some 
 angry words as to the most suitable site for the intended 
 building, the inhabitants of Lackagh and Carrickbanagher 
 going in for Tubberscanavin or Tubberbrida, and the 
 parishioners that lived between Collooney and Coolany 
 holding out for Collooney ; but Collooney was selected, 
 chiefly through the influence of Mr. Cooper, who urged the 
 delays and other inconveniences it would cause him and 
 his household, if the servants who drove the family to 
 Collooney to Church should themselves have to go to 
 Tubberscanavin or Tubberbrida to perform religious duties. 
 This representation had the desired effect ; and with that 
 deference which the humbler classes of the Irish always 
 feel towards those above them when these are friendly or 
 even fair in their dealings the Lackagh and Carrick- 
 banagher people renounced opposition choosing rather to 
 inconvenience themselves than to be the occasion of it to a 
 gentleman who had proved himself a well-wisher and a 
 benefactor. Mr. Cooper gave the site and large pecuniary 
 aid ; the parishioners taxed themselves, and paid in pro- 
 portion to their means ; and Father Wat Henry and his
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSABARE. 107 
 
 good people had the happiness of seeing a substantial 
 slated chapel finished and opened for divine service in the 
 year 1798. This was an humble structure in itself; but, 
 to him that reflects, it will appear a more striking testi- 
 mony to the indestructible vitality of religion than the 
 most gorgeous edifices of the present time, inasmuch as it 
 marks the epoch at which the English persecutor gave up 
 the continuous effort he had been making, for more than 
 two hundred years, against the Irish Church, and virtually 
 acknowledged his impotence and discomfiture. 
 
 Though there was no house of Catholic worship in 
 Collooney between the early part of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury and the year 1798, still the Holy Sacrifice was 
 generally celebrated on Sundays and holidays during that 
 time somewhere in the neighbourhood. At first it was 
 offered on the Ox Mountains ; one day in a spot between 
 Glen and Largan, called Leim na heile ; on another, by a 
 large ledge of rock over the village of Coney ; this time 
 beside a rock in Kinnigrelly, which is still called Clogh- 
 an-sogarth ; and again at Bealach-lan on a rude altar of 
 stone within an earthen enclosure, which exists up to the 
 present. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century 
 Catholics assembled for worship at Largan in a barn, which 
 stood in the valley, that runs for a good distance along the 
 south side of the mountain ; and it often happened that 
 while the priest was at the altar two sentinels were posted 
 one towards Collooney, the other in the direction of 
 Coolany to watch the priest-catchers. The barn was 
 well placed for the purposes of concealment, for the whole 
 side of the adjoining mountain so abounded in tall brush- 
 wood at the time, that persons coming to mass could easily 
 pass through it unobserved. After abandoning this barn, 
 about 1770, priest and people betook themselves on Sun- 
 days to a plain thatched house, which was built between 
 the mountain and the sea, within a few yards of James 
 Donnelly's present residence, and which continued to be a
 
 108 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 place of worship up to 1798, when Father Wat erected in 
 Curhownagh a small slated chapel, part of which remains 
 incorporated in the one in use at present. 
 
 All these altars were situated to the north of Collooney ; 
 but there were also to the south of the village places in 
 which the inhabitants of that region assembled for mass in 
 the dark days of the past : first, in the townland of Lisa- 
 neena, by the side of a well-known ditch in the open field ; 
 next, in the same townland, in a mud- wall structure covered 
 with reeds or rushes, in a portion of John Gunning's hold- 
 ing that is still called the chapel-field ; and, finally, in a 
 long thatched house, erected on the side of the old road 
 that leads from Tubberscanavin to Cartron, just at the 
 angle where the road turns up the hill. 
 
 The chapel of Collooney, built by Father Wat Henry, 
 lasted from 1798 to 1843, when it was removed to make 
 room, on the same site, for the Church of the Assumption, 
 which was founded in that year by Dr. Durcan, and which 
 is the first of that series of churches with which His Lord- 
 ship enriched all the districts of the diocese. Sir John 
 Benson was the architect ; and though this talented man 
 was then only at the beginning of his career, the church 
 bears clearly the marks of his great mind. The edifice is 
 admitted, on all hands, to be as fine a parish church as 
 there is in Ireland, at least outside of the chief cities. 
 Judges of the largest experience and the most correct taste 
 are loud in praise of all its parts and surroundings : the 
 beautiful gates and railing of its outer area ; its stately and 
 symmetrical fa9ade ; its soaring spire, unequalled in the 
 county for beauty and boldness of design, and unsurpassed 
 in the kingdom ; its lofty and spacious interior ; the style 
 and finish of its groins and arches ; its tall and slender 
 columns carrying so gracefully the superincumbent weight ; 
 its lateral chapels to Our Lady and Saint Patrick both 
 gems of art ; its high and side altars, so rich in material, 
 workmanship, and ornament, and so accordant with the
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 109 
 
 CHUEOH OF THE ASSUMPTION. 
 
 requirements of the liturgy ; its neat font near the chief 
 entrance ; the long row of elegant and solid seats on either 
 hand as you pass up the nave ; the exquisite pulpit ; the 
 elaborate wrought-iron. and brass railing, that spans the 
 space before the altars; and, if last, certainly not least, 
 those fourteen stations of the cross, painted in oil, set in 
 rich Gothic frames of oak, and at once so elegant and so 
 devotional as to excite your admiration equally, whether 
 you regard them as works of art or as helps to piety. 
 About one hundred and twenty feet long, eighty wide 
 across the transepts, and fifty-four in nave and aisles, fifty 
 feet or more high, from floor to intersection of groins, the 
 proportions are very fine and effective. It is the only 
 church in the diocese that has transepts ; and these 
 striking appendages, taken in connection with the noble 
 tower, give an air of strength and solidity that you must
 
 110 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 always look for in vain in an edifice consisting only of a 
 long, unbroken, naked nave. Such a house, in some re- 
 spects, throws Patrick's-pasture, Kil eder da Oicen, Drehid- 
 in-chillin, and all that preceded it in the locality into the 
 shade ; and is a rich object of pride not only to Eight Eev. 
 Dr. Durcan and Sir John Benson, but to every one who 
 had a part, directly or indirectly, in raising it. And above 
 all it is a crown of honour to the people of the parish, who, 
 while contributing most of the money, supplied all the 
 talent that built it ; for, what cannot, perhaps, be said of 
 any other parish church in Ireland, may be affirmed of 
 that of Collooney that the architect, the builder, the 
 stonecutters, the masons, the plasterers, the carpenters, the 
 labourers all, in one word, engaged in its erection, were 
 parishioners. Nor is it their own church alone which 
 inhabitants of this parish have built, but they generally 
 have had, and still have, the chief hand in building all the 
 neighbouring churches as well. 
 
 This goes far to sustain the opinion often advanced, that 
 the inhabitants of Ballysadare parish are remarkable for 
 talent. And this in all classes from the day labourer up to 
 the late Mr. Cooper, one of the first astronomers in Europe, 
 who was also a native of the parish. Nor is the gift 
 confined to one creed ; and if there are young Catholics of 
 the neighbourhood in the college, "of Maynooth and else- 
 where, who are asserting the intellectual superiority of 
 their native parish, there are also, in the educational 
 establishments of England and Ireland, young Protestants 
 who reflect equal honour on old Collooney. 
 
 And Collooney men are as exemplary in behaviour as 
 they are distinguished for talent. Punctual in attendance 
 at their different places of worship, they are seldom seen in 
 courts of law ; and if quarrels ever take place in the 
 village, these disturbances are sure to be the work of 
 externs. Drunkenness, which is so much on the increase 
 in other parts of Ireland as to excite the solicitude of
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. Ill 
 
 ecclesiastical and civil authorities, is almost unknown in 
 the locality. Even on fair days, when temptations are 
 multiplied, and on Saint Patrick's day, which, unfortu- 
 nately, is too often abused elsewhere, there is hardly a 
 drunken man to be seen. And what renders this freedom 
 from the vice of drunkenness the more creditable is, that it 
 is the outcome of conviction, of a sense of duty and of self 
 respect, and not the result of artificial and external 
 restraints, which, if they occasionally effect a little 
 temporary good, often end, like quackery in medicine, 
 by leaving the patient many times worse than he was 
 before. 
 
 Another circumstance, connected with Collooney, that 
 deserves especial notice, is the general absence at present 
 of sectarian animosity. There was a time when bigotry 
 was the cause of alienation and ill-will ; when one side was 
 as ready as the other to give and to take offence ; when 
 the silly drawl of a ballad singer, or the antics of a mounte- 
 bank, were occasion enough for a party scuffle ; when 
 Orangemen commemorated the battle of Aughrim by flying 
 flags and parading lilies, and Roman Catholics celebrated 
 the supposed victory of Father Tom Maguire over Rev. 
 Mr. Pope by carrying flaming tar barrels alongside of 
 Orangemen's houses ; but that day seems to have departed 
 for ever. Though the inhabitants, in point of numbers, 
 are not very unevenly divided into Catholics and Protestants, 
 and though there are influences in existence that tend to 
 keep alive ill-omened distinctions, still there are counter- 
 acting influences, and there is, above all, among the people 
 themselves a considerable amount of that culture which 
 refines and softens manners, as Ovid tells us : 
 
 " Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes 
 Emollit mores, nac sinit ease feros. " 
 
 Coming now, after this little digression, to the Protestant 
 ministers and places of worship, in the parish of Ballysa-
 
 112 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 dare, the first Protestant vicar of the parish mentioned in 
 Cottons Fasti, and the first, probably, that existed, was 
 Robert Whitlaw, who is said by Cotton to have resigned 
 in 1605 the prebend and vicarage, which were united 
 under the Established church, as they continue to be at 
 present ; the benefice of Ballysadare, with cure of souls, 
 forming the corps of the prebend. It is certain that no 
 vicar of this parish existed in 1633, as the regal visitation 
 book of that year informs us that George Crofton was 
 impropriator of the vicarage of Ballysadare, and that there 
 was no curate.* We learn from the same authority, that 
 the annual value of the living was 20 sterling, a large sum 
 for those times. Of course the rectory and vicarage were 
 separate, and the former, which was also impropriated by 
 George Crofton, was worth 30 per annum, in 1633. f 
 
 To Mr. Whitlaw succeeded, in 1696, the Rev. Tobias 
 Caulfield, a member of the Charlemont family, being 
 grandson of Sir William Caulfield, the second baron of 
 Charlemont, and son of Captain Thomas Caulfield, of 
 Dunamon, in the County of Roscommon. In the year 
 that he received the prebend of Ballysadare in the diocese 
 of Achonry, Mr. Caulfield was presented to the union of 
 the nine vicarages of Tawnagh, in the diocese of Elphin ; 
 while, shortly after, he was created archdeacon and vicar 
 general of Killala. This gentleman married Anne, 
 daughter of Adam O'Hara, of Nymphsfield, or Annagh- 
 more, by whom he had two sons, Rev. Adam Caulfield and 
 Lieutenant Caulfield, of Ardcree, as well as other 
 children. J It was during his incumbency the present 
 
 * The entry in the Visitation hook is": " Vicaria de Ballesedara, valet 
 xx Ster. per annum. Georgius Crofton, Ar., Impropriator. Nullus 
 curatus." 
 
 f The entry in the Visitation hook of 1633, regarding the rectory of 
 Ballysadare, is the following: "Eectoria de Ballisedara, valet xxx. Ster. 
 per annum, Georgius Crofton Ar. Impropriator." 
 
 J Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, hy Mervyn Archdall, A.M., vol. iii, 
 Article, " Charlemont."
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 113 
 
 Protestant church of Collooney was built. He died in 
 1735.* 
 
 There would seem to have been no successor appointed 
 to Hev. Tobias Caulfield for seven years after his death, 
 when his son, Adam,f was collated in 1742 to the vacant 
 
 * The notices in Cotton's Fasti Ecclesice Hibernicee, vol. iv, p. Ill, are 
 as follows : 
 
 " 16 Robert Whitlaw was Prebendary, and resigned in 1695 [D 
 Reg.] " 
 
 " 1695-6, Tobias Caulfield, M.A., (grandson of Sir William Caulfield, 
 second Baron Charlemont), collated 'February 18th [D. Reg.] In 1704: 
 he was one of the Clergy's Proctors to Convocation. In 1716 we find 
 him holding a prebend in Raphoe. In 1724 he was Vicar-General of this 
 Diocese (Achonry), and shortly afterwards became Archdeacon of Killala. 
 He died in 1735." 
 
 See also the account of Rathmore for further information regarding 
 Rev. Tobias Caulfield. 
 
 f In Reverend Adam Caulfield's time there were priest-catchers in 
 Collooney, with whom this clergyman was as disgusted as were his 
 parishioners. See the Life of Father Hinnegan in the chapter on " Parish 
 Priests." To the honour of human nature be it told, that no persons 
 were so infamous in the eyes both of Catholics and Protestants as those 
 who pursued this abominable calling, if one can speak of such an occupa- 
 tion as a calling. " Towards the close of the reign of Anne and the 
 beginning of that of George the First there arose several persecutions 
 against Catholics, but more especially against priests, as well seculars as 
 regulars, which would have been still more violent and numerous, had 
 not Providence so disposed it that no one, not even the common hang- 
 man, was so infamous in the eyes even of non- Catholics, as the wretch 
 that got the opprobrious name of priest -catcher. It so happened, there- 
 fore, that, once a man turned informer against a priest, he could no longer 
 appear in public, except at the imminent risk of his life ; a fact that I 
 myself often witnessed while a little boy, when I saw crowds both of 
 Catholics and Protestants pursue the priest-catcher and pelt him with all 
 kinds of missiles. Notwithstanding, however, all this, vile men were 
 found so overpowered by the greed of gold, that they went about search- 
 ing for and capturing priests, both secular and regular, as if they were 
 the worst of criminals. Notably, in the year 1718, as I well remember, 
 seven priests of whom one was a Dominican, two Jesuits, one a Minorite, 
 and the remaining three Seculars were arrested in Dublin by a Portu- 
 gueze Jew, named Garzia, who passed himself off as a priest, the better 
 to worm himself into the confidence of ecclesiastics. The whole seven 
 were transported, having been enjoined never again to set foot in Ireland 
 
 I
 
 114 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 prebend. As might be expected in the case of so near a 
 relative of the O'Haras, this clergyman was a general 
 favourite ; and, in'proof of his great popularity, the remark- 
 able feat is handed down by tradition that, though there 
 were no carts at the time, all the parson's turf was carried 
 home from the bog in one day, by the people who had assem- 
 bled from all quarters, without distinction of creed, for the 
 purpose of giving this mark of their affection. The most 
 remarkable event in this incumbency was the obtaining by 
 Mr. Caulfield, on the 3rd of November, 1756, for himself and 
 successors for ever, at a Vent of 5 per annum, from 
 Richard, Bishop of Killala and Achonry, a glebe, which is 
 thus described in the legal documents. " Twenty acres 
 set off in the land demised on the 14th November, 1753, to 
 Robert Lord Kingsborough, and called Tanny- William half 
 quarter, Eallmolash alias Kilvolasly half quarter, Cony half 
 quarter, Killnamanagh three half quarters, and Ardcotton 
 four quarters, situate in the barony of Leyney, whereof 
 IA. 2R. lie on the east side of the road going to Sligo, and 
 are measured from the wall opposite the pound, extended 
 nine perches northward, and at right angles with the said 
 line are measured twenty- six perches seven- tenths east- 
 ward, forming with the opposite side an oblong square con- 
 taining IA. 2R. ; and 14A. IR. 10p. lie in the fields of 
 Ardcotton, bounded on the east with the lands let to the 
 miller of Colooney, on the south by the river, on the west 
 
 on penalty of death. They all, however, returned, taking new names, 
 and were left unmolested. At length, under a Hanoverian monarch, who 
 was naturally clement, and was accustomed to the toleration of Catholics, 
 magistrates leaned more to mercy, and all general persecutions ceased, 
 except in the year 1744. 1 have used, however, the word general advi- 
 sedly, "because partial persecutions have often occurred, directed against 
 individual ecclesiastics, or particular religious establishments, which was 
 natural, as they could be raised by any Protestant, and at any time ; and 
 as a matter of fact they have been often so raised. I made an exception 
 also of the year 1744, for a general and a very violent persecution raged 
 that year." Hibernia Dominicana, p. 160-1.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 115 
 
 by that part of Ardcotton held by Mr. William Phibbs,* 
 and on the north by the road leading from Colooney through 
 Ardcotton ; and 4A. 30p. lie on the north side of the said 
 road, bounded on the east by the land held by Thomas 
 Moore, on the south by the said road, on the west by a line 
 formed from an angle in the road, bearing five and a-half 
 degrees, the length thereof 34p. four-tenths, and on the 
 north by a line bearing ninety degrees, 20p. in length, and 
 falls in Moore park." f Mr. Caulfield died in 1772, and 
 was buried in St. Mary's, Dublin. 
 
 The next vicar and prebendary of Ballysadare was Rev. 
 Robert Shawe, who was collated on 16th December, 1772, 
 and of whom we know nothing else except that he con- 
 tinued to hold the dignity and benefice up to 1817, the year 
 of his death. Two of Mr. Shawe's children are buried at 
 Ballysadare, in the interior of the old church. 
 
 * This name is written Phipps in Erc's Ecclesiastical Register, but the 
 editor is in error, as the true name is Phibbs. 
 
 f Erc's Irish Ecclesiastical Register, 1830 ; p. 255. With these data it 
 would not be hard to make out the old glebe land, though the alteration 
 of roads that has taken place might cause some difficulty ; for neither the 
 Coolany road nor the high road to Sligo were in existence at the time 
 this survey was taken. 
 
 J Lodge's Peerage article, " Charlemont." The entry in Cotton is: 
 "1742. Adam Caulfield, M.A. (son of his predecessor), appears to be 
 Prebendary. [Vis. Book.'] He died in June, 1772 [D.Reg.]; and was 
 buried at St. Mary's, Dublin." Rev. Adam Caulfield's relation to the 
 Charlemont family is thus given in Lodge : " Captain Thomas Caulfield, 
 the seventh son of Lord Charlemont, was seated at Dunamon, in the 
 County of Roscommon, and 29 March, 1655, appointed a master in 
 Chancery. He married Anne, daughter of Charles, the second Viscount 
 Moore of Drogheda, and by her had issue two sons and three daughters, 
 viz. : William, his heir; Rev. Toby Caulfield, who, in 1696 was presented 
 to the union of the nine vicarages of Tawnagh, in the diocese of Elphin, 
 and County of Sligo, was Archdeacon of Killala, and by Anne, daughter 
 of Adam, son of Cain O'Hara of Nymphsfield, Esq., had the Rev. Adam 
 Caulfield, A.M.; Lieutenant Richard Caulfield of Ardcree, County of 
 Sligo, and other children." The Peerage of Ireland. By John Lodge, 
 etc., vol. iii, p. 138. 
 
 Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicce, vol. iv, p. Ill : " 1772. Robeit 
 Shawe, M.A., collated December 16th. He held the prebend forty -five
 
 116 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 On September the 23rd, 1817, Rev. Joseph. Verschoyle, 
 junr., (who must not be confounded with Rev. Joseph 
 Yerschoyle, the late archdeacon of Achonry and vicar of 
 Killoran,) was collated to the prebend and vicarage of 
 Ballysadare. It was in his time was built the glebe-house 
 of Ardcotton, which cost 800, of which sum 400 was 
 subscribed as gifts, and 400 raised on loan.* Rev. Mr. 
 Yerschoyle had resigned before the 21st of February, 1820, 
 as Rev. Thomas Kingsbury obtained at that date the dig- 
 nity and benefice of Ballysadare ; but Mr. Kingsbury in 
 turn resigned after one year's incumbency, and died in 
 1846. 
 
 The next incumbent was Rev. William Handcock, B.A., 
 who was collated on the 15th June, 1821, f but resigned in 
 1829, in consequence, it is said, of annoyance received from 
 certain parishioners who had taken offence at his conduct 
 on a Twelfth of July. The Twelfth in question fell on a 
 Sunday ; and Mr. Handcock, when he entered the pulpit, 
 finding orange lilies set before him and all round him, had 
 them removed, on which large numbers of the congregation 
 rose and retired from the church. To make matters worse, 
 the Roman Catholics of the parish took up the quarrel, 
 with which, by the way, they had no call to meddle ; and, 
 remembering the compliment formerly conferred on Rev. 
 Adam Caulfield, they assembled in force, and carried in 
 one day from Carrickbanagher to Ardcotton every sod of 
 
 years, till his death, in 1817." It is strange that after so long an incum- 
 bency there should be no tradition whatever of Mr. Shawe in the parish, 
 of Ballysadare ; very likely he resided elsewhere. Eev. Mr. Duke was his 
 curate, and is one of the best remembered clergymen that ever passed 
 through the parish. 
 
 * Ere' s Ecclesiastical Register, 1830 ; p. 254. 
 
 t Cotton, p. 111. The record in the Fasti of these two vicars is: 
 " 1820. Thomas Kingsbury, M.A., archdeacon of Killala, collated 
 February 21st [D. Reg.] He resigned in 1821." 
 
 [" 1821. William Handcock, B.A., collated June 15th. He resigned 
 in 1829."]
 
 PARISH OF iBALLYSADARE. 117 
 
 the parson's turf, the parish priest's horse leading the way, 
 and drawing the first crib. After this exhibition the feel- 
 ings of Mr. Handcock's enemies became daily more estranged, 
 as was natural enough, so that he determined to leave the 
 place, and soon effected with another clergyman an ex- 
 change of benefices. The exchange was probably all the 
 better for him, and at all events did not shorten his days, 
 for he was alive last year, and, for aught the writer knows 
 to the contrary, may be living still. 
 
 Rev. Charles Mulloy, B.A.,* succeeded Mr. Handcock 
 on the 21st of December, 1829, and died in 1832, the 
 parish priest, Very Rev. James Henry, dying in the same 
 year. Mr. Mulloy is buried in the graveyard attached 
 to his church, under a tombstone, on which we read this 
 inscription: "Mrs. Susanna Mulloy depd. 21 of April, 
 aged 80. Revd. Charles Mulloy, A.M., Vicar of this Parish, 
 depd. llth of May, 1832, aged 46." 
 
 The Rev. George Truelock, M.A. and curate-assistant 
 of Killoran was collated, on the 27th October, 1827, to the 
 prebend of Lackan, in the diocese of Killala ; passed to the 
 vicarage of Ballysadare in 1832 ; became subsequently 
 vicar-general and archdeacon of Killala ; and died on the 
 22rd of September, 1847. f 
 
 On Mr. Truelock's resignation in 1834, Rev. Lewis 
 Potter, M.A., was collated to the vacant prebend and 
 vicarage on the 5th of June that year. He, in turn, re- 
 signed in 1838, and passed to the rectory and vicarage of 
 Dromard, in the diocese of Killala, and died in 18504 
 
 * Cotton's entry is " 1829. Charles Molloy, M.A., collated December 
 21st. ; installed December 26th [D. Reg.] He died ia 1832." Fasti, etc., 
 vol. iv, p. 111. 
 
 t We read in Cotton " 1832. George Truelock, 11. A., prebendary of 
 Lackan, in Killala; collated May 28th. In 1833 he was appointed 
 vicar-general of the united dioceses. In 1834 he resigned, and became 
 archdeacon of Killala." Fasti Ecclesice HiberniceE, vol. iv, p. 111. 
 
 J Cotton's record" 1834. Lewis Potter, M.A., collated June 6th. 
 He resigned in 1838."
 
 118 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Since Mr. Potter's time there have been three preben- 
 daries and vicars of Ballysadare ; all happily still living : 
 Eev. William Newton Guinness,* M.A., collated the 28th 
 of February, 1838, who resigned in 1858, and lives now 
 in Australia ; Eev. W. C. Townsend, who succeeded Mr. 
 Guinness in 1858, and resigned in 1872 with the view of 
 accepting the living of Castlebar, which he now enjoys ; 
 and the Eev. Joseph Barker, B.A., the present respected 
 incumbent, who was collated in 1872, being the first pre- 
 bendary and vicar of Ballysadare appointed since the 
 disestablishment of the Irish Protestant Church. 
 
 It has not been so easy as one might expect to obtain 
 information regarding the erection of the present Protes- 
 tant church of Collooney, though a comparatively recent 
 structure. After inquiring in vain with the oldest inhabi- 
 tants of Collooney for some tradition about it, and searching 
 as ineffectually in the neighbourhood for documents to throw 
 light on it, the writer had the good fortune of finding, among 
 the Council Orders in the Public Eecord Office, Dublin, a 
 packet of six papers on the subject. The first of these is 
 " The humble petition of the minister, churchwardens, and 
 the major part of the parishioners of the parish of Ballysa- 
 dara, in the diocese of Achonry, County of Sligo, to their 
 Excellencies the Lords Justices and Councill of Ireland ; " 
 the second the petition to the same parties of Earl Bel- 
 lamont, proprietor of the town and land, signifying consent ; 
 the third the order of Privy Council of Ireland referring 
 those documents to the committee of the Board fo'r carrying 
 out the Act for Union and Division of parishes ; the fourth 
 the letter of Edward, Archbishop of Tuam, giving his 
 advice, approbation, and consent ; the fifth the letter of 
 Henry, Bishop of Killala and Achonry, giving advice, 
 
 * Cotton writes" 1838. William Newton Guinness, M.A. ; collated 
 February 28th. He is the present prebendary." Mr. Guinness is the 
 last incumbent of Ballysadare mentioned in the Fasti Ecelesice Ribernicce.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 119 
 
 approbation, and consent ; and the sixth the petition of 
 proprietors of the land of said parish, which is signed by 
 C. Burton, Joshua Cooper, and John White.* 
 
 Of these documents the five last are merely of a formal 
 character, and can be sufficiently understood from the 
 summary just given of their contents ; but as the first is 
 sure to be interesting to the readers of those pages for its 
 topographical information, and under other aspects, it is 
 given here at full length. This petition then " Humbly 
 sheweth that in pursuance of an act for the reall union and 
 division of parishes, wee the said minister, churchwardens, 
 and parishioners of the said parish bf Ballysadara or the 
 major part of them, after being assembled in vestry do 
 hereby declare that the old church or the walls of the old 
 church of Ballysadara in the diocese of Achonry and county 
 of Sligoe aforesaid is in a ruinous condition and remote 
 from much the major part of the Protestant inhabitants f 
 of the said parish, and inconvenient for the public service 
 of Almighty God, and that the market town $ of Collooney 
 in the said parish is the most convenient place for erecting 
 a church in the said parish for the publick service of God, 
 as by the advice and approbation of the Most Rev. Father 
 in God, his Grace Edward, Lord Archbishop of Tuam, Pri- 
 mate of Ireland, and of the Right Rev. Henry, Lord Bishop 
 of the dioceses of Killala and Achonry, by a certificate under 
 their hands and seals hereunto annexed may appear. 
 
 "Wee the said minister, churchwardens, and parishioners 
 assembled in vestry, do hereby signify our earnest desire 
 and consent to remove the place of publick divine worship 
 
 * John White lived in Spotfield, and was a near relative of the Fer- 
 ralls that owned Carrickbanaghan in his time. 
 
 t The " Protestant inhabitants " of the parish of Ballysadare resided, 
 nearly all, in the neighbourhood of Collooney at the time the petition 
 was drawn, where they were introduced and favoured by the Cootes. 
 
 t Unfortunately Collooney has ceased to be a " market town," to the 
 great regret of the inhabitants, who are very anxious to see a market re- 
 established in it.
 
 120 
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 
 
 from the old ruinous church or walls of Ballysadara to a 
 more convenient place in the market town of Collooney 
 upon the plott of ground in the quarter land of Cashell 
 commonly called Sweeny's park, on the North adjoyning 
 Thomas Hue's his garden and on the West adjoyning the 
 great road leading from Collooney to Toberscannovan,* by 
 the consent of the Right Hono'ble Richd. Earle of Bella- 
 mont, Proprietor of the said place; and wee, Toby Caulfield, 
 the present minister and incumbent, and the churchwar- 
 dens for the time being, and major part of the parishioners 
 of the said parish of Ballysadara hereby certifie that the 
 said parish is collative f and therefore no consent of any 
 Patron besides the bishop be required, and wee do most 
 humbly beg your Excellencies and Lordships by vertue of 
 the said act of Parliament to order the removal of the said 
 place of publick divine worship from the old church or 
 walls of Ballysadara aforesaid to a convenient place for 
 the Protestant inhabitants of the said parish of Ballysadara, 
 upon the said plott of ground in the quarter of Cashell in 
 the said town of Collooney, and that the church, or place 
 of publick divine worship to be erected there be to all in- 
 tents and purposes in construction of law for ever hereafter 
 deemed the parish church of the said parish of Ballysadara, 
 and that the said old church and walls of Ballysadara, or 
 
 * The " great road leading from Collooney to Toberscannovan " is now 
 the little lane that passes by the church door, and stretches between these 
 two places. The "new road" from Collooney to Tubberscanavon was 
 made in the first years of this century. " Ten miles of a mail-coach 
 road," says Dr. M'Parlan, in the Statistical Survey of the County of Sliyo, 
 printed in 1802, " very broad and level, and directed towards Boyle (from 
 Sligo), so as to avoid hills, are already made. The remainder of the line 
 to Boyle is presented and paid for. The mail-coach undertakers, after it 
 is finished, will no doubt vie in contracting for keeping horses and every 
 accommodation for running a mail coach from Dublin to Sligo.' ' 
 
 f Under the late Established Church all the benefices in the diocese of 
 Achonry were collative, the bishop being patron, except the perpetual 
 curacy of Ballysadare, of which Mr. Cooper first, and the Misses Cooper 
 next, were patron.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 121 
 
 any other place heretofore made use of for publick divine 
 worship in the said parish be never hereafter esteemed or 
 reputed the parish church of the said parish. Witness our 
 hands and seals this 8th day of April, 1720. And your 
 petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray. 
 
 Tobias Caulfield, 
 Js. Bronton, 
 Thomas Rutledge. 
 Joshua Cooper, 
 Thomas Jenkins, 
 Ino. Palmer, 
 H. Loriman, 
 Edwd. Braxton, 
 John Audley, 
 Matt Phibbs, 
 Lau. Bettridge, 
 Thos. Sweeney, 
 Thomas Maxfield, 
 Alexander Morrison, 
 Edward Fletcher, 
 John Chapman, 
 Philip Vint, 
 Mauris Freeman, 
 George Thompson, 
 John Leacock, 
 "William Ginks, 
 James Wither, 
 Archibald Hamilton, 
 James Lindsay, 
 John King, 
 John Adcox, 
 Thos. Hinds, 
 James Ewing, 
 Pat Gilmor, 
 John Maxfield, 
 
 > Churchwardens.
 
 122 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Bryan McGowan, 
 John Jinks, 
 
 his 
 
 Owen + Maglone, 
 
 mark 
 
 Thomas Hall, 
 George Dorran, 
 Ino. Thomb, 
 James Hamilton, 
 
 his 
 
 George + Harrison, 
 
 mark 
 
 Charles Jackson, 
 Thomas Millington, 
 John Hamilton, 
 James Armstrong, 
 John White, 
 John White, junr., 
 John Knott." 
 
 From this petition, which is dated 8th April, 1720, as 
 well as from the other documents, which are dated the 
 same month or the May next following, we may infer that 
 the church was built soon after 1720 ; probably in 1721 or 
 1722, as it is certain that an application signed and sup- 
 ported by so many Protestants, including two or three 
 of commanding influence, would not lie long without 
 effect.* 
 
 Though the petitioners claim the old church of Ballysa- 
 dare as their parish church, there is no reason to think that 
 Protestant worship ever took place habitually in that 
 building, considering its ruinous condition even in the time 
 of Elizabeth ; f and the very words of the petition, " the 
 
 * It is strange that the date of the erection, opening, or dedication of 
 this church should not be recorded, but still this seems to be the case, for 
 there is no such account in the documents belonging to the church, or in 
 the Record Office, Dublin. 
 
 f Supra, p. 16.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 123 
 
 old church or the walls of the old church of Ballysadara," 
 would seem to prove this, as showing that no part of the 
 house existed except "the old walls," in which it is 
 unlikely a minister would have officiated. It is not, how- 
 ever, impossible, or even improbable, that the functions of 
 the Protestant service were celebrated, even amid the old 
 walls, on one or, perhaps, on a few occasions, as- a form of 
 taking possession. Though there is no express mention in 
 the petition of the building at Mr. Sim's as a place of 
 Protestant worship, it is pretty certain that the phrase, "or 
 any other place heretofore made use of for publick divine 
 worship " is intended for that structure, for the tradition 
 of the parish is quite clear and conclusive on the fact, 
 that it was in this house * the Protestants of the neigh- 
 bourhood had divine service before the erection of their 
 present church, which, by the way, is sometimes called 
 the church of St. Paul, or St. Paul's church, from, 
 no doubt, its having been dedicated in honour of that 
 Saint. 
 
 St. Paul's was at first, a plain, oblong, low roofed 
 house, eighty feet long and thirty broad, including walls, 
 with the square tower we still see at its western end. 
 In the year 1817 this tower was surmounted with a timber 
 spire, made of the best red pine, and covered all over with 
 lead, which was fastened on with large headed copper nails, 
 driven so as to form diamond patterns, that had a pleasing 
 effect as they glistened in the sun. It was three years 
 after the putting up of the spire when a copper ball or 
 globe of fourteen inches in diameter, was set on its apex, 
 the delay, it is said, having arisen from the difficulty of 
 
 * There is also some tradition that a proselytizing school of one kind or 
 another existed near the church. The pupils attending the school are 
 said to have worn a uniform, in which a black cap was a conspicuous 
 item ; and, so late as forty or fifty years ago, a woman named May lived 
 in Collooney who was often called "Dolly Black-cap," because it was 
 believed that an ancestor of hers frequented that school.
 
 124 PARISH OF BALL'S SAD ARE. 
 
 finding any one adventurous enough to fix the ball in its 
 place. Local gossips tell that advantageous offers were 
 made in vain to several sailors to tempt them to undertake 
 the perilous job. But the grand feat was at last accom- 
 plished by a cool-headed millwright and carpenter of 
 Collooney, named John O'Reilly, who had himself and the 
 copper ball raised by pulleys to the top of the spire in a 
 wicker crib or basket, resembling the nacelle of a balloon, 
 and thus deftly set and secured the globe in position, to the 
 great admiration of " the size of a fair of people " to use 
 the words of a spectator who had assembled from far and 
 near to witness the exciting spectacle.* Thirty-two years 
 after its erection the spire was thrown down by a storm, in 
 the year 1849 ; and as some Protestant banterers of the 
 parish, on hearing that the Pope had fled that year to 
 Gaeta, gave out that the Roman Church was without a 
 head, the Catholic humourist took occasion from the fall of 
 the spire to retaliate on Protestant wits, that their church 
 had now lost Us head, and would hardly ever recover it. 
 This church was improved and enlarged in 1837 by the late 
 lamented Sir John Benson, who repaired and raised the 
 old walls, inserting new window opes and windows, re-roofed 
 the building, added transepts, put up a handsome groined 
 
 * John O'Reilly was regarded by all the neighbours as a man of very 
 rare talent. He was particularly clever in adjusting mill machinery, BO 
 that, though he had very little acquaintance with the improved machinery 
 of modern times, the English and Scotch millwrights that came across 
 the water to work at the new mills of Camphill and Collooney were often 
 glad, with all their experience and opportunities, to learn a lesson from 
 frim. 
 
 It would seem that his children inherited his talent. One of the sons, 
 James, who died on the 6th of December, 1877^ at North Ipswich, 
 Queensland, erected extensive saw mills there, and had realized at his 
 death a fortune of 12,000. This James, before emigrating, had one son, 
 John, who remained in Ireland ; and, as his father died intestate, if John 
 should fall in with these lines, he may find in them, as the advertisements 
 say, " something to his advantage." The writer has further important 
 information on this subject, and shall be happy to communicate it to 
 any member of the O'Reilly family that shall apply to him.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 125 
 
 ceiling," and thus imparted to the structure such architec- 
 tural merits as it possesses.* 
 
 The east gable contains a fine stained glass window, 
 erected by the filial piety of the Misses Cooper, in honour 
 and memory of their worthy father. 
 
 * The following remarks on Sir John Benson, which appeared in the 
 Sligo Champion of November the 7th, 1874, on the occasion of his death 
 and burial in London, may be given here, as they were sent to the news- 
 paper by the present writer : 
 
 ' ' COLLOONEY Sir John Benson was buried in Brompton, London, on 
 Friday, the 23rd inst., to the great disappointment of the people of this 
 neighbourhood. From the time the news of his decease arrived it was 
 believed that the remains would be conveyed to the family vault here ; 
 and the inhabitants of Collooney were resolved to honour, in every way 
 they could, the memory of their distinguished and gifted townsman. 
 Though it is now nearly thirty years since Sir John removed from Col- 
 looney as a place of residence, old neighbours never ceased to take the 
 liveliest interest in their absent friend, and to feel the warmest affection 
 for him up to the day of his death. They were proud of his genius, and 
 when they heard of his successes in Cork, Dublin, or London, they felt 
 that a portion of the honours acquired came home to themselves ; and his 
 genial nature endeared him as much as his talent. Wherever or when- 
 ever Sir John could oblige he invariably did so ; and it is touching in the 
 extreme, now that the good man is gone, to hear old labourers and 
 tradesmen recount, sometimes with tears in their eyes, numerous in- 
 stances in which this employer's benevolence came to the relief of them- 
 selves and their little ones. 
 
 " Nor is this attachment to Sir John Benson confined to one creed or 
 class. His own thoughts were too elevated and his feelings too generous 
 to make any difference in social relations on the score of religion or party ; 
 and in employing hands to carry out his undertakings he gave no thought 
 to the faith or politics of the applicants, but considered solely their fitness 
 for the employment sought. Leaving narrow-minded bigots to limit even 
 their alms to those of their own way of thinking on these subjects, Sir 
 John found place enough in his own big heart for all neighbours, to 
 whatever religious or political denomination they belonged. And as he 
 made no distinction in regard to Catholics, Catholics never made any 
 distinction in regard to him ; nor was their admiration the less intense, or 
 their love the less cordial because of their knowing him to be a sound 
 Protestant, and, if he had any politics, to be a politician of different 
 principles from their own. 
 
 " Sir John's principal works were executed in and around Cork, where
 
 126 PARISH OF BALLYSAUARE. 
 
 The cemetery of this church has been, for seventy or 
 eighty years the chief burying-place in the parish for the 
 Protestant parishioners. The following inscriptions are 
 copied from the stones : 
 
 Here Lyeth ye. Body of 
 Frances Stringer wife 
 to Adron Stringer who 
 Departd. ys. life April ye. 
 20 1738 Aged 30 years 
 
 he was constantly engaged for more than twenty years as an architect, 
 and engineer. His mind was of large grasp and versatile, so that roads, 
 railways, waterworks, and architecture in all its branches domestic, 
 civil and ecclesiastical, fell equally within its range. The taste of the 
 deceased was perfect, and seemed an instinct; and considering that his 
 early education was defective, owing to a delicacy of constitution that 
 showed itself all through boyhood, it is surprising what a mastery he 
 acquired in the sciences appertaining to the profession of the architect, 
 such as pure mathematics, mechanics, and hydraulics. 
 
 " Every building worth looking at in Collooney and the vicinity comes 
 from him. The fine pile of Markrea Castle is indebted to him for much 
 of its present proportions and beauties. It was he that erected Mr. Sim's 
 magnificent mills, that gave the market-house its handsome portico, that 
 added transepts to the Protestant church, and, above all, that designed 
 the beautiful Church of the Assumption, with its inimitable interior. 
 And, in and near Sligo, memorials of Sir John's abilities are not wanting. 
 He was the architect of the new bridge, of the Dominican convent, of 
 the pretty Protestant church of Coolerra, and of Colonel Barrett's pic- 
 turesque cottage. There are several other structures of our townsman's 
 through the country, all remarkable for grace of form as well as fitness 
 and elegance of design. It is easy to see his mark on everything he had 
 done. In truth it may be said of this talented man, as Johnson wrote of 
 Goldsmith, that whatever he touched he adorned, and as one can know 
 Hercules from the foot, so a competent critic can trace Sir John's genius 
 in the smallest as in the largest works ; in the Camphill linen office, or 
 Mr. George Allen's tasteful little cottage, as well as in the Great Exhibi- 
 tion building of Dublin, or the Benson bridge and Catholic cathedral of 
 Cork. Such a man was a credit to the whole country, though it is 
 natural that his fellow-townsmen of Collooney should take to themselves 
 the chief honour of his career, and have his name as a household word for 
 themselves and their children."
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 127 
 
 Here lieth the Body of William Martin 
 of Ardcotton who departed this life 
 February 10th 1769 aged 35 years Also his 
 Mother Alice Martin alias Bennett (da 
 lighter of George Bennett Esq Provost 
 of Sligo) who departed this life August 
 14th 1786 aged 89 yrs 
 Erected by her son James Martin of 
 Coloony in memory of them and of 
 his daughter Elizabeth Martin who 
 departed this life April 25th 1815 aged 
 18 years. And of his wife Elizabeth 
 Martin alias Brown who departed 
 this life Augt. 16 1816 aged 55 years 
 
 Samuel Patterson 
 died January 18th 1869 
 
 aged 69 years 
 
 Here Lieth the 
 Body of Letty 
 Flanagan alias 
 Tunichft Who dep 
 This Life 28th June 
 1777 Aged 30 years 
 
 In affectionate remembrance 
 
 of the family of 
 
 William and Susan Shaw of Cloonen 
 Called away in the bloom of life 
 
 James Aged 19 years 
 
 Elizabeth 13 
 
 John 28 
 
 Maryanne 18 
 
 William 25 
 
 Samuel 30
 
 128 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Here is deposited the remains 
 of Margret Martin who Exc 
 hanged a Transitory life for an 
 Eternal happiness Sept 1 
 1786 aged 45 years 
 Erected by her Inamoured 
 husband Stephen Martin 
 
 Here lieth the Body of 
 John Newton who departed 
 this life March ye. 21st 1795 
 in the 35th year of his age 
 
 Richard Craig of Collooney 
 
 died 9th of June 1841 aged 64 years 
 
 Here lyeth the body 
 
 of John Stokes 
 who departed this 
 life Feby. 25 1774 
 
 Aged 14 years 
 
 Also his Brother George Stoks 
 who departed this life Sept 
 12 1775 Aged 12 years 
 Also their father george 
 Stokes of Arcree who 
 departed this life december 
 the 2 1777 Aged 60 years 
 
 Erected by 
 
 Ion. Armstrong Barber 
 in Collooney in memory of his 
 son William Armstrong who Dpd. 
 this life Jany. 1st 1771 Aged 2 years
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 129 
 
 This monument was Erected by Bryan 
 Corristine in memory of Margaret 
 Corristine alias Carter who exchanged 
 a transitory life for Eternal happiness 
 August 16th 1776 aged 56 years 
 Also Peter Corristine who departed 
 this life Jany 4th 1783 aged 81 years 
 Also Anne Corristine alias Jackson 
 who departed this life March 6th 1795 
 aged 36 years 
 
 Here Lieth the body of John 
 Lowe who departed this life 
 December the 26th 1807 
 Aged 80 years Erected by 
 his son Ralph Lowe 
 
 Beneath this tombe lieth the remains 
 of Stephen Burk who exchanged a 
 transitory life for an Eternal happiness 
 On March 1st 1806 aged 48 years 
 Erected by his Son Thos Burk 
 
 This stone has been placed 
 Over the Grave of Mr. Mungo 
 Ewan by Edward Synge 
 Cooper Esq of Markrea 
 to testify the respect of this 
 Family for the memory of a faith 
 ful steward 
 
 He departed this life at Mark 
 rea Castle the llth of Jan 1815
 
 130 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 In memory of 
 
 Alexander Meredith 
 who died on the 1st of June 1839 
 
 aged 28 years 
 
 Also his -wife Mary Meredith 
 who died on the 13 Dec 1869 
 
 aged 80 years 
 Erected by their sons Thomas 
 
 and William Meredith 
 
 Here lyeth the body of 
 Jane Phetypace alias 
 Shaw who departed this 
 life 7th of June 1795 aged 37 
 yrs 
 
 Sacred to the memory 
 of John Petepies died Jany 
 9th 1837 aged 37 yrs Erected 
 by his wife Sarah Petepies 
 
 Robert Barber died 
 April 27th 1828 Aged 74 years 
 This stone was erected to his 
 memory by his son James Barber 
 
 Beneath 
 
 this stone lieth the body of 
 Abm Lawson of Knockbeg 
 
 who departed this life Feby 5th 1837 aged 70 years 
 Also his daughter Cathne Lawson who depd 
 this life August 19th 1837 Aged 19 years 
 And also his son John Lawson who departed 
 this life October 15th 1857 
 Aged 27 years
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 131 
 
 Underneath are deposited the 
 Remains of Mr. Charles Benson 
 who exchanged this life for a 
 better the 4th of August 1819 
 
 To pity the distress'd inclin'd 
 
 As well as just to all mankind 
 
 To some he gave to others lent 
 
 Yet blessed by Heaven's King he spar'd 
 
 More than his charity impair'd 
 
 The sweet remembrance of the just 
 
 Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust 
 
 In 
 Memory 
 
 of 
 
 Eobert Tighe 
 of Knockbeg in this parish 
 and of Belfast county Antrim 
 Obiit 28th April 1869 Aetat 37 years 
 
 also in memory of 
 
 Mary Tighe (alias) Carter 
 
 Obiit 27th September 1799 ; Aetat 72 
 
 Carter Tighe 
 Obiit 16th November 1855 Aetat 19 
 
 Catherine Tighe 
 Obiit 30th May 1863 Aetat 67 
 
 Celia Irwin Alias Tigh 
 departed this life 18th May 1844 
 
 Aged 74 
 
 also her daughter 
 Elizabeth Wallace departed 
 this life 18th April '47 Aged 47 
 Erected by her son Charles Tigh 
 
 Richard Charles Tigh 
 
 fell asleep in Jesus June the 5th 1864 
 
 aged 15.
 
 132 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Here lieth the remains 
 of Thomas Walker 
 who departed this life 
 September 24th 1833 
 
 aged 80 years 
 Erected by his wife 
 
 Mary Walker 
 
 Robert Barber died 
 April 27th 1828 Aged 74 years 
 This stone was erected to his 
 memory by his son James Barber 
 
 Sacred 
 to the memory of the children 
 
 of 
 
 John and Jane Pirrie. Viz. Isabella and William 
 
 died in infancy. Sarah Frances died May 15th 1834 
 
 aged 21 years. 
 
 Here lieth the Body of 
 
 Josph Raymond who departed 
 
 This Life Octber 25 1832 
 
 Aged 42 years 
 
 This stone was erected by his 
 Wife Mary Raymond Alias Burrows 
 
 John Benson 
 Aged 86 years died 11 Novr 1838 
 
 Ismena Whiteside 
 
 Aged 28 years died 30th 1838 
 
 Charles Benson 
 
 Aged 20 years 
 
 Died 16th October 1839
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 133 
 
 Here lies the remains of George Smith 
 who departed this life 10th of November 1843 
 
 Aged 62 years 
 Erected by his affectionate Wife Jane Smith 
 
 Francis Eeynolds died Jany 14th 1814 
 
 aged 39 years 
 
 John Eeynolds died Nov 22 1841 
 10 years 
 
 Sacred 
 to the memory of 
 
 Philadelphia 
 
 the beloved wife of Sergt R Tigh 
 who exchanged this life for a better 
 
 Dec 16th 1866 aged 57 years 
 A loving mother and a faithful wife 
 
 Moses Lindsay 
 
 died June 2nd 1861 
 
 Aged 32 years 
 
 Adam Simpson M D 
 
 Royal Navy 
 died March 5th 1862 
 
 Here lieth the remains of 
 
 Sergt R Tighe 
 who departed this life the 3 of April 1875 
 
 in the 75 year of his age 
 leaving a wife to mourn his loss
 
 134 
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Sacred to memory 
 of Joshua Tighe 
 who exchanged Mortality 
 
 for life 
 
 10 of June 1859 
 aged 23 years 
 
 Anne C. Graham 
 
 Fell asleep in Jesus 
 
 4 June 1857 
 
 Aged 18 years 
 
 James Shaw 
 
 of Ballyfaghy 
 
 died 9 June-1870 
 
 Aged 72 years 
 
 Charles William Blyth 
 
 son of the late 
 
 Lieutenant Charles Blyth R N 
 died October 6th 1865 
 
 Aged 21 years 
 
 Jane Blyth widow of the late 
 
 Lieutenant Charles Blyth B, N 
 
 Died Dec 25th 1875 
 
 Aged 70 years 
 
 Maria McCullagh 
 
 died in the Lord 
 
 Jany 22nd 1863 
 
 aged 26 years 
 
 Erected to her memory hy 
 
 her bereaved husband 
 
 Also 
 
 William Robert McCullagh 
 
 died Feby 24 1868 
 
 aged two years
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 135 
 
 To the memory 
 
 of 
 
 Anne 
 The beloved daughter of 
 
 William Allen 
 who departed this life 
 March 17th 1866 
 Aged 22 years 
 
 Also of 
 James Taylor 
 yougest son of the said 
 William Allen 
 
 of Theur 
 
 Who went to his eternal rest 
 4th October 1872 aged 37 years 
 
 Sacred 
 to the memory 
 
 of 
 
 James Morland a native of Scotland 
 who departed this life the 16th of April 1849 
 aged 51 years 
 Robert Munro 
 
 feU asleep in Jesus May 17th 1872 
 Aged 18 years 
 
 William Armstrong 
 
 medical officer of 
 Collooney dispensary district 
 
 died on Friday 
 
 April the 16th 1875 of fever taken in 
 the faithful and fearless 
 discharge of his duty 
 
 aged 36 years 
 
 This monument is erected to his 
 
 beloved memory by many friends 
 
 who knew and loved him well
 
 136 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 If all epitaphs were as modest and truthful as this last 
 one, these certificates of character to the dead would never 
 have incurred the suspicions that they generally lie under 
 at present. Dr. Armstrong was not only "faithful and 
 fearless in the discharge of his duty," hut brought to the 
 practice of his profession an amount of ability and cultiva- 
 tion that would have earned fame and fortune, had his lot 
 been cast in a wider field than a rural dispensary district of 
 Ireland supplies. And his heartfelt sympathy with the 
 poor, and genial urbanity to all were on a par with his 
 talents and attainments, so that while the latter com- 
 manded general respect, the former awakened everywhere, 
 and particularly among the humbler classes a warm 
 personal attachment that was not felt perhaps for any 
 other doctor in Ireland. Hence the grief diffused through 
 the neighbourhood by the announcement of his premature 
 death resembled rather the sorrow felt in the domestic 
 circle for the loss of a near relative, than the passing regret 
 usually bestowed on the demise of those with whom one 
 has only professional or official relations. To the credit of 
 those who had charge of the funeral, they appreciated 
 becomingly this state of things ; and it was a graceful 
 recognition of the popular feeling that, though the doctor's 
 family burying place is Sligo, his remains were left in the 
 midst of the " many friends " who, to use the language of 
 the epitaph, " knew and loved him well." Peace to his 
 ashes. 
 
 This may be the most suitable place for giving some 
 account of the Protestant Church of Ballysadare, which is 
 built on the Sligo side of the river, and adds much to the 
 appearance and importance of that side. That part of 
 Ballysadare is comparatively modern. The town that Sir 
 Frederick Hamilton destroyed stood, as has been seen 
 already, on the left bank of the river, in face of the church, 
 but as if Sir Frederick's presence had infected the place 
 with malaria, or people feared even the ghost of this
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 137 
 
 notorious trooper, not a single human habitation has been 
 erected since his day on the site of the old town. Those 
 that had been evicted by him raised about two or three 
 hundred yards further south some new houses, which went 
 also by the name of Ballysadare. Additions being made 
 to the number from time to time, and in the same direction, 
 the new town kept moving towards Collooney till it had 
 reached some short distance beyond the spot on which the 
 elegant residence of the Rev. Mr. Jameson now stands, 
 when, about a hundred years ago, it wheeled back, crossed 
 the bridge, and began to extend itself on that side. Thirty 
 or forty years since, there were persons living who remem- 
 bered the time when there were only two or three cabins 
 on the right bank of the river ; but that section of the 
 town spread fast under the fostering care of the Right 
 Honorable Joshua Cooper, who, in his day, was one of the 
 most improving landlords in Ireland. In the late Mr. 
 Cooper's time, a man named Busby built the row of houses 
 one finds to the right hand on crossing the bridge ; others 
 added houses here and there, including the fine residence 
 that Mr. Middleton now occupies ; Mr. Culbertson built 
 the mills and dependent structures ; and Mr. Cooper con- 
 tributed most of all to the beauty of the place by erecting 
 the church and adjoining schoolhouse. 
 
 This church, though of small proportions forty-eight 
 feet long and twenty- eight wide is a neat Gothic building 
 with a handsome square tower at the western end, and a 
 semicircular apse at the eastern, the whole structure costing 
 it is said, 2,000, all contributed by Mr. Cooper, who was 
 its founder and patron. It was built in 1839, was dedi- 
 cated in 1840 by Right Reverend Doctor Plunket, Bishop 
 of Tuam, Killala and Achonry, and opened the same year 
 for divine service, the Reverend Lewis Potter, vicar of 
 Dromard, receiving the appointment of officiating clergy- 
 man from the patron, Mr. Cooper, as that gentleman's 
 chaplain and almoner. The most intimate and affectionate
 
 138 PAKISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 relations subsisted between the Eeverend Mr. Potter while 
 he was vicar of Ballysadare, and the Markrea family, who 
 were attached to him both as clergyman and friend ; and 
 it is said to have been the desire to secure the continuance 
 of those relations that chiefly prompted Mr. Cooper, on 
 Mr. Potter's appointment to the vicarage of Dromard, to 
 erect the new place of worship at Ballysadare. The Rev. 
 gentleman on his side was so anxious to meet the kind 
 wishes of his friends as to employ a curate to perform 
 divine service at Dromard, and thus leave himself free to 
 officiate at Ballysadare. And Mr. Potter continued to do 
 duty in the new church up to his death, which took place 
 in 1850, in a very tragic manner ; for having gone that 
 year to Scotland, on a missionary tour, he fell suddenly 
 dead of heart disease, before his congregation, while 
 preaching in the pulpit. 
 
 Reverend Mr. Potter was succeeded in the chaplaincy 
 by Reverend Mr. Ellis, who after a few years was obliged 
 to resign the charge from ill health. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Hamilton was the next chaplain, and con- 
 tinued in the office till 1860, when, strange to say, he died 
 exactly similarly to Mr. Potter, the first chaplain, having 
 fallen dead in the pulpit, while addressing his flock at 
 Ballysadare. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton's successor was Rev. Thomas Jameson, 
 A.B., the present incumbent, who, if the good wishes of 
 neighbours Protestant and Roman Catholic can do it, 
 will long enjoy health and happiness. 
 
 The condition of the clergymen serving this church has 
 undergone considerable alterations in the course of time. 
 The house was at first intended as a chapel-of-ease for the 
 convenience of Mr. Cooper, his family, and tenants ; and 
 the income of the first chaplain came entirely out of Mr. 
 Cooper's pocket. After Mr. Potter's death the Markrea 
 family appealed to relatives and friends ; raised funds for 
 a partial endowment, and had the district constituted a
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 139 
 
 perpetual curacy ; Mr. Cooper, and, since his demise, the 
 Misses Cooper, being patron, and supplementing the small 
 annual sum that the endowment allowed, so as to make 
 it a reasonable stipend for the incumbent. We are not 
 aware what effect Mr. Gladstone's Act has had in regard to 
 the Ballysadare church, or whether the supplement just 
 referred to still comes from the Misses Cooper or is taken 
 out of the " General Sustentation Fund." 
 
 The ground attached to the church, or rather the portion 
 of the ground then in occupation of Mr. Cooper, was con- 
 secrated for a cemetery in December, 1862, a few days pre- 
 vious to Mrs. Cooper's death, and in anticipation of that 
 event, which took place on the 27th of the month. Some 
 more land has been since added, and has, it is said, been 
 also consecrated, the officiating prelate, on both the 
 occasions, being Right Eev. Dr. Bernard, the present 
 Bishop of Tuam, Killala, and Achonry. 
 
 Mrs. Cooper was the first person buried in the new ceme- 
 tery ; in less than a year the remains of her good husband 
 were committed to the same vault ; and since that time 
 there have been several interments. 
 
 In looking at the interior of the church, which is ex- 
 tremely neat, and very tastefully furnished, you observe a 
 handsome stained-glass memorial window, erected in 
 memory of Robert Culbertson, Esq., J.P., and three mural 
 tablets bearing the inscriptions that follow : 
 
 1. 
 
 In memory of 
 
 The Revd Robert A. Hamilton 
 
 who was suddenly removed from this world 
 
 During the performance of his duty 
 
 To his Lord and Master 
 
 And in the presence of his congregation 
 
 August 19th 1860.
 
 140 
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 2. 
 
 This Tablet 
 is erected to the memory of 
 
 The Eevd Lewis Potter 
 who opened this chapel in the month of . 
 
 August 1840 
 And who died in Scotland in the month of 
 
 November 1850 
 
 Those who have enjoyed for ten years 
 The advantage arising from a connection with him 
 As a Christian minister and Friend 
 Offer this simple tribute to his memory. 
 
 3. 
 
 Sacred 
 
 To the memory of 
 
 Eobert Culbertson Esqr J.P. 
 
 of Avena Ballisodare 
 
 who departed this life 
 
 the 9th of May 1862 
 
 Aged 52 years 
 
 Optimo conjugi 
 Conjux maerens 
 
 " He walketh with God and he was not 
 for God took him." 
 
 Gen. 5 v 2.4. 
 
 The Methodist chapel, which stands two or three hun- 
 dred feet to the north of Saint Paul's church, Collooney, 
 was erected in 1861 on a spot of ground that the Govern- 
 ment of the day had purchased, in 1727, from Lord Col- 
 looney and Mr. Joshua Cooper, for the purpose of building
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 141 
 
 a barrack upon it; and though the public authorities 
 changed their minds after the purchase, and decided not 
 to build, they held possession of the plot down to the year 
 1858, when it was publicly sold, and Alderman Williams 
 of Sligo bought it for the Methodists. This chapel, which 
 is a plain, unpretending, but substantial structure forty- 
 six feet long, and twenty-six wide, and capable of seating 
 one hundred and forty people was opened for worship the 
 same year it was built. The services commence on Sunday 
 at four o'clock, p.m. ; and on week days at seven o'clock, 
 p.m. ; and are conducted by circuit ministers and local 
 preachers. 
 
 This house gave great umbrage to the late Mr. Cooper, 
 partly, it is said, because that gentleman regarded the pur- 
 chase of its site in the midst of the Markrea property 
 as a kind of encroachment on landlord rights, and partly, 
 it would seem, because the Methodists refused to regulate 
 the time of their religious services according to his good 
 pleasure. Whatever may have been the point of view 
 from which the deceased looked on the transaction, he felt 
 so hurt as to resolve, in consequence, never to set foot in 
 Collooney ; a resolution, unfortunately, which was kept to 
 the end. But had Mr. Cooper lived a few years longer, 
 his generous nature would have brought him to think 
 better of a proceeding, which, if examined dispassionately, 
 appears to have been void of all offence. The Methodists 
 could hardly be blamed for the purchase, seeing that Mr. 
 Cooper declined to bid for the little spot, and thus seemed 
 to leave others free to buy or not, as they liked. Nor 
 should they be censured for following the dictates of 
 conscience, and declining his intervention in regulating 
 their services, however much they esteemed and respected 
 him, as it was clear, that a man who felt so strongly and 
 sensitively what he considered the evil of a second place of 
 Protestant worship in the town, could hardly help having, 
 however unconsciously, some bias in the matter.
 
 142 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 SECTION VIII. STATISTICS. 
 
 To satisfy the more curious reader some statistics may be 
 added. The number of inhabitants in Collooney according 
 to the census of 1871 was three hundred and ninety- one, 
 (one hundred and seventy-eight males and two hundred 
 and thirteen females) which was hardly half the population 
 that the village contained about the beginning of the 
 century, when there were several rows of houses that have 
 since disappeared. And the census of 1871 showed a 
 considerable falling off from that of 1841, when the 
 population was six hundred and fifty- one ; from that of 
 1851 when the number of souls were five hundred and 
 sixty- eight ; and even from that of 1861, when the inhabi- 
 tants numbered four hundred and sixty-five. The heads 
 of houses consisted in 1871, as they consist at present, of 
 one merchant and mill-owner ; one medical doctor ; one 
 land-agent ; five publicans and grocers, including one hotel- 
 keeper and one wholesale spirit dealer ; one draper, grocer, 
 and postmaster ; two bakers, grocers, and provision dealers; 
 one National school teacher ; one Bible reader ; two 
 Church Education Society teachers ; one clerk ; one land 
 surveyor ; one plasterer ; two millwrights ; four millers ; 
 two carpenters ; two tailors ; one smith ; one cartwright ; 
 one nailor ; three shoemakers ; one mill steward ; one 
 oats-buyer; two constabulary pensioners; one Markrea 
 estate bailiff; one water bailiff; one process-server; one 
 fiddler ; one constable and three sub-constables ; twelve 
 mill labourers ; two chemical work labourers ; six job 
 labourers ; two farmers ; and one parish priest. 
 
 The population of Collooney, though less in 1871 than 
 in any previous year of the century, was larger then than 
 in 1727, when Mr. Cooper purchased the place from Lord 
 Bellamont. In a document connected with the purchase,
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 143 
 
 for which the writer is indebted to the courtesy of Colonel 
 Cooper the following heads of families are given as 
 residing in Collooney in 1727, and as having the several 
 interests attached to their names 
 
 Lord Bellamont, owner, living in a mansion, called 
 " My Lord's own house." 
 
 Hugh McLouvain, Two tenements. 
 
 William Monagh ; One house with six acres of land. 
 
 John Braxton ; Tuck mill, house, and garden.* 
 
 Thos. Rutledge ; House and garden with 22A. IR. 2p. 
 land.f 
 
 Swudy ; House with 20A. OR. 6p. of land. 
 
 Thos. Hughes ; House, plot, and office house with 
 46A. OR. OP. 
 
 Swiney ; Corn mill, and fairs, customs, and markets of 
 Collooney.J 
 
 John Hall ; Partner of Swiney. 
 
 Alderman Mason ; Part of Cashell and Knockbeg. 
 
 Ed. Fletcher ; House and garden. 
 
 Ed. Watts ; lands of Stravenagh. 
 
 * There is a John Braxton buried in Ballysadare in the interior of the 
 old church. An Edward Braxton is found as a witness in the "Deposi- 
 tions" taken after the Insurrection of 1641, the records of which are in 
 Trinity College. And the name of Edward Braxton is found among 
 those appended to the Petition, addressed to Lords Justices, for the 
 removal of the parish church from Ballysadare to Collooney (see p. 121). 
 
 f Thomas Eutledge was a man of considerable means, so that he 
 became the purchaser of Cloonamahon, Lisaneena, and Knockmullin. 
 The two former places are still held by his descendants. Thomas Rut- 
 ledge, junior, was churchwarden in 1756. And one of the church- 
 wardens of 1820 was Thomas Rutledge, no doubt, the person mentioned 
 above, and father of Thomas, junior. 
 
 J The Swineys or Sweenys seem to have taken good root in Collooney, 
 for we know that the land adjoining the Protestant church was formerly 
 called " Sweeny's Park," and we find a Thomas Sweeny churchwarden 
 in 1753, and the same, or another Thomas, in the same office, in the year 
 1757. After that they disappear from the records of Collooney, till we 
 come to Dr. Sweeny, who was of a different family, and a native of 
 Cloonamahon.
 
 144 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 John Swiney ; House and garden. 
 
 Margaret Gallagher, alias Yere; House and garden. 
 
 James Lindsay ; House and garden. 
 
 John Leacock ; House and garden. 
 
 Arthur Hamilton ; A park of 4A. 2R. OP. 
 
 John Braxton ; House, plot, and garden. 
 
 Peter Carrigan ; House and plot, with six acres of land 
 in Rathrippon. 
 
 Thady Finn ; Plot. 
 
 John Collery ; House, plot, and garden, with twenty acres 
 in Rathrippon. 
 
 Daniel McFarlane ; A plot. 
 
 John Rutledge ; House and garden. 
 
 John Adcock ; House and garden. 
 
 Hugh Carrigan ; House and garden. 
 
 Taking the ahove list to include all the heads of families 
 in Collooney in the year 1727, though there may have been 
 others, such as lodgers, labourers, or caretakers, and 
 allowing thirty souls to Lord Bellamont's house, and an 
 average of six to each of the others, we get a total of one 
 hundred and seventy- four inhabitants, a number that has a 
 larger ratio to the one million six hundred and sixty-eight 
 thousand one hundred and forty-two persons supposed to 
 be in Ireland, at that time, * than three hundred and 
 ninety- one bears to five million three hundred and thirty- 
 eight thousand nine hundred and eighty- six, the population 
 of the country at the census of 1871. From the names we 
 may fairly conclude that all the inhabitants of Collooney 
 in 1727, with scarcely an exception, were Protestants, for 
 even Sweeny, the name most likely to be that of a 
 Roman Catholic, belonged, as we learn else where, f to a 
 
 * Tracts and Treatises on Ireland. .Reprinted by Alex. Thorn and Sons, 
 1861, p. 355, vol ii. 
 
 t Petition of minister, churchwardens, etc., to the Council of Ireland. 
 See page 121.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 145 
 
 Protestant. And the floating character of the population 
 of Collooney comes out well in the fact that, of all the 
 names borne in the village at that time, not so much as 
 one survives in it at the present moment ; nor is there in 
 the place, as far as can be ascertained, a single descendant, 
 lineal or collateral, of the twenty-four heads of families 
 that resided there when Collooney, alias Cashel, was 
 purchased by Joshua Cooper, just one hundred and fifty 
 years ago.* 
 
 The population of Collooney, as of the rest of Ireland, 
 reached its lowest point at the period of the Cromwellian 
 triumph, when war first, and famine and pestilence after- 
 wards, made the country a wilderness. " In the years 
 1652 and 1653," writes the learned Mr. Prendergast, "the 
 plague and famine had swept away whole counties, so that 
 a man might travel twenty or thirty miles and not see a 
 living creature. Man, beast, and bird, were all dead, or 
 had quit these desolate places." f According to the official 
 census of 1059, the number of souls at that time in 
 Collooney or Killinbridge as the place was then called 
 was only seventy-six ; and of these thirty-seven belonged 
 to " Cooloony castle," which was the residence of Richard 
 Coote, Esq., who became Baron of Collooney at the 
 Restoration.^ It would appear that some increase of 
 
 * The names of the present householders of Collooney are : Sim, 
 
 Allen, Moore, Gilhooley, O'Connell, O'Donoghue, Hargadon, ConoUy, 
 Druvy, Bree, Scanlon, Martin, M'Donald, O'Rorke, Brennan, Barrett, 
 Moran, Kilbride, M'Kim, Burrowes, Latimer, Cullen, Healy, Morrow, 
 Conry, Lang, Kilcoyne, Whitesides, Coleman, Monroe, Cogan, M'Andrew, 
 Tighe, Linton, Hart, Higgins, Noble, Gregg, Hunt, Long, Eeed, 
 Denison, Kemmit, M'Manus, Drummy, Irwin. 
 
 f Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, p. 149. First edition. 
 
 See in Appendix the Hearth-money returns for the parishes of Ballysa- 
 dare and Kilvarnet, as also the Census of 1659, as far as relates to these 
 parishes. 
 
 J Richard, the second Baron Collooney, did not roside in M'Donogh's 
 Castle, but in the new mansion, of which llu ruin still remains. As he 
 was one of the first to join the Prince of Orange, James II proscribed 
 
 L
 
 146 PAK1SH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 population took place between this period and 1662, as we 
 learn, from the hearth-money returns of that year, that 
 twelve householders not counting Lord Collooney paid 
 the tax in Killinbridge : a number, in all likelihood, that 
 did not include the whole of the inhabitants, as, no doubt, 
 there were some poor who were not liable to pay hearth- 
 money, or who, if liable, failed to pay, and would not be 
 
 him by the following 1 patent: " Whereas, Richard, Lord Baron of 
 Coloony, who being a Peer of our kingdom of Ireland, by his faith and 
 allegiance to us, ought to live and reside in the said kingdom, to assist us 
 and our chief governor with his counsel and advice, when thereunto 
 required, yet hath transported himself beyond the seas out of our domi- 
 nions ; and that several others of the nobility and gentry of the said 
 kingdom have committed the like misdemeanour, which tends much to 
 our prejudice, and to the impoverishment of the people of said king- 
 dom, much of the revenue thereof being by this means consumed in 
 foreign countries ; and we being graciously pleased to prevent the mis- 
 chief that upon this occasion may happen, our will and pleasure is, and 
 we do hereby (pursuant to privy seal dated at Westminster-hall 17 Octo- 
 ber, 1687) require and command the said Richard, Lord Baron of Coloony, 
 by the duty of his allegiance to us, forthwith to repair unto our said 
 Kingdom of Ireland, in order to inhabit and continue there, under the 
 penalties that may thereupon ensue ; and to the end the said Richard, Lord 
 Baron of Coloony, may pretend no excuse, under colour of any license or 
 licenses he may have, or pretend to have for his said absence, we do 
 hereby revoke, annul, and make void every such licence, or pretended 
 licence, that he, the said Lord Baron of Coloony, hath, or may pretend to 
 have, to countenance his said absence ; and in case the said Richard, 
 Lord Baron of Coloony, will prove refractory or disobedient to this our 
 command, we do hereby require and command our chief governor and 
 governors of Ireland, for the time being, to order that he be .proceeded 
 against according to law for such his disobedience." Baron Coloony 
 seemed indifferent to those proceedings, and only attached himself the 
 more to the Prince of Orange, who showered favours on his lordship, 
 making him treasurer and receiver-general to the Princess, appointing 
 him Governor of the County Leitrim, and advancing him to the dignity 
 of Earl of Bellamont. In 1695 King William named the earl Governor 
 of New York, which legal office he held till death, which took place 
 at New York on the 5th of March, 1700. On his decease the deputy- 
 governor and council proclaimed ' a general fast to be observed through- 
 out the province, to bewail the loss of such a governor, as a publick cala- 
 mity, so much were his virtues known and esteemed.' " Lodge's Peerage 
 of Ireland: by Mervyn Archdall, A.M., vol. iii, page 213.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSA.DARE. 147 
 
 returned.* It should however be observed that the name, 
 Killiribridge, was applied to both ends of the bridge, for in 
 the census of 1659 we find Killinbridge, in the barony of 
 Tirerill, set down as containing thirty-nine people, and 
 Killinbridge, in the barony of Leyney, as having fourteen ; 
 and as some of the twelve, who are given in the "returns" 
 as having paid the tax in Killinbridge, may have lived, and 
 very probably did live at the Leyney end of the bridge 
 the place now called Camphill we cannot infer with 
 certainty from these returns the exact population of Col- 
 looney the Tirerill Killinbridge though we are pretty 
 safe in concluding, that the inhabitants were somewhat 
 more numerous in the decade of years beginning with 
 1660, than in the previous decade of years, which was 
 probably the most disastrous period through which even 
 long-suffering Ireland has ever passed. May a kind 
 Providence save the country in general, but Collooney in 
 particular, for all future time, from so agonizing an ordeal. 
 
 * Thorn's Tracts and Treatises, vol. ii, page 412.
 
 148 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MARKREA. 
 SECTION I. FORMER OWNERS OF MARKREA. 
 
 MARKREA* adjoins the townland of Collooncy on the south- 
 east, and is so called from two Irish words magh and 
 reagh signifying, the brown plain. There is a silly tra- 
 dition that the name is derived from one IMark Rea, some 
 former owner, it is alleged, of the place ; hut this is pure 
 invention, and comes of the custom, unfortunately too com- 
 mon in Ireland, of fabricating derivations of local names 
 when the true origin is unknown. But that the genuine 
 signification of Markrea is that here given is confirmed by 
 the decisive authority of Mr. W. M. Hennessy, who writes : 
 " From both forms MARCRE and the alias MACKREAGH 
 
 * " Mercury," says Dr. MacParlan, in his Statistical Survey of the 
 County of Sligo, page 7, "the residence of Colonel Cooper (Joshua), lies 
 within about seven miles south of Sligo ; this demesne is equally conve- 
 nient and handsome ; the soil is deep and exuberantly rich ; when con- 
 nected with the Onion Woods, the whole will consist of about 1200 acres. 
 It is composed of small sloping hills of different shapes and sizes, swelling 
 alternately with woods and verdant lawns ; the river Unshion wanders 
 in mazy windings through the whole, and imparts while it receives a 
 great deal of ornament." 
 
 The name " Collooney" is explained by some in the same fanciful way 
 as " Markrea." There was a chieftain once of the M'Donoghs, so the story 
 runs, who had two daughters, one called Una, and the other Anna ; and 
 as he gave the lands of Collooney to one sister, and the lands of Coolany 
 to the other, these places got their present denominations from that fact, 
 Collooney signifying the " portion of Una," and Coolany the "portion of 
 Anna." This fancy is not only inconsistent with the true derivation of 
 Collooney from one of the old names of the place, viz., Cuilmuine the 
 district of the shrubby places but is also at variance with the facts of 
 history, for Coolany was always a part, and an important part, of the 
 territory of the O'Haras, and never belonged to the M'Donoghs.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 149 
 
 I conclude that the old name of Markrea was Magh-Riab- 
 hach, pronounced Magh-Reagh."* 
 
 At present the owner of Markrea has a chiefry on Cloona- 
 mahon, but formerly it was Cloonamahon that gave the 
 law to Markrea ; for the first mention we find of the place 
 occurs in an inquisition, sped at Sligo, on the 26th !Sep- 
 tember, 1614, before Sir John King and others, which in- 
 forms us that Markrea was the property, in 1598, of 
 Maurice Caech M'Donogh Trouse f of Cloonamahon. It 
 may interest County Sligo men to know the names of the 
 jurors in this case, as they were the leading men of the 
 county at the time ; they are : Laurence Hart of 
 
 * Letter of Mr. Hennessy to the writer. Markrea, or in English, the 
 brown plain, was most probably so called from the dark colour imparted 
 by the rushes that formerly covered the land, and that are not quitd ex- 
 tirpated yet. 
 
 t A trouse, or trowse (probably from the French word trousser, to truss 
 or tie up), was a tight fitting article of dress, that comprised in one 
 piece " britches, stockings, and socks, or sandals ; " and Maurice Caech 
 must have got the name of " Trouse" (of the trowsers) from continuing 
 to wear this garment after others of his class had given it up, or perhaps, 
 vice versa. As we learn from the Life of Sir John Perrot, page 198, Irish 
 chiefs laid aside the trouse with great reluctance, though their own clergy, 
 as well as the English authorities, did what they could to discredit it. Sir 
 John would not admit members habited in the Irish mantle and trouse, 
 to attend the Parliament he had convoked in 1586 ; and to induce those 
 summoned to that assembly to appear in English attire "he bestowed 
 both gownes and cloakes of velvet and satten on some of them as Tur- 
 lough Lenough, and others ; " a full dress, whatever it might be now, 
 not being an inappropriate gift for a gentleman, at a time when a rich 
 robe was often a most acceptable present to the Queen. " And yet," 
 continues the Life of Sir John Perrot, " the Irish chiefs thought not 
 themselves so richly, or at least so contentedly attired in their new cos- 
 tume as in their mantles and other country habits. Among whom we 
 may remember one, who being put into English apparel, came unto the 
 Lord Deputy and besought one thing of him, which was, that it would 
 please his lordship to put one of his chaplains, whom he termed his Priest, 
 to accompany him arrayed in Irish apparel, and then, quoth he, they will 
 wonder as much at him as they now do at me ; so shall I pass more 
 quietly and unpointed at." This Irish chief was a wag. See The Works 
 of &ir James Ware, vol. ii, page 177.
 
 150 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 (place illegible in MS.) ; Andrew Crean, Annagh (Hazel- 
 wood) ; Phelim O'Connor, of Glan ; Thomas Green, of 
 Bricklieve; Donogh O'Connor, of Lavally ; Torlogh Daragh 
 O'Connor, of Drum ; Cormac Oge Mac William Hart, of 
 Ardtarmon ; Robert M'Wine, of Ballinfull ; Ferdaragh 
 O'Connor, of Dunally ; Carbry M'Dowaltagh M'Donough, 
 of Tullough ; Erril O'Hara, of Moymelough ; and Owen 
 M'Swine, of Dunecontratin. Having been duly sworn, 
 the jury found " that Maurice Caech M'Donough Trouse, 
 of Clonymahine, with divers other false traitors unknown, 
 entered into rebellion on the 1st May, 1598, and was slain 
 in the same rebellion on the 17th August, 1598 ; and that 
 the aforesaid Maurice Caech M'Donough Trouse was seized 
 of the ' trine of Marcrea with its appurtenances ; the town 
 of Ardcurley, with its appurtenances ; Mullaghbrian, the 
 town and parcel of Lishconagh, Derryglish (Red Fort), 
 Aughculback, Knockroe, Knockrawer, Kinaghan, Rath- 
 gran, in barony of Tirerril ; Knockrenge, Drumdurly, and 
 Clonbuynagh, in barony of Corran.' This Maurice Caech 
 was the son of ' Morryshe M'Donoghe, of Clonemahyne, 
 gent./ one of the signatories of the Indenture between Sir 
 John Perrott and the chieftains of Sligo." * 
 
 * The following persons were the parties to the Indenture : " Right 
 Honorable Sir John Perrott, Knight, Lord Deputy-General of Ireland 
 for and on the behaulfe of the Queen's most excellent Majesty, of the 
 one part3 - e ; and the reverend fathers in God John Bishop of Elphine 
 Owyn Bishop of Aconry Owine electe Bishop of Killalae Sir Donyll 
 O'Connor of Sligo, Knight Pheolyme O'Harte of Ardtarmon otherwise 
 called O'Hart, chief of his name Owin O'Connor of the Grawndge, 
 gen. Edmond O'Dowey (O'Dowda) of Kilglasse, otherwise called 
 O'Dowey, chief of his name Hubert Alhanaghe of Eathly, gen Breene 
 
 MSwyne of Ardneglasse, gen Davy Dowdy of Castle -Con nor, gen 
 
 Cormocke O'Harey (O'Hara) of Cowlany otherwise called O'Harey buy, 
 chief of his name Ferrall O' Harry of Ballinefennock, otherwise called 
 O'Harry reoghe, chief of his name Breene 0' Harry of Tulwy, gen. 
 Owene O'Harey of Cowlany, gen. Ferrdorraghe McDonogheof Cowleae, 
 otherwise called McDonoughe Tyrreryll, chief of his name Mellaghlyne 
 McDonogh of Ballyndowne, gen Melaghlyne McDonoghe of Cowl- 
 wonye, gen Morryshe McDonoghe of Clonemahyne, gen. Gene
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 151 
 
 In the llth year of James I, the year of the above in- 
 quisition, the recited lands were granted by the king to 
 Alderman Weston, Dublin.* The alderman did not hold 
 possession long, for we find the property passing, six years 
 later the 17th of James I to Sir Francis Annesley. In 
 that year the king, by letters patent, authorised the Lord 
 Deputy to cause " a grant to be made to Lord Cromwell 
 or to any person or persons to be named by him, of land 
 and tenements to the amount of 400 per annum, and the 
 said Lord Cromwell, by deed dated 9th June 17th year 
 of the king named Sir Francis Annesley to accept lands 
 and manors to the amount of 50 sterling out of this 
 grant ; " who, accordingly, had the forfeited lands of 
 Maurice Caech M'Donough Trouse granted to him in 
 1620, under the following denominations : " the trean 
 or quarter of Marcre alias Macreagh ;* the trean of Ard- 
 curley ; Mullaghvrien, otherwise Mullaghbrien or Tubbers- 
 canman; Lishconae, otherwise Inchynasowle or Lurganboy ; 
 Dearglishe, otherwise Tournaloddan or Cartronreagh ; 
 Achculback ; Knockroe, otherwise Lishemullura ; Knock- 
 enarrow ; Kinaghan, otherwise Inchynegappul ; Rathgrany 
 in Tirerill barony ; the quarter of Drumdruly, otherwise 
 Derrangregie ; and the quarter of Clownebuyuagh al., Clown- 
 buynie, in Corran barony, parcel of the lands of Morish 
 Kaegh M'Donogh M'Teigue Trouse, slain in rebellion." 
 
 McHughe of Bryckleawe, gon John Croftone of Ballymote, gen 
 George Goodman of Taghtample, gen. Manus Reoghe of Rathmollyne, 
 gen. Manus M^Teig bwy of Lysconnowe, gen. Alexander M c Swine of 
 Loughtnevynaghe, gen. Urryell Garry of Move, otherwise called 
 O'Garry, chief of his name Rory O'Garry of Kearowercoghe, gen 
 
 and Manus M. Bryne Reogh of Levally, gen of the other partie." 
 
 O'Flaherty's West Connaught, by James Hardiman, M.R.I.A. ; p. 341. 
 
 * In Weston' s grant, the lands mentioned are, " Lishconae, Dearglish, 
 Aghulback, Knockrohe, Drumedrully, 1 qur. each ; Knockenarrow, Cunny- 
 chaine, Rathgranny, Knockecroy, J qur. each ; Clownbonagh, 1 qur. ; 
 Marcrea, Ardcurley, Mullaghbriney, 1 treane each; rent 2 13s. 4d. 
 This grant is dated 7th January, llth year of James I.
 
 152 PARISH OF KALLYSADARE. 
 
 These lands were to be held " in free and common soccage 
 by fealty only ;" the rents " for the trean of Marcre and all 
 the other lands in Sligo," being 3 sterling. By Annesley, 
 Markrea and most of his other acquisitions in the County 
 Sligo, were transferred to one of the Plunkets, in whose 
 family they remained till 1641, when Patrick Plunket, as 
 has been mentioned, took an active part in the insurrec- 
 tion, and forfeited his fine estate. 
 
 The lands of Markrea, as well as of various other for- 
 feited districts in the County Sligo, were assigned to 
 Cromwell's soldiers in satisfaction for arrears of pay, and 
 fell to the share of Sir Charles Coote's regiment of dra- 
 goons, in which Edward Cooper was cornet. In the 
 preliminary arrangements of the Cromwellian Settlement it 
 was agreed that all Connaught, with the exception of the 
 towns and a four- mile belt * around the province, should be 
 reserved for the transplanted Irish ; but as the execution 
 of the settlement progressed it was found that the three 
 other provinces were insufficient to satisfy the claims, real 
 
 * " By the Act of Parliament which assigned Connaught for the habita- 
 tion of the Irish nation, the only parts reserved from them," writes Mr. 
 Prendergast, the highest living authority on this portion of Irish history, 
 " were the towns and a belt of ground four miles wide beginning at one 
 statute mile round the town of Sligo, and so swinging along the sea coast, 
 to be planted with soldiers, in order to shut out relief by sea from abroad. 
 This belt, as land became scarce, was reduced first to three miles, and 
 finally contracted to one mile. The baronies of Tirrera and Carbury in 
 Sligo, then Tirerril, Corran, and Leyney, were first taken away, and set 
 out to satisfy the disbanded. And the transplanters who had received 
 assignments there had to gather up their flocks and herds, and with their 
 weary and heart-broken wives and children to begin their wanderings 
 again. The ancient proprietors, too, who had probably been comparing- 
 their happier lot with the poor transplanted, to lose only part of their 
 lands to afford the exiles a maintenance, while they still kept their old 
 mansions, had now to transplant to make way for the English soldiery. 
 
 The officers now took a good part of Tyrawley, on the 
 
 ground that by such an English plantation the sea coast would be greatly 
 secured." The Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland: by John P. Pren- 
 dergast, Esq., pp. 187-8.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 153 
 
 and fictitious, of the soldiers and adventurers, so that it 
 became necessary not only to diminish the four-mile line 
 to a one-mile line, but to give them, in addition, a part of 
 the County Sligo * and other districts, whatever might 
 become of the Irish. Here, as in the other provinces, the 
 soldiers obtained their debentures by lot,f and as soon as 
 they had obtained them, offered them for sale. The price 
 asked was generally small ; often little more than nominal ; 
 and it was by purchase under these circumstances far 
 more than by the debentures accruing to themselves that 
 Cromwellian officers gained the large estates that many of 
 their descendants still hold. 
 
 * Mr. Prendergast quotes the following curious document, which must 
 have special interest for County Sligo readers : "A list of several per- 
 sons of Captain Lewis Jones's troop of horse that desire satisfaction for 
 their arrears in the county of Sligo : 
 
 S. D. A. R. P. 
 
 Colonel John Jones, . . 43 19 97 3 24 
 
 Alexander Irwin, . . . . 22 14 4 45 1 24 
 
 Chribtopher Jones, .. .. 21158 4320 
 
 Kichard Jones, . . . . 20 8 2 40 3 8 
 
 James Hugh, .. .. 21 3 5 42 1 8 
 
 Quarter Master Nicholas Goulding, 232 14 9 465 1 24 
 
 " These are to certify that the arrears of the above persons are stated, 
 and amount to the several sums according to their names respectively 
 annexed, for which proportions of land are required at the rate of -500 
 for 1 000 acres ; as is likewise to their sums affixed, which amounts in the 
 whole for the said 367 13s. Od. to the sum of 735A. IK. 8p. 30th March 
 1655. William Digges. 
 
 " To Major IV. Shepherd, Major John King, and the other Commissioners 
 for setting out lands in the County of Sleigo, that they be added to the list of 
 those to be satisfied there and be permitted to draw lots as if they had been 
 named in the original list." Cromwellian Settlement, p. 87. 
 
 t " On debate of the matter whether they should take their lands by lots 
 or have them assigned to them respectively by some competent authority 
 they resolved for the former mode, declaring that they had rather take a 
 lot upon a barren mountain as a portion from the Lord, than a portion in 
 the most fruitful valley upon their own choice." The Cromwellian Settle- 
 ment, etc., p. 83, where Mr. Prendergast quotes Petty' s Down Survey : by 
 Larcom, p. 91.
 
 154 PARISH OF BALLYSADAltE. 
 
 SECTION II. THE COOPERS IN MARKREA. 
 
 CORNET COOPER was a prudent and ambitious man, and 
 availed himself of the favourable circumstances of the 
 country, to secure an estate and found a family in Ireland. 
 Even before Cromwell's time the cornet had acquired some 
 land in this country, for in an Exchequer inquisition taken 
 in Mallow, on the 10th October, 1631, we find Edward 
 Cooper given as the possessor of the lands of Ballet 
 Knoekane, Conello barony, County Limerick ; but the chief 
 part of the lands left to his family by the cornet at his 
 death, had been purchased as soldiers' debentures. It is 
 pretty certain that the prices paid were extremely moderate,* 
 though there is no official account of them ; but, fortunately, 
 there is extant a document containing the names of the 
 parties from whom Cornet Cooper bought his debentures, 
 the amount of arrears of pay for which these debentures 
 had been made over to the soldiers, the denominations and 
 qualities of the lands thus transferred, and the names of 
 the proprietors that owned them, in 1640. This informa- 
 tion we find in a Report and Decree of his Majesty Charles 
 the Second's Commissioners for putting in execution the 
 Acts of Settlement and Explanation. In their decree, 
 which is dated the 19th September, 18th year of his 
 Majesty's reign, and which was inrolled on the 20th Sep- 
 tember, lb'66, the Commissioners certify that " they have 
 compared and examined the Petition and Schedule of 
 Cornet Edward Cooperf and found that the claimant has 
 purchased the debentures hereafter mentioned, from the 
 parties hereunder and hereafter named, whose lotts fell in 
 the County Sligo." 
 
 * Debentures were freely and openly sold for 4s. and 5s. per pound. 
 Prendergast's Cromwellian Settlement of Ireland, p. 99. 
 
 f By the Act of Settlement every one who had received land under 
 the usurper's rule was obliged to send in his claim." Prendergast's 
 Cromwellian Settlement, p. 212.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
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 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 157 
 
 From these figures we find that Cornet Cooper purchased 
 in the County Sligo, 2823 acres and 3 roods which had 
 been given to Cromwell's soldiers in discharge of a total 
 debt of 1387 12s. 3d. In Kerry he bought debentures to 
 the extent of 1368 acres 3 roods and 30 perches ; and in 
 Limerick, between what was purchased and what fell to 
 his lot for personal arrears, Mr. Cooper became owner of 
 1013 acres of the best land in that fertile county. All his 
 lands in Sligo, Limerick, and Kerry, amounted to 5205 
 acres 2 roods and 20 perches. At death, the cornet left the 
 Limerick and Kerry estates to his third son, Richard ; the 
 eldest, Edward, having died without issue, and the second 
 son, Arthur, inheriting the Sligo property. 
 
 From the beginning, the Coopers took up a foremost 
 place among the chief families of the county, and have ever 
 since maintained that position. Along with owning the 
 Markrea estate, Cornet Cooper held high public office in his 
 day, being Receiver of Crown rents for the County Sliyo, 
 an office held later by Lord Bellamont, and now filled by 
 the " Land Revenue Department." 
 
 In the second year of James II, that monarch granted, 
 by letters patent, to Arthur Cooper, son of the cornet, and 
 his successor in the possession of the estate, various deno- 
 minations of land ; created these lands a manor, to be known 
 as the Manor of Markrea ; and granted power and authority to 
 hold, in the said manor, a court leet twice in every year ; a 
 court baron every three weeks, or seldomer ; and a law day 
 or court of record, at such times and places within said 
 manor as should be thought fit. Mr. James Noble, Tub- 
 berscanavan, was the last seneschal of the manor court, 
 his commission from Edward Joshua Cooper bearing date 
 the 30th day of April, 1855. The king, by the same 
 letters patent, granted Arthur Cooper power to keep a 
 prison, to empark 500 acres, and " to hold two yearly fairs 
 for ever on the lands of Tubberscanlon (Tubberscanavin), 
 one on Trinity Monday, and the other on the fourth
 
 158 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 day of September, and on the following day next after 
 each, with the usual tolls and customs " (date of Patent, 
 27th May, 2nd year James II ; inrolled 15th June, 1686). 
 
 This Arthur Cooper took an active part in the proceed- 
 ings of the neighbourhood during the period of the Revolu- 
 tion, not only keeping a garrison at Markrea Castle, but 
 also moving about at the head of dragoons with the object 
 of promoting the interests of William III. On one occa- 
 sion we find him reconnoitring the vicinity of. Ballymote, 
 and driving beyond the drawbridge, and within shelter 
 of the castle, some Jacobite troops that were under the 
 command of the famous Counsellor Terence M'Donogh, 
 the counsellor having one man killed and five wounded in 
 the rencounter (MacKenzie's Siege of Londonderry, p. 16). 
 For these proceedings, Arthur Cooper and his brother, 
 Richard Cooper, were attainted in James the Second's 
 Parliament of 1689, but after the treaty of Limerick they 
 came back to the castle and became more firmly rooted 
 than ever in the estate. 
 
 By the purchase of the Coote estates in 1 727, at the 
 departure of Lord Bellamont from Collooney, and the ad- 
 dition of them to the Markrea property, Joshua Cooper, 
 the son of Arthur, became one of the largest landed pro- 
 prietors in the County Sligo, and thus acquired command- 
 ing political influence in the county; and as a result of 
 this influence, we find him soon installed in the office of 
 member of Parliament for the County Sligo an office in 
 which he has been followed by all the members of the 
 family that have since succeeded to the possession of the 
 estate, namely, his son, the Right Hon. Joshua Cooper ; his 
 grandson, Colonel Joshua ; his great grandson, Edward 
 Joshua ; and his great great grandson, the present Colonel 
 Cooper. 
 
 It was the cornet that erected Markrea Castle, but the 
 building at first was small in comparison to the noble pile 
 we now see, and it owes its present proportions to Joshua
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 159 
 
 Cooper, the son of the Right Hon. Joshua and Alicia Synge ; 
 to the late Edward Joshua, who added considerably to 
 its size, and much more to its beauty ; and to the present 
 owner, Colonel Cooper, who has encompassed it with battle- 
 mented walls, that look like the outworks of a fortified 
 place, and give the castle the appearance of a fortress quite 
 as much as of a private mansion. The cornet's descendants 
 have inherited his love of land, and while they retain every 
 acre transmitted by their ancestor, they have been con- 
 stantly adding, whenever opportunity offered, to the original 
 estate, so that at the present moment, Colonel Cooper is the 
 owner of near 40,000 acres in Ireland. Since the days of 
 the Revolution the possession of Markrea by the Coopers 
 has been all through pacific, and unmarked by any incident 
 that calls for detailed notice. 
 
 Mr. Froude* states that in 1793, during what is locally 
 called the Horn War, " Marcray Castle in Sligo, the house 
 of Mr. Cooper, a staunch Protestant member of Parliament, 
 was sacked, the arms carried off, and the cellars emptied." 
 Those who are acquainted with the characteristic qualities 
 of The English in Ireland, will not be surprised to learn 
 that this weighty assertion is unfounded in all its parts. 
 The castle was not sacked nor attacked ; the arms were not 
 stirred ; the cellars were not emptied, nor most probably, 
 entered at all. When a neighbour mentioned Mr. Froude's 
 statement to a man who worked as a labourer about the 
 castle in 1793, Michael Gray, who still survives, and is hale 
 and hearty, of sound mind and memory, in his 103rd year, he 
 exclaimed indignantly, " It's all a big lie, sir! All that hap- 
 pened was this. The right honourable was away when the 
 horn boys were up, and most of the servants too. The labour- 
 ers were in and out of the castle, and drank beer or some- 
 thing which they found in the servants' hall, or some place. 
 One or two of them got drunk and a half fool of a fellow 
 
 * The English in Ireland, in the Eighteenth Century : by J. A. Froude, 
 vol, iii, p. 109.
 
 160 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 named , went up-stairs to the window, as the 
 
 right honourable used to go, and called out, " Go bad-, go 
 back, go back." Now, he did this to imitate the right honour- 
 able, who was always saying to the people, that used to be 
 travelling through the 'demesne, on a kind of pass, go back, 
 go back, go back. And the right honourable paid a man, 
 Bryan Beg Lynch, who had no other work to do but to 
 hinder the people from passing. And it's the way the right 
 honourable had for giving Bryan his orders, to say, " Bryan 
 keep them all back, but let Doorla pass." Now, Doorla 
 was Father O'Connor, for his reverence lived in Doorla, 
 and the priest was the only one allowed to go that way. 
 So that the right honourable was a good man after all. A 
 turkey or two were stolen at the same time by some ould 
 woman or another. And that's the whole affair. Pshaw ! 
 much about it ! " And when asked again, whether the 
 arms were taken away, and the cellars invaded, Michael 
 answered energetically, " Not at all, sir ; " and added in 
 language neither pious nor polite, " whoever said that is 
 a ." But no matter, the ardent old man's as- 
 severation came at all events to this, that Mr. Froude is a 
 very untrustworthy authority on matters at Markrea in 
 1793. 
 
 And this is the mouse which the historian metamorphoses 
 into so enormous a mountain. Given the drinking bout of 
 a few ignorant labourers, the silly window exhibition of a 
 simpleton, and the petty larceny of a couple of turkeys, and 
 presto, you see these rather commonplace occurrences issue 
 from under the pen of Mr. Froude, as the sacking of a 
 castle, the pillaging of arms, and the emptying of cellars. 
 Let no one for the future give the palm for burlesque to 
 Cervantes, for surely here is a feat that throws e%rything 
 written in Don Quixote into the shade. 
 
 Arthur Young visited the Eight Hon. Mr. Cooler, at 
 Markrea, in 1776 just a century ago and devoted to 
 what he saw and heard during the visit, a dozen pages of
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 161 
 
 the Tour in Ireland, which are full of interest for those who 
 belong to this part of the country. We note here a curious 
 statement or two. " In less than a century," he writes, 
 " almost the whole county, as well as Roscommon, was a 
 moor." * Of rent, he says, " about this place the rent of 
 land on an average is 15s. per acre ; some of the mountains, 
 that are not limestone, let for very little, 2s. per acre." In 
 his concluding observation on Markrea, he tells us, " Mr. 
 Cooper has remarked that the great improvement of this 
 part of Ireland commenced about the year 1748, and that 
 rents now are, to what they were before that period, as 
 fifteen to six." f 
 
 * Arthur Young's Tour in Ireland, vol. i, p. 327. 
 
 t It will not be amiss to give here another extract or two, which will 
 show that the Right Honorable Joshua Cooper was a very improving 
 owner of land: "Mr. Cooper has reclaimed," says Arthur Young, 
 " and is reclaiming sixty-five acres of bog, which is twelve feet deep, and 
 was so wet and rotten that no animal could go on it without being swal- 
 lowed up ; much of it had been so mangled and cut in holes, to get turf, 
 that the levelling in order for the plough was put out at 1 10s. an acre. 
 A great drain was made round it nine feet broad at top, ten deep, and 
 quite narrow at bottom and repeated these drains, but not so large, at 
 the distance of sixty yards from each other. A drain of nine feet wide at 
 top, and six deep, costs lOd. a perch. The above drains were done by the 
 day. In one year after the bog was dry enough to plough, which he did, 
 and burnt the furrow, and sewed rape ; the crop middling, eat it with 
 sheep. The second year ploughed and burnt it again, and had a second 
 crop of rape ; after which another year of rape and turnips, and it now 
 lies with the grasses that came of themselves after these operations, 
 .... To such as have bogs to improve he would recommend to sur- 
 round the space to be improved with a drain so deep as to go to the 
 gravel, which is a point he thinks very necessary ; as when this is done, 
 if there is any fall at all for the water, the drain will keep open, and not 
 close up, as it will do if not so deep, for want of a hard surface for the water 
 to run on. . . . Oxen he has used for tillage, etc., eighteen years, instead 
 of horses'; works them in common yokes, and bows four or six in a plough ; 
 but he thinks that four horses will do more work in a day than four 
 oxen ; yet finds the latter incomparably the most profitable. Mules he 
 finds of the greatest use. They are much longer-lived than horses, 
 hardier, easier fed, and more profitable ; but this is principally applicable 
 to the small Irish mule, and not the large ones from Spanish asses, which 
 
 M
 
 162 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 The Eight Hon. Joshua Cooper was not only member of 
 Parliament for Sligo, but also a member of the Privy 
 
 are not so hardy, and more liable to disorders. They are never fed so 
 well as horses, yet go through more labour, and are much superior to 
 them for carrying burdens. One caution, however, should be used in 
 relation to their food. If wheat straw is cut into chaff and given, it will 
 kill them ; the late Bishop of Elphin lost all his mules by it. Mr. Cooper 
 has fattened many hogs on potatoes, and he has found that raw potatoes 
 will fatten them very well, but the fat will be flabby and greasy ; but if 
 the potatoes are parboiled, and well sprinkled with salt, the flesh will be 
 firm and perfectly good. He once tried fattening a cow on them, and she 
 did admirably, but eat so much, that at the very lowest price it would not 
 answer to give them." Tour in Ireland, p. 335. 
 
 At a time when, unfortunately, grazing is so prevalent, an extract from 
 the same work, and from the part of it relating to Markrea, showing the 
 dealings of graziers 100 years ago, will not be out of place : " The 
 system of cattle is various ; the graziers upon good grass buy in cows in 
 the month of May, at 3 10s. average, and sell out in November and 
 October, at a profit of 1 10s., also buy oxen three years old in October, give 
 them coarse hay, and sell them fat or in good order the autumn follow- 
 ing ; buy in at 4 10s., and sell out at 7, and he will take for meadow 
 half an acre of hay, and one and a half for summer ; besides which there 
 will be 'one sheep and a half per acre the year through, which will pay 
 12s. "Upon worse land they go into the succession system, which is 
 buying year-olds at 25s. on an average ; these as well as the preceding for 
 cattle, which at four years old come to 5 cwt., which is the common size of 
 the county." Tour in Ireland, p. 331. 
 
 As to the " Rise of Rents," Mr. Young says : " Lord Longford more 
 than doubled in thirty years Earl of Inniskilling quadrupled in ditto. 
 Mr. Cooper almost trebled since 1748 Mayo trebled in forty years 
 King's County two thirds since 1750 Tipperary doubled in twenty 
 years Barony of Owna and Ara doubled in ditto Rich lands of Lim- 
 erick risen a fourth in twenty years, and two thirds since 1748." Tour 
 in Irela .d, 2nd vol. ; Appendix, p. 183. 
 
 In 1776 the wages at Markrea was, of a labourer, per day, 6d. ; of a 
 carpenter, Is. 6d. ; a mason Is. 7d. ; and a thatcher Is. 7|. Idem, vol. ii, 
 Appendix, p. 39. 
 
 In the same year beef cost, per pound, in the neighbourhood of 
 Markrea, 2^d. ; mutton, 2d. ; veal, 3j. ; pork, Ifd. ; butter, 5d.; while a 
 chicken was to be bought for 2d., a turkey for 8d., and a goose for 8d. 
 
 "When to these items of information it is added, that the Right Hon. 
 Mr. Cooper had in constant work sixty labourers, twenty-five horses, and 
 twelve oxen, one will have some idea of the state of things at Markrea 
 100 years ago.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 163 
 
 Council of Ireland. As member of Parliament, he opposed 
 vigorously the projected Union, and voted all through 
 against that measure. By his wife, Alicia, the daughter 
 and heiress of Bishop Synge, Mr. Cooper is said to have 
 received a very large fortune, which that shrewd prelate 
 accompanied with an advice, that recommended the Coopers 
 to buy up always all the land they could ; an advice, cer- 
 tainly, that was not thrown away. Along with being a 
 patriotic member of Parliament, and a most improving 
 landlord, Mr. Cooper took an enlightened interest in every- 
 thing that conduced to the benefit or the credit of the 
 country ; and accordingly, as has been already seen, we 
 find him in 1776, entertaining Arthur Young for several 
 days at Markrea Castle, and in 1779, laying the artists, 
 Monsieur Beranger, and Signor Bigari, under such obliga- 
 tions, by hospitalities and attentions, that they returned 
 public thanks to him in their work entitled Tour through 
 Connaught in 1791.* 
 
 An instance may be mentioned of this gentleman's firm- 
 ness and impartiality as a magistrate. Three " Bucks, "f 
 
 * Kilkenny Archie ological Journal, vol. xi, page 259. 
 
 t These bucks were generally well born, though ill-bred. " Ireland 
 Sixty Years Ago contains a good account of them. ' Among the 
 gentry of the period,' says the author, 'was a class called 'Bucks,' 
 whose whole enjoyment, and the business of whose lite seemed to consist 
 in eccentricity and violence. There were three noblemen, brothers, 
 so notorious for their outrages, that they acquired singular names as in- 
 dicative of their characters. The first was the terror of everyone who 
 met him in public places ; the second was seldom out of prison, and the 
 third was lame, yet no whit disabled from his buckish achievements. 
 They were universally known by the names of ' Hellgate,' ' Newgate,' 
 and ' Cripplegate.' Others met under the appellation of ' Mohawk,' 
 ' Hawkabite,' ' Cherokee,' and other Indian tribes, then noted for their 
 cruelty and ferocity ; and their actions would not disgrace their savage 
 archetypes." Sketches of Ireland Sixty Years Ago, pages 11 and 12. 
 
 These gentry sometimes " got more than they bargained for," and in 
 quarters where they might least expect it. The reception they met with 
 from Father Fitzmaurice, is an instance of this ; and a similar chastise- 
 ment was inflicted on them by a late Bishop of Achonry, Right Rev. John
 
 164 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. ' 
 
 belonging respectively to three leading families of the 
 neighbourhood, came by night to demolish a pretty rail- 
 ing that stood before the residence, in Collooney, of the 
 parish priest, the Rev. John Fitzmaurice. "While these 
 filibusters were committing the outrage, Mr. Fitzmaurice, 
 who, though a priest, was a man of very high spirit, and of 
 great physical powers, sallied from his house, and in a short 
 time laid the three wreckers as prostrate and helpless as 
 the rails that they had just succeeded in tearing up and 
 levelling. A few days after the transaction, when they had 
 recovered somewhat from the mauling, they betook them- 
 selves to Mr. Cooper, and laid before him a long indictment 
 against the priest for the treatment received ; but the 
 moment that honourable and just man learned by a little 
 cross-examination, that they were the aggressors, he praised 
 warmly Father Fitzmaurice, denounced in scathing words 
 the complainants, and bade them begone, and, remember, 
 that if they ever attempted any act of retaliation for what 
 they had so deservedly suffered, he would employ all his 
 interest and influence to transport the trio out of the 
 country. Mr. Cooper died in the year 1800, and was buried 
 in the new churchyard of Collooney, in a modest tomb 
 bearing this inscription : " Beneath this tomb lie interred 
 the remains of the Right Hon. Joshua Cooper, who departed 
 this life, the 16th December, 1800, in the 71st year of his 
 age, universally lamented." 
 
 The Right Hon. Mr. Cooper was succeeded in the 
 ownership of the estate by his eldest son, Colonel Joshua 
 Edward Cooper, whose memory is not so popular as that 
 of other members of the family. This disadvantage 
 attaches to the colonel : first, for evicting tenants from the 
 lands of the present deer-park ; secondly, for substituting 
 Protestant for Roman Catholic tenants in the neighbour- 
 
 Flynn, who having been attacked, while parish priest of Sligo, by those 
 worthies, retaliated in self-defence, and punished his aggressors in a way 
 that was the talk and admiration of the town and county.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 165 
 
 hood of Collooney ; and thirdly, for causing a man of his 
 regiment (the Sligo militia), named James Kelly, to he 
 flogged for going to hear mass after the man had heen 
 ordered to attend Protestant service. Though the colonel 
 cannot, perhaps, he absolved from all hlame in regard to 
 these transactions, a word or two may he urged in mitiga- 
 tion of censure. As to the evictions, it should he recol- 
 lected : first, that the lands were required for a deer-park 
 a reasonable appendage to a gentleman's demesne and, 
 secondly, that he provided the evicted tenants with hold- 
 ings elsewhere on the Markrea property. As to the sub- 
 stitution of Protestant for Catholic tenants, this occurred, 
 it is believed, when the colonel was managing the estate 
 for his father; and, probably, came from a desire to acquire 
 voting power and not from bigotry.* And with regard to the 
 
 * The practice of evicting Catholics and giving their lands to Protestants 
 was common with landlords in Ireland towards the close of the eighteenth 
 century. " That, however, which the Established Church could in no 
 degree effect, owing to the reasons already assigned, was in some degree 
 put in progress of being effected by a great political and constitutional 
 measure, which was carried about this time I allude to the passing 
 of the Octennial Bill, which was carried, I believe, in the year 1768. 
 Previous to this measure, the Irish Colonial Parliament had its existence 
 limited solely by the demise of the Crown, so that the members of the 
 House of Commons were very seldom sent home to an election, and, con- 
 sequently, county influence and electioneering politics seldom occupied 
 the minds of our country gentlemen; but the Octennial Bill, which 
 limited the duration of Parliament, and of course sent the members back 
 more frequently to their constituents, compelled them to attend more 
 closely to their county influence. But how did this effect the religion of 
 the people ? How did this affect the Protestantism and Popery of the 
 population ? This question finds an answer by recollecting that at that 
 time the elective franchise was confined exclusively to Protestants the 
 Romanists had no franchise from this it very naturally resulted that 
 every gentleman of property, who was ambitious of county influence, 
 either for the election of himself or for the election of his friends, was 
 necessitated to promote Protestantism among his tenantry a Popish 
 tenantry could not vote, could not strengthen his influence at an election, 
 and became a dead weight on his hands ; while a Protestant tenantry, by 
 being able to vote in their capacity of Protestant freeholders, became an 
 object of the greatest desire to all our country gentlemen (for many of
 
 166 PARISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 
 
 flogging of poor Kelly in this matter the colonel had bad 
 examples to tempt him, and, perhaps, government pressure 
 to egg him on, as we may infer from the following extract 
 of a letter from Cork, quoted by Edmund Burke : 
 " Government's ingratitude, in an absolute refusal of any 
 further boon to the Catholics, has roused the resentment of 
 the quietest spirits ; and the severe punishments inflicted 
 in some places on the militia for going to mass instead of 
 the Protestant church, is surely not to give it a worse 
 appellation impolitic in the extreme." * Another, and a 
 still better excuse for the colonel's conduct may be found 
 in the ill-health that incapacitated him for the transaction. 
 of business a great part of his life. This gentleman suc- 
 ceeded his father in representing the County Sligo, being 
 member of the county from 1801 to 1806. His death 
 occurred in 1837. 
 
 In contrast to the colonel, his brother, Mr. Edward 
 Synge Cooper, was the most popular and beloved member 
 of the entire Cooper family, at least with Roman Catholics. 
 Though this gentleman never owned the family estate 
 having died before the elder brother he resided at Markrea 
 Castle during the brother's illness, and discharged, in 
 regard to the estate, the duties commonly discharged by the 
 landlord. Singularly free and affable for one of his rank, 
 Mr. Cooper liked to be among the tenants and labourers 
 called them familiarly by their names showed interest in 
 everything that concerned them joked with them and 
 gave freely, to favourite cronies here and there, pieces of 
 silver for tobacco or some such treat. In these attentions 
 this just man never made any distinction between I'ro- 
 
 them brought from the North of Ireland that swarming hive of Protes- 
 tantism large numbers, and colonized them on their estates, while others 
 brought them from England for the same purpose.)" Speech of 'the Rev ', 
 Michael Seymour. Dublin : ,J. 0. Bonsall, pp. 13-14. 
 
 * The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, vol. viii, p. 113. 
 Bonn's edition.
 
 PARISH OF SALLYS ADARE. 167 
 
 testants and Roman Catholics, but hated, with a special 
 hatred, all members of secret societies, and, if anything, 
 Orangemen * still more than Ribbonmen. 
 
 Professing it to be a duty to provide for the decent 
 accommodation, in chapel, of those Roman Catholics that 
 belonged to the Markrea estate, he sent the parish priest, 
 Very Rev. James Henry, twenty pounds towards the 
 repairing of the old chapel ; put up, at his own expense, 
 an imposing and costly entrance gate ; and settled on the 
 chapel clerk an annual stipend of four pounds, the same 
 sum as was allowed, in parish vestry, to the sexton of the 
 Protestant church. To the parish priest Mr. Cooper was 
 particularly kind and attentive, both in public and in 
 private, sending often for him on Petty Sessions' days, .and 
 getting him to sit on the bench while cas-es bearing on the 
 peace and order of the parish were disposed of; meaning, 
 no doubt, thus to impress the people with respect for the 
 priest, as also, perhaps, to show both priest and people the 
 justice and impartiality with which the law was always 
 upheld and administered by him ; justice and impartiality 
 which the upright magistrate never failed in, as this some- 
 what amusing anecdote will help to show : Coming one 
 day from Markrea to the Petty Sessions at Collooney, and 
 rinding on the way a countryman driving a nag on the side 
 path instead of the high road, Mr. Cooper ordered the man 
 to follow, and on reaching the court, fined him five shil- 
 lings for trespassing on the path. The countryman, hear- 
 
 * If reference is made here and in other places to Orangemen, it is only 
 because the course of the narrative calls for it, and not that the writer has 
 any ill-will to those men, whom he has always found as civil and kind as 
 other people. At the same time his conviction is, that secret societies are an 
 evil, whether they be found among Protestants or Roman Catholics ; and 
 that this is his impartial opinion, he has practically proved by pledging 
 every man, woman, and young person in the congregations of his three 
 chapels, against these societies the males to avoid membership with 
 them, and the females to withdraw and dissuade their male relatives and 
 friends from all connexion with such associations.
 
 168 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 ing privately that Mr. Cooper sometimes allowed his own 
 horse to amble along the footpath, concealed himself by the 
 roadside, at a suitable point for the purpose in view, and, 
 catching the austere magistrate in flagranti, came forth and 
 said playfully, " I fine you, sir." " Quite right, my man," 
 rejoined Mr. Cooper ; " and to save you the trouble of 
 coming to Collooney to prosecute, here's the fine for you," 
 handing him a thirty-shilling note, and adding" I hope 
 we shall both observe the law better after to-day." Mr. 
 Cooper represented the County Sligo in parliament from 
 1806 to his decease, a period that comprised six general 
 elections those of 1806, 1807, 1812, 1820, 1823, and 
 1826.* This just, and excellent, and most respected man 
 died in the sixty-seventh year of his age, and was buried 
 in the graveyard of the Protestant church of Collooney, in 
 a tomb that contains also the remains of his wife, and that 
 bears the following inscription : " Edward Synge Cooper, 
 M.P. died, August 16th, 1830, aged 67. Also Anne his 
 wife, who died at Dunboden, Co. Westmeath, November 
 17th, 1861, aged 92." 
 
 SECTION III. EDWARD JOSHUA COOPER. 
 
 EDWARD JOSHUA COOPER, the first of all the Coopers in 
 intellect and attainments, and second to none of them in 
 largeness and goodness of heart was born in May, 1 798, 
 of Edward Synge Cooper and Anne Verelst, daughter of 
 Governor Yerelst, the immediate successor of Lord Clive in 
 the government of India, and " one of the honestest men 
 that ever served the East India Company," says Edmund 
 Burke in the impeachment of Warren Hastings. f Though 
 
 * Thorn's Directory, 1853, page 367. 
 
 t Burke's Speeches, vol. i, p. 90. Bohn's edition. The Rev. G. R- 
 Gleig, in his History of the British Empire in India, says of this depen- 
 dency -while under Governor Verelst, " It may fairly be questioned,
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 169 
 
 there exists some little doubt as to tlie place of Mr. Cooper's 
 birth, it is nearly certain that to Markrea belongs that 
 honour, as we may fairly conclude from this well-known 
 fact that when the French visited Collooney in Septem- 
 ber, 1798, Mrs. Cooper deeming, like the mother of the 
 Gracchi, her child to be her most precious jewel, abandoned 
 all other treasures, and hastened away from Markrea Castle 
 with the infant, Edward Joshua, in her arms. This good 
 mother, who was a woman of uncommon understanding and 
 great mental acquirements, took charge of the early educa- 
 tion of the child, cultivated carefully the inclination for 
 astronomy and kindred studies that he already evinced, 
 and continued to give lessons till her son was of age to go 
 to a public educational establishment, when he was sent to 
 the endowed school of Armagh.* From Armagh, the lad 
 passed to Eton, whence he went up to the university of 
 Oxford, which was then fitter for " fast " than for " read- 
 ing " men, being as devoid of the religious thought and 
 aspirations awakened, a few years later, by John Henry 
 Newman, Richard Hurrell Froude, John Keble, and Dr. 
 Pusey, as of the vast intellectual activity that pervades its 
 halls and chairs at the present day, under the impulse of 
 its Jo wets, Max Mullers, and Ruskins. But the lessons in 
 religion and science of the mother and the Armagh profes- 
 sors, stood the young man in good stead, for he left Oxford, 
 at the end of the university course, with religious impres- 
 sions as fresh, and a passion for knowledge as keen, as he 
 felt on the day of matriculation. 
 
 indeed, in spite of many acknowledged grievances, whether the condition 
 of the people of Bengal has ever been, since they passed under the rule of 
 the English, more prosperous than it was then." History of the British 
 Empire in India, etc., vol. ii, p. 204. 
 
 "Edward Joshua Cooper, one of our most distinguished amateur 
 astronomers, received the first impulses which made him pursue that 
 science from his mother's early teaching, and from his visits to the 
 Armagh observatory while at the endowed school of that city." Obitu- 
 ary Notice of Mr, Cooper in the proceedings of the Royal Society, 1864.
 
 170 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 After quitting the university, Mr. Cooper took with him, 
 says the obituary notice in the Proceedings of the Royal 
 Society, for 1 864, " a sextant chronometer and telescope as 
 constant companions," and passed several years in travel, 
 visiting Egypt,* Persia, Russia, Turkey in Asia, as well as 
 the countries of Europe, and not only inspecting, like the 
 run of travellers, the national curiosities, he fell in with on 
 the tour, but studying diligently all the institutions, scientific, 
 artistic, and philanthropic, of the countries through which 
 he passed, and accumulating, as we are informed by the 
 authority just quoted, " a great mass of observations of 
 latitude and longitude " on the way. 
 
 Settling down at Markrea soon after the death of his 
 father in 1830, Mr. Cooper divided the time between the 
 cultivation of science, and the discharge of social duties. 
 Making astronomy his special study, he built an observa- 
 tory at Markrea in 1834, fitted it up and furnished* it re- 
 gardless of expense, and erected in it the most powerful 
 achromatic telescope then in the world, with a focal length 
 of 25 feet 7 inches, an object glass of over 13 inches 
 aperture, the largest existing at the time, the whole instru- 
 ment, when put together and mounted, weighing 47 cwt. 
 1 qr. 26 Ibs.f 
 
 * "While at Naples in 1820," says the Obituary Notice, " he met Sir 
 William Drummoiid, some of whose wild inferences from the Dendera 
 Zodiac he showed to he inconsistent with sound astronomy. Sir William 
 replied that these objections were based on the inaccuracy of the existing 
 drawings ; and Mr. Cooper met that by going to Egypt, securing the 
 services of an accomplished .Italian artist, and bringing home correct 
 plans of the Dendera ceiling, which, with many other drawings, he 
 printed for private distribution under the title, " Egyptian Sronory." 
 
 t "In the year 1831 he purchased, from Cauchoix of Paris, an object 
 glass of 13-6 inches aperture and 25 feet focus, the largest then existing, 
 which in 1834 was mounted with perfect success at his magnificent man- 
 sion of Markrea, on an equatorial constructed by Mr. Grubb of Dublin. 
 It is of cast iron (the first application of that material to astronomical 
 instruments) and stands in the open air, encircled by the walls of a 
 first-rate observatory which contains, among other chef-d 1 auvres, a fine
 
 PARISH OP BALLYSADARE. 171 
 
 In this observatory, Mr. Cooper passed nights and days, 
 observing, calculating, recording, corresponding with other 
 astronomers, and in general, working so energetically and 
 successfully that, in a short time, Markrea observatory 
 came to be known and honoured in all the scientific insti- 
 tutions of Europe and America. It is but fair to state that 
 in these labours he was aided most effectually by a singularly 
 able and indefatigable assistant, Mr. Graham, first assistant 
 at present in the observatory of Cambridge University ; but 
 on the other hand, it should be known that Mr. Cooper, 
 while mapping out the general course of proceedings and 
 study in the observatory, never shirked a full share of hard 
 work ; for we have abundant proof of laboriousness, as well 
 as of great ability in the piles of manuscript he has left on 
 the shelves of the observatory ; in the papers he con- 
 tributed to the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 
 and the Royal Astronomical Society, of both which asso- 
 ciations Mr. Cooper was member, as well as of the Royal 
 Society ; and, especially, in his and Mr. Graham's inesti- 
 
 meridian circle by Ertel, with eight microscopes and eight-inch object 
 glass." Obituary Notice, etc. 
 
 The Lublin Penny Journal, vol. iv, page 132, thus refers to the great 
 Markrea telescope : " In our Report we mentioned, as an appropriate 
 finale to the proceedings of the Association in Ireland, that in the course 
 of the week following that in which the meetings were held, a large 
 party of the members, chiefly those engaged in geological pursuits, pro- 
 ceeded on a visit to Lord Cole, at his noble residence of Florence Court, 
 while another, principally such as were interested in astronomical obser- 
 vations, accompanied E. J. Cooper, Esq., M.P. for Sligo, to his seat at 
 Markree, where they had an opportunity of inspecting the very superior 
 astronomical instruments belonging to that distinguished and scientific 
 individual ; one of them, his achromatic telescope, of which there is an 
 engraving on the opposite page, is the finest in the world ; the object 
 glass, which is 13-3 inches in diameter, being the largest ever made. 
 Indeed it is a matter calculated to afford gratification to Irishmen, that a 
 private gentleman, residing in a remote district of the country, should 
 have, in a complete and well-appointed observatory, the most efficient 
 telescope in the universe." 
 
 And if Irishmen, in general, should feel proud of Mr. Cooper, how 
 much more the inhabitants of the "remote district " he has made famous ?
 
 172 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 mable Catalogue of Ecliptic Stars,* describing upwards of 
 60,000 stars ; a work of such merit that the Royal Irish 
 Academy awarded it their Cunningham medal, and the 
 Royal Society had it published by aid from the Government 
 grant at their disposal. 
 
 The big telescope soon became one of the modern 
 Mirabilia Hibernice (Wonders of Ireland), and attracted 
 crowds of the scientific and the curious from all quarters ; 
 and in 1835, when the British Association assembled in 
 Dublin, the moment its meetings were ended and its pro- 
 ceedings closed, half the members hastened away with Mr. 
 Cooper to Markrea to inspect the great instrument; on 
 which occasion savants, acquainted with the public observa- 
 tories of Vienna, Paris, and London, were loud in their 
 admiration on finding the appointments and resources of 
 these establishments thrown in not a few matters into 
 the shade by the observatory of an Irish country gentle- 
 man. This noble creation of Mr. Cooper's still exists 
 thanks to the devotion of Colonel Cooper to both the 
 interests of science and the memory of his uncle and it is 
 gratifying to be able to add, that the learned labours of 
 Dr. W. Doberck, M.R.I.A., of the Russian observatory, 
 Pulcowa, the astronomer in charge ; and of his accomplished 
 
 * " One result of their labours was the discovery of the planet Metis; 
 but his greatest work is his ' Catalogue of ecliptic stars.' This (which was 
 published 'by aid from the Government grant placed at the disposal of 
 the Royal Society, and which the Eoyal Irish Academy honoured with 
 their Cunningham Medal), contains upwards of 60,000 stars down to the 
 twelfth magnitude, of which very few had been previously observed. The 
 places are reduced to 1850, and though only approximate, possess a suffi- 
 cient degree of precision for the use to which they were destined. The 
 value of this catalogue to future astronomers can scarcely be overrated, 
 for many facts tend to show that much is to be learned by studying these 
 minute stars. As an instance, it may be stated that fifty stars of his own 
 catalogue, and twenty-seven others were found to have disappeared during 
 the progress of the observations. Many of these, no doubt, are variable ; 
 many probably are unknown planets ; some perhaps have great proper 
 motion. But when shall we have such a survey of the whole sky as that 
 of this comparatively small zone ! " Obituary Notice, etc.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 173 
 
 sister, Miss A. Doberck a brother and sister that remind 
 one forcibly, by their common love of science and their 
 mutual affection, of William and Caroline Herschel are 
 not only maintaining, but extending daily the fame and 
 usefulness of Mr. Cooper's great foundation.* 
 
 But Mr. Cooper was not a man to allow even science, 
 dear as the study was to him, or any other pursuit that he 
 engaged in, merely as an amateur, to keep him from dis- 
 charging the weighty duties attached, both by natural and 
 divine law, to high station. Far from being an egotist, 
 thinking only of personal tastes, interests, or enjoyments, 
 and without a becoming sense of social obligation, this 
 high-minded man felt keenly what was due to tenants, 
 labourers, and others, whom Providence and society had put 
 in his power. In most respects Mr. Cooper was a model 
 landlord. Consulting always for the well being of tenants, 
 he not only let land at its value, introduced on the estate 
 the best kinds of live and dead stock, and encouraged 
 agricultural improvements by advice, by reward, and by 
 
 * Dr. Doberck's papers on Double Stars, are printed in the Transactions 
 of the Royal Irish Academy, and the Astronomisclte Nachrichten, in which 
 latter periodical near half a hundred papers from his pen appear. This 
 astronomer has also published ix papers on COMETS. Miss Doberck, 
 after starting and working, at Markrea, a meteorological observatory, in 
 accordance with the international regulations, is now elaborating, on the 
 Continent, an Essay on the Climate of Ireland. 
 
 We often find Dr. Doberck's name in the scientific periodicals of the 
 day. For instance, Nature, May 24, 1877, refers to him, in its astro- 
 nomical column, " The Revolving Double-Stars. We are now indebted to 
 Dr. Doberck for orbits of thirteen of the revolving double-stars, calcula- 
 ted in every case in the most complete manner possible from the available 
 data, and which have been communicated from time to time to the Royal 
 Irish Academy. . . . Dr. Doberck may be congratulated on the success 
 which has attended his efforts." 
 
 The same periodical contains highly interesting papers from the pen of 
 the same astronomer on Variable Stars, on Spectroscopy, etc. We mention 
 in particular one on the Orion Nebula, in which the great importance of 
 the late Mr. Cooper's observations has been referred to.
 
 174 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 holding annually a show of cattle and farm produce, but 
 also cultivated kindly personal relations with the people 
 by attending, once a fortnight, at Collooney, an estate 
 court, to acquaint himself with their wants and wishes ; by 
 meeting them on gale-days at the rent- office, and hailing 
 them with the ready joke and kind inquiry ; by entertaining 
 them, from time to time together at dinner ; and by pro- 
 viding them with races, fireworks, and such like amuse- 
 ments. It is easy to understand the calming and refin- 
 ing effects of meetings and entertainments like these, in 
 which landlord and tenant, rich and poor, Protestant and 
 Catholic, priest and parson mixed freely together, and forgot 
 wretched party or sectarian differences in common enjoy- 
 ments. 
 
 And if Mr. Cooper's first thoughts were for tenants and 
 demesne labourers, he felt scarce less interest in the work- 
 ing men and mechanics that dwelt on the estate, and more 
 especially in those of Collooney. If that gentleman lived 
 in days like the present, when Government, by its loans, 
 gives such facilities for building, and when the necessity of 
 decent house accommodation for the humbler classes is con- 
 stantly proclaimed by princes, statesmen, philosophers, and 
 legislators, he could carry out the project that he had very 
 much at heart of remodelling Collooney by erecting, on 
 the lining ground over the bridge, a crescent of workmen's 
 cottages ; and, higher up in the town, from the crest of the 
 hill to the market-house, a row of a better class of houses, 
 with hanging gardens sloping down to the river's edge. 
 What a pity that circumstances prevented him from 
 realizing a design which would make Collooney what 
 nature meant it to be a model village and would bring 
 the houses into harmony with the site and scenery, instead 
 of leaving them, as too many of them are at present, a 
 contrast ; the houses being mean and squalid to a degree, 
 and the situation the most salubrious and picturesque
 
 PARISH OF SALLYS AD ARE. 175 
 
 in the province. As Mr. Cooper had, however, only a 
 restricted life interest in the estate, no one could expect that 
 he would undertake, single-handed, the cost of the con- 
 templated change ; * hut his feelings on the subject 
 appeared well on the occasion of the testimonial, presented 
 in 1856 by the tenants of the Markrea estate, when he 
 urged, as strongly as possible under the circumstances, 
 that the money collected, which was a good round sum, 
 should go to build some model dwellings for working men 
 on or near the spot now occupied by the Methodist meeting 
 house. Though it was, doubtless, native kindness of heart 
 that inspired this friendly interest in the working men of 
 Collooney, still Mr. Cooper used often to say, that it was 
 due to them, as a debt, for being always the most punctual 
 of the Markrea tenants on gale days in paying rent; 
 a compliment highly honourable to those humble men, and 
 an answer to such calumniators as should maintain that 
 working men and artizans are bad rent payers. . 
 
 Nor was it in respect of house accommodation alone that 
 this good man showed sympathy with the poorer classes, 
 but in everything else, as well, that concerned them. If 
 individuals of those classes got into trouble he would lend 
 a hand to extricate them ; if they fell sick he would fur- 
 nish a doctor and other needful assistance ; if sudden mis- 
 fortune overtook them he was soon at hand with sympathy 
 and aid. When hydrophobia struck down, in 1831, a 
 woman named Honor Burns, in Collooney, who had been 
 bitten by a rabid dog, and a thrill of pity for the sufferer 
 pervaded- the county, no one was more sympathetic than 
 Mr. Cooper. This good Samaritan visited the wretched 
 
 * No one, it is hoped, will think that it i3 intended, while thus excusing 
 Mr. Cooper, to cast blame in other directions. Nothing indeed of the 
 kind is meant ; for there is reason to know, if others have not been pre- 
 vented from moving in the matter under consideration by the obstacles 
 which stopped Mr. Cooper, that they have been hindered hitherto by 
 obstacles of a different kind, such as the pressure of more urgent duties.
 
 176 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 patient several times ; * feed doctors and nurses to attend 
 her ; and, when other remedies failed, despatched to 
 Manorhamilton in hot haste, on the swiftest horse of 
 Markrea stables, an intelligent messenger after first 
 putting a couple of guineas in his pocket to procure an 
 alleged specific that a man named M 'Govern, living in or 
 near that town, was said to possess for the horrid disease. 
 
 Another instance almost] as striking as this of Mr. 
 Cooper's tenderness of heart occurred in 1854. An omni- 
 bus, conveying emigrants from "Westport to Sligo, was 
 passing through Collooney, when the vehicle, while turning 
 a sharp angle of the road, was suddenly capsized, several 
 of the passengers more or less injured, and the unfortunate 
 driver thrown with such violence against the pavement 
 that the fall caused severe concussion of the brain. That 
 evening Mr. Cooper had company at Markrea ; but the 
 moment the intelligence of the occurrence reached the 
 dining room the host excused himself to the guests, and 
 hastened to the scene of the accident ; and when, after 
 having remained a good while with the patients, and 
 having called a doctor, he was returning home so engaged 
 were the feelings of this benevolent man in the fate of the 
 poor strangers, that he requested the writer of these lines 
 to keep them au courant at the castle, by letter, with the 
 progress of the case. 
 
 Acts like those gained the affections of all. It is not 
 every one that could appreciate his culture and intellectual 
 gifts ; but no one was so rude as to be insensible to the 
 " touch of nature, that makes the whole world kin." 
 
 There is reference to Mr. Cooper's benevolence in the 
 
 * Es lebe, wer des Siechen Schmerz 
 
 Des Kranken Jammer heilt ; 
 Nicbt Kaubar durch das Gold allein, 
 Noch oft bei diist'rer Sterne Schein 
 / ui 1 1 Armuthslager eilt ! 
 
 German song Der Wahrheit Tafelsang.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 177 
 
 following " conversation " between Mr. Nassau "William 
 Senior, the late Lord Rosse, and an interlocutor that goes 
 
 hy the name of B , which took place at Birr Castle, 
 
 and which is recorded in Mr. Senior's Journals, Con- 
 versations, and Essays relating to Ireland : " B 
 
 talked of the cholera of 1832. The greatest mortality, he 
 said, was in a place called, I think, Ballysadare, near Col- 
 looney, in Sligo. It contained, when the cholera ap- 
 proached, five hundred and eighty inhabitants, and the 
 filthy, undrained, damp huts of which it consisted, marked 
 it out as a fit victim. The inhabitants were urged to 
 take precautions, but they neglected perhaps were not 
 able to do so. About eighty, however, left the place ; the 
 rest remained, trusting, they said, to Providence. At that 
 time the belief in the contagiousness of cholera was firm, 
 at least in that country. The cholera came, and became 
 instantly very destructive. The neighbours formed a cor- 
 don round the place, and allowed no one to leave it. Mr. 
 Cooper, the greatest proprietor in the district, sent every- 
 day to the neighbourhood of the village a cart loaded with 
 provisions, which was left there until the inhabitants had 
 taken what they wanted and retired. From time to time 
 less and less of the contents of the cart were taken. At 
 last it remained totally untouched. The last person who 
 had remained among the five hundred was dead." There's 
 a pretty piece of sensationalism for you! and in the last 
 place in the world you would expect to find it. Not in 
 a poem or a novel ; not in the lucubrations of an imagina- 
 tive Irishman ; but in the journal, composed at his leisure, 
 of a great hard-headed English political economist one 
 commonly regarded as the very personification of facts 
 an authority inferior little, if at all, to the Gospel, in the 
 eyes of Englishmen. You will search in vain Defoe's 
 account of the Plague in London for anything so thrilling. 
 It beats to pieces even the story of the Kilkenny cats ; for 
 in that famous narrative the tails survived ; but in Bally- 
 
 N
 
 178 PARISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 
 
 sadare at the close of the cholera visitation according to 
 Mr. Senior, there was neither head nor tail. " The last 
 person among the five hundred that had remained in the village 
 was dead!" Well, the state of Ballysadare in 1832 was 
 as had as it well could be in real life worse, it is said, 
 than that of any other town or village in England, Ireland, 
 or Scotland, ravaged by the cholera but still it did not 
 reach the transcendental tragic imagined by Mr. Senior. 
 "What a pity to spoil the melodrama of Mr. Cooper's cart ? 
 But the truth must be told that the aforesaid cart is as 
 much a myth as Aurora's car or Photon's chariot. It is 
 true that Mr. Cooper, who was ever alive to the duties of 
 high station, did then, as always, what in him lay to 
 lighten the evils weighing down tenants and neighbours ; 
 that he remained at Markrea the whole time the visita- 
 tion lasted in order to be within reach of the sufferers ; 
 that he was unceasing in his inquiries, and in his sugges- 
 tions and directions as to the care and treatment of the 
 patients ; and that he forwarded to Ballysadare an unlimi- 
 ted supply of wine, and brandy, and meat of everything 
 recommended by the doctors either as food or drink ; but 
 still, it must be recorded that this cornucopia cart formed 
 no part of the means by which the kind-hearted gentleman 
 conveyed his bounty to the afflicted. "While the Birr 
 " conversation," then, damages Mr. Nassau "William 
 Senior's authority on Irish matters, it detracts nothing 
 from Mr. Cooper's liberality, but rather enhances it, by 
 showing that his reputation for this virtue was not only 
 well known in the neighbourhood, but had reached the 
 King's County. 
 
 So drawn were all hearts to Mr. Cooper for this kindli- 
 ness of disposition, that even the office of grand master of 
 the County Sligo Orangemen accepted soon after a second 
 marriage had connected him, by family ties, with the Earl 
 of Enniskillen (the grand master of the Orange Associa- 
 tion) was not able to estrange the affections of Catholic
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 179 
 
 tenants and neighbours ; for they forgot the office in the 
 man. The parish priest admired him .as much as the 
 flock ; and, on a suitable occasion offering at the Markrea 
 Estate Cattle Show dinner, proposed the health of Mr. 
 Cooper in terms so cordial and laudatory that the Times took 
 note of the incident, and made use of it to prove, that an 
 Irish landlord, if good and genial, is sure of the affections 
 of both priests and people, whatever difference, on the score 
 of religion and politics, might exist between him and them. 
 Orangeman, however, and thoroughgoing churchman as 
 Mr. Cooper certainly was, he was no bigot for all that, as 
 facts in abundance prove. For he continued to pay to the 
 chapel clerk the annual stipend that Mr. Edward Synge 
 Cooper was in the habit of paying. Similar liberality was 
 practised on the Limerick estate ; for on coming into pos- 
 session of that property, as we learn from a letter * that 
 appeared in the newspapers some years ago, he exempted 
 the Catholic tenants from the payment of tithes, and took 
 on himself that charge. This generous sense of the claims 
 and needs of those who differed from him in religion led 
 Mr. Cooper to be very obliging to the priests of the neigh- 
 bourhood, and more especially to those of Ballysadare 
 parish, to which Markrea Castle belongs. 
 
 * This letter, which was addressed to the Irish Times, contains the fol- 
 lowing statement: " About five and thirty years since, Mr. Cooper came 
 into possession of his Knocklong estates, of which I was then, and am at 
 present, a tenant to a large tract, which I hold under an old lease at very 
 fair value. A short time after, I went to pay my respects to Markrea 
 Castle, where I remained some days at his hospitable mansion. He 
 ascertained on Friday that I was a Catholic, and then asked me if I paid 
 tithes on his estate. I said, "Ye?, 15 per year." Next morning he 
 gave me a note to his agent, unasked for, saying he had no idea that I 
 should pay tithes for the support of his chureh ; the same rule he applied 
 to the other tenants. ... If we had many such in Ireland there would 
 "be very little necessity for interfering between landlord and tenant. I 
 may add that the Misses Cooper are following in their father's footsteps. 
 I remain, etc., 
 
 "MICHAEL O'BEIEN. 
 
 " Trough House, Limerick."
 
 180 PARISH OF BALL YSAD ARE. 
 
 To Yery Rev. James Henry, the parish priest in posses- 
 sion when Mr. Cooper came to reside at Markrea,he was par- 
 ticularly kind. Father James having fallen into ill health 
 about this time, never stirred out of doors, unless on some 
 rare occasions, when he had himself helped to the chapel- 
 yard for a breath of fresh air. All this time the greatest 
 sympathy was felt for the invalid, not merely by the 
 Roman Catholics of the parish, but by the Protestants as 
 well, and by none more than by Mr. Cooper, who made 
 frequent visits to the presbytery, and was, besides, unre- 
 mitting in inquiries and other attentions. As there has of 
 late been much talk of a " mechanical chair," presented by 
 a cardinal to the Pope, and so constructed that the Holy 
 Father can move himself about in it without aid from any 
 other quarter a contrivance which the newspapers seem 
 to regard as quite a novel invention it is worth remarking 
 that, near fifty years ago, Mr. Cooper designed a similar 
 chair for Father Henry ; had it made in Dublin or London ; 
 presented it as a gift to the priest ; and thus afforded that 
 worthy man almost the only comfort he enjoyed during the 
 remaining months of his life. 
 
 To the Right Rev. Dr. Durcan, when parish priest of 
 Ballysadare, he gave house and land accommodation, 
 which was all the kinder, as some little unpleasantness 
 had occurred, once or twice, between them ; and the suc- 
 cessor of Dr. Durcan in the parish, the present writer, 
 likewise received at Mr. Cooper's hands repeated acts of 
 civility and kindness, one of which, as of a less private 
 character, may perhaps, with propriety, be mentioned here. 
 On a small holding of land in the townland of Collooney 
 falling out of occupation, and after several applications or 
 proposals for it had been forwarded to the rent- office, Mr. 
 Cooper, quite unasked, sent an offer of it to the parish 
 priest, who had no thought of land at the time, accompany- 
 ing the offer with the remark, that this was the first piece 
 of land that could be disposed of since the parish priest's
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 181 
 
 taking charge of the parish, and that if it were any accom- 
 modation, he " might have it with great pleasure " an 
 offer that was as gratefully accepted as it was graciously 
 made. 
 
 Nor did this gentleman confine favours to priests living 
 on the Markrea estates, as a striking instance will show. 
 When the late Canon Tighe, some years ago, was questing 
 contributions for the new church of Ballymote, meeting 
 casually Mr. Cooper, as a fellow-passenger, in the coach 
 then plying between Boyle and Sligo, and availing himself 
 of the occasion, the Canon solicited a contribution for the 
 building ; but, Mr. Cooper replying only with a laugh and 
 a joke at the idea of " expecting such a thing from a 
 grand-master of Orangemen ;" Mr. Tighe let the subject 
 drop, and thought no more of the matter till the following 
 morning, when, on opening the letters brought by the 
 post, he found one from the good "grand-master," con- 
 taining a 10 note, in response to the appeal of the 
 preceding day. 
 
 "When this liberal minded man was so ready to show con- 
 sideration for the religion of others, it is easy to under- 
 stand how desirous he must have been to serve his own 
 church, to which he was singularly devoted and loyal; 
 and, accordingly, we find Mr. Cooper, through life, render- 
 ing the Established church all the services in his power, 
 promoting its interests, as a member of parliament, and as 
 a private gentleman, and carrying zeal for it so far as to 
 found and endow, at great expense, two chapels of ease, 
 one at Rosses' Point, and the other at Ballysadare.* 
 
 As might be expected from a person of such head and 
 heart, Mr. Cooper was as quick to discern rising genius, as 
 he was willing to aid in its development. Among the first 
 orders received by Gibson, the late eminent sculptor, was 
 one that Mr. Cooper gave for a monument to the memory 
 of his first wife, and that resulted in the beautiful piece of 
 * See page 136.
 
 182 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 sculpture, which may be seen over her remains in the 
 Protestant church of Collooney, and which bears the 
 inscription, "Sophie Cooper Nat. 1800 Ob. 1822." It 
 was he, too, that discovered the great talent of Sir John 
 Benson sent the young Collooney man to a school of 
 design, and thus started that gifted architect on his dis- 
 tinguished career. Mr. John Battle, another of Mr. 
 Cooper's proteges, justified the patron's discernment by 
 becoming as skilful and long-headed a builder as there was 
 in the province. This talented, though somewhat hasty 
 
 man, hearing that an architect, Mr. , was erecting a 
 
 salmon ladder at Ballysadare, went to have a look at the 
 work, and, on seeing it, exclaimed that a salmon would 
 never enter it. The architect, who was present, treated 
 the assertion with contempt, but time verified John Battle's 
 prediction. Mr. Cooper, judging that the man that could 
 see defects would be the one most likely to avoid them, 
 entrusted the design of another ladder to Mr. Battle him- 
 self, who forthwith planned a structure, over which salmon 
 in shoals have been passing ever since its erection. 
 
 Allusion has been made (page 83) to the School of 
 Trades established by Mr. Cooper in Collooney, in the year 
 1840, for the double purpose of teaching trades those of 
 tailor, shoemaker, carpenter, and smith to sons of tenants, 
 and of executing, as far as possible, for the dwellers on the 
 Markrea estate, all the work needed by them in connection 
 with those trades. The first intimation the body of the 
 tenants received of their landlord's project was conveyed 
 to them in the following letter, dated December 10th, 1840, 
 written from Brighton, and forwarded through the Rev. 
 Lewis Potter, who, though Yicar of Dromard at this time, 
 acted also as chaplain and almoner to Mr. Cooper : 
 
 " MY FRIENDS An anxiety has long been strongly felt by me, to 
 endeavour to open some new sources of employment for your children, 
 the number of whom is far too numerous to admit of their earning a com- 
 fortable livelihood as farmers, from the subdivision of the land. It has,
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 183 
 
 consequently, occurred to me to establish a school of trades in Colloone y, 
 whore certain of your children may learn, at my expense, to become 
 carpenters, smiths, tailors, or shoemakers. The masters shall (if I can 
 obtain them sufficiently qualified) be selected from among yourselves. A 
 model farm will also be shortly laid out, near the same town, with a view 
 of instructing others of your children in the best mode of tillage, etc., etc., 
 to enable them to become efficient farmers, should they hereafter become 
 tenants, or to qualify them for the situation of stewards. I estimate that 
 about twenty pupils may be always employed, and that about three years 
 tuition will be, in most cases, sufficient. The accounts of the expenditure 
 and produce of the model farm will be regularly kept, and submitted to 
 the examination of the tenantry, for their instruction and encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 ' ' The conditions required to be observed by the candidates for entrance 
 into any of the schools will be as follows : 
 
 ' ' The boys must have attended some school either wholly or partially sup- 
 ported by me. They must be recommended by their clergyman for good 
 conduct, as well as by the visitor to, and master of, the school they have 
 attended, and they must pass a general examination as to their proficiency. 
 
 " Their parent or parents must have testimonials as to their general 
 good moral character, industry, and punctuality in observing their 
 engagements with their landlord. 
 
 " The boys must be bound by indenture, at the age of sixteen, for five 
 years, but will be discharged from the agricultural and trades' school as 
 soon as they are considered to be sufficiently instructed. The parents 
 will be expected to provide their children, while learning their trades, in 
 diet and lodging, and procure for them decent clothing, as no fees will be 
 charged for their indentures. 
 
 " The boys in the agricultural school will be lodged, and under the 
 entire control of the superintendent, with whom their parents must make 
 an arrangement for their diet and clothing. 
 
 " No boy, in any of the schools, to be permitted to absent himself, 
 except upon illness or special leave. A premium will be given to the 
 best conducted and most advanced of each trade, at the end of the third 
 year of apprenticeship. 
 
 " As it is expected that the schools will be ready for pupils about the 
 1st of May next, the parents of children may now make application for 
 their admission. 
 
 " EDWARD COOPER." 
 
 The Reverend Mr. Potter lost no time, on receiving this 
 communication, in convening a meeting of the Markrea 
 tenantry to consider the letter and vote an address in 
 response. The Reverend gentleman relieved the meeting 
 of the trouble of framing an address, and brought a cut-
 
 184 PARISH OF BALLYSAUARE. 
 
 and- dry document in his pocket, which was gratefully 
 accepted by such tenants as were present, and elicited a 
 vote of thanks to him for " his lively interest in their 
 welfare, and the kind share he had taken in their proceed- 
 ings," as also a request that he would transmit the address 
 to Mr. Cooper. The following is the address, which was 
 so entirely in accordance with all Mr. Cooper's views, that 
 it seems framed on the model of certain parliamentary 
 addresses, that are only an " echo of the speech from the 
 throne" : 
 
 " COLLOONEY, January 18th, 1841. 
 
 " HONOURED SIR Permit us most respectfully to assure you that 
 your kind address to the tenantry on the Markrea estates has been read 
 by us with great pleasure and sincere gratitude to you, as our benevolent 
 and liberal landlord. It is an addition to the many pledges we have 
 received, from time to time, at your hands, that not only our welfare, 
 but the best interests of the rising generation among us, is an object very 
 near to your heart. You have been the conciliating arbiter of our differ- 
 ences (when such have occasionally existed) the faithful counsellor in 
 our difficulties the ingenious friend in our trials the generous bene- 
 factor of the distressed the kind protector of the orphan and the widow 
 the unbounded dispenser of clothing to the naked, and of food to the 
 hungry ; this is only a just expression of what we experience and witness, 
 and we place it before you, not in the spirit of flattery and adulation, 
 but as a testimony which justice demands from us. In addressing you 
 on this occasion, we most thankfully and unreservedly accept your letter 
 as a further pledge of the interest you take in us and in our concerns, and 
 we consider the conditions set-forth by you as most useful in detail ; BUT WE 
 MOST SPECIALLY NOTICE WITH OUR APPROVAL, that one which makes it 
 necessary that ALL candidates for admission into the school of trades, etc., 
 should be educated at some school either entirely or partially supported by 
 you ; while this will secure to them advancement in all useful knowledge 
 Buited to their station, it is gratifying to us to feel that their moral and 
 religious instruction will be advanced. We, therefore, fully admit the 
 value of this condition, and rejoice to acknowledge that, at your hands 
 the children on Jthe Markrea estates have tJte privilege of attending schools 
 established on the basis of Christian principles. That your proposed plan 
 (under God's providence) will prosper, we believe; and while we acknow- 
 ledge his goodness in causing our lot to be cast under a landlord whom 
 we have every reason to regard and respect, we hope we shall, by our 
 conduct and demeanour, continue to deserve the kindness and affection
 
 PARISH OF BALL\SADARE. 
 
 185 
 
 of you, our landlord and friend. Praying that God's blessing may ever 
 be vouchsafed to you, your valuable lady, and family, 
 
 " We have the honour to remain, honoured Sir, your faithful and 
 attached servants, 
 
 " JOHN BENSON, Chairman." 
 
 The school of trades, for which success was thus pre- 
 dicted, unfortunately failed with a loss to Mr. Cooper of 
 1000. And a circumstance still more mortifying was, to 
 use the words of Mr. Potter, that " in the month of June, 
 1843, the workshop of the tailor's school was set fire to, 
 either on Sunday night or on Monday morning, and the 
 entire of the goods contained therein was consumed or 
 damaged ; and so persuaded were the Grand Jury of the 
 county that the act was a malicious one, that they granted 
 a presentment, amounting to over 66 for the injury done 
 to the property of this school ; and not only this, so, con- 
 vinced were the same gentlemen that this act was not 
 perpetrated by people coming from a distance, that they 
 assessed the entire sum on the inhabitants of the town of 
 Collooney." 
 
 These are the facts of this case as they were laid before 
 the Land Commissioners in Sligo * by the Rev. Mr. Potter 
 himself; and limiting our view even to what appears on 
 the face of the documents, it is not hard to understand the 
 failure of the undertaking. For, in the first place, it was 
 a monopoly, and, as such, had against it all the free traders 
 of the neighbourhood as well as all those carpenters, tailors, 
 smiths, and shoemakers, whose bread and butter it threat- 
 ened to take away. These tradesmen went about com- 
 plaining they were going to be ruined, and thus awakened 
 sympathy among the people, and all the more readily, as 
 the people themselves resented the idea of being deprived 
 of free will in their little dealings. Though not much of 
 political economists, they did not fail to see that it was an 
 
 * Examination of the Eev. Lewis Potter before the Land Commissioners in 
 Appendix, Part ii, page 199.
 
 186 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 extraordinary stretch of authority in a landlord to create 
 an establishment for making the clothes and shoes of his 
 tenants, and doing all their carpenter and smith work, at 
 the very time that lords of manors were obliged to relin- 
 quish the privilege, long enjoyed, of having all the corn of 
 the estate ground at the manor mill. 
 
 But the interference of this school with freedom of con- 
 science excited still more ill-will than its interference with 
 freedom of trade; for, however, its patrons might have 
 tried to keep their purpose in the background, it was clear 
 enough that their object was to prop up Mr. Cooper's 
 Scripture schools, and to deal a damaging blow to the 
 National ones lately established in the neighbourhood. Of 
 course so much is not expressly stated, but when the very 
 first of the conditions required to be observed by candidates 
 for admission was, " that they must have attended some 
 school either wholly or partially supported by Mr. Cooper," 
 it followed that parents, if they wished to share the benefits 
 of the new establishment, should take away their children 
 from the National school, and send them to one of those 
 mentioned in the regulations. And this comes out still 
 more unmistakeably in the following sentence that forms 
 the pith and marrow of Mr. Potter's address : " We con- 
 sider the conditions set-forth by you as most useful in 
 detail; but we most especially notice with our approval, that 
 one which makes it necessary that all candidates for admission 
 should be educated in some school either wholly or partially 
 supported by you" as if everything else was a mere matter 
 of detail, but that the essence of the thing was, the attend- 
 ance of candidates " at schools established on the basis of 
 Christian principles." 
 
 As the neighbours, too, were well acquainted with the 
 strained relations between Dr. Durcan and Mr. Cooper, on 
 the subject of the National schools opened in the parish, 
 they read between the lines of the Brighton letter and the 
 parson's address ; and seeing there, that the inducements
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 187 
 
 held out were only baits to lure on to schools that their 
 conscience condemned, they elected to forego the temporal 
 advantages offered rather than compromise their spiritual 
 interests. But though Dr. Durcan and his flock acted 
 firmly, they acted respectfully towards Mr. Cooper, and 
 avoided, as far as possible, all offence to a gentleman, that 
 they believed to be driven on by others who kept themselves 
 out of view, while he was free from the insidious aims 
 entertained by them. The truth is, the Rev. Mr. Potter 
 was generally believed to be the chief author of the school 
 project, and as that gentleman lay under the imputation, 
 whether deservedly or otherwise, of being no friend to 
 Catholics, members of that body always mistrusted him, as 
 Laocoon did the Greeks, " etiam dona ferentes." Though 
 the school of trades could hardly, under any circumstances, 
 have turned out a success, it would have had some chance 
 of prospering if Mr. Cooper, when organizing it, took the 
 parish priest and the Catholics into his confidence, for they 
 would have suggested the exclusion or modification of the 
 first condition, as sure to lead, sooner or later, to the ruin 
 of the measure, but it was the misfortune of Mr. Cooper at 
 the time, as it is often the misfortune of gentlemen like 
 him, to be surrounded exclusively by persons whose main 
 object is to make things smooth and pleasant for them- 
 selves, and who would sooner see their patron tumble down 
 a precipice than run the risk of incurring his passing dis- 
 pleasure, by pointing out the danger. As to the burning 
 of the tailors' school, the inhabitants of Collooney, as a 
 body, whatever Mr. Potter and the Grand Jury, that were 
 coached by him, may have thought, had neither hand nor 
 part in the outrage ; which was regarded by those best 
 acquainted with the circumstances of the neighbourhood 
 at the time, as either the result of accident or, more pro- 
 bably, as an act of private personal revenge. At all events 
 the Catholics of Collooney took the matter to heart even 
 more than others, for while they shared fully the sympathy
 
 188 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 of their fellow- townsmen with Mr. Cooper, under his loss 
 and mortification, they felt also not a little for the master 
 of the particular school destroyed, who was thrown on the 
 world, and ruined by the occurrence, and who happened to 
 be the only Catholic master in the whole concern. 
 
 The object of Mr. Potter in bringing the history of the 
 school of trades before the Land Commissioners was to 
 afford " those in authority, and the public generally, an 
 opportunity to form an opinion of the discouragement that 
 a landlord is subjected to, when induced by a high sense of 
 duty to put into operation a plan of this kind, for the ame- 
 lioration of his tenantry." But there is another lesson 
 which " those in authority," the " public generally," and 
 the confidential advisers of landlords particularly, could 
 more naturally learn from the case, and it is this, that 
 landlords should take care to eliminate the element of sec 
 tarianism from " plans for the amelioration of their tenan- 
 try," and, more especially, from plans relating to educa- 
 tion. In inaugurating the National Board of Education, 
 Mr. Stanley, the late Lord Derby, laid down, in his famous 
 letter, that " even the suspicion of proselytism should be 
 banished from the system," a principle that all Irish edu- 
 cationists and educators, public and private, would have 
 done well to bear always in mind, for it was the disregard 
 of this principle that has led to the failure of the Charter 
 Schools, of the Kildare Street Society schools, of many 
 other state supported schools, and of innumerable private 
 schools, including, unfortunately, poor Mr. Cooper's school 
 of trades in Colooney. 
 
 Though the observatory and the estate had more attrac- 
 tions for Mr. Cooper than the House of Commons, he, 
 nevertheless, served in parliament first, from 1830 to 
 1841 ; and, secondly, from 1857 to 1859 as member for 
 the County Sligo, and, if so inclined, might have continued 
 in the ofiice for life. Returned unopposed in 1830, 1831, 
 1832, and 1835, he had to run the gauntlet of a contest in
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 189 
 
 1837 and 1857 ; but personal popularity carried him. 
 through in triumph on both occasions ; though, in 1837, 
 the rival candidate was the late greatly lamented Rev. 
 Daniel Jones, S.J., who had just then come of age chevalier 
 sans peur et sans reproche the idol of the Catholics, and 
 the rising hope of all the honest and honourable Liberals 
 of the county ; while in 1857 the antagonist was Mr. John 
 Ball, a man of considerable political experience and talent, 
 and one high in the confidence of the great Whig party, 
 and warmly backed by them.* 
 
 In the landlord and tenant question Mr. Cooper took so 
 warm an interest as to prepare a bill on the subject ; but 
 retiring from Parliament in 1859, the draught of the 
 measure was handed over to the late Chief Justice White- 
 side, who was then Attorney- General for Ireland. Few 
 private members in the house, if any, were so qualified to 
 deal with this weighty question as Mr. Cooper. From 
 class interest and self interest the owner of Markrea was, 
 naturally, alive to the rights of the landlord ; while, on the 
 other hand, a singularly equitable temperament and great 
 experience led him to appreciate the claims of the tenant, 
 and to do justice to those claims ; for on his first appear- 
 ance in public life, at the hustings of Sligo in 1830, Mr. 
 Cooper proclaimed that he would, in future, leave the fixing 
 of rent on the Markrea estate to two arbitrators one to be 
 named by the rent-office and the other by the tenant ; a 
 principle on which this model landlord uniformly acted 
 through life, calling it always the live and let live 
 principle. 
 
 When the Dublin University Commission for inquiring 
 
 * In the election of 1837 the numbers polled for the respective candi- 
 dates were: Edward Joshua Cooper, 511 ; Colonel Alexander Perceval, 
 443 ; Daniel J. Jones, 368 ; and C. J. M'Dermot, 6. In 1857 the polling 
 was: Edward Joshua Cooper, 1471 ; Sir Robert G. Booth, 1471 ; John 
 
 Ball, 305 ; and Richard Swift, 5 Thorn's Almanac, 1853, p. 359 ; and 
 
 1858, p. 587.
 
 190 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 into "the state, discipline, studies, and revenues" of 
 Trinity College was issued in 1852, Mr. Cooper was named 
 one of the commissioners, the others being His Grace the 
 Archbishop of Dublin (Dr. Whately), the Right Hon. 
 Maziere Brady, the Right Hon. the Earl of Rosse, the 
 Lord Bishop of Cork, and Mountiford Longford, Esq., 
 LL.D.* The office was congenial to Mr. Cooper's taste as 
 a scholar and a churchman, and was one from which he 
 derived many pleasant associations ; for he never tired 
 quoting, in after life, the Ions mots and drolleries with 
 which the witty archbishop enlivened the dull proceedings 
 of taking and recording evidence. 
 
 It is no wonder that Mr. Cooper relished the sallies of 
 Dr. Whately, for he was himself prone to playfulness like 
 the archbishop. Overflowing always with humour, it 
 would be easy to mention hundreds of his whims and 
 pleasantries in various places and companies, at home and 
 abroad ; in the drawingrooms of himself and friends ; 
 among the labourers and mechanics of Markrea ; with the 
 creme de la creme of foreign salons ; or, if a tempting oppor- 
 tunity offered, before the common people met with in con- 
 tinental streets and squares. Here is a sample : 
 
 Being in Naples with a friend the Rev. Dr. Robinson, 
 of the Armagh observatory with whom he was making a 
 little tour, they happened, as they were passing through 
 one of the piazzas of that city, to fall in with a juggler, 
 who was exhibiting feats to a large circle of spectators. 
 It seems the exhibition was not over brilliant, at least in 
 the eyes of Mr. Cooper, who was an adept in sleight-of- 
 hand ; for, after looking on attentively for some time, that 
 gentleman stepped boldly into the ring and took the 
 appliances out of the performer's hands. The crowd 
 enjoyed the scene ; and after Mr. Cooper had shown them 
 a tour or two, accompanying the feats with a running com- 
 
 * Thorn's Almanac, 1853, p. 381.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 191 
 
 mentary in the raciest of Italian, which, he spoke like a 
 native, they recognised a maestro in the new-comer, and 
 gave cheer upon cheer as the amateur showman retired, 
 after giving back the cap and balls, and passing deftly with 
 them a piece of gold into the palm of the professional ; a 
 trick, no doubt, which that worthy regarded as the best 
 part of the performance. Squeamish people may feel that 
 Mr. Cooper let himself down a little on this occasion, but 
 let your exquisites say what they will, most persons will 
 only think the more highly of the grand seigneur, who could 
 thus throw himself into the pastimes of the people ; and of 
 the philosopher, who was able, on occasion, to unbend, with 
 conjuror's balls, a mind habitually occupied with the orbs of 
 the planets. 
 
 Mr. Cooper, then, was a many-sided man, with moral 
 and mental nature well developed on all sides, so that he 
 excelled at once in intellect, in virtue, and in social and 
 personal accomplishments.* Unlike many men of science, 
 who are engrossed with one idea, this savant's mind ranged 
 from the highest to the homeliest subjects ; and, unlike 
 many men of the world, who care for few, or nobody, but 
 themselves, this gentleman's affections were warm and all- 
 embracing. And he was an excellent family man. Saint 
 Paul says, that "he that has not care of his own, and 
 especially those of his house, is worse than an infidel ; " 
 Dean Swift adds, that "he who has care only of his own is 
 just equal to an infidel ; " but Mr. Cooper bestowed care 
 all round ; while serving, at the same time, as a model in 
 every domestic relation, being a dutiful son, a fond father, 
 an affectionate and devoted husband. Indeed this strong 
 family feeling is supposed to have hastened his death ; for 
 
 * "His personal qualities were of a high order : blameless and fasci- 
 nating in private life, a sincere Christian, no mean poet, an accomplished 
 linguist, an exquisite musician, and possessing a wide and varied range of 
 general information." Obituary Notice in the Proceedings of the Royal 
 Society, 1864.
 
 192 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 he visibly drooped and sank from the demise of Mrs. 
 Cooper, and never rallied till he followed her to the grave. 
 Mrs. Cooper departed this life about Christmas, 1862, and 
 Mr. Cooper's death occurred on the 23rd April, 1863. 
 They are both buried in the same grave at Ballysadare, in 
 the cemetery attached to the chapel- of- ease founded by 
 them, the monument erected over the remains bearing no 
 inscription except those Scripture words : " Absent from 
 the body, present with the Lord." * 
 
 There are few who may not derive profit from Mr. 
 Cooper's life. Heads of families will find plenty to imitate 
 in the domestic virtues it exhibits ; landlords may learn 
 from it how to promote the interests of tenants and 
 labourers, and their own interests and happiness at the 
 same time ; individuals of the humbler classes will take the 
 more cheerfully to their lot of labour, after seeing this 
 gentleman choose, with all his wealth and honours, to 
 
 " Shun delights, 
 And live laborious days ; " 
 
 while those born to place and fortune, instead of sitting 
 down, in ignoble sloth, to the good things prepared for 
 them a mere numerus fruges consumers nati can catch 
 from Edward Joshua Cooper the honourable ambition of 
 being men of culture and usefulness, and of surpassing 
 others in mental, as much as in material possessions.f 
 
 Before concluding this notice of the Coopers an additional 
 remark or two are to be made. First, it may be observed 
 that the Coopers, like the O'Haras and Percivals, are a 
 family of great antiquity and distinction. We learn from 
 
 * The fine memorial window, erected by the Misses Cooper in the 
 Church of iSaint Paul's, Collooney, (see page 125), bears the inscription : 
 " In memory of Edward Joshua Cooper. Obiit April 23, 1863. And 
 Sarah Frances Cooper. Obiit Dec. 29. 1862. Erected by their devoted 
 and sorrowing daughters, April, 1865." 
 
 f " Nam genus et proavos, et qua3 non fecimus ipsi, 
 Vix. ea nostra voco.' 
 
 Ovid's Hetamorph., lib. xiii, 1. 140.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 193 
 
 Sir Bernard Burke,* and from the will of Cornet Cooper, 
 in which the cornet commends his children to the care of 
 his " cousin," Lord Collooney, that the Coopers are related 
 to the Cootes, who are declared, in the preamble of the 
 patent creating Richard Coote, Baron of Collooney, to have 
 been " an ancient and flourishing family of Norfolk." f 
 And they are known to be related also to Sir Richard 
 Bingham, the celebrated governor of Connaught, a member 
 of " an old and illustrious family of Dorsetshire," as Cam- 
 den informs us.J According to the memorial or genealogi- 
 cal window in Markrea Castle, the genealogies on which 
 were furnished by Sir William Betham, the lineal ancestors 
 of Cornet Cooper under King John and Henry VIII, were, 
 respectively, Bryan Cooper, knight, and William Cooper, 
 knight. 
 
 That Cornet Cooper was a landed proprietor in Limerick 
 prior to Cromwell's landing in Ireland, and was not, there- 
 fore, a " Cromwellian " strictly so called, may be deduced 
 with very high probability to say the least from the 
 Exchequer decree already quoted ; for, though it is not 
 expressly stated in the decree that the Edward Cooper 
 mentioned and Cornet Edward Cooper were one and the 
 same, still the identity sufficiently appears : first, from there 
 being no trace of any other Edward than the cornet in the 
 documents of the period ; secondly, from the affirmative 
 
 * Landed Gentry of Ireland. 
 
 j- " Quamque in eo numero conspicuum se prestitit vir nobilis nobisque 
 in primis probatus Ricardus Dominus Coote, Baro de Coloony in regno 
 nostro Hibernise, serenissimae reginas uxoris nostrse in Hollandia Senes- 
 challus, mine Thesaurarius, cujus familise sedes olim in comitatu Nor- 
 folcienci, vetustate, rebus gestis, et opulentia inclitae, undo proavi (nati 
 ad majora) profecti militari laude ac de patria bene merendi studio inci- 
 tati, in Hibernia, ubi turn bella exarserunt contra juratos tarn Anglici 
 nominis quam reformats religionis bostes, strenuam ac utilcm operam 
 navarunt, ibique inter regni proceres ascripti floruerunt, etc." Lodge's 
 Peerage of Ireland : by Mervyn Arcbdall, A.M., vol. iii, p. 210. 
 
 t Annals of the Reign of Elizabeth, A.D. 1598. 
 
 O
 
 194 PARISH OF BATLYSADARE. 
 
 opinion of Mr. "W. M. Hennessy, whose knowledge of the 
 doings and documents of the time is second to that of no 
 man living ; thirdly, from the original estate of the Coopers 
 lying certainly in Limerick ; and, lastly, from the fact that 
 the regiment of dragoons to which the cornet belonged 
 was composed of English landholders " poor stripped 
 English settlers," says Borlase dispossessed by the Irish 
 in 1641.* 
 
 The other remark is, that many regard those Coopers 
 who have succeeded the cornet in Markrea, not as members 
 of the cornet's family, but as descendants of one of the 
 O'Briens. The story is that Conor O'Brien, a chief of 
 the great Thomond family, having been slain while defend- 
 ing Limerick against Ireton, and having left after him a 
 wife and two or three sons ; the wife, to preserve the hus- 
 band's property, sought out Ireton, and besought his 
 protection and patronage in her bereavement. This ex- 
 traordinary appeal touched the heart of the general, who, 
 in response, promised his good offices, but only on condition 
 that she should marry an officer of the English army. The 
 condition was accepted ; Cornet Cooper was chosen for the 
 honour of the lady's hand ; and the sons of Conor O'Brien, 
 after their mother's marriage, taking the name of the step- 
 father, who had no children himself, passed on the name 
 of Cooper but the blood of O'Brien to their descendants, 
 the Coopers of Markrea. This account, romantic as it 
 sounds, is far from improbable.f There are weighty reasons 
 
 * Borlase Rebellion of Ireland, p. 44. Cambrensis Eversus, vol. iii, 
 p. 92. 
 
 t Another version of the story may be seen in Mr. and Mrs. Hall's 
 Ireland: its Scenery and Character, etc., which the authors took from 
 Crofton Croker, and which runs thus : 
 
 " During the siege of Limerick (Cromwell's siege), Ireton, unable to 
 gain over Connor O'Brien to his side by negociation, employed five of his 
 best marksmen to shoot him. These men, disguised as sporting cavaliers, 
 succeeded in surprising Connor O'Brien, and by one of them he was mor- 
 tally wounded. They were immediately seized and hung on two carts,
 
 PARISH OF BALL*XSADARE. 195 
 
 for and against it, with nothing, perhaps, decisive one way 
 or the other ; but in either case the Coopers can boast of 
 high lineage ; the alternative lying between the blood of 
 Brian Boroimhe and that of ancestors who were already 
 flourishing and famous knights in the days of King John. 
 
 which were set up on end to form the gallows, The dying man was car- 
 ried on horseback to Lemenagh, attended hy a faithful servant, of whom 
 Mrs. O'Brien demanded why he dared to hring a dead man home to her ? 
 and calling her two sons, Teigue and Donough, told them that with the 
 life of their father their fortune was lost, unless both she and they im- 
 mediately surrendered to the popular English party, and obtained terms 
 from Ireton. Upon the death of her husband, who survived only a short 
 time, she ordered her carriage, and dressing herself in superb robes of 
 blue and silver, travelled with six horses to Limerick, then in the posses- 
 sion of Ireton, where she arrived on the evening when a splendid enter- 
 tainment was given in celebration of the surrender of the town. Mrs. 
 O'Brien was stopped by a sentinel, who demanded her order for admis- 
 sion; and while an altercation took place on the subject, Ireton came up 
 and inquired into the cause, and the name of the lady. ' I was this 
 morning,' replied the heroine, " the wife of Connor O'Brien, but this 
 evening I am his widow." Ireton, who had not heard of Connor 
 O'Brien's death, nor of the fate of the marksmen, suspected some deceit, 
 and asked how she could prove her words ? ' By bestowing my hand in 
 marriage,' she replied, ' upon any one of your officers.' The oiler was 
 accepted, and the widow was married the same evening to Captain Henry 
 Cooper." Mr. and Mrs. Hall's Ireland, vol. ii, p. 188. 
 
 From this, then, and other traditions it is clear enough that the widow 
 of Conor O'Brien married an English officer named Cooper ; but whether 
 he was a captain or cornet ; a Henry or Edward by name, is not so clear ; 
 but as Cornet Edward Cooper was the leading Cooper of that period, there 
 is little doubt that it is he who was the husband of Mrs. O'Brien. One 
 argument that goes a great way to prove this is derived from the fact, 
 that the wife of Cornet Edward Cooper, as Sir Bernard Burke and the 
 genealogists inform us, was named Mahon or Mahony, while the maiden 
 name of Conor O'Brien's widow was also Mahon or Mahony, as appears 
 from the family papers of the O'Briens, now in the possession of Lord 
 Inchiquin. 
 
 Another circumstance that tells strongly for the O'Brien origin of the 
 Markrea Coopers is this : that the late Mr. Cooper, who was so well 
 qualified to weigh arguments, was fully convinced of this origin after he 
 had studied diligently all the facts of the case.
 
 196 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CLOONAMAHON. 
 SECTION I. OLD OWNERS. 
 
 CLOONAMAHON, the seat of Minor Meredith, is a spot of 
 considerable interest in the parish. The tasteful mansion, 
 which was built by the late Captain Meredith, commands 
 a vast prospect, and is surrounded by a demesne of several 
 hundred acres, the whole of which is land of prime quality. 
 In old times the place was called Kil-na-Maghin, or Kil- 
 na-Mochain from a church that stood about one hundred 
 yards to the east of the present garden, and had annexed 
 a graveyard. The date of this foundation is unknown ; 
 but that it is very remote appears from the old legend 
 that Cloonamahon church moved first, to Lough- Cronan 
 (the little lake lying between Knocknegruath and Drum- 
 fin) ; and next, to Kilmorgan, where it has remained since ; 
 a story which goes to show that the building at Cloona- 
 mahon was anterior to those of Lough- Cronan and Kil- 
 morgan, or " Killmurrough," as the parish is called in the 
 Doivn 8urvey maps. 
 
 There is no means at present of knowing for certain 
 who the saint is in whose honour Cloonamahon church was 
 dedicated. Yery probably it is Mochain, the companion 
 of Saint Attracta, and the erenagh of her church at 
 Ejllaraght ; * or it may be Muiredach O'Manchain, suc- 
 
 * O'Mochain or O'Moghan, is a well-known name of several ecclesiastics, 
 particularly of some who had connexion with Killaraght. Benedict 
 O'Moghan was erenagh of Killaraght in 1361, and the office would seem to 
 have k been hereditary in the family. Donnell O'Moghan was abbot of 
 Boyle in 1440. In 1392 " Gregory O'Mochain, Archbishop of Tuam, a
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 197 
 
 cessor to Cronan, whose name is given in the Annals of the 
 Four Masters under the year 1033. In Father O'Hanlon's 
 Lives of the Irish Saints * we read of a Saint Mainchin, 
 "son of Colla in Corann," whose natalis falls on the 13th, 
 of January ; and as Corann certainly included Cloonamahon 
 in olden times, it is probable enough that this Saint Main- 
 chin is the patron of the church in question. But the way 
 in which Cloonamahon is pronounced by Irish speakers 
 points rather to Mochain of Killaraght than to either of the 
 other names mentioned. 
 
 Like the rest of Tirerrill, Cloonamahon belonged to the 
 M'Donoghs in the Middle Ages, and up to the close of the 
 sixteenth century. In 1587, as we have seen already, 
 Morish M'Donogh was the owner and occupier of it, and, 
 as such, signed the indenture of composition made that 
 year between Sir John Perrott and the chieftains of Sligo. 
 In 1595 Hugh O'Donnell made a very effective foray 
 through Lower Connaught, and, in his progress appointed 
 chiefs for Tireragh, Leyney, Corran, Tirerrill, and Coolavin, 
 naming Morish Caech M'Donogh of Cloonamahon, son of 
 Teigue of the Trowsers, the M'Donogh of Tirerrill. f It 
 
 pious and charitable man, died," says the Annals of the Four Masters, sub 
 anno. And we learn from the same authority that ' ' the young Bishop 
 O'Mochain died on his way to Rome '' in 1395. Very probably the last- 
 named was Bishop of Achonry, though John O'Donovan writes in a note 
 under the entry, " the name of his see is not given in any authority acces- 
 sible to the editor." See Colgan's Life of St. Attracta. 
 
 * Lives of the Irish Saints : by the Rev. John O'Hanlon, M.R.I.A., 
 vol. i, p. 194, where we read : " ' St. Mainchin, son of Collan, in Corann.' 
 Men of the world live a fevered life ; the children of God are alone at rest. 
 Mancin Mac Collain is mentioned in the Martyrology of Tallagh, at the 
 13th of January. And in addition to this entry, we read as having been 
 venerated on this day, according to the Martyrology of Donegal, Main- 
 chin, son of Collan, in Corann. It must probably be the present barony of 
 Corran in the County of Sligo, that is here meant." 
 
 + Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 1595 : " On this occasion, thirteen 
 of the castles of Connaught were broken down by O'Donnell. After 
 crossing the Moy into Tireragh, he conferred the title of O'Dowda upon 
 Tiege, the son of Tiege Keagh, son of Owen, the O'Dowda. In Leyney
 
 198 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 would have been well, perhaps, for Morish Caech, had he 
 never received this dignity ; for, on obtaining it, he threw 
 himself energetically into the movement against the 
 English, and was slain in 1598 while thus engaged, which 
 occasioned the confiscation of his property. 
 
 O'Connor Sligo was owner of Cloonamahon in 1640 ; 
 Cornet Cooper bought it, as a debenture, from Robert 
 Brown, a dragoon, to whom it had fallen by lot ; but the 
 cornet had to relinquish it in favour of the Earl of Straf- 
 ford, who claimed and obtained it from the Commissioners 
 for executing the Act of Settlement. On the 2nd of July, 
 1666, Charles II made grants, under the Acts of Settle- 
 ment and Explanation, of most of the County Sligo, 
 including Cloonamahon, to William Earl of Strafford and 
 Thomas Radcliffe, Esq. ; and in the Tripartite Deed of 
 Partition of the County Sligo made on the 21st July, 
 1687, the third year of James II, between William Earl of 
 Strafford, first part ; Rev. John Leslie, D.D., second part ; 
 and Joshua Wilson of the City of Dublin, third part we 
 read, that Cloonamahon Beg and Cloonamahon More were 
 owned, at this date, by Charles Hart, who paid ten shil- 
 lings per annum thereout to the king. 
 
 Charles Hart was brother of Right Rev. John Hart,* 
 Bishop of Achonry, who lived in Cloonamahon till he and 
 the brother were deprived of their property about the year 
 1735, in a way that illustrates the iniquity of the times. 
 
 ho nominated . . . the O'Hara Reagh ; and he appointed Maurice 
 Caech, the son of Tiege-an-Triubhais, the Mac Donogh of Tirenill ; Rory, 
 the son of Hugh, the Mao Donogh of Corran ; and Connor, the son of 
 Tiege, the Mac Dermot of Moylurg. He took away hostages from every 
 territory into which he had come, as a security for their, fealty, and re- 
 turned home across the Erne, having terminated his expedition." 
 Annals, &c., ut supra. 
 
 * In vol. ii, p. 191, of Dr. "W. Maziere Brady's Episcopal Succession in 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, we read " 1735, John O'Harte, succeeded 
 by Brief, dated September 30, 1735. He died before May, 1739."
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 199 
 
 SECTION II. RIGHT REV. JOHN HART. 
 
 REFUSING, as Catholics, to take the oath of supremacy, the 
 brothers Hart had to look about for some Protestant friend 
 to serve secretly as trustee of the estate for them a service 
 which kind-hearted and high-minded Protestants frequently 
 performed at the time for Catholic owners of property, to 
 enable them to evade the penal laws. There lived them, 
 on the townland of Cartron, which adjoins Cloonamahon, 
 a Protestant gentleman named Betteridge,* with whom the 
 Harts were on terms of constant social intercourse and the 
 closest friendship ; and this man they pitched upon to act. 
 On being applied to, the obliging neighbour was only too 
 happy, he said, to be able to do a good turn for friends so 
 loved ; but having received all the powers and papers from 
 the Harts, Betteridge proceeded to Dublin, and treacher- 
 ously took the property to himself in reality as well as in 
 form. The wretch was not proof against the temptation 
 of robbing friends by due form of law ; f and when taunted 
 
 * His name, Laurence Bettridge, is attached to the petition for chang- 
 ing the site of the parish church of Ballysadare. See page 121. 
 
 t At this time, Catholic owners of landed property frequently held 
 their estates in the names of Protestant trustees, -who fulfilled honourably 
 all the conditions of the trust. O'Connell used to tell of an humble, but 
 high spirited tailor, that acted as trustee for half the Catholic gentlemen 
 of Munster. Betteridge, in his robbery, probably proceeded under a law 
 of 1709, enacting " that all leases or purchases in trust for Papists should 
 belong to the first Protestant discoverer, and that no plea or demurrer 
 should be allowed to any bill of discovery, relative to such trusts, but that 
 such bills should be answered at large." The Catholics regarded the 
 encouragement given to discoverers and informers as an intolerable 
 grievance, and thus refer to it in an Address and Petition (written by 
 Edmund Burke) to George III: "Whilst the endeavours of our in- 
 dustry are thus discouraged (no less, we humbly apprehend, to the detri- 
 ment of the national prosperity, and the diminution of your Majesty's 
 revenue, than to our particular ruin) there are a set of men, who, instead 
 of exercising any honest occupation in the commonwealth, make it their
 
 200 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 with the villany, coolly replied, that he had himself a son, 
 for whom he felt more love and concern than for the chil- 
 dren or the brother of Charles Hart. But neither father 
 nor son was anything the better for the ill-gotten estate. 
 On the contrary, the acquisition seemed only to bring them 
 bad luck ; for, in a very short time they quarrelled with one 
 another on a subject that made both a bye- word in the 
 neighbourhood ; and old Betteridge, in order to spite the 
 son, and get himself away from a place where he was de- 
 tested and despised, resolved to dispose of the property. 
 With this view, he offered it privately for sale to a Mr. 
 Rutledge,* who then kept a shop on the site of the house 
 now occupied in Collooney by Peter Gillooley, and was 
 known to be wealthy, for a person in the position of shop- 
 keeper. Not having, however, money enough to make the 
 
 employment to pry into our miserable property, to drag us into the courts, 
 and to compel us to confess on our oaths, and under the penalties of 
 perjury, whether we have, in any instance, acquired a property in the 
 smallest degree exceeding what the rigour of the law has admitted ; and 
 in such case the informers, without any other merit than that of their 
 discovery, are invested (to the daily ruin of several innocent, industrious 
 families), not only with the surplus in which the law is exceeded, but in 
 the whole body of the estate and interest so discovered, and it is our grief 
 that this evil is likely to continue and increase, as informers have, in this 
 country, almost worn off the infamy which in all ages, and in all other 
 countries, has attended their character, and have grown into some repute 
 by the frequency and success of their practices." 
 
 In the reign of Anne, the Irish House of Commons passed a resolution 
 " that the prosecuting and informing against Papists was an honourable 
 service," thus endeavouring to exalt a class of men, whom common 
 humanity instinctively recoils from with loathing, and who have found 
 no apologist in history except the infamous and inhuman Tiberius Nero ; 
 even his vile senate, as Tacitus implies, evincing a reluctance to descend 
 with him so low. " Ibaturque," says the historian, " in earn sententiam, 
 ni durius contraque morem suum, palam pro accusatoribus, Caesar irritas 
 leges, rempublicam in praecipiti conquestus esset : subverterent potius 
 jura quam custodes eorum amoverent. Sic delatores, genus hominum 
 publico exitio repertum et p&nis quidem nunquam satis coercitum, per 
 premia eliciebantur." Tacitus, Annal., lib. iv, c. 30. 
 
 * This Mr. Rutledge, whose Christian name was Thomas, was church- 
 warden in 1720. See page 121.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 201 
 
 purchase, Mr. Rutledge borrowed from Joshua Cooper of 
 Markrea Castle what was wanted, giving that gentleman, 
 in return, a lien on the property of 4s. 6d. per acre, a bur- 
 den which it still bears. Mr. Rutledge at first had no 
 reason to rejoice for having the broad acres of Charles and 
 Doctor Hart, for the estate was not long in possession when 
 the new owner had to lament the (page 103) death of an 
 only son one of the most promising young men in Ireland 
 who was killed by a fall from a horse on the old road 
 through Cloonamahon, at a spot that is still called Cloghin 
 na Phooka (Ghost's rock), from the deceased being believed 
 to haunt the place. 
 
 Later, however, Mr. Rutledge was somewhat consoled 
 for this heavy affliction by marrying his three daughters to 
 three highly respectable husbands named Meredith, Phibbs, 
 and Ormsby, and dividing among them the Cloonamahon 
 estate, which included Lisaneena, Ballinabull, and Knock- 
 mullen. Mr. Ormsby soon sold Knockmullen, his portion ; 
 but the descendants of Messrs. Meredith and Phibbs still 
 hold their respective shares, and are, as well as the de- 
 scendants of Mr. Ormsby, among the leading families of the 
 county. 
 
 Poor Doctor Hart, before eviction from Cloonamahon, 
 was famous for hospitality. 
 
 Carolan was often with the Harts, and showed his ad- 
 miration of the bishop's genial nature and many virtues by 
 composing two songs in his honour, of which one is now, 
 most probably, lost,* and the other is given in Hardiman's 
 Irish Minstrelsy, with the following translation : 
 
 In this hour of my joy, let me turn to the road, 
 
 To the pious one's home let me steer ; 
 Aye ! my steps shall instinctively seek that abode, 
 
 Where plenty and pleasure appear. 
 
 * After making long and diligent inquiries in the parishes of Ballysadare 
 and Kilvarnet, no trace of this song has been found.
 
 202 PARISH OF BALLYSADA11E. 
 
 Dear Harte, with the learned thou art gentle and kind; 
 
 With the bard, thou art open and free ; 
 And the smiling, and sad, in each mood of the mind, 
 
 Find a brother's fond spirit in thee. 
 
 To the lords of the land, we can trace back thy name,* 
 
 But a title all bright is thine own ; 
 No lives have been lavish'd to prop up thy fame, 
 
 For it rests on calm goodness alone. 
 Could they deign in old .Rome my fond suffrage to hear, 
 
 To that spot for thy sake should I roam ; 
 And high in the conclave thy name should appear, 
 
 Known, honour' d, and lov'd as at home. 
 
 To thy Master in heaven a true steward art thou, 
 
 From thy lips His high mandates we hear ; 
 And the young and the aged submissively bow, 
 
 When thy voice comes in peace on the ear. 
 Oh ! good is thy fame in the land of O'Neil, 
 
 Kind heir of the race that is pass'd, 
 Let others, when drinking, still falter or fail, 
 
 I'll pledge thee, dear Harte, to the last. 
 
 * In O'Dugan's Topographical poem, the O'Harts are set down as be- 
 longing to Tara : 
 
 " The chieftains of Teamhair, where are we 
 Oh-Airt the noble, and O'Biagain." 
 
 Shortly after the Anglo-Norman invasion, this family forsook, or were 
 banished from Tara, and settled down under the protection of the 0' Connors 
 of Sligo, in the barony of Carbury, where they had castles at Grange, 
 Ardtarmon, and other places. They were always loyal to the O'Connors, 
 by whom they were singularly trusted and favoured. Most probably it 
 was while O'Connor Sligo owned Cloonamahon, that the ancestor of 
 Bishop Hart came to live there. 
 
 The celebrated Eugene O'Hart, Bishop of Achonry, who was not only 
 present at the Council of Trent, but took a leading part in the delibera- 
 tions of that august assembly, belonged to the family. This distinguished 
 bishop was consecrated in 1562, died in 1603, at the great age of 100, and 
 was buried in his own cathedral at Achonry. He received special facul- 
 ties from the Pope in 1575, for the whole ecclesiastical province of Tuam, 
 signed in 1585 the indenture of composition between Sir John Perrottand 
 the chieftains of the County Sligo, took part in the provincial synod that
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 203 
 
 No doubt, Carolan put forth all his powers while under 
 the bishop's roof, as knowing well that in no other place 
 could bard or musician encounter more exacting critics. 
 The great Irish minstrel that immediately preceded Carolan 
 Thomas O'Connellan was born and bred in Cloona- 
 mahon,* and accustomed the neighbourhood to a high 
 degree of excellence both in poetry and music. As a com- 
 poser, O'Connellan is commonly preferred to Carolan, nor 
 was he, perhaps, inferior even as a performer. This gifted 
 man grew up in or near the hospitable house of the Harts, 
 and acquired there the skill and taste for which he became 
 famous. Later, the bard took to a wandering life through 
 the country like most of the profession and died about 
 
 assembled in Ulster, in that year, to promulgate the decrees of the Coun- 
 cil of Trent, and enjoyed all through life the confidence and favour of 
 the Holy See. The consummate prudence with which this prelate steered 
 his course through the difficult times in which he lived was on a par with 
 his great learning. 
 
 * See an account of O'Connellan in Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i, p. 112. 
 The writer in the Journal observes "Of the melodies of these musicians, 
 those of Carolan, the last great bard of Erin, are well known, but the 
 compositions of his immediate predecessor, Connellan, are less familiar to 
 the public, and are far too little appreciated. Unfortunately but little is 
 known of his history, and but few of his melodies have been preserved, 
 but 1 those few are in their kind of unequalled beauty, and far superior 
 to the compositions of Carolan. From Mr. Hardiman's valuable ' Irish 
 Minstrelsy,' we learn that Thomas O'Connellan was born at Cloony 
 Mahon in the County of Sligo, early in the seventeenth century, and 
 died in Lough Grur in the County of Limerick, sometime previous to the 
 year 1700. Of the remaining airs generally attributed to him, are ' The 
 Jointure,' ' If to a Foreign Clime I Go,' ' Love in Secret,' which truly 
 ' Dallies with the Innocence of Love like the Old Age,' ' Planxty Davis,' 
 which is known to the Scotch as the ' The Battle of Killecranky,' and 
 ' The Breach of Aughrim,' which is more popularly known under tho 
 name of the ' The Farewell to Lochaber.' These latter melodies were 
 introduced into Scotland after his death, by a brother of the deceased bard 
 named Laurence. According to tradition, the skill of O'Connellan as a 
 performer was equal to his inventive powers as a composer, and Mr. 
 Hardiman has preserved a little Irish ode addressed to him in praise of 
 his matchless powers, in a strain of poetic beauty worthy of the occasion 
 which gave it birth." See page 204.
 
 204 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 the close of the seventeenth century at Loughgur, in the 
 County Limerick. O'Connellan was a most prolific author, 
 having left after him, it is said, upwards of seven hundred 
 airs. Unfortunately, most of those compositions have 
 perished, owing to the agitation of the period in which he 
 lived ; hut such as survive are unsurpassed for sentiment 
 and melody in the estimation of competent judges. 
 
 O'Connellan is known to be the author of some of the 
 most popular airs in Scotland ; such as : The Battle of 
 Killecranky, and Farewell to Lochaber, which the " canny" 
 people of that country have complacently appropriated, as if 
 of native growth, and to which, in order to conceal the Irish 
 origin, they have given these new names ; the old ones being, 
 respectively, Planxty Davis and The Breach of Auglirim. 
 After the bard's death, a brother named Laurence, who was 
 also a minstrel, and had a minstrel's taste for roaming, passed 
 over to Scotland, taking with him several of Thomas's com- 
 positions, which the brother played in his rounds through 
 that country, and which became favourites from the 
 moment they were heard ; and in this way Cloonamahon 
 has the honour of having laid Scotland under obligation 
 in regard to her national music, of which that country is 
 so proud. 
 
 The estimate formed of Thomas O'Connellan's powers 
 may be judged from an ode, composed in his honour by the 
 famous Cormac Common, and of which the following is a 
 very spirited translation : 
 
 Wherever harp-note ringeth 
 
 lerne's isle around, 
 Thy hand its sweetness flingeth, 
 
 Surpassing mortal sound. 
 Thy spirit-music speaketh 
 
 Above the minstrel throng, 
 And thy rival vainly seeketh 
 The secret of thy song !
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 205 
 
 In the castle in the shieling 
 
 In foreign kingly hall, 
 Thou art master of each feeling, 
 
 And honoured first of all ! 
 Thy wild and wizard finger 
 
 Sweepeth chords unknown to art, 
 And melodies that linger 
 
 In the memory of the heart ! 
 
 By thee the thrill of anguish 
 
 Is softly lulled to rest ; 
 By thee the hopes that languish 
 
 .Rekindled in the hreast. 
 Thy spirit chaseth sorrow 
 
 Like morning mists away, 
 And gaily robes to-morrow 
 
 In the gladness of thy lay.* 
 
 A writer, in the fourth volume of the same journal, page 
 188, supplies the following literal translation of the Irish 
 ode : 
 
 " Airy spirit ! who hast obtained true admiration, 
 
 Through the extent of Fola, \_A. bardic name of Ireland C\ 
 And hast discovered the only true way 
 
 Of the strains of music to the heart, 
 Vain is the harmony 
 
 Of Europe after thee 
 After the delightful vibrations 
 
 Of thy fingers on the gentle wires. 
 There is no desire of the hearts of the kings 
 
 Of Europe through its extent, 
 That thou couldst not soothe 
 
 By the soft, swift touch of thy fingers. 
 Thou couldst change them to mirth 
 
 By the low murmuring sound of thy hand. 
 Spirit ! who hast stole from the fairies in their airy halls 
 
 Through Fola, 
 The sweet-toned plaintive strain, melting 
 
 Each eye to tears, 
 That wouldst heal the breast-pang, 
 
 And each illness of the feeble body. 
 
 * Dublin Penny Journal, vol. i, p. 112.
 
 206 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 There is no skilful minstrel that is not behind thee 
 
 Far, in his melody. 
 Oh ! thou whose spirit-music 
 
 Chaseth mist from the heart. 
 
 Coming back to Doctor Hart, great commiseration was 
 felt for him when turned out of house and home by Bette- 
 ridge. His office ; his meek and gentle nature, that 
 " would not break the bruised reed, nor quench the 
 smoking flax ; " his family, one of the oldest and most 
 distinguished in the county ; and, above all, the vile 
 treachery of which he was the victim, excited the warmest 
 sympathy of both Catholics and Protestants. The Catho- 
 lics, however, of that time were crushed down with fear, 
 and voiceless ; and thus an iniquity, which at present 
 would provoke a storm of indignant remonstrance in the 
 Catholic body, did not elicit from those of that day a single 
 public complaint. But the Protestants were no way mealy- 
 mouthed in expressing ftieir feelings ; and one of the chief 
 among them, Mr. O'Hara, whose family always supplied 
 patrons and friends to the Catholic clergy, when such were 
 needed, invited Dr. Hart to reside near himself at Annagh- 
 beg, and did all that courtesy and kindness could to make 
 up for the loss of Cloonamahon. 
 
 If the bishop became thus reconciled to his lot, the old 
 neighbours of Cloonamahon, Carrickbanaghan, Coolteem, 
 and Lisaneena did not the less mourn his removal from 
 among them ; and never has Parisian republican loved his 
 arbre de liberte with more ardour than they loved a famous 
 ash, which was sacred in their eyes, because, according to 
 some, the bishop planted it, or, according to others, because 
 he said mass beneath its branches. This venerable relic 
 still exists, sounder and statelier than ever, with a girth of 
 about sixteen feet, and without any symptom of decay. 
 Floreat semper ! 
 
 Two traits of Dr. Hart are handed down by the traditions 
 of the people, which serve to show the sensibility and
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 207 
 
 amiability of his nature. First, he felt strongly for birds 
 confined in cages, and caused as many of the little prisoners 
 as possible to be restored to liberty. And a beautiful legend 
 informs us that all the birds of the country, to requite the 
 kindness of their benefactor, assembled on the occasion of 
 the bishop's death, and kept chaunting his requiem all the 
 time the corpse was waking. Secondly, he set his face 
 firmly against those " keeners " or professional criers, who 
 were commonly employed at that time at wakes and 
 funerals. Regarding, no doubt, their simulated sorrows as 
 
 " A fault to heav'n ; 
 A fault against the dead; a fault to nature." Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2. 
 
 his honest heart recoiled from exhibitions that at once 
 travestied the most sacred feelings of the living, and made 
 a mockery of the dead. But that Dr. Hart had no objec- 
 tion to a reasonable manifestation of real grief we learn 
 from his own case ; for, on a brother or sister dying, he 
 gave way so far to feeling as to shed abundant tears ; and 
 when some friends ventured a gentle remonstrance, and 
 reminded the bishop of his own condemnation of the 
 " keeners," the reply was : " When I weep it is nature 
 forces me ; but when those wretched people cry, it is they 
 that force themselves, in spite of nature." Most probably, 
 it is owing to the action of Dr. Hart that though the race 
 of " keeners " is far from extinct in other places there is 
 not the smallest vestige of them and their disgusting arts 
 in the parishes of Ballysadare and' Kilvarnet. 
 
 Apart from moral considerations, the caoine was generally 
 a very insipid aifair, whether one regarded the language or 
 the notes to which the language was joined. The lament 
 commonly took the form of a direct panegyrical address to 
 the deceased, in which the performers, while standing 
 beside the corpse, clapping the hands, and swinging the 
 body in all directions, summarized, in plaintive recitative, 
 the life of the departed ; expatiated on his chief actions ; 
 recounted his graces of mind and body; and bemoaned the
 
 208 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 loss everybody must suffer by the removal from the world 
 of such a paragon of perfection. All this was usually done 
 in one stereotyped fashion, and in the same set phrases ; 
 but it happened here and there, when a man or woman of 
 talent acted the part of keener, that the performance was 
 not devoid of poetry and pathos. The following is a good 
 and faithful poetic version of a caoine of this latter kind : 
 
 Oh. ! silent and cold is my lov'd one's repose, 
 
 And damp fall the dews of the night, 
 Yet the sun shall return, and hring joy as he goes, 
 But thy pulse shall not vibrate nor, fresh as the rose, 
 
 Shalt thou joy in the fresh coming light. 
 No more shalt thou roam thy green native hills over; 
 
 Where once like the morn thou arose ; 
 Where often thy childhood as nature's fond lover, 
 Thy feet and thy fancy proclaimed thee a rover, 
 
 For silent and cold thy repose ! 
 
 Thou wast dearer to me than the rays of the sun, 
 
 When lovely he sinks in the west ; 
 For like him the years of thy life were begun, 
 Like his splendour at mid -day thy loveliness shone, 
 
 With the softness that mantles his vest. 
 But though" like him, thy fate 'twas to sink overcast, 
 
 And fled thy soft blush like the rose, 
 Yet, unlike him, thy darkness for ever shall last, 
 And for ever! oh, ever ! thy radiance is past, 
 
 For silent and cold thy repose ! 
 
 Oh ! thou wast to me as the friend I revere, 
 
 My bosom throbbed only for thee, 
 
 Thou wast brave, thou wast just, thou wast sweetly sincere, 
 And thine was the loA'e of the peasant and peer, 
 
 Oh ! thou wast my Cuisle ma Croidh ! 
 Yet why on thy virtues look back, and review 
 
 Those scenes that redouble my woes ? 
 He who once was their master is passed like the dew ; 
 Him soft as the moonbeam, no more shall I view, 
 
 For silent and cold his repose !
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSAUARE. 209 
 
 The following is a literal translation from the original 
 Irish : * 
 
 " Cold and silent is thy repose ! damp falls the dew of heaven ; yet the 
 sun shall bring joy, and the mists of the night shall pass away before his 
 beam ; but thy breast shall not again vibrate w.th the pulse of life at 
 the return of the morning, nor shalt thou wander more on thy native 
 mountains, amid the scenes of thy childhood, where first were awakened 
 thy friendships where fir>t thou smiled in playfulness of infancy. 
 
 Cold aiid silent is now thy repose ! 
 
 " Thou wast dearer to me than the rays of the declining sun ; and when 
 I turn my eye on him, the thought of thee brings sorrow to my soul : 
 thou wast like him in thy youth, with the soft blush on thy cheek. Like 
 him at mid-day, thou shone in the splendour of manhood : but early was 
 thy fate clouded with misfortune, and thou hast sunk beneath it ; nor 
 shalt thou rise again like him. 
 
 Culd and silent is now thy repose ! 
 
 in. 
 
 " Thou wast to me as the nerve of the throbbing heart : for thy sake 
 only was this world dear. Thou wast brave thou wast generous thou 
 wast just thou wast loved by all. But why look back on thy virtues ? 
 Why recall those scenes to memory, that are no more to be beheld ? For 
 he whose they were has passed away he is gone for ever, to return no 
 more. 
 
 " Cold and silent is now thy repose ! " 
 
 The people have a notion that no family can prosper in 
 Cloonamahon till the injustice done the bishop is repaired; 
 but however one's sense of equity or of divine retribution 
 
 * The Dublin Penny Journal, vol. iv, p. 75. 
 
 [Reprehensible, however, as the cani,,e ceitainly was, it seems to have 
 had, like some other abuses, a very respectable antiquity in its favour. 
 "The custom," observes the Rev. G.N.Wright, "of pouring forth a 
 Btrain of lamentation at the funerals of their friends and relatives, though 
 now probahly peculiar to Ireland, is of very ancient date, and can be 
 traced bick to heathen oiigin with tolerable certainty. As far as the 
 analogy of languages will prove, there is very singular testimony to this 
 point ; the Hebrew is Huluul; the Greek, Ololiizo; the Latin, Ulnlo ; and 
 the Irish Hal uluo. If it be then of heathenish origin, it may be sup- 
 
 P
 
 210 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 may have started such an idea at first, when the evil doer 
 still held the ill-gotten goods, such an idea were only a 
 vain imagination or silly superstition at the present day, 
 when one hundred and fifty years have elapsed since the 
 original wrong, and when the property has long passed, by 
 fair and lawful process, into innocent hands. 
 
 posed to arise from despair ; but, if otherwise, from hope. That it is not 
 a fortuitous coincidence of term*, but also a similarity of customs to 
 which these mixed modes are applicable, may easily be proved. We find 
 in t'ne Sacred Scriptures many passages proving the existence of this 
 practice among those who used the Hebrew tongue ' Call for the 
 mourners,' &c. ' Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about 
 the streets,' &c. Its existence among persons speaking the Greek tongue 
 is proved from the last b( ok of Homer, where females are introduced 
 mourning over Hector's dead body. It is not alleged that the Greeks 
 introduced the name or the custom, but that the Greeks were in Ireland 
 miiiht perl aps be proved from the Greek church at Trim, in the County 
 of Meath, ai.d also from the life of St. Virgilius, Bit-hop of Saltzburg, 
 where mention is made of Bishop Dobda, a Grecian, who followed St. 
 Virgilius out of Ireland." Wright might also have mentioned the Greek 
 Bishop of Elphin. "Amorig^ the Romans there were women called 
 Prefi ce, who uttered coi,clamatio ; and Virgil, speaking of Dido's funeral* 
 says, ' l-'cemineo ululatu tecta fremunt.' The analogy between the Roman 
 and Irish funeral ceremony before the government of the Decemviri was 
 amazingly striking The Keenaghers, or Keeners (for so the Preftcce 
 muHens are called by the Irish), are in the habit of beating their breasts, 
 tearing th(ir hair, and wringing their hands Now, we find the following 
 law relative to Roman funerals among those of the twelve tables 
 ' Mulier ne faciem carpito,' ' Mulieies genas ne radunto.' The antiquity 
 of this custom is thus established be} ond doubt, and secures for the Irish 
 peasantry the sanction of ages for a practice which a stranger might 
 otnerwise contemplate with horror." Mr. and Mrs. Hall's Ireland, vol. i, 
 page 2-22. 
 
 That Rev. Mr. Wright is correct in his idea of what strangers would 
 think of the exhibition under consideiation, we learu from the language 
 that Arthur Young applit s to it. "Among their customs," writes this 
 most intelligent traveller, ' it may be worth mentioning, thfit at the 
 wakes or funeral entertainments, both men and women, particularly the 
 latter, are hired to cry that is, tu howl the corpse ti> the grave, which they 
 do in a most horrid manner ." Tour iit Ireland: by Arthur Young, vol. i, 
 page 350.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 211 
 
 SECTION III. THE MEREDITHS. 
 
 AFTER Mr. Rutledge's death Mr. Laurence O'Hara, a 
 wealthy farmer, occupied ( loonamahon. It is said that he 
 took forcible possession, and held on by the same tenure. 
 But as O'Hara was related by family to the Harts, it is not 
 unlikely that he alleged some legal claim, and continued to 
 maintain himself in this way. However this may be, Mr. 
 Meredith, the owner, took the law eventually into his own 
 hands, and, accompanied by some tenants, entered forcibly 
 into Cloonamahon House on a day that O'Hara was away 
 at the fair of Tubberscanavan, and thus excluded the tres- 
 passer. While Laurence O'Hara lived in Cloonamahon. 
 he always, to use the words of neighbours, had " full and 
 plenty " for himself ' and family, as well as for friends and 
 the poor. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Meredith, the first of the Meredith family 
 that resided at Cloonamahon, was ail amiable and benevo- 
 lent man ; so very good to the poor that several stories are 
 told about the sums of money he gave them, and the food, 
 and sometimes even lodging afforded them at Cloonamahon 
 House. Mrs. Meredith observed with concern her hus- 
 band's extreme open-handedncss, and felt it necessary to use 
 her influence in restraining this extravagant almsgiving. 
 She found means of limiting Mr. Meredith's money- alms 
 to thirty shillings a week, an allowance which he had 
 generally got through by Tuesday or Wednesday, sighing 
 during the remaining days for the moment of again enjoy- 
 ing " the luxury of doing good." 
 
 This gentleman had a leaning to several practices of the 
 Catholic religion ; never, for instance, touching He.-h meat 
 on Wednesdays and Fridays ; causing the Rotary to be said 
 regularly in his kitcl.en every night during the Lent ; and 
 teaching the Cathclic catechism, to the little boys that
 
 212 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 worked about Cloonamahon. Many say that Mr. Meredith 
 died a Catholic, after having been received into the Catholic 
 Church by Right Rev. Dr. Flynn, the then Bishop of 
 Achonry, and the Very Rev. James Henry, the parish 
 priest of Ballysadare. It is certain that these gentlemen 
 were intimate friends, and passed much of their time under 
 his hospitable roof. But it is not in the dwelling house the 
 ceremony is said to have taken place, but in the garden. 
 The story runs: that Mr. Meredith was in the garden when 
 the bishop and priest, without calling at Cloonamahon 
 House, came on straight to where he was, as if by appoint- 
 ment ; and as soon as they had entered he ordered the 
 gardener and a boy or two that served as helps, to leave ; 
 then locked carefully the gate after them, and remained 
 alone with the visitors for a couple of hours. It was on 
 this occasion, we are told, that the religious rite was per- 
 formed. Whether the ceremony took, place at all there is 
 no means now of deciding ; and, on the whole, it seems 
 much more probable that it did not, though the contrary 
 was the opinion of Mr. Meredith's neighbours and labourers, 
 one of whom still survives, and retains unchanged his be- 
 lief in the conversion. 
 
 Mr. Meredith died on the 22nd of January, 1811, aged 
 69 years and was buried in the old churchyard of Col- 
 looney. Four of this good gentleman's descendants have 
 since succeeded to the ownership of the Cloonamahon 
 estate : his son, Thomas ; his grandson, Joseph ; his great- 
 grandson, Captain Thomas James ; and the captain's son, 
 Herbert Willoughby, the actual owner, who is a minor, 
 and is serving at present as a naval officer on board Her 
 Majesty's ship, the Volage, Thomas, the son of Joseph, 
 resided generally at Cloonamahon, but died in Coney 
 Island, and was interred, like his father, in the old grave- 
 yard of Collooney. Joseph, the second of the name, lived 
 little in Cloonamahon, spent much time in travel, died in 
 Dublin, and was buried at Collooney in the upper church-
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 213 
 
 yard. The late Captain Meredith son of Joseph and 
 Letitia Walker was born in Wales in the year 1823 ; 
 entered young into the army, retiring from it in 1854, on 
 the occasion of his marriage with Aliss Sydney Maria Bond, 
 daughter of Captain Bond, Farragh, County Longford ; 
 died in London, and was buried in the same vault with his 
 father, on which we read those inscriptions : " Joseph 
 Meredith of Cloonainahon, died May 5th, 18-11, aged 46 
 years." " Thomas James Meredith, of Cloonamahon, late 
 captain of the 90th Light Infantry, died October 29th, 
 1860, in his 37th year. Absent from the body present with 
 the Lord." 
 
 Cloonamahon was greatly improved by the captain, and 
 is indebted to him for the handsome mansion that adorns 
 it a picturesque structure charmingly situated ; for most 
 of the planting that covers the grounds, which are all laid 
 out with much judgment and taste; and for extensive 
 draining, fencing, clearing, levelling, and other improve- 
 ments that have increased considerably the fertility of the 
 soil, which, in its natural state has been always held to be 
 of superior quality well adapted for tillage, and singularly 
 salubrious for pasture. Cloonamahon House is at present 
 occupied by the captain's relict, Mrs. Kincaid ; her husband, 
 John Kincaid, Esq., J.P. the extensive and respected 
 land agent ; and her daughter, Miss Meredith ; and if old 
 Joseph Meredith can still know what passes on earth it 
 must be no little gratification to him to find that nowhere 
 is his favourite virtue of charity more largely and per- 
 severingly practised than at the head quarters of the family 
 estate.* 
 
 * The estate lies in three different baronies Tirerrill, I.eyney, and 
 Carbury ; contains 2306A. OK. 2op. statute measure; and is held partly in 
 fee, partly in fee-farm, and partly by lea^e for lives renewable for 
 ever.
 
 214 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 CAR1UCKBANAGHAN, ETC. 
 
 THE large townland of Carrickbanaghan or Carriokbana- 
 glier, comprising 1329 English acres, has its name from a 
 family called, in former times, O'Banaghan or O'Banagher, 
 and, at present, Benson ; a family, as history informs us, of 
 Belgian descent, and able, therefore, to boast of a higher 
 antiquity in Ireland than the Milesians themselves, as the 
 latter came to the country in the year 1258 after the 
 Deluge ; while the invasion of the Belgians dates from the 
 year 1056 after the Deluge.* The Belgians were defeated 
 in the battle of Moytura, at Cong, by the Tuatha de 
 Danaans ; but owing, it is said, to their helping the Mile- 
 sians at a later period to conquer the Danaans, the former 
 rewarded their allies with large tracts of territory, giving 
 Carrickbanaghan and some of the adjacent lands to the 
 O'Banaghans. " In the County Gal way," says Roderic 
 O'Flaherty "O'Layn, and in the Co Sligo, O'Banaghan, 
 to our own times the proprietor of a very handsome estate, 
 look on themselves as the real descendants of the Bel- 
 gians." f The great cashel on the top of Carrickbanaghan. 
 the most capacious, probably, in the county may, per- 
 haps, serve to give additional probability to the supposed 
 origin of the O'Banaghans, as the Belgians are famous for 
 the erection of such structures. Dun Kngus, in the great 
 island of Arran, " which might contain," says O'Flaherty, 
 " 200 cows ; " and a similar dun in the miildle island, being 
 set down by our antiquarians as works of the Belgians. 
 
 * Cambrensis Enersm, Dr. Kollv's edition, vol. i, pag^s 415 and 421. 
 t O'Flaherty's Ogygia, vol. ii, p. 21, Hely's translation.
 
 PARISH OF E ALL YSA DARE. 215 
 
 There is little known for certain of the O'Banaghans, 
 save this exceptional antiquity and their location on Car- 
 rickbanaghan. There lived a Dowaltagh O'Banaghan 
 towards the close of the sixteenth century ; for, in an in- 
 quisition sped in Ballymote before Nicholas Brady, 
 respecting the property of Melaghlin M'Donough of Col- 
 looney, who died on the 15th of August; 1597, we find 
 Dowaltagh O'Banaghan claiming, as belonging to himself, 
 certain townlands that had been in the possession of 
 Melaghlin. King James I, in the fifteenth year of his 
 reign, granted to Keadagh O'Banaghan of Carriglasse, the 
 following denominations of land : aid Oorran barony, the 
 towns, lands, and quarters of Caih4' ne o a Pr u ^ Ochum, 
 Knockadow, and Ardsallagh.* On the minor hill of 
 Carane, which is only a few hundred yards from Carrick, 
 are to be seen the three so-called 'chairs' of Keadagh 
 O'Banaghan cahir Kedagh which are so many chair-like 
 cavities formed in the solid rock in such a way that Kea- 
 dagh might shift the point of view according to the 
 exigencies of sun and wind. This Keadagh is said to have 
 lived in the seventeenth century, and to have resided to 
 the north-west of Carane, where the ruins of his house 
 might be seen so late as thirty years ago. It is likely that 
 Carriglasse and Carane are one and the same place, and 
 that the Kedagh of Carane was the grantee of James I. 
 
 Though Kedagh M'Banaghan and Margaret M'Banaghan 
 are mentioned among proprietors in the Civil Survey, their 
 names do not occur at all in the Book of Distributions. 
 In this book Donnell M'Cahelroy and Dominick Martin 
 are set down as proprietors in 1641, the former of Colti- 
 more (Coolteem) and Lishrontagh ; and the latter of Car- 
 rick ; these denominations, with the " red bog " attached, 
 comprising the entire of old Carrickbanaghan. In the 
 fifteenth year of his reign, James I granted to Melaghlin 
 
 * Patent Roll, Jac. I, 15. To this grant is annexed the clause 
 " Saving his rights to Charles O'Connor Sligo, the King's ward."
 
 216 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 M'Callery and Daniel M'Callery the town and lands of 
 Coiltemore and Lishronty, saving to Sir W. Taaffe a rent 
 of 6s. 8d. English out of each of the said quarters. In 
 1659 Cornet Edward Cooper possessed Coltimore ; Morgan 
 Ffarrel, gent., Carrick ; and John Duke, gent., Lishron- 
 tagh. But this arrangement was upset under Charles TI ; 
 and Coltimore, Carrick, and Lishrontagh were "passed" 
 to Lord Collooney and John Boswell by the commissioners 
 that carried out the Acts of Settlement and Explanation. 
 Morgan Farrell, however, did not quit his hold, and his 
 descendants owned Carrick, Coolteem, and Lishrontagh in 
 subordination to Lpr^ Collooney and Lord Collooney's 
 representatives, retaYung the property down to 1854, with 
 the exception of Lishrontagh, which one of the Merediths 
 purchased and added to Cloonamahon. In 1854 Carrick- 
 banaghan and Coolteem were sold in the Incumbered 
 Estates' Court, when the late lamented Alderman Farrell 
 of Dublin, a namesake, but no relative of the former 
 owners, became the purchaser at 12,000. There could 
 not be better landlords than the Alderman and his son, 
 Mr. Edward Farrell, who succeeded on the Alderman's 
 death some years ago, have always proved themselves ; and 
 the consequence a most noteworthy consequence too 
 is, that the inhabitants of Carrickbanaghan and Coolteem, 
 who, in past times were rather under a cloud in the parish 
 for their loose and lawless manners and morals, and for 
 harbouring outcasts from society,* are now models of thrift, 
 
 * A story was current in the neighbourhood some years back, that 
 may be mentioned in illustration of the statement in the text. It was to 
 the effect, that -when a former owner of Carrickbanaghan Mr. Fergus 
 Farrell, who was a sub-inspector of Constabulary, and stationed at 
 Swineford in the County Mayo came to visit his property, among the 
 inhabitants that went out to welcome the landlord were two or three 
 individuals whom Mr. Farrell, from descriptions he had been reading in 
 the Hue and Cry, recognised as notorious criminals. Nor were they the 
 only persons that, feeling other places too hot for them, found safety and 
 shelter among the huts and turf-clamps of Carrickbanaghan.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARK 217 
 
 industry, peaceableness, and general good conduct, and as 
 conspicuous by their absence from public houses and law 
 courts as they were formerly noted for frequenting these 
 places. 
 
 The townlands of Lackagh, Doorla, and Knocknegruath. 
 belonged, no doubt, to the O'Banaghans in the good 
 days of old.* In the course of time they fell into the 
 the hands of the M'Donoghs ; for we find in the Down 
 Survey, Bryan M'Donogh set down as the owner of 
 Lackagh in 1641, and Cormac M'Donogh as the owner of 
 Doorla. These lands were forfeited in the Insurrection ; 
 and in 1659 Edward Tibb,f gent, and David Teddar, gent, 
 possessed Dourley ; while David Tibb and William Morti- 
 mer, gent., held Lackagh ; but under the Acts of Settle- 
 ment and Explanation this property was passed to John 
 Boswell and Lord Collooney. At present Doorla is owned 
 by Lord Norbury, into whose family it passed by marriage 
 with Miss Brabazon, grand- daughter of the well-known 
 Jack Phibbs ; while Knocknegruath and part of Lackagh 
 belong to Mr. B. 0. Cogan, Lisconney ; the remainder of 
 Lackagh being owned by Mr. Baker, son of the late Coun- 
 sellor Baker. 
 
 * In the parish map of Killmurrongh (now Kilmorgan) in the Down 
 Survey, Lackagh is set down as containing 55A. 'Iv.. OP., arable and 
 pasture ; one division of Dourley, as 9?A. On. OP., aralile pasture and some 
 bog; and another aivision of Dourley, as 124A. lit. OP., arahle meadow, 
 pasture, and some bog. Between Drumfin on one siile, and Lackagh and 
 Dourley on the other, are given in the map two divi.-ions of bog, one 
 containing 8?A. 2u. OP., the other 13-iA. Oit. OP. Dourley was ht-ld at the 
 time by " Bryan M'Donogh and Carbury M'Murtauh Finn, Irish 1'api-t ; " 
 and Lackagh by " Connor M'Donogh and Tirlagh M'Murtagh, Irish 
 Papist." 
 
 According to the Cromwclliah Census of 1659, Edward Hill, gent., was 
 Tituladoe of Durly ; and Henry Bierast, gent., Tituladoe of Lackagh, or 
 as it is written, " Lack:ihaky." 
 
 t So written in the Census of 1659, but the namp, most probably, should 
 have been Hill. An Edward Hill was drowned in the Uushinagh river 
 at Lackagh, at a spot still known as Poll Edward Hdl.
 
 218 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 The townlands of Lisaneena, Ballinabull, and Cloona- 
 curra formed, very probably, a part of the territory bestowed 
 by the Milesians on the O'Banaghan family, as they adjoin 
 Carrickbanaghan, sloping down from the hill to the Owen- 
 more river. In an inquisition taken at Ballymote on the 
 6th of June, 1610, by Nicholas Brady, these lands are 
 enumerated among those that belonged to Melaghlin 
 M'Donogh of Collooney at his death in 1597 ; in the four- 
 teenth year of Jarnes I, "the towns, lands, and quarters of 
 Lisenyna, Balleanloggan [Ballinabull] and Cloonecorra " 
 were granted with various other denominations of land to 
 Bryan M'Donogh, Collooney, son of Melaghlin ; in 1638 
 they belonged to John Taaffe, first Baron of Ballymote and 
 Viscount of Corran ; the Civil Survey and Book of Dis- 
 tributions make Sir George Radcliffe owner of " Knock- 
 mullen, Ballinloghan, Lishanyna, and Cloncora" in 1640; 
 and in the Deed of Partition of Sligo, dated 21st July, 
 3687, the places under consideration are assigned to the 
 Earl of Straiford as " the town and lands of Knockmullen 
 alias Cloonegissan, now or late in the possession of Charles 
 Harte, paying thereout to his Majesty ten shillings per 
 annum ; the town and lands of Lisaneena alias Tubberath- 
 bane ; the town and lands of Ballyanloggan alias Ballyna- 
 poole, now or late in the possession of John Palmer, paying 
 thereout to his Majesty ten shillings per annum ; and the 
 town and lands of Cloonecurra, now or late in the posses- 
 sion of Charles Harte, paying thereout to his Majesty ten 
 shillings per annum." 
 
 Lisaneena and Ballinabull passed about the year 1740 
 into the possession of the Phibbs' family by the marriage of 
 Fleming Phibbs, of Doonemurray and Chaffpool, to the 
 daughter of Thomas Rutledge. Mr. Phibbs continued to 
 reside after his marriage in Doonemurray, as did also his son, 
 Tom Phibbs;* and it was only about 1812 that Fleming 
 
 * It is told of this Mr. Phibbs, that he rode to Dublin in one day, 
 and after remaining a day in the city, that he rode home to Doonemurray
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 219 
 
 Phibbs' grandson, the late Mr. William Phibbs, built a 
 residence in the townland of Ballinabull, on a part of the 
 property which he called Heathfield, as it was then wild, 
 heath grown, uncultivated bog, though by reclamation and 
 planting effected mainly by its present owner, Thomas 
 Phibbs, Esq., our humane and popular J.P. it has become 
 as fertile and picturesque a spot as one could find in the 
 county. 
 
 The population of Lisaneena and Ballinabull has varied 
 greatly within the last century and a-half. For several 
 years after the estate came into the hands of the Phibbs' 
 family, it was a mere bullock- run, without inhabitants, so 
 that we are told there was not a single house from Ard- 
 curley to Annaghniore except one for a herd, nor even a 
 wall or fence of any kind. On the other hand, the inhabi- 
 tants were so numerous about the close of the last century 
 and the beginning of the present, that there were in Bal- 
 linabull alone, fifty families, the members of which formed 
 a complete little community, with their own tradesmen a 
 hosier, a hatter, a tailor, a shoemaker, a carpenter, and a 
 smith and with a weekly market, that was held every 
 Thursday, and was well attended by buyers and sellers, and 
 well supplied with provisions and all other commodities 
 needed in such a neighbourhood. But the population is 
 again at a low ebb, having fallen to twenty-three families 
 in 1851 ; to twenty in 1861 ; and to twenty-one in 1871 ; 
 while the market has long since ceased to exist, and the 
 tradesmen have nearly all disappeared, leaving, for the 
 most part, in their room only herds and day labourers. 
 Lisaneena the fort of the fair* is so called because it is 
 there was held, at first, the cattle fair, which, later was 
 transferred to Tubberscanavan ; and Ballinabull the town 
 
 on the third day, making both journeys on the same horse. Mr. O'Hara 
 used also to ride to the city from Annaghmore in one day, when going 
 up to Parliament, but had a relay of horses provided on the road. 
 * Joyce's Names of Places, First Series, p. 191.
 
 220 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 of the hole or hollow has its name from the village that 
 existed formerly, and that lay for the most part at a very 
 steep hollow in the angle formed by the Ballymote road 
 and the new unfinished road towards Carrickbanagher. 
 
 Deferring to another occasion an account of Annagh- 
 more, which lies alongside of Lisaneena and Ballinabull, 
 we come to BILL A or BILE the more correct form a 
 village prettily situated on the slope that lies between An- 
 naghmore demesne and the Owen-ne-leave,* or Coolaney 
 river. The Irish word Bile signifies an old or sacred tree, 
 so that the place, no doubt, derives its present name from 
 containing, in ancient times, a tree of the kind.f Bile 
 contains a fine view of the Ox Mountains, as they turn up 
 in the direction of Kilmactigue, and disclose in the bend a 
 greater variety of beauties than is, perhaps, to be found in 
 any other part of the range. In and near the townland are 
 several conical hills, each about 100 feet high, and deep 
 green to the top, which form an interesting feature in the 
 landscape. When broached they are found to be a congeries of 
 sand and small round stones, such as are commonly used for 
 paving, so that they seem to owe their formation to water, 
 while the surrounding land looks as if it had been skimmed 
 to form them. It is noticeable that these hills range with 
 gaps or hollows in the Ox Mountains, one or more of them 
 standing opposite a corresponding open ; this peculiarity of 
 situation suggesting that the rush of waters that shaped 
 them came from the neighbouring sea through the gaps of 
 the mountain. Very probably they date from the deluge. 
 
 * So called in the Down Survey Map of Sligo. See Map No. 26, by 
 William Morgan, an. 1657. 
 
 t Dr. Reeves in treating of a church of the same name, in the diocese 
 of Connor, writes : " The name in Irish is Bile, signifying an aged tree, 
 there having probably been in pagan times, near the site chosen for the 
 churcb. some sacred oak, which was an object of religious veneration. Thus 
 Moville, in the diocese of Down and Connor, is derived from Magh-bile, 
 which is rendered Campus arboris sacri." Ecclesiastical Antiquities of 
 Down, Connor, and Dromore, p. 77.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 221 
 
 What, however, gives Bile, as compared with other 
 portions of the parish, a peculiar interest is, that it is the 
 birthplace of Saint Fechin, and that it is full of memories 
 and memorials of the Saint, including some remains of his 
 church, which was a parish church in the time of Colgan, 
 as that writer tells us in the Acta Sanctorum* 
 
 Within a few hundred yards of Bile is Killassar, a place 
 so called from being the site of a church dedicated to Saint 
 Lassara. There is no vestige of the building at present, 
 but labourers still survive who tell you that they helped to 
 root up the foundations, about fifty years ago, when the 
 place was levelled off and planted. There were several 
 persons of the name Lassara among the primitive Irish 
 saints, but the one from whom Killassar has its name is 
 certainly the Saint Lassara who is mentioned by our old 
 writers as the mother of Saint Fechin. It it said that it 
 was the saint himself who erected this church, and dedi- 
 cated it to the memory of his mother, in the same way as 
 Saint Ciaran of Ossory built the church or nunnery of Kil- 
 lyon in the King's County in honour of his mother, Saint 
 Liadhain.f Th church of Killassar was anterior to that 
 of Bile, as appears from the local legend, that the former, 
 after having stood for some time at Killassar, left its site 
 and moved on to Bile, where it settled down, and has since 
 remained. The townland of Bile belonged to the abbey 
 of Ballysadare, as it was leased with the other lands and 
 possessions of that establishment, on the 26th August, 
 15SH, to Bryan Fitzwilliams; for the following clause in the 
 lease plainly refers to it : " One parcel of land called 
 Trinebally in Leyney, containing thirty acres of arable 
 land and pasture, with the tithes and appurtenances, being 
 parcel of the temporal land to the said priory belonging." 
 From Bryan Fitzwilliams all these monastic possessions 
 
 * Acta Sa'irtorumVila S. Feihini. 
 
 f Saint Ciaran of Ossory : by John llogan, page 129 See also Tran- 
 
 factions of Kilkenny Archce*. logical Society, vol. i, p. 215.
 
 222 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 passed into the hands of Edward Crofton, to whom they 
 were granted by Royal Patent, and from whose represen- 
 tatives Bile was purchased back by the late Major O'Hara. 
 The thirty acres mentioned in the lease were formerly 
 called Parc-Ehin Fechin's Park and formed only one 
 field, but recently Parc-Ehin has been broken up into two 
 holdings, which are now in the occupation of James Sprowls 
 arid Pat Banks. The whole townland of Bile, according 
 to the Book of Distributions, comprised 170 acres, forty 
 profitable, and 130 unprofitable, and belonged, in 1641, to 
 " Edward Crofton, Protestant."
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 223 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TULLAGHAN, ETC. 
 
 THE townland of Tullaghan has the same south-western 
 boundary as the parish ; namely, a hollow running from 
 north to south through Doomore hill, and, in continuation 
 of the hollow, a stream flowing from the mountain to 
 Coolaney river. Doomore, rising above the eastern portion 
 of the Ox range, is 903 feet high, and serves somewhat to 
 shelter the plains of Leyney from the fierce north wind. 
 The name shows that the place is the grave of some person 
 or persons, the Irish word, Dumha, signifying a " sepulchral 
 mound or tumulus ;" * and the tradition is, that a member 
 of the O'Hara family, while hunting, lost his life there, and 
 that his flesh having been mangled and eaten by the 
 hounds, a mound or tumulus was raised on the spot over 
 the bones. This tragedy, the story goes on to tell, led to 
 the establishment of a branch of the O'Hara family in the 
 North of Ireland ; for a brother of the deceased took the 
 sad event so much to heart that, unable to live near the 
 scene of the occurrence, he removed from Connaught to 
 the Northern coast, and became the progenitor of the 
 O'Haras of Antrim. 
 
 Great improvements were effected by Major O'Hara on 
 the townland of Tullaghan. As the old road that crossed 
 the mountain was nearly impassable for its steep gradients, 
 the major struck out another line in 1832, which is curved, 
 and carried so skilfully over the great inequalities of the 
 
 * Irish Names of Places : by Dr. Joyce, page 309. The 'cairn on Doo- 
 more is fifteen yards in diamet<r, and 12 feet high. It is called by the 
 country people, ' CUshel Diurnal na guire," the Cashel of Donnell of 
 the hounds.
 
 224 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 surface, that the slopes are practicable to horses drawing 
 the heaviest loads. While thus promoting the useful, he 
 was not unmindful of the beautiful, but planted largely 
 alongside of the new road, down the deep ravines and 
 gorges, and up the sides <>f the mountain, imparting a very 
 picturesque appearance to the whole district ; more espe- 
 cially during the summer months, when the gay and varie- 
 gated foliage contrasts strikingly with the sombre masses 
 of black rocks piled up all round. 
 
 And, what rarely happens in such improvements, they 
 were made without any clearances of tenants, the only 
 occupants disturbed by them being the eagles that used to 
 frequent, up to that time, the towering crags of the place, 
 and swoop down now and again on the new-yeaned lambs 
 and barndoor fowls of the farmers. It is true that the 
 lands taken up for planting had been allowed free to the 
 tenants of the neighbourhood as a run for their cattle, but 
 still the tenants gained rather than lost by the transaction ; 
 for the major, to compensate them, gave a sweep of moun- 
 tain over Rahosey much larger and better than that which 
 lie had taken away. 
 
 Tullaghan Hill, so famous for its well, is a solid rock 
 resembling a con,e truncated near the vertex, and is about 
 200 feet high, and covered with verdure to the top. It 
 rises at the northern end of the great plain, formerly called 
 the Corann ; a district which, in ancient times, comprised 
 not only the present barony of Corran, but also that of 
 Leyney, a part of Tirerrill, and large slices of Gallen and 
 Costello in the County of Mayo.* The view from the 
 
 * " Corann is now represented by the bar. of Corran, Co. Sligo. But 
 the limits of the ancient Corann would seem to have al.-o embraced the 
 present baronies of Gallen, Co. Mayo, and Leyney, Co. Sligo. See 
 O'Flaheity's Ogygia, purs, iii, cap. Ixix." Note of W. M. Hennes-y, 
 Esq., M.R.I.A., in Book of Fenagh, page 97. O'Flaherty, in the chapter 
 referred to. writes " The country called Corann, f..rmeily comprehended 
 Galenga, in the County of Mayo, Lugny and Corann, in the County of 
 Sligo. The Corco-firtrians, the posterity of Lugny, inhabited this tract
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 225 
 
 summit is very fine, taking in not only the plain of the 
 Corann, but Tireragh, Sligo bay, and several ranges of 
 mountain in Sligo, Donegal, and Leitrim. There are three 
 circurnvallations or cashels on the hill, the most massive of 
 them being the uppermost, which is built of great stones 
 five or six feet long, runs round the hill with the excep- 
 tion of one point, and encloses a space of fourteen yards in 
 diameter. On the north-west side there is a sheer precipice 
 of fifty or sixty feet ; and the point over the edge of the 
 precipice is that on which the cashel does not run, but in 
 the valley beneath there is a segment of a cashel, which 
 corresponds to the break above, and serves to complete 
 the circle. 
 
 The most remarkable thing about Tullaghan Hill is its 
 well, which is one of the Mirabilia Hibernice, or Wonders of 
 Ireland, and is mentioned in the accounts of these prodigies 
 that are contained in Nennius, Giraldus Cambrensis, and 
 O'Flaherty's Ogygia, as well as in an unpublished manu- 
 script in Trinity College. Tullaghan Well is the seventh 
 wonder in Nennius' * list, and is thus described : " A well 
 of sweet water in the side of the Corann : the property of 
 that well is, that it fills and ebbs like the sea, though it is 
 far from the sea too." Giraldus' account is in his Topo- 
 graphy, Dist. 2, cap. 7 : " Est et in Conactia fons dulcis 
 aquae in vertice montis excelsi, et procul a mare, qui die 
 naturali bis undis deficiens, et toties exuberans, marinas 
 
 Saint Senach of Tirolilla, the bishop was one of these ; and Machia? the 
 poet, who was of the family of O'Concheata, of Lignathiule in Goran; 
 also Dobhailen, and the O'Doncaiths, who possessed Corann, till the 
 0' Haras, and afterwards the MacDoiioghs, became the proprietors of it." 
 * The Irish Version of the Historic Britonum of Nennius : Edited by 
 Dr. Todd, and the Hon. Algernon Herbert, p. 193. In a note, Dr. Todd 
 observes " The following account of the Wonders of Ireland is taken 
 
 from the Book of Ballymote, folio 140, b " " The Mirabilia 
 
 Hiberma [Wonders of Ireland], are described by Nenniu?, Giraldus 
 Cambrensis, Ralph Higden in his Polychronicon, who relies entirely on 
 Giraldus, O'Flaherty's Oijygia, part iii, c. 50, p. 289. See also Ware's 
 Antiquities of Ireland, by Harris, chap, xxxiv, p. 227." 
 
 Q
 
 226 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 imitatur instabilitates." (There is also a spring of fresh 
 water in Connaught, on the top of a high mountain and far 
 from the coast, which ebhs twice a day and flows as often, 
 like the tides of the sea). This well is the fourth wonder 
 in O'Flaherty, and is thus given in Hely's translation of 
 the Ogygia * : 
 
 " In Sligo district, on Mount Gam's high side, 
 A fountain lies, not wash'd by ocean's tide; 
 Each circling day it different waters brings, 
 The fresh the salt from it alternate springs." 
 
 In the manuscript tract in Trinity College, Tullaghan 
 Well is the eleventh wonder, and is thus described, " there 
 is a well in the side of the Corann, which flows and ebbs 
 after the similitude of the sea." 
 
 This well still exists, but is surrounded at present with 
 little of the sacred character which made it an object of 
 reverence and wonder in the past. It is situated on the 
 south-east side of Tullaghan Hill, within twenty feet of the 
 summit, and is of circular form, two feet in diameter, and 
 about eighteen inches in depth on an average of the twenty- 
 four hours. The bottom is rock, and a circular wall of 
 stones without mortar, four feet high, rises round it, sharp 
 by the water's edge, so as to enclose the well, except on the 
 entrance side, which faces the east. Near the well there is 
 a heap of stones, thrown there, no doubt, by devotees, as the 
 complement of their visit ; and fourteen feet west of the 
 well there is a large stone standing on end, which country 
 people call the Altar. 
 
 There is a legend that this well sprang up at the prayer 
 of Saint Patrick. The story is: that at the time the 
 Apostle expelled the demons from Croagh Patrick, one 
 named Caerthanach escaped the fate of the others, and 
 moved along before the Saint, polluting all the waters in 
 
 Vol. ii, page 175.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 227 
 
 the way. On reaching Tullaghan the Saint was tormented 
 with thirst, and finding no water, prayed for relief, when 
 the well burst forth, and, in consequence, became sacred to 
 Saint Patrick, and a favourite resort of persons devoted to 
 the Apostle. A hollow is pointed out in the north-west 
 part of the hill, where the Saint is said to have lain in 
 concealment on the watch for Caerthanach, till he espied 
 her, and with a word drove her away from Ireland for 
 ever. 
 
 But the well was famous long before Saint Patrick was 
 born ; for in the book of Dinnsenchas we read that Gam, 
 the servant of Eremon, was slain on the mountain, thus 
 giving it the name of Slieve-Gamh, and that his head was 
 cast into the well, which became, in consequence, en- 
 chanted, containing salt water at one time and fresh at 
 another, and ebbing and flowing with the tide.* Owing to 
 this legend the Pagan Irish betook themselves to the place 
 in pilgrimage on one of their great festivals that celebrated 
 on the last day of summer ; and Saint Patrick, hearing of 
 this superstition as he was quitting Tireragh, turned up to 
 Tullaghan and blessed the well, thus giving a new direction 
 and object to the devotion of the pilgrims, but leaving the 
 time for the visit to the place unchanged. And hence the 
 patron of Tullaghan was held on the last day of summer, 
 and continued to be so held down to the time of its re- 
 moval to the Strand. The pious performed stations on 
 the hill, and in recent times Father Dan O'Connor, parish 
 priest of Killoran, is said to have encouraged these exer- 
 cises of devotion both by example and advice. No doubt 
 the good priest was influenced by a motive similar to that 
 which actuated Saint Patrick ; and seeing the excesses 
 
 * This account is also given, in the Book of Extracts of the County 
 Sligo, which was compiled by those engaged in the Ordnance Survey, and 
 is now in the Royal Irish Academy. Ox Mountains, the present name of 
 the range, is a translation of Slieve Damh, which is a corruption of 
 Slieve Gamh.
 
 228 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 committed by those who used to frequent the patron, 
 sought to put an end to these abuses, and at the same time 
 to revive the religious character of a meeting that he 
 could not abolish.* 
 
 Pilgrimages or pious visits to the well have ceased, though 
 traditions of the natural and supernatural prodigies that 
 are said to have taken place in connection with it are still 
 rife in the neighbourhood. The grown-up inhabitants of 
 the district heard from their fathers that the well ebbs and 
 fills with the tide, and that cures of all kinds were wrought 
 on those who prayed around it ; but, notwithstanding this, 
 it is hard at present to meet anyone so credulous as to 
 believe either in its tidal or healing properties. 
 
 The qualities ascribed to the well do not, however, come 
 altogether from imagination or invention ; for there is 
 something peculiar to it which gave occasion to the idea of 
 its following the movements of the sea. There is no doubt 
 that the water in it sometimes rises and subsides in a very 
 remarkable manner. The writer has visited the well 
 different times, and on each occasion observed, all round 
 the stone inclosure, a wet water-mark three or four inches 
 deep, similar to what one sees on the stones of the sea- 
 shore at the ebbing of the tide ; and, doubtless, it is this 
 circumstance, arising, no doubt, from some peculiarity in 
 the bed of the well, or in its immediate surroundings, that 
 has raised Tubber-Tullaghan to the honour of being one of 
 the Wonders of Ireland. 
 
 Two trout are said to have haunted the well, and, of 
 course, to have been enchanted like the well itself. They 
 are no longer visible, at least to ordinary eyes, but there 
 
 * These patrons were denounced by bishops even in their pastorals. In 
 reference to one of them, Dr. Bray, of Cashel, wrote " It is become such 
 a scene of drunkenness and quarrelling, and of other most abominable 
 vices, that religion herself is brought into disrepute, nay, mocked and 
 ridiculed ; intemperance and immorality are encouraged ; the tranquillity 
 of the country is disturbed, and the seeds of perpetual animosities and 
 dissensions are sown-" Statuta. Synodal. Cassel and Imolac, p. 72-23.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 229 
 
 are trustworthy persons who assure you that they them- 
 selves saw these " odd fish" some time ago. How they 
 came there it is not easy to say, though we are hardly 
 bound to believe, with several simple-minded persons, that 
 they have been in the well from the beginning of time. 
 In proof of their enchantment a story is current to the 
 effect, that though they were captured, killed, broiled, and 
 eaten by some profane people of the neighbourhood, they 
 were seen in their old habitat immediately after all this as 
 lively as ever, and as " wholesome as trout " proverbially 
 are. 
 
 Whatever may have occasioned originally the fame of 
 Tubber-Tullaghan, it could not be its water, unless the 
 liquid has vastly deteriorated in the course of time ; for you 
 might search all the wells of the country in vain for water 
 so ungrateful both to the eye and the palate. It is so 
 brackish that there is no wonder it has been supposed to 
 come from the sea, while it is so heavy and dark that it 
 looks as always holding a large quantity of some muddy 
 substance in solution. And the water nurtures, besides, a 
 soft, slimy, thread-like aquatic plant, which must always 
 soil and pollute it. 
 
 The townlands next adjoining Tullaghan on the east 
 are: first, KINNIGRELLY ; next, Glen; and then Largan. 
 Kinnagrelly, Kilnagrelly, Kenagrilly, Kengrillen for we 
 find the name written in all these forms is so called from 
 its lying over the marsh or swamp that runs along the side of 
 the Coolaney river. The original form was Kean-na-Grel- 
 lach, head of the swamp or miry place. As part of Leyney 
 it belonged to the O'Haras, and was owned in 1641 by 
 Errill O'Hara and Pat French ; and when these proprietors 
 forfeited by joining the insurgents, Kinnigrelly fell into 
 the hands of the Earl of Strafford and Lord Collooney, 
 each getting 137A. SR. and 16p., or the moiety of the 275A. 
 2fi. and 32p., which it comprises. By Charles II's grant in 
 1666 to the Earl of Strafford and Thomas Radcliffe, with
 
 230 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 other lands conveyed to them was " part of the lands of 
 Kingrillen alias Kinnigrilly, one cartron containing 137A. 
 SR. 16p. of profitable land and 32A. of unprofitable." 
 And in the Tripartite Deed of Partition of Sligo between 
 William Earl of Stratford, first part ; Rev. John Leslie, 
 second part ; and Joshua Wilson, third part, we find in 
 Joshua Wilson's portion: " the half trine of Memlagh, alias 
 Moymelagh, and the cartron of Kennegrelly alias Kengril- 
 len, in the possession of Oliver O'Hara, without paying 
 any rent to his Majesty." It is a pleasure to be able to 
 add that these lands, after having belonged so long to 
 others, have recently come again into the hands of the 
 O'Haras, Mr. C. W. O'Hara having purchased them, some 
 years ago, from Joshua Wilson's heirs and assigns. 
 
 GLEN has its name from the glen or valley that runs 
 across the Ox Mountains down by Coney. It is sometimes 
 called Cashel in old documents, from a fort or cashel that 
 stands four or five hundred yards to the north of the 
 present village. 
 
 LARGAN is so called from its sloping situation, learg, the 
 root of the word, signifying the side or slope of a hill. 
 The two townlands belonged to the O'Haras of old, and 
 have never ceased to belong to them. In Perrott's Inden- 
 ture of the County Sligo they are given as the property of 
 an O'Hara ; and in the Down Survey they are set down as 
 belonging to Kean O'Hara, and containing 2 09 A. IK. and 
 8p. of profitable land ; and from that day to this they have 
 remained in the possession of the family. 
 
 Between Glen and Largan on the north, and the Coolaney 
 river on the south, lies the townland of KILNEMONOGH 
 church of the monks so called from a monastery that 
 existed there in the past, and which, according to Colgan 
 and local tradition, was founded by Saint Fechin. This 
 house was built about the time at which the Saint erected 
 churches in Bile (from which Kilnemonogh is divided only 
 by the river) and Ballysadare. There is little more known
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 231 
 
 for certain of the church of Kilnemonogh ; for, as there are 
 several Kilnemonoghs throughout Ireland, it is hard to 
 tell, when mention occurs in our annals of a Kilnemonogh, 
 to which of them the reference applies. We read, for 
 instance, in the Annals of the Four Masters, under the year 
 843, that " Breasal son of Caingue Abbot of Kilne- 
 monogh, died ; " and in the same authority, under the year 
 1438 : that " the Abbot of Kilnemonogh and Vicar of 
 Castleconnor died ; " and though it is very likely that both 
 these entries, and more especially the latter (on account of 
 the juxta position of Kilnemonogh with Castleconnor, 
 which is certainly in the County Sligo) refer to the place 
 now under consideration, still this is not quite certain. 
 
 Kilnemonogh is, or rather was, Bishop-land, and is 
 marked as such in the Down Survey, where its measure- 
 ment is 178A. 8R. 8p. The perpetuity of Kilnemonogh, as 
 of many of the other church lands of the parish, was pur- 
 chased under the 3rd and 4th of "William IV, (the Church 
 Temporalities Act), for, most probably, the " spendthrift 
 price," of which the late Mr. Justice Shee speaks in his 
 book on the Irish Church, by Mr. W. Phibbs,* who now 
 owns these lands, holding a great part of them in his 
 own hands for grazing purposes, and letting some of them 
 to tenants, but, probably, at no " spendthrift " rents. 
 Ware, and Harris, and Archdall state that this religious 
 house was granted to Richard Earl of Clanrickarde in the 
 sixteenth century ; but this is an error, and comes from 
 their confounding this Kilnemonogh with that of the 
 County Roscommon, which was bestowed on that earl at 
 the suppression. 
 
 ARUCOTTON and LUGNAMACKEN adjoin Kilnemonogh, and 
 lie respectively to the east and north-east of it. Lugna- 
 
 * Judge Shee calls this act, " that hideous Mot upon the Statute Book 
 of the United Kingdom, that Magna Charta of church spoliation for the 
 benefit of churcii tenants, church architects, and church builders the 
 3 & 4 William IV., c. 37." The Irish Church, p. I 9 '
 
 232 PARISH OF BALI/SSADARE. 
 
 macken signifies the hollow of the parsnips, and owes the 
 name, probably, to its being particularly suitable to the 
 growth of that root. ARDCOTTON in Irish, Ardcotteinte 
 means the " height of the common," indicating that that 
 district or some part of it was heretofore common property ; 
 and in effect the spot between Mr. Madden's mills and the 
 river goes to this day in English by the name of the 
 " common." 
 
 Previously to the sixteenth century stretches of land of 
 greater or lesser extent, available to the general public for 
 the purposes of grazing and recreation, were numerous in 
 Ireland, and still more numerous in England ; but in the 
 confusion of that period, owing to the change of religion, 
 the suppression of monasteries, and the redistribution of 
 considerable tracts of land, these commons were encroached 
 on, and appropriated from the poorer classes by powerful 
 neighbours. This injustice was not consummated in Eng- 
 land without vigorous and even insurrectionary efforts in 
 opposition by the people, and energetic protests * by the 
 
 * One sample of these protests, and that from a man counted a martyr 
 by the Church of England, will give a fair idea of all. " Fear not these 
 giants of England," says Latimer, " these great men and men of power. 
 Fear them not, but strike at the root of all evil, which is covetousness . . . 
 I fully certify you, extortioners, violent oppressors, engrossers of tenements 
 and linds, through whose covetousness villages decay and fall down, and the 
 JLiny' s liege people, for lack of sustenance, are furnished and decayed ; they 
 be those which speak against the honour of the King. You landlords, 
 you rent-raisers, I may say, you step-lords, you unnatural lords, you have 
 for your possessions yearly, too much. Well, well, this one thing I will say 
 unto you, from whence it cometh I know, even from the devil. 
 Surveyors there be that greedily gorge up their covetous goods ; |hey 
 make up their mouths, and the commons be utterly undone by them ; 
 whose bitter cry ascendeth up to the ears of the God of Sabaoth. The 
 greedy pit of hell-burning fire, without great repentance, doth tarry and 
 look for them. A redress God grant. For surely, surely, but that two 
 things do comfort me, I should despair of redress in these matters. One 
 is, that the King's Majesty, when he cometh to age, will see a redress of 
 these things so out of frame ; giving example by letting down his own 
 lands first, and then enjoin his subjects to follow him. The second hope
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 233 
 
 established clergy, the only clergy allowed to raise a voice 
 at the time. 
 
 There is no means of knowing now who took Ardcotton 
 from the people and clergy. Though the O'Haras were the 
 original owners, as it is a part of Leyney, they had nothing 
 to do in the alienation ; and indeed this family were always 
 more disposed to give than to take land where the church 
 and the poor were concerned. But it would appear that 
 the transgressors were the M'Donoghs of Collooney, who 
 were so powerful in the sixteenth century as to he able to 
 encroach both on the church and the O'Haras ; for we find 
 in an inquisition taken at Ballymote in 1610, before 
 Nicholas Brady, that Melaghlin M'Donogh of Collooney 
 died on the 15th of August, 1597, and that at the time of 
 his death he was seized of Ardcottente and Loggnamacken 
 in Leyney, with various other denominations of land in 
 Tirerrill. The same document, however, states that the 
 ownership of Ardcotton was contested, and that Gilleprone 
 M'Brehon laid claim to it as being held from the king 
 in cfipite. 
 
 In the maps of the Down Survey Ardcotton is given as 
 belonging to the Bishop of Achonry, and as containing 
 49!A. IR. 24p. By this measurement it comprises not 
 only what is now called Ardcotton but also Lugnamacken, 
 Camphill, and Carricknagat. 
 
 Though King James I granted, in 1617, to Teague Buy 
 O'llara* a head-rent out of the " four quarters of Ard- 
 cotton," we learn from the Patent Roll that his Majesty 
 had granted the same four quarters of Ardcotton to Sir 
 
 I have, is, I believe that the general accounting day is at hand the 
 dreadful day of judgment I mean which shall make an end of all these 
 calamities and miseries ; a dreadful, horrible day for them that decline 
 from God, walking in their own ways, to whom, as it is written in the 
 twenty-fifth of Matthew, is said : ' Go, ye cursed, into everlasting punish- 
 ment, where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.' " Strype's 
 Ece. Mentor., vol. ii, part 3, pp. 133-135. 
 * Patent Roll, James I, 14.
 
 234 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 John King in the previous year.* It would appear that 
 Sir John received at the same time other church or termon 
 lands in the parish, to wit : Tawniewilliam, Koney, and 
 Kilnemonogh, as we find these lands in the possession of 
 Lord Kingsborough, Sir John King's descendant in 1753 ; 
 for on the 14th of November of that year those lands were 
 demised by the Right Rev. Richard, Bishop of Killala and 
 Achonry, to Robert Lord Kingsborough,f who, in all 
 likelihood, was already in occupation of them in virtue of 
 the royal grant to his ancestor. From Lord Kingsborough 
 these possessions passed to the Phibbs' family by his lord- 
 ship making over his interest to William Phibbs, Rock- 
 brook, who already held part of the lands as tenant, 
 and by the bishop renewing, on the llth November, 1756, 
 the lease to the said William Phibbs. From that date 
 the property has since remained in the possession of the 
 Phibbs, their title being, first, bishops' leases regularly 
 renewed ; and, recently, a perpetuity grant. Till about 
 thirty years ago the estate was held in common by the two 
 branches of the Phibbs' family, but at that date the whole 
 was divided by private arrangement into two portions, one 
 going to Mr. William Phibbs, Seafield, and the other fal- 
 ling to the late Mr. Harloe Phibbs, Sligo, who has been 
 succeeded in possession by his brother, Mr. Peter Rutledge 
 Phibbs of Kingstown. Unlike the other portion, the part 
 of Mr. Peter R. Phibbs is let all to tenants ; and it is but 
 fair to add, that Mr. Phibbs, and his humane agent, Mr. 
 Charles Phibbs, the owner's son, instead of showing any 
 disposition to banish these tenants, are, on the contrary, 
 taking pains to keep them in their holdings. 
 
 CARRICKNAGAT is a modern denomination, and may sig- 
 nify the rock of the battle.-^ This meaning is the less 
 
 * Patent Roll, James I, 13. 
 % Erc's Ecclesiastical Registrar, 1830, page 255. 
 
 t For an account of the battle, see page 72. The French quitted 
 Carricknagat on the evening of the battle, and pushed on by a rapid march.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 235 
 
 unlikely, as the name dates from about the time of the 
 affair with the French in 1798, when parts of the battle- 
 field certainly changed their appellations : the rising ground 
 on which Humbert marshalled his troops taking the name 
 
 to Dromahair, throwing over the bridge of Ballygrania, for the sake of 
 expedition, the two cannon taken at Carricknagat. It seems certain that 
 Humbert, when leaving Castlebar, intended to pass through Sligo. Some 
 say that he altered this plan on account of Vereker's attack, but another 
 and more probable opinion is, that the change was owing to news just 
 received of an insurrection which had broken out at Granard, and which 
 he desired to turn to account, by joining the insurgents as scon as 
 possible. 
 
 Two days after the departure of Humbert, the British army under 
 General Lake, arrived in Collooney Instead of imitating the humanity 
 of the French, this army committed the greatest excesses. As if to atone for 
 cowardice in presence of the French at Castlebar, the English put to 
 death the unarmed Irish, and the whole line of march was strewn with 
 the unburied corpses of innocent peasants, butchered in cold blood. And 
 it was not enough for them to deprive their viptims of life, but they added 
 sometimes savage indignities, as at Collooney, where, after shooting a 
 man, they trampled his body to a pulp. Even the remorseless Musgrave 
 finds it necessary to offer a word of apology for these Bashi Bazouk 
 atrocities: " At Collooney," says he, " a Longford deserter was recog- 
 nised by some of the advanced guards, and shot ; the whole army marched 
 over his body with indifference ; a strong instance of the calamities of 
 war, and how much they obtund the feelings of humanity." 
 
 The excesses of the Hessians and other troops lasted all through the 
 winter in this neighbourhood. The humbler classes lived in fear and 
 trembling, as domiciliary visits were constantly making in search of per- 
 sous alleged to have been " out " with the French. Cabins were some- 
 times burned, and their inmates obliged to take shelter in the woods and 
 mountains. The lives of unoffending and innocent persons were taken in 
 sheer wantonness or from private revenge. James Cusack, an inhabitant 
 of Carrickbanaghan, was put to the sword in broad daylight at Knock- 
 beg, merely for happening to be on the public road when a patrol was 
 passing ; but it is gratifying to add that two other parishioners, 
 Martin Snee and Tom Snee, were saved from a similar fate by the inter- 
 ference of kind and influential Protestant neighbours, who were at hand 
 when the poor men were about to be massacred. No Catholic was allowed 
 to put the head out of doors after sunset. The late Ned Gunning of 
 Ballinabull took a step or two one evening from his house in order to get 
 a mouthful of fresh air; and in a moment a murderous attack was made 
 upon him by drunken yeomen ; and though the poor man escaped with life, 
 he received a severe bayonet wound that he carried to the grave, and that
 
 236 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 of Camphill ; the slope on which Teeling shot the sturdy 
 Whitters beginning to be called Gunner's Bray and 
 several knolls along the line of the French advance, where 
 Frenchmen fell and were buried, becoming known as 
 
 was near terminating, at forty, a life enjoyed up to the patriarchal age of 
 112. Some inhabitants of the neighbourhood, known or suspected to have 
 been with the French at Ballinamuck, had to lead most miserable lives, 
 being waylaid and worried like mad dogs. Such of them as fell into the 
 hands of the pursuers, were hanged or shot without law or ceremony ; 
 and of the remainder, several escaped to America, while a few were 
 restored to their families by the influence with the government of certain 
 humane and generous country gentlemen, and more particularly of three 
 who deserve to have their names recorded, Mr. O'Hara of Annauhmore, 
 Mr. Johnstone of Doomahair, and more than all, Mr. Jackson of Camp- 
 hilL 
 
 As we had not seen the following interesting letter at the time of 
 drawing up our account of the Battle of Carricknagat or Collooney 
 (pages 72-79), we insert it here as containing a fresh and lively description 
 of the conflict, from the pen of an eye-witness, who wrote from Sligo : 
 
 "As I find there has not an accurate account of the action, so honour- 
 able to the Limerick City Regiment, come to your hands, I take this 
 opportunity of describing it to you. 
 
 " On the 5th of September, Colonel Vereker, who commanded here, 
 received information that part of the French and Rebel army had ad- 
 vanced to Collooney and purposed attacking this town that night in two 
 columns. Considering it would be advisable to dispossess them imme- 
 diately from that post, he ordered Captain Vincent, and 100 men as an, 
 advanced guard, to march and watch their motions, while he moved on 
 with 20 of the 24th Dragoons, 30 Yeoman Cavalry, 250 Limerick City 
 Militia, 20 Essex Fencibies, and 30 Yeoman Infantry. On the advanced 
 guard coming near the enemy, they sustained a smart fire, which cheeked 
 them a little, when Colonel Vereker ordered Captain Waller and the 
 Limerick Light Company to advance and support them, whilst he formed 
 his line and arranged his plan of attack upon the main body, which duty 
 Captain Waller performed with great steadiness. On his line being 
 formed, he ordered Major Ormsby and one company to take post on a hill 
 which covered his right, and prevent the enemy from turning that flank, 
 while the Colonel advanced on the right of the line with two curricle 
 guns. Lieutenant-Colonel Gough was ordered to the charge of the left. 
 In a few minutes the whole came into action, and supported on both sides 
 an unremitting fire of musketry and grape shot for near an hour and a- 
 half never was a more obstinate contest at last superior numbers pre- 
 vailed. Major Ormsby's detachment was obliged to retreat from the hill,
 
 PARISH OF BALL YSAD ARE. 237 
 
 Frenchmens' Graves. But local opinion, which, it must be 
 admitted, is not always a safe guide, takes the word to 
 mean the rock of the cats, a name given to the place on 
 account of it being the resort of wild cats. Old people tell, 
 
 and that post being given up, the enemy hegan to press round in numbers 
 to the rere of the line. 
 
 ''A retreat was then absolutely necessary to save those gallant fellows, 
 who even then maintained their post, although their ammunition was 
 nearly expended ; never did any man show greater gallantry and coolness 
 than Colonel Vereker at this trying moment ; he never quitted his post 
 while a man could stand by him, and when his artillery horses were so 
 badly wounded that they could not bring away his guns, he attempted to 
 have brought them off with ropes, and not until nearly surrounded on all 
 sides did he leave them. The gallant and steady manner the officers and sol- 
 diers resisted the attack of the united French and Rebel army of above 4000 
 men, strongly posted, with nine iield pieces, reflects the greatest honour 
 on them, and has saved this town from ruin. The entire loss on the side 
 of the King's troops was 6 killed and 21 wounded. The enemy had 
 above 50 killed and wounded ; many of the latter have since died in hos- 
 pital here. The French fought with great bravery, and acted with 
 humanity to the wounded officers and men who fell into their hands. 
 
 " It is singular that the three field officers of the Limerick City Regiment 
 were slightly wounded. Even the French general allows he never met 
 a more gallant resistance, or a better served fire than from the Limerick 
 Regiment that day. 
 
 " It would be impossible to describe the universal dismay produced by 
 the ' Races of Castlebar.' The loyal were paralyzed, the disloyal were 
 filled with hope and courage, and the wavereis or indifferent were in- 
 clined to side with the strong. Meanwhile the number of the French 
 was exaggerated, and those invincible arms which had swept their enemies 
 on the Continent before them as sheep, appeared destined speedily to 
 expel the British from the island and to establish the Irish Republic 
 under the protection of France. Flushed with success, Humbert deter- 
 mined to march to the north, to join another body of French troops, 
 whose landing on the coast of Donegal was daily expected, and with that 
 object in view he proceeded towards Sligo. Every hour that passed, and 
 every mile he marched, he received new accessions of strength, whilst the 
 Royalists were proportionally depressed and weakened. Sligo was at the 
 time occupied by a force of about 600 men, who, under the influence of 
 the panic that prevailed, and the fear inspired by the French name, were 
 ordered at onco to evacuate the town and retreat (Musgrave, page C05). 
 But fortunately for the country and for British honour, this order was 
 not obeyed. Colonel Vereker, then commanding in Sligo, having re- 
 ceived intelligence of the enemy's movements, and feeling the imperative
 
 238 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 that these animals were so numerous formerly in Carrick- 
 nagat as to be a nuisance by their caterwauling, and a 
 danger by their ferocity, to the inhabitants and to travellers 
 on the public road. 
 
 necessity that existed, either that some decided victory should be gained, 
 or at least that some such stand should be made as would check Humbert 
 in his victorious career, determined to give him battle. It is thus that 
 superior genius in the midst of national hesitation and confusion, mani- 
 fests itself by seizing with promptitude on the precise moment for inflict- 
 ing upon the enemy an effective and crushing blow. Collecting all the 
 disposable troops, which comprised only a few dragoons and yeomen, and 
 the Limerick Regiment, he marched to Collooney, a village about five 
 miles from Sligo, to meet the French and their insurgent allies, who 
 were at least ten times more numerous than the troops he commanded. 
 
 " The disposition of his little army was most judiciously made, and the 
 site he selected was well calculated at once to protect and disguise the 
 numerical inferiority of his force. The Collooney river covered the right 
 wing, whilst the left wing occupied the side of a rugged hill " (it was vice 
 versa") " thickly planted with trees, which sloped down to the high road 
 on which his guns were placed. Such a position occupied by a body of 
 determined men was not only difficult to take, but afforded singular faci- 
 lities for a well-ordered retreat. The French had about 900 men, about 
 250 of the Longford and Kilkenny Militia, who had deserted after the 
 Races of Castlebar, and a numerous body of rebels ; and the total under 
 Vereker did not exceed 300 men, with two curricle guns (Musgrave). 
 The action began at half -past two o'clock on the 5th of September, 1798, 
 and lasted one hour and thirty-eight minutes. Of the French, 28 were 
 killed and a good many wounded. They left behind them at Collooney 
 18 of their men who were desperately wounded. Vereker returned his 
 casualties at 9 killed and 22 wounded. He was himself severely wounded. 
 After the action, the grenadiers represented to General Humbert, that it 
 would be useless and cruel to compel them to endure the calamities of 
 war any longer, but the general said, ' he could not think of surrendering 
 to so small a force.' Thus it nearly fell to the lot of a few citizens of 
 Limerick to capture the force destined by Napoleon Bonaparte for the 
 conquest of the kingdom. 
 
 "This brilliant action saved Sligo, and crushed the invasion of the 
 French. Colonel Vereker crossed the Collooney river in good order, and 
 the French general believing from the undaunted courage and confidence 
 displayed by the enemy, that they formed the advanced guard of Lord 
 Lake's army, determined to retreat with precipitation, and shaped his 
 course towards Manor-hamilton in the county of Leitrim, leaving on the 
 road for the sake of expedition three six-pounders, and dismounting and 
 throwing five pieces of artillery over the bridge of Dromahair into the
 
 PARISH OF BALLTSADARE. 239 
 
 The evil was heard of, far and near, and brought to the 
 spot a caravan of travelling tinkers those Irish gipsies 
 who came to have a stand-up fight with the enemy a la 
 " Brummy and the dwarf." On reaching the rock they 
 laid aside their budgets, formed a camp, remained for a 
 fortnight about the place, and passed the time in a series of 
 battues against the cats. The result was, that most of the 
 cats were exterminated, and the rest so frightened that they 
 have never since returned to the old haunt. The tinkers, 
 to secure the fruits of their victory, and to prevent the 
 return of the enemy, paid an annual visit to the spot for 
 
 river. These guns being abandoned, the French army lost its efficiency, 
 and the French invasion may be said to have virtually terminated ; al- 
 though it was not till some days afterwards that Humbert surrendered to 
 Lord Cornwallis. 
 
 "At this distance of time it is scarcely possible to estimate the impor- 
 tant effect of this gallant enterprise. Lord Cornwallis with an army of 
 20,000 men under his orders, was cautiously wandering in a wrong direc- 
 tion on the banks of the Shannon ; and only for the blow he received at 
 Collooney, Humbert might, according to the supposition of Sir Jonah 
 Barrington, have marched to Dublin, and seized the capital by a bold 
 coup-de-main, joined by 40,000 rebels, who were assembling at Crooked 
 Wood in the County of Westmeath, only 42 miles from Dublin. Such a 
 stroke, if successfully accomplished, might have terminated for ever the 
 English occupation in Ireland." Limerick, its History and Antiquities : 
 by Maurice Lenihan, Esq., page 411. 
 
 The same authority gives the following returns of killed and wounded : 
 
 " Return of officers killed and wounded of the Limerick City Regi- 
 ment at Collooney, on Tuesday, September 5th, 1728 : 
 
 "Ensign Rumley, shot through the body dead. Captain Crisps 
 (severely wounded), shot through the neck and jaws. 
 
 " Slightly wounded Col. Vereker, Lieut.-Col. Gough, Major Ormsby, 
 Captain Nash, Ensign Rindon. 
 
 " Return of privates killed, wounded, and missing : 
 
 " Killed John Wallace, Edward MacMahon. 
 
 " Missing Timothy Sullivan. 
 
 " Badly Wounded Corporal Kain. 
 
 " Slightly ivounded John Hickey, Patrick Hynes, Michael Harrison, 
 Jeremiah Leahy, James Sullivan, Patrick Nelson, Denis Godfrey, Nicholas 
 Purcell, Timothy Bryan, Corporal Mahony."
 
 240 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 some years ; and as they had no fighting to do for want 
 of an enemy, they occupied themselves in bartering their 
 asses one against another, and buying such small things as 
 the country people brought in. Ponies and " clibs " came 
 by degrees to be offered for sale, and in a short time, this 
 eccentric gathering of tinkers, asses, and garans, developed 
 itself into the far-famed horse fair of Carricknagat. Like 
 many other things of small beginnings, the fair became 
 great, and attracted crowds from all parts of Ireland to sell 
 and buy, to see the splendid horses exhibited, and to enjoy 
 the jumping, which was inferior to nothing in the country 
 for dash and daring. But those prison-like walls that 
 secure a monopoly of the place to sheep and bullocks, and 
 serve as a signboard to notify that there is no longer " en- 
 tertainment for man and horse," have spoiled the sport and 
 ruined the business of Carricknagat ; and at the rate the 
 fair is failing, and the neighbourhood depopulating, one 
 need not be surprised if the place soon fall back to the state 
 from which the tinkers freed it, and become anew the 
 resort of wild cats. 
 
 There is, however, another account of the fair, which 
 traces its origin to a patron that used formerly to be held 
 on the 1st of February, in Tubberbrida, near Collooney. 
 Many of the matrons and girls that frequented the patron, 
 rode, it is said, to the place on pillions behind their sons or 
 brothers; and while the females were going through the 
 usual devotions round the well, the young men amused 
 themselves by running and jumping the horses. On these 
 occasions horses were sometimes bartered or sold ; and 
 after a time exchanges and sales became so numerous that 
 Tubberbrida began to be regarded as a place of business as 
 well as a place of devotion. When things had reached 
 this point, and the gathering was becoming larger every 
 year, the owner or occupiers of the land objected to the 
 trespass, and put a stop to the jumping ; and as the lands
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 241 
 
 of Carricknagat were looked on as of little value, and there- 
 fore liable to little injury by men or horses, while the 
 place was near enough to Tubberbrida to allow horse- 
 men to accommodate female relatives coming to the patron, 
 the exhibition and sales of horses were transferred from 
 Tubberbrida* to the foot of the Ox Mountains, and conti- 
 nued to flourish there even after the patron was abolished. 
 An effort was made about the year 1814, by Mr. Jackson 
 of Camphill, who rented the lands along the river side, to 
 confine the horses to the east side of the high road, where 
 they are hemmed in at present, but the effort failed at that 
 time ; for when Mr., Jackson had placed in a gap his fore- 
 
 * In an appendix to the Trias Thaumaturga Colgan mentions Tubber- 
 brida, and places it near Collooney " prope Cuilmtmittm" its exact 
 situation. John O'Donovan, in a communication contained in the Ord- 
 nance Survey Letter Book of the County Sligo, states that Saint Brigid 
 is the patron saint of the parish of Ballysadare, but he gives no authority 
 for this statement, which can hardly be reconciled with the fact that the 
 old parish church at Ballysadare, the old church of Billa, and several 
 other places through the parish, are called after Saint Fechin. At pre- 
 sent there are no remains of buildings at Tubberbrida, at least above the 
 surface of the soil. There is, however, in the place a large rath or fort, 
 and unlike the other raths of the neighbourhood, which are all circular, 
 this one is oblong, being 96 yards in length and 72 in breadth. Under 
 the fort is a cave 36 feet long, 5 feet 6 inches wide, and 6 feet high, con- 
 taining, at or near the middle, a well the one, no doubt, from which 
 Tubberbrida has got its name. At right angles, or nearly at right angles 
 to this cave, and joining it, is another, 51 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3 
 feet six inches high. Both are roofed with large flags lying horizontally 
 and resting on sidewalls of uncemented stones. At the mouth of the 
 larger cave is a fine sycamore tree, the trunk being about 12 feet in girth, 
 and dividing into seven boughs, nearly equal in size, which form when 
 in leaf a beautiful canopy of more than tixty yards in circumference. At 
 the spot where the boughs separate there is in the trunk a cavity that is 
 always full of water, summer and winter ; and that some, seeing it never 
 dry, mistake for the tulber or will from which iho townland is called. 
 And within a few feet of the tres is a large heap of small stou< s, raised by 
 the pilgrims ; each man and woman that visited the well being in the 
 habit of depositing a stone, in token of his or her having completed the 
 exercises ot the station. 
 
 R
 
 242 PARISH OF BALLYSADA11E. 
 
 man bleacher, Jemmy Drury, a big burly man of seventeen 
 or eighteen stone weight, and several other bleachers, armed 
 with bludgeons, to keep out trespassers, the horsemen 
 forced a way through the bleachers, who used their weapons 
 freely, the first person to run the blockade being the Rev- 
 Mr. Duke, who was soon followed by every mounted man 
 at the fair.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSAUARE. 243 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CAMPHILL. 
 
 CAMPHILL has its military name from the French form- 
 ing for battle in that place on the 5th of September, 1798, 
 up to which time it went by the denomination of Ardcotton. 
 Camphill must be always a place of considerable impor- 
 tance, at least for its fine water power. A mill is shown 
 there in the Map of the Down Survey, and from time 
 immemorial small grain and tuck mills existed on the 
 spot. It was in 1797 that the first large structure of ,the 
 kind was erected, when Mr. F. Jackson built the bleach 
 mill, which still stands, but which, unfortunately, is no 
 longer at work. The undertaking cost 7000, half of 
 which sum was spent in sinking the race to convey the 
 water from the river. With the mill he built a dwelling- 
 house, but residing only a short time in it himself, let it to 
 Mr. John, or, as the gentleman was commonly called, 
 " Jack " Taaffe, and after him to the Rev. Mr. Duke. 
 
 Jack Taaffe was a noted duellist, and is said to have 
 been always on the look out for an antagonist, so far as to 
 dock very short his horses' tails, and to cause his servant to 
 ride on a straw saddle, in hope that some gentleman would 
 laugh at these grotesque sights, and give occasion to 
 demand satisfaction. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Duke was none of your formal, straitlaced, 
 demure religionists ; but, while punctual in performing cleri- 
 cal duty, was genial and sociable, a capital shot, a first-rate 
 horseman, and so free, and familiar, and obliging in regard 
 to the humbler classes, that there was not a more popular 
 man in the county. Mr. Duke was very hospitable for his
 
 244 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 means, and though a magistrate, prided himself particularly 
 on the strength, and flavour, and age of his poteen. After 
 getting a supply from the maker, the parson had it always 
 re-distilled, in order to increase the strength of the spirit, a 
 custom which was nearly getting the reverend gentleman 
 into hot water. For while the men were one day engaged 
 in running the whiskey through the still, in an outhouse 
 which stood by the road side, the place took fire, and in a 
 twinkling, was all ablaze. Fortunately for Mr. Duke it 
 was a holiday, and the Catholics of the parish were 
 just returning from chapel when word of the fire was 
 brought them ; and on finding that their friend, the parson, 
 was in a difficulty, they all hastened to the scene of the 
 accident, and brought the flames under in a very short 
 time. The matter rested here, for there were no police in 
 those days, and the barony constables could not see such an 
 infraction of the law ; for, though lynx-eyed in regard to 
 the transgressions of the peasant, they were well known to 
 be stone-blind whenever a gentleman was concerned. Any- 
 how, the parson escaped all unpleasant consequences on 
 the occasion, to the great satisfaction of the people. 
 
 Nor was it in this circumstance alone that the people 
 stood by him : they showed their friendship in another 
 conjuncture, which was still more critical. The parson 
 was challenged to a duel by a notorious fire-eater, named 
 Fenton, and had the folly to accept the challenge. The 
 affair was to come off on a well-known trysting place near 
 the old abbey of Ballysadare, but the people formed them- 
 selves into a "Vigilance Committee" to guard their 
 favourite, and swore they would take Fenton's life if that 
 bully dared to show himself ; and owing to this aspect of 
 affairs, and perhaps to the interposition of friends, the 
 matter went no further. Previously to this the Rev. Mr. 
 Duke had actually exchanged shots with a Mr. Holmes in 
 a duel that came off in Lishrontagh, Cloonamahon. That
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 245 
 
 it was not so extraordinary a thing in those days as one 
 might imagine at present, for clergymen to figure in affairs 
 of honour, is clear not only from this instance, but from 
 several others that might he cited, such as that of Rev. Mr. 
 Gethin, who fought a duel about the same time with Mr. 
 Harloe Phibbs, in Magheraboy, near Sligo. There have 
 been some bellicose ecclesiastics in all ,ages and all 
 churches. 
 
 The late Mr. Andrew Kelly was next owner of Camphill. 
 He and a Mr. Ballantyne rented the place from Mr. Jackson 
 for three years, beginning in 1814, at the expiration of 
 which term Mr. Kelly bought Mr. Jackson's interest for 
 3000 ; * and so profitable was the bleaching business at 
 the time, that Mr. Kelly's profits, during the three years 
 that he was tenant, amounted to more than the purchase- 
 money paid for the concern. After getting the bleach 
 mill into his own hands, Mr. Kelly worked it very ener- 
 getically, turning out sometimes 8000 pieces of linen in the 
 year, about 5000 of which were sent in, for the most part 
 in single pieces, by country farmers, the remaining 3000 
 being prepared for the Dublin and English markets by 
 himself and some large dealers, the chief of whom were 
 Mr. Everard, Sligo ; Mr. Guilfoyle, Sligo ; Mr. M'Carrick, 
 Coolaney ; and Mr. Middleton, near Coolaney. 
 
 The staff of bleachers was forty ; ordinary bleachers 
 receiving lOd. per day ; grass- men, lid. ; and engine-men, 
 Is. With these, Mr. Kelly employed twenty labourers 
 on his land, so that his full staff amounted to sixty hands. 
 The quantity of turf consumed in the mill exceeded fifty 
 hundred annually, which came all from Carrickbanaghan, 
 and was delivered at the mill for 4d. a barrel, hardly a third 
 of what turf would now cost. It is in this way that Carrick- 
 
 * Mr. Jackson was obliged to sell by pressure from Mr. Abraham 
 Martin, Sligo, to whose sister he was married.
 
 246 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 banaghan, which was all a soft bog sixty years ago, was 
 rendered fit for tillage, but at the loss of its fine supply of 
 fuel. 
 
 While Mr. Kelly owned Camphill money circulated 
 abundantly in the neighbourhood ; weavers, bleachers, 
 labourers having it constantly in their hands. This gen- 
 tleman's profits were very considerable 2,000 a year or 
 thereabouts, half of which came from the farmers' pieces, 
 and the rest from his own linens and those of the dealers. 
 But in the height of prosperity he fell suddenly into 
 pecuniary embarrassment, brought on by having incurred 
 liabilities for a friend. Though he had expended large 
 sums on buildings 3000 on the corn-mill in Camphill, 
 and 8000 on that which Mr. Sim now occupies Mr. Kelly 
 had still money and credit, when the friend in question 
 failed for a large amount, and involved in his ruin the 
 owner of Camphill. 
 
 As a consequence of the failure Mr. Kelly's property was 
 seized for the debt, and himself was obliged to quit Camp- 
 hill, as was also his eldest son, who had given promise of 
 becoming one of the most influential men in the county. 
 Gifted with a high order of talent and considerable natural 
 eloquence; full of health and energy; fertile in mental 
 resources ; a protege of Lord Mulgrave, who visited Camp- 
 hill in his celebrated tour when Lord Lieutenant ; a 
 favourite with O'Connell, and the idol of the humbler 
 classes, William Kelly had a combination of circumstances 
 in his favour which would certainly have led to place and 
 position, were the young man's steadiness on a par with 
 these other advantages. Unfortunately, William Kelly 
 lacked somehow the quality that would enable one to avail 
 oneself of those fine opportunities, and, in consequence, 
 derived no permanent benefit from them. From the time 
 of leaving Camphill Mr. Kelly led an erratic and adven- 
 turous life, visiting the chief regions of the earth, and 
 showing undoubted talent in recording his experience and
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 247 
 
 observations (some would say the creations of his fancy) in 
 several interesting and lively volumes.* 
 
 Mr. Sim purchased Camphill in 1839, and went to reside 
 there immediately after getting possession. From the day 
 of the sale a large majority of the inhabitants of the neigh- 
 bourhood were dissatisfied, and threatened to make Camp- 
 hill too hot for the purchaser ; but that gentleman cared 
 little for their threats, and proceeded at once to make large 
 additions to the dwelling-house. When told that the 
 people were resolved to sell him no oats, Mr. Sim gave 
 little heed, thinking that, with the characteristic fickleness 
 of the Irish, they would soon give in, and determined him- 
 self to hold on, with the proverbial tenacity of the Scotch- 
 man, to the good place just secured. But when the buying 
 season arrived, and Mr. Sim found no grain could be got, 
 whatever price was offered, he began to grow uneasy ; and 
 the news coming in from all sides increased this anxiety ; 
 for it made it clear that a formidable conspiracy existed 
 throughout the County Sligo, with ramifications in Leitrim, 
 Roscomrnon, and Mayo, that had for its object to prevent 
 all business transactions with him while holding Camphill 
 from the Kellys. The leaguers managed the plot with 
 great tact and audacity, and convinced the country, by 
 repeated examples, that no one could oppose them or even 
 speak in private against them with impunity. An instance 
 or two will show how alarmingly swift the penalty used to 
 follow the offence. 
 
 * Mr. Kelly is buried in Boulogne, where he was married, and resided 
 for several years. His tomb, which is a handsome one, bears the inscrip- 
 tion : 
 
 A. Perpetuite 
 
 Of your Charity 
 
 Pray for the Soul of 
 
 William Kelly Esq. 
 Who died at Boulogne Sur Mer 
 
 4th March 1872 
 
 Fortified by the Rites of 
 
 the Holy Catholic Church.
 
 248 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 A Boyle carman, tempted by the high price, sold Mr. 
 Sim a cart of oats, and congratulated himself on peculiar 
 good fortune after getting safe through Collooney on the 
 return journey. As this man moved along a little beyond 
 Tubberscanavin, and was passing on the road a wretched 
 cripple, who seemed scarce able to set one foot before 
 another, the poor boccagh asked for a " lift." Being in 
 good humour, the driver of the cart halted and helped the 
 disabled creature to a seat, but they had not advanced far 
 together when the pretended cripple jumped up with the 
 agility of a lamplighter, drew forth a concealed weapon, 
 and beat the unsuspecting carman till the wretch was left 
 covered with wounds, and half dead. 
 
 Another instance : an inhabitant of the neighbourhood 
 condemned, in an evening conversation at his own fireside, 
 the opposition to Mr. Sim. Next morning a blind beggarman 
 groped along into this man's house, and after receiving an 
 alms, begged to be set on the road to the next village. The 
 almsgiver proceeded to do as desired, but the sturdy beggar 
 had scarce crossed the threshold when he turned suddenly 
 on the guide, and reminding him of the conversation of the 
 previous evening, belaboured him so mercilessly, that the 
 unfortunate man had to be carried back to the house. 
 
 And a number were as liable to come to grief as an indivi- 
 dual, if they took the unpopular side ; and this, whether they 
 were in the parish or scores of miles away from it. Mr. Sim 
 succeeded, one way or another, in purchasing a large quan- 
 tity of corn at Carrick-on-Shannon, and dispatched to take 
 it home so many carts and carmen that there was no 
 apprehension of an attack on so formidable a caravan ; but 
 as the carriers were returning with the grain, they had not 
 made a mile of the journey when they were set upon, over- 
 powered, severely beaten, their horses abused, the harness 
 cut into pieces, the carts broken up, and the oats scattered 
 to the fowls of the air. And the perpetrators of all these 
 outrages could not be traced, dropping down, as it were,
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 249 
 
 from the clouds, or rising up from under the earth, and 
 disappearing as rapidly and mysteriously as they had come 
 upon the scene. 
 
 There was little use in contending against an enemy so 
 ubiquitous, and withal so invisible. The police, the local 
 gentry, and the Castle authorities left nothing untried to 
 stop the evil ; but constabulary, gentry, and government, 
 were all foiled by the village strategists of Collooney. Mr. 
 Sim, too, bore himself with tact and courage all through 
 the campaign. Escorted sometimes by the police, some- 
 times unescorted, that gentleman moved actively about, 
 seeking to break up the organization, and to find out its 
 authors and abettors. His efforts, however, were as ineffec- 
 tual as those of the authorities, and do what he would, the 
 movement progressed, while the great water-wheels of the 
 mills stood idle, and their magnificent machinery was 
 being devoured by rust. Seeing then no chance of success 
 in the conflict, and chafing at being debarred from business, 
 which with a man of such sagacity and talents was sure to 
 lead to fortune, he resolved to give up the contest and yield 
 to the desires of the people. Negotiations were entered upon 
 with him, through the Rev. Michael Flynn, Catholic curate 
 of the parish, and offers were made with the result that Camp- 
 hill passed by sale back again into the hands of Mr. Kelly,* 
 and after a few months, into those of Mr. James Madden Mr. 
 Kelly's brother-in-law. In a year or so Mr. Madden made 
 over the property to his eldest son, Mr. M. J. Madden, who 
 still owns it, though he has recently removed from Camphill 
 House, which his taste and outlay had made one of the 
 most commodious and best appointed residences in the 
 county, and settled down at Bray, greatly to the regret and 
 disappointment of old neighbours, who under all the cir- 
 cumstances of the case, expected to have some member of 
 
 * Mr. Sim received the purchase-money he had himself paid, together 
 with 1000 for improvements, both items amounting to 6000.
 
 250 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 the family permanently among them.* Mrs. Madden is 
 greatly missed in the neighbourhood, where her example 
 was a constant incentive to everything good, but her 
 absence is more especially felt by the poor, to whom, by 
 her advice and her alms, she was always a guide, a bene- 
 factor, and a friend. 
 
 * Between purchase, and the erection of new buildings on it after the 
 purchase, Camphill cost Mr. James Madden 17,000. 
 
 In a conversation with the writer, Mr. Sim has given the following 
 version of his difference with the Messrs. Kelly : Mr. Sim took the 
 Collooney mills from William and Andrew Kelly, under lease for 50 years, 
 at 500 per year, the term running from 1838. "When the Agricultural 
 Bank failed, Camphill was among its assets, the bank having advanced 
 money on the security of that property. The place was advertised tor 
 sale, and Mr. Sim went to old Andrew Kelly, and said, " How are you 
 now to secure me in the guarantee you gave of not allowing additional 
 opposition?" " The only way to act," replied Mr. Kelly, "is to buy 
 the property yourself, which the Provincial Bank will sell for 4500, 
 and let us now go and see Mr. Webster, the manager." Accordingly, 
 they went to the Provincial Bank, but the manager refused to transmit 
 any proposal for purchase without a deposit of 1000. Mr. Sim deposited 
 the money, was declared the purchaser, and [was put in possession of 
 Camphill. After the taking of possession, but before the deeds were 
 completed, Mr. Kelly said to him, "Now that you have succeeded, I 
 expect a consideration of .300 for my trouble." "No," rejoined the 
 other, " nor 300 pence." The war then arose, and lasted for seven months, 
 after which Father Michael Flynn came to Mr. Sim, and said, "Oh, thia 
 thing has gone too far, and what do you mean to do ?" In reply Mr- 
 Sim informed the priest that if he got the purchase-money and payment 
 for his improvements, he would give up Camphill. Father Flynn went 
 to Sligo, had an interview with the Messrs. Madden, Mr. Kelly's 
 brothers-in-law, and got the money for Mr. Sim, so that the affair was 
 completed. On leaving Mr. Sim received 6000, Sir John Benson 
 valuing the improvements at 1000.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 251 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BELTRA. 
 
 CROSSING now over the Ox Mountains we find in the north- 
 west angle of the parish the Strand of Beltra, called some- 
 times, in Irish annals, Traigh an cairn,* sometimes Traigh 
 Bos Airgid ; f but most commonly Traigh Eothaile or 
 Traigh Eothaile Mac an-tsaoir, a name that signifies, 
 according to one opinion, the Strand of Eochy ; according 
 to another, the Strand of the Yew tree wood ; and accord- 
 to a third, the Strand of Eothaile, a man of that name. 
 This spot, which is full of interesting associations, comes 
 first under the notice of the historical student in connection 
 with the battle of Moytura of Cong, " one of the earliest 
 battles recorded in our history, and almost the earliest 
 event upon the record of which we may place some 
 reliance." This great engagement took place in the year 
 
 * 0' Flaherty' s Ogygia, vol. ii, page 18 (Hely's translation). 
 
 t O'Donovan's Four Masters, anno 1249. Ros Airgid signifies the silver 
 wood, a name given, no doubt, in reference to the silver mine that the 
 district of the wood contains. It is so called by Duald Mac Firbis, who 
 lived within a few miles of it ; " The Strand of Ros Airgid, which is 
 called Traigh Eothuile in this Tireragh in which we are." Lib. Cental. 
 page 8, as quoted by John 0' Donovan in his Four Masters, sub anno 
 1282, note. 
 
 % This is the opinion of Mr. Wm. M. Hennessy. It seems also to be 
 according to analogy, for we find the Strand at Dundalk called Trayh 
 Hhaile, i. e., says John O'Donovan, " the Strand of Baile, son of Buan, 
 one of the Tuatha de Danaan colony." See O'Donovan's edition of the 
 Four Masters, rol. iv, sub anno 1392, note. 
 
 O'Curry Manuscript Materials, etc., 243. In this place O'Curry 
 describes in considerable detail the circumstances of the battle, but the 
 following are the paragraphs that concern us here : 
 
 " The battle took place on Midsummer-day. The Firbolgs were de- 
 feated with great slaughter, and their king (who left the field with a
 
 252 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 of the world 3303, or, according to O'Flaherty, in 2737, 
 between the Tuatha de Danaans and the Firbolgs, and in 
 it 100,000 of the latter, who were defeated, are said to have 
 fallen. During the contest, which lasted four days, Eochy, 
 King of the Firbolgs, retired from the battle field with 100 
 brave men, and as soon as he was missed the Tuatha de 
 Danaans sent the three sons of Nemedh Cesarb, Luamh, 
 and Luachra at the head of a body of troops, after him, 
 
 body-guard of a hundred brave men, in search of water to allay his 
 burning thirst) was followed by a party of a hundred and fifty men, led 
 by the three sons of Nemedh, who pursued him all the way to the strand 
 called Traigh Eothaite (near Ballysadare, in the County of Sligo). Here 
 a fierce combat ensued between the parties, in which King Eochaidh fell, 
 as well as the leaders on the other side, the three sons of Nemedh. 
 
 " The sons of Nemedh were buried at the west end of the Strand, at a 
 place called Leca Meic Nemedh, or the Grave Stones of the sons of 
 Nemedh ; and King Eochaidh was buried where he fell in the Strand, and 
 the great heap of stones known to this day as the Carn of Traigh Eothaile 
 (and which vvas formerly accounted one of the wonders of Ireland), was 
 raised over him by the victors." 
 
 The battle of which there is here question was that of Moytura (Magh 
 Tuireadh] of Cong, and took place, according to the Four Masters, in 
 3303; but the battle of the other Moytura the Moytura of the Fomo- 
 rians was fought in 3330, the field lying in our own county, in the 
 barony of Tirerrill, and being surrounded, says O' Curry, " by high hills, 
 rocks, and narrow defiles." The latter Moytura is supposed to be iden- 
 tical with the Magh Slecht of the Vita Tripartita, where Saint Patrick 
 demolished Crom-cruach and his twelve satellites. 
 
 Some of the people living near the Strand have an odd notion of the 
 person they believe to have been buried under the famous cairn, or cairns, 
 for there were two of them. It was, they think, a giantess of the east, 
 who, having lost all her kindred in her own country, and having heard 
 that a giant, named Finn-ma- Cumhal, lived in Coillte Leyney, in Ireland, 
 made the journey from the rising to the setting sun to meet and marry 
 Finn. In crossing Ballysadare bay, where, it is said, the water hardly 
 reached her ankles, and seeing, as she neared Coillte Leyney, the so- 
 called giant, who was little more than an average specimen of humanity, 
 she was so disappointed, and took the disappointment so much to heart, 
 as to fall down dead on the spot. The Irish raised two cairns in 
 honour of the poor foreigner, one at her head the larger one and a 
 smaller at her feet, the two being about two hundred yards distance 
 asunder, from which space one gets a fair idea of this lady's stature.
 
 PARISH OF BALLTXSADARE. 253 
 
 but the brothers did not come up with the object of their 
 pursuit till they reached the Strand, where the conflict was 
 renewed and the combatants fought with such fury that 
 the three princes were killed on one side, and King Eochy 
 on the other. Cesarb, Luamh, and Luachra were buried 
 near the shore where they fell, probably in the spot where 
 the cromlec now stands, a little to the east of the avenue 
 that leads to Mr. Verschoyle's residence ; while Eochy was 
 interred in the Strand, where a earn, that existed down to 
 1858, and was counted one of the " Wonders of Ireland," 
 " Mirabilia Hibcrnice" was raised over the remains. 
 
 These wonders, as has been stated already (page 225), 
 are described by Nennius, Giraldus Cambrensis, the Book 
 of Ballymote, and O'Flaherty in his Ogygia ; but these 
 authorities differ as to the number and order of the Mira- 
 bilia ; the Book of Ballymote reckoning thirty-four, while 
 O'Flaherty reduces them to thirteen ; all, however, agree- 
 ing that there were two of the " wonders " in the parish 
 of Ballysadare ; namely, the earn under consideration and 
 Tullaghan well. In the Book of Ballymote the earn won- 
 der is the seventh, and is thus described : " the earn of the 
 strand of Eothail. It is not the less seen when the tide is 
 full than when it is at a low ebb, and notwithstanding that 
 the tide rises over the large rocks on the beach around it." * 
 O'Flaherty thus describes it : 
 
 " On Eothail's shore, in Sligo's wide domain, f 
 
 I" th' centre of th' beach a ridge of rocks is seen, 
 Whose top has scarce the ebbing tide over- stood, 
 And yet its summit stems the refluent flood. 
 
 Hely's Ogygia, (Dublin, 1793,) page 176. 
 
 Taking this standing miracle for granted, the old writers 
 proceed to account for it ; and accordingly we learn from 
 the Libellus de Matribus Sanctorum in the Book of Leinster, 
 that the saints of the family of Dalbronach met in synod at 
 
 * Nennius, p. 199, Archaeological Society's edition.
 
 254 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 this earn ; that they made there a covenant of perpetual 
 amity, and prophesied that the earn would never he covered 
 by the sea till the whole of Tireragh was submerged. The 
 following is the statement of the Libellus : " And all these 
 saints met in a synod at the earn of Traigh Eothaile, and 
 they made a covenant of union, and they said of whosoever 
 shall break that union on earth, that his soul shall not 
 reach heaven, and he shall not recover his station on earth. 
 And as for this earn at which we have met, the sea shall 
 never cover it until it overflows the surface of Tireragh." 
 And Bishop Maine said : 
 
 " Whosoever shall dissolve the union of our saints, 
 Whether he he degenerate, or whether lie be mad, 
 Shall not inherit the firm earth, 
 His soul shall not reach to heaven." * 
 
 Traigh Eothaile is mentioned in the Tripartite Life of 
 Saint Patrick. "We are there told that the saint was at a 
 place called Dumha-graldh, which, though not exactly 
 identified, seems to be somewhere in the present County 
 of Roscommon ; and, while there in the midst of a large 
 crowd, he cried out : " Bronus, and Olcan, and my foster 
 son, Mac Ere, are this moment passing through Traigh 
 Eothaile, on their way to me, and are quite panic-struck by 
 the noise and rush of the breakers that the winds are lash- 
 ing around them." f Jocelin, in the 110th chapter of his 
 
 * Irish Version of Nennius, edited for the Irish Archaeological Society 
 by Dr. Todd. See page 198, where the learned editor quotes the original 
 Irish from the Book of Leinster, fol. 239, b. col. 4; MS. Trin. Coll., 
 H. 2, 18. 
 
 f Vita Tripartite Pars Secunda, c. xlii. Mr. W. M. Hennessy 
 translates this passage as follows: "When Patrick was at Dumha- 
 graidh ordaining the great multitude he smiled. ' What is that ?' asked 
 Benen. ' Bron, and the monk Olcan,' said Patrick, ' who came towards 
 me along Traig-Eothaili, and my foster son, Mac Erca, with them ; a 
 wave of the sea made a great dash, and tried to carry off the youth.' "- 
 Tripartite Life of Saint Patrick in the Life of Saint Patrick : by M. F. 
 Cusack, p. 403.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 255 
 
 Life of Saint Patrick, manifestly alludes to the same in- 
 cident, though without naming the place. His words are : 
 " On another occasion the same brethren, in order to visit 
 Saint Patrick, undertook a long journey on foot through an 
 immense Strand. And as they proceeded, the tide suddenly 
 surrounded them. But Saint Patrick, informed from above 
 of their danger, prayed for them, and commanded the sea 
 to retire, and leave his children free to prosecute their 
 journey. The sea forthwith obeyed the man of God, when 
 the travellers, full of joy, and praising God, came to Patrick, 
 and by their account of the miracle, filled the hearts of all 
 who heard them with thanks to God who works such 
 wonders in His saints." 
 
 Saint Columba also is associated with our recollections of 
 the Strand. After assisting at the convention of Drumceat, 
 and founding the church of Drumcliffe, this great saint 
 proceeded, as we saw already (page 2), to Ballysadare, 
 where " vast numbers of the saints of Ireland, and particu- 
 larly of the family of Cumne, had come to meet him." * 
 Here he was received with the greatest reverence and 
 affection, and was conducted in solemn procession across 
 the Strand to Tireragh, the processionists chanting hymns 
 and reciting prayers as they moved along. It must have 
 been on this occasion that the " synod " at the earn was 
 held, as we read of no other great assembly of saints or 
 ecclesiastics taking place on the Strand. 
 
 But Trait) h Eothaile has been more accustomed to the 
 visits of fighting laymen than to those of praying ecclesias- 
 tics. In imitation of Murtough of the Leathern Cloaks, 
 who, starting towards the middle of the preceding cen- 
 tury (941) from the palace of Ailech, at the head of 1000 
 men, had made the circuit of the island, and taken hostages 
 from all the royal houses on the march, Brian Boru 
 intended to make a similar round and to reduce the 
 
 * Colgan, Ada Sanct., in Vita Sancti Farannan.
 
 256 PAK1SH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Northern Monarch to subjection. Setting out with the face 
 to the north, and keeping the sea to the left, he met with 
 little obstruction or opposition till he had reached the 
 Strand. Here, however, he learned that the Northern 
 King had come to meet him ; that he commanded vastly 
 superior forces ; and that they were very advantageously 
 posted beyond the heights of Ballysadare, and through the 
 districts of Coolera and Carbury. As it was certain defeat 
 to move forward, Brian resolved to defer to another occa- 
 sion the designs on the North ; ordered, for the first time 
 in life, a retreat from before the enemy; and returned with- 
 out the spoils and the trophies which it was his custom to 
 carry to Kincora. 
 
 In 1012 Flaherty O'Neill, with the Cinel -Eoghain, 
 invaded the territory of O'Donnell, and drove the Cinel- 
 Conaill before them till they reached the Strand, where 
 they made a stand, but were defeated, losing Mulrony 
 O'JVleldora, chief of their clan. Hostilities took place again 
 at the foot of the famous earn in 1249, but this time be- 
 tween the Irish and their English invaders. We read in 
 the Annals of the Four Masters that Pierce Power, David 
 Drew, and a number of others assisted the Berminghams, 
 who then occupied Tireragh,* to attack the castle of Sligo. 
 O'Connor disdained to await the attack within walls, but 
 coming out to meet them, gave them a severe defeat, slay- 
 ing Poer, Drew, and many others ; and after providing 
 Christian burial at Ballysadare for the slain, he hastened 
 after the enemies, chased them across the Strand, ravaged 
 their territory from Beltra to the Moy, and returned in 
 triumph, laden with the rich booty of Tireragh. Meanwhile 
 
 * See pages 8, 9, 10. The Annals of the Four Masters, sub anno 1249, 
 say : " As to the son of Felim, he proceeded after this to Tircragh, and 
 through Mac Feorais's country, which he entirely plundered from the 
 Moy to Traiffh Eothaile-an-tsaoir ," a region that comprises all Tireragh. 
 
 In a note under the same year John O'Donovan, in speaking of the 
 " preys " taken by MacMaurice from O'Connor, observes, that they were 
 " driven away from Tireragh, then in the possession of the BermiiighaiKs."
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 257 
 
 Garrett Bermingham got together considerable troops, with 
 which, in turn, he pursued O'Connor, and coming up with 
 the rear of the enemy's forces before they got into Sligo, 
 wounded and captured the brave Donough, the son of 
 Manus O'Connor, and lodged him in the stronghold of 
 Donaghintrain, in the present parish of Templeboy. 
 O'Connor, hearing what had happened, lost not a moment 
 in flying to the rescue, and breaking open the fortress, car- 
 ried Donough back to Sligo, who, however, soon died there 
 of his wounds, to the great grief and loss of his country. 
 The next remarkable event on the Strand, of which we 
 have any record, was the killing of Taichleach O'Dowda, 
 Lord of Tireragh, by Adam Cusack. 
 
 The place on which Tahelly fell was called after him 
 Beal-atha-Tailtigh (the mouth of Tahelly's ford), which is 
 probably the spot where the stream that divides the parishes 
 of Ballysadare and Dromard falls into the Strand. Adam, 
 however, failed to root his family in Tireragh, and in 1285 
 three years after the death of Tahelly was defeated at 
 Ballysadare by Manus O'Connor ; and being on this occa- 
 sion followed into the field by the English of West Con- 
 naught, and all the members of his own family, the defeat 
 was so disastrous that we hear little more after this of the 
 Cusacks in connection with this part of Ireland. 
 
 Though the Strand does not appear to have been the 
 scene of any considerable engagement after this date, its 
 sands were often pressed by the feet of hostile forces pre- 
 paring for, or hastening to the battle field. In 1476 
 Mac William Burke led a great army to Lower Connaught, 
 and pitched his tents in Coillte Luighne (the woods of 
 Leyney), on the southern border of the Strand, and O'Don- 
 nell, hastening from the North to oppose him, halted his 
 army in Cuil-Cnamha, which, unless the respective troops 
 of Burke and O'Donnell crossed each other, must be the 
 place now called Streamstown, though O'Donovan, in his 
 edition of the Annals, takes it to be part of the parish of
 
 258 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 Dromard.* This time, however, there was no actual con- 
 flict, and after some threatening and manoeuvring, the 
 chiefs made peace and a new division of territory, which 
 gave the Strand, as well as a portion of Carbury, to Burke. 
 A greater O'Donnell, the greatest, probably, of the gallant 
 race of the Cinnel-Conaill, the "dauntless Red Hugh," 
 visited Traigh Eothaile towards the end of 1595. It was 
 on the occasion of a hosting to Yar Connaught (Western 
 Connaught), the fourth he conducted there that single 
 year. On the three preceding expeditions he traversed the 
 centre of the province ; but as Sir Richard Bingham and 
 the English were guarding the passes of Tirerrill and the 
 Curlews, O'Donnell, who had skill as well as dash, turned 
 to the north of the Ox Mountains, and marched across the 
 
 * John O'Donovan, in his Four Masters, sub anno 1468, as also in his 
 Ily Fiachrach, p. 265-424, does not allow Cuil Cnamha to extend eastward 
 beyond the parish of Dromard, but it would seem to include the Strand, 
 and other portions of Ballysadare parish. The entry of the Four Masters 
 under 1476 goes to prove this ; for, as Coillte Luighne, where the Burkes 
 encamped, is in the parish of Balljsadare, Cuil Cnamha, in .which 
 O'Donnell and MacDonogh took up position, must lie to the east or north- 
 east of Coillte Luighne, and, consequently, in Ballysadare district, unless 
 we suppose the two armies to have crossed each other, and thus cut off 
 retreat to their respective territories. In supporting his view Mr. 
 O'Donovan identifies Traigh Eothaile with Fearsat Finntragh, but in this 
 he is certainly in error, as the latter lies to the east of the Strand, and 
 stretches from Abbey town to Coolerra, where there is still a ' ' flat ' ' or 
 " fearsat" that was much used till a man named O'Donoghue lost his life 
 in crossing it, about fifty years ago, and where the Strand of the " flat " 
 is sometimes called the White Strand. 
 
 The following lines, translated from the Irish in Lord Roden's copy of 
 Duald M'Firbis, p. 45, seem conclusive on the subject : 
 
 Cuil Cnairih, the land where lies 
 
 Eochy, the son of Ere, the son of Rionnail. 
 
 The name will live for ever 
 
 From the bones of Eochy of red arms. 
 
 (O'Donovan's translation.) 
 
 Eochy's earn, raised over his bones, is in the parish of Ballysadare, and 
 consequently Cuil Cnamh (the corner of the bones), so called from con- 
 taining these bones, must be in the same parish.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 259 
 
 Strand ; and Sir Richard, though vigilant as valiant, knew 
 nothing of the passage of the Northern troops till they had 
 already reached their destination. 
 
 The year 1597 hrought Hugh Roe a second time to the 
 Strand. O'Connor Sligo was at the head of a considerable 
 body of English and Irish troops, and feeling naturally 
 anxious to recover the capital of his territory resolved to 
 march on the town of Sligo. O'Donnell happened to be 
 in Calry when he learned O'Connor's resolution, and, eager 
 for the fray, hastened to meet his adversary, but the latter 
 retreated, and got clear away from the Northern chief, 
 excepting a few in the rear, who were overtaken at Traigh 
 Eothaile. These were wounded or drowned; "and the son 
 of Mac William Burke, namely : the son of Richard, son 
 of Oliver, son of John, and many others not enumerated 
 were slain." * 
 
 But the Strand witnessed other scenes besides war and 
 blood. It has always been a favourite place of amusement ; 
 and a so-called patron was held there during a long period 
 on the last Sunday of summer. These patrons had usually 
 a religious origin. They were held in general on the 
 anniversary of saints, and were composed, at first, merely 
 of the pious persons who had come to pass part of a stated 
 day at a holy well, or on the site of some old church con- 
 nected with a favourite saint. In the course of time the 
 idle, the curious, and the lovers of pleasure came to the 
 rendezvous ; and while the devout occupied themselves, as 
 before, with religion, the new comers gave themselves up 
 to amusement and creature comforts. As usual the supply 
 answered the demand. Races, games, shows, dances, 
 music, eatables, and drinkables, were soon forthcoming to 
 meet the different tastes ; and as poteen was then in great 
 abundance, and was commonly sold for three or four pence 
 the pint, there were sure to be numerous cases of drunken- 
 
 * See Annals of the Four Masters for this and the preceding statements.
 
 260 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 ness during the day ; while the evening generally closed in 
 scenes of quarrelling and other disorders. In this way 
 these pious pilgrimages were ahused and perverted by the 
 passions of men, and what was in the beginning a blessing 
 and help to piety, became a nuisance and a scandal. 
 
 It would seem, however, that the so-called patron of the 
 Strand had its origin in Druidism and not in Christianity. 
 This meeting was a continuation of that which had been 
 held, time out of mind, on the hill of Tullaghan on the 
 south side of the Ox Mountains, where there is a well that 
 was famous in the days of the Druids. There is a species 
 of tradition in the parish that Saint Patrick produced this 
 well, but it is an ascertained historical fact, that it existed, 
 and was regarded as one of the " Wonders of Ireland" 
 centuries before Saint Patrick set foot in our island. 
 Around this well the patron was annually held until it 
 was removed, near the close of the last century, down 
 to the Strand. The opinion is, that it was removed on 
 account of the displeasure and denunciations of the 
 Catholic clergy, who were pained by the abuses and 
 excesses of the meeting, but it is likely that those who 
 managed the transfer were more anxious to evade the 
 civil than the ecclesiastical authorities, who were far from 
 formidable at that time ; and as the Act of Parliament 
 (2 Anne, cap. 6, sect. 7) imposed a fine of 10s., or in 
 default of payment, a whipping upon every person " who 
 should attend or be present at any pilgrimage or meeting 
 held at any holy well or reputed holy well," as also " a 
 fine of 20, and imprisonment until payment, upon every 
 person who should build a booth or sell ale, victuals, or 
 other commodities at such pilgrimage or meeting, " the 
 people, like O'Connell afterwards, drove a coach and six 
 through an Act of Parliament by substituting the famous 
 Strand of old Eochy for the " reputed holy well of Tul- 
 laghan." The meeting flourished the more for taking 
 place on the beautiful Strand. Greater numbers attended,
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADAUE. 261 
 
 greater attractions were provided, and, unfortunately, 
 greater excesses were committed. The priests of the 
 parish and of the neighbourhood left no effort untried to 
 put an end to these excesses, and, failing in that, to 
 abolish the meeting that produced them. 
 
 In 1826 the clergy exerted themselves more than on 
 any former occasion, but they laboured in vain, and, in 
 spite of all their preachings and supplications, the patron 
 of that year was the most numerous and probably the most 
 unruly ever held. The day, too, was fine beyond precedent, 
 which gave occasion to some of the clever ones to say that 
 Providence, who favoured them with such delightful 
 weather, was not on the side of the priests. The time 
 passed fast and pleasantly, and though it was already 
 evening, no one thought of quitting the delightful spot. 
 The tents were chokeful of guzzlers ; itinerant dealers sold 
 out their poteen and gingerbread as fast as they could 
 receive the price ; dancing circles whirled here and there 
 around pipers and fiddlers ; ballad singers, unused as yet 
 to the stirring patriotic productions of the modern national 
 muse, drawled out their doleful ditties on highway robbery 
 and murder; mountebanks, sleight-of-hand men, and card- 
 sharpers performed their feats and tricks so as to engross 
 the attention of the gaping rustic, while their accomplices, 
 the pickpockets, plied the practised finger in his pockets ; 
 drunken men staggered and shouted, and nourished their 
 shillelaghs ; excited men moved about in knots and groups 
 preparing for the fight of the night, which to them seemed 
 the most interesting part of the patron ; and, in a word, 
 the whole Strand was a scene of riot and revelling, and a 
 very Babel of noises, when, on a sudden, a pitch dark 
 cloud overspread the sky, to which all eyes Vere in- 
 stinctively directed. 
 
 On the instant the heavens shot forth a sheet of vivid 
 lightning, which stopped, as if by machinery, all the move- 
 ments and noise of that immense gathering, and of all its
 
 262 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 parts. There ensued a moment of doubt and anxiety as 
 to whether the storm should continue, but when the 
 lightning flashed forth again and again with constantly 
 increasing force and brilliancy, and peal after peal of 
 deepening thunder echoed and rolled between Slieve Gamh 
 and Knocknarea, seeming to shake the very earth, and 
 to rattle the bones of the Firbolg king and the Tuatha 
 de Danaan princes under the superincumbent earns, a 
 panic seized on the stoutest hearted, men and women 
 crossed themselves, individuals dropped on their knees 
 here and there in prayer, the sneerers felt that after all 
 the cause of the priests looked like the cause of Provi- 
 dence, and all promised in their hearts, if they should 
 be spared this time, that nothing on earth should ever 
 induce them to attend the forbidden patron again. 
 
 The crowds dispersed as rapidly as they could, and so 
 anxious was everyone for his personal safety, that tents, 
 standings, and goods of all kinds were abandoned by their 
 owners. All hurried to places of shelter, and in a few 
 moments the houses and out-houses of the villages sur- 
 rounding or near the Strand, were filled to overflowing 
 by panting and almost frantic fugitives, so that great 
 numbers had to pass on from sheer want of standing 
 room under a roof of any kind. Meantime the storm 
 raged without intermission, or rather with ever renewed 
 fury. To the thunder and lightning were added torrents 
 of rain, that surpassed anything the people had ever 
 before witnessed or imagined ; and there is no doubt that 
 many, who witnessed the awful scene, were fully con- 
 vinced that they had reached the end of their lives, and 
 were on the eve of the consummation of all things. 
 
 The tornado lasted all through the night, and it was 
 only about daybreak on the following morning that the 
 thunder and lightning and down-pour of rain ceased, 
 when the people ventured, still in fear and trembling, 
 out of the lurking places in which they had passed the
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 263 
 
 most frightful night of their lives, and moved silently 
 along to their houses in a frame of mind very diiferent 
 from that in which they had quitted them the preceding 
 day. The patron was never since revived ; and thus was 
 brought to a close, by what seemed to the people a direct 
 interposition of Providence, a celebrated festive meeting 
 which, partly on the Strand, but principally on Tullaghan 
 hill, had been annually held for probably more than 
 2000 years, which had often brought with it disorders 
 and bloodshed, and which had survived the most strenuous 
 efforts to suppress it both of Church and State. This 
 night forms an epoch for the people of Tireragh, Tirerril, 
 and Leyney ; and they calculate their age and other events 
 by reference to the " night of the big thunder," in the 
 same way as they do by reference to the "year of the 
 French." 
 
 The next transaction, and the last that shall be mentioned 
 in connexion with Traigh Eothaile, is the defeat of the 
 PENNY BOYS. 
 
 This is the name imposed, at the time, on those who 
 took an engagement to curtail, or, in reality, to abolish the 
 fees usually given to priests in this country on the occasion 
 of performing certain acts of their ministry. According to 
 the new tariff the fee of marriage should be 2s. 6d., and 
 that for baptism Id., from which fee of Id. was derived 
 the name of the new leaguers ; and on the income thus 
 realised, the priest was desired to keep body and soul 
 together, to maintain his usual social position, and to find 
 the alms with which he has to relieve the cases of distress 
 that he is constantly encountering. Illegal societies show 
 often little sympathy with the clergy, in Ireland as well as 
 elsewhere. As the Church condemns and opposes these 
 associations, they in turn cut off the supplies, probably with 
 the object of starving her into compliance with their 
 wishes. 
 
 This pressure was applied vigorously, towards the end of
 
 264 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 the last century,' and in more recent years; but passing 
 over these instances, which were little felt in this part of 
 Ireland, the Thrashers and Penny Soys did their best to 
 popularise what may be called the screw principle in eccle- 
 siastical finance. The Thrashers were guilty of such excesses 
 that a special commission was opened at Sligo, in Decem- 
 ber, 1806, to try some of them who had been arrested ; 
 and the following extract from the Attorney-General's 
 speech on the occasion will give an idea of their views as 
 to the payment of the priests : " I cannot pass by another 
 part of these associations: I mean their attack upon the 
 priests. I meddle not with religious rites ; I mean the 
 attack which is made upon the support derived from the 
 voluntary bounty which the members of the Roman 
 Catholic persuasion have been in the habit of giving to 
 the ministers of their religion for celebrating the rites 
 of that religion. It is not that they say that they will 
 not pay, for there is no law to compel them to pay. But 
 they proclaim this, that no man who chooses to do so shall 
 dare to pay his priests their fees. For what purpose are 
 these fees given ? They are given to obtain the rites of 
 their religion ; they flow from a sense of religion ; they 
 flow from voluntary bounty ; they are enforced by no com- 
 pulsion, the unfortunate men who receive them are armed 
 with no law for their support ; and yet these associations 
 are formed. To do what ? To rob the priest of his bene- 
 dictions and prayers. Do these men, besmeared with 
 blood and covered with crimes, imagine that the ceremonies 
 of religion, which are plundered from their clergy can 
 give them a passport to a better world ? I cannot help 
 feeling and deploring that this view of the subject suggests 
 an apprehension, that the devisors of this plan could have 
 had nothing less in their contemplation than eradicating 
 from the minds of those upon whom they could operate, all 
 sense of religion." 
 
 These misguided men, after smearing the face with soot,
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 265 
 
 and putting a white shirt over their ordinary clothes, 
 proceeded at night to the house of the person they had a 
 design upon, and causing this person to get out of bed, 
 mangled the poor man's naked back with a card, unless he 
 cleared himself to their satisfaction from the alleged offence 
 of being too liberal to the priest or parson; for the 
 minister of one religion was as obnoxious as the minister 
 of the other to the impartial Thrasher, as an instance or 
 two will serve to show : The late Tom Quigly, of Rath- 
 narrow, who having been recently married in Ballymote, 
 had given a guinea to the parish priest, the Rev. Mr. 
 O'Grady, instead of the pittance prescribed in the tariff 
 of the Thrashers, was forced from bed to be " carded," a few 
 nights after the marriage ; but, on casting all the blame of 
 the forbidden payment on the Eev. Mr. O'Grady, who, it 
 seems, had insisted on the regular fee, the Thrashers let 
 Tom off that time, after, however, stipulating that he 
 should go immediately to Ballymote, claim the balance 
 from the priest, and threaten the reverend gentleman 
 with the vengeance of the association unless he restored 
 forthwith the money. Poor Tom did as directed ; but Mr. 
 O'Grady met the threat conveyed to him only by sending 
 back an invitation to the Thrashers to come, if they had 
 the spirit, and demand the money themselves. It is hardly 
 necessary to add that this polite invitation was declined ; 
 for Father O'Grady was not a man to be trifled with. 
 
 About the same time members of this society met one 
 night at Lugawarry, near the spot on which the school- 
 house now stands, for the purpose of taking to task a man 
 who had purchased from the parson some oats distrained 
 for tithe ; but as Colonel Irwin had been apprised by an 
 informer of the intended meeting, and had set yeomen in 
 ambush for the occasion, the Thrashers fell blindly into 
 the trap that the informer and the officers of the law had 
 laid. When the Thrashers were assembled on the crest of 
 the hill, the colonel well muffled and disguised, rode up
 
 266 PARISH OF BALLYSADAKE. 
 
 and requested a free passage across the mountain, saying 
 he was "blind Bartley from Sligo," a well-known mer- 
 chant whose business used to bring him often that way. 
 The request was granted ; but Colonel Irwin pretending to 
 be frightened by the presence of so many strangers, asked, 
 in guarantee of safety, the hand and word of one of the 
 party ; and when a tall powerful man, named Jack Killer- 
 lean stretched forward his hand, it was grasped and held 
 with such force that in the attempt to extricate it, he 
 unhorsed the soi disant Bartley, and engaged in a struggle 
 with the fallen man when on the ground. At this moment 
 the yeomen (by orders, according to one account, and with- 
 out orders, according to another) fired on the Thrashers, 
 hitting at least two of them, Jack Cassidy and Tom Kil- 
 martin, who with Killerlean, were captured, the others 
 escaping through the ravines of the mountain. Unfor- 
 tunate Cassidy soon died of his wounds, while Killerlean 
 and Kilmartin were tried at the Special Commission in 
 Sligo, and having been as a matter of course convicted, 
 were sentenced to be flogged through the streets of that 
 town a sentence that was carried out with even more 
 than the usual brutality of the times. 
 
 The Penny Boys were probably well acquainted with 
 the principles of the Thrashers when they started on a 
 new crusade in 1843. Pennyboyism took its rise in the 
 parish of Caracastle, in the County Mayo, under circum- 
 stances which it is not necessary to enter into here. The 
 zealous folk of that parish, like other fanatics, did not 
 think it enough to enjoy their religious system them- 
 selves, but felt a call to communicate its benefits to others. 
 Imitating the Mahometans, who spread abroad the doctrine 
 of the Prophet, with the Koran in one hand and the 
 sword in the other, the Caracastle Penny Boys, after 
 summoning the inhabitants of the next parish to meet 
 them on a certain day, on the mearing of the two parishes 
 proceeded on that day to the rendezvous, with a form of
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 267 
 
 oath, in the left hand, and a blackthorn stick in the right, 
 and swore those they met to two things : first, to observe 
 the new tariff in all dealings with the clergy ; and, 
 secondly, to administer in due time the oath of the con- 
 federation to the inhabitants of the adjoining parish. 
 In this way the league was extended from parish to 
 parish, and from diocese to diocese, till it took in con- 
 siderable portions of the dioceses of Achonry and Killala, 
 and of the Counties of Sligo and Mayo. Meantime the 
 clergy were inactive or tried their influence in vain, and 
 the well-disposed of their flocks were first bullied into the 
 taking of the oath, and then impelled by ignorant and 
 superstitious scruples to carry out its engagements. 
 
 The enemies of the Church chuckled over the movement 
 and felt the warmest wishes for its success ; and it is - said 
 that several magistrates, unlike the officers of the law in 
 the time of the Thrashers, gave it, underhand, all the 
 help they could. Seeing its great progress, and that it 
 only acquired fresh, force and volume as it proceeded, 
 they flattered themselves that nothing could stop it, 
 and that it was sure to sweep irresistibly over the 
 whole island. But they calculated without taking into 
 account the burning zeal and strong arm of the parish of 
 Ballysadare. The people of this parish have been always 
 remarkable for attachment to their clergy ; and from the 
 moment they first heard of the crusade, their minds were 
 embittered against its authors. When it was told how 
 outrageously these misguided men acted, and how there 
 was little or no resistance offered to them elsewhere, the 
 young fellows of Collooney and Ballysadare were indig- 
 nant at the poltroonery, and desired above all things that 
 the innovators should try the parish of Ballysadare in 
 their rounds. The wish was soon gratified. The Penny 
 Boys sent a message that they would " swear in" the parish, 
 of Ballysadare on a given day, the 7th of February, 1843. 
 They had heard of the reception they were likely to meet
 
 268 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 with, but taking courage from the past, and relying on the 
 connivance, at least, of the public authorities, as well as on 
 the apathy and cowardice hitherto exhibited by the friends 
 of the Church, they only made merry at all attempt at 
 opposition. If no obstacle could hold the Penny Boys 
 when they were only a handful at Caracastle, what could 
 they now fear after traversing twenty parishes and asso- 
 ciating a hundred thousand members to the confederation ? 
 After crossing the Ox Mountains and descending on 
 Ardnarea, the invaders turned to the right, keeping the 
 sea on the left, and seemingly bent, like Brian Boru, 
 to make the circuit of the island ; a resolution they might 
 have carried into effect, had not the Strand proved as 
 disastrous to them as to the Munster Monarch. 
 
 On they came to the trysting place at Traigh Eothaile, 
 the mearing of the parishes of Dromard and Ballysadare, 
 advancing in immense force by roads and lanes, as if 
 Tireragh had sent forth all its inhabitants to cow, by mere 
 numbers, the contumacious parishioners of Ballysadare. 
 These brave men were not daunted but delighted at the 
 prospect of meeting the adversaries. Eager for the fray, 
 they reached the head of the Strand before the Penny 
 Boys, and took position there, firmly resolved to hurl 
 back this new invasion of ignorance and irreligion, if it 
 were a thousand times as powerful as it boasted to be. 
 
 All classes were there mill men from the Camphill 
 bleach and corn mills; masons, carpenters, stonecutters, 
 poolers from Collooney and Ballysadare, which were then 
 flourishing little colonies of tradesmen ; shopkeepers and 
 dealers, who had shut up their concerns in order to have a 
 share in the dangers and glories of the day ; agricultural 
 labourers from all parts of the parish, determined on doing 
 as good a day's work with the shillelagh as they had ever 
 put in with the loy ; and farmers and sons of farmers, after 
 suspending the pressing labours of the Spring, to show that 
 they felt the same interest as their neighbours in the events
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 269 
 
 about to happen. Nor were all these a mere mob without 
 leaders, for four or five young gentlemen of position placed 
 themselves on horseback at their head, as well for the purpose 
 of keeping an eye on certain magistrates with well- known 
 Penny Boy proclivities, as of trying to save the people from 
 the fury of the overwhelming forces of the other side. 
 
 Both parties were now face to face, ready for the con- 
 flict, and equally resolved the Tireragh people to force 
 the way into Ballysadare territory, and impose the oath, 
 and the others to prevent the invasion, and to punish it, 
 if attempted. At this critical moment the Rev. Peter 
 Doudican, the parish priest of Dromard, rode in between 
 the lines, and turning himself to the invaders, implored of 
 them to abandon the design of going forward, and, what- 
 ever they might do in his own parish, to spare the district 
 of Ballysadare, which belonged to a different diocese. But 
 those he addressed were deaf as adders to the appeal, 
 and, instead of being softened by his touching remarks, 
 only became more excited ; and one coarse, colossal fellow, 
 who acted as leader, and stood a little in advance, unable 
 to restrain his brutal passion, struck the pony on which the 
 priest rode a heavy blow. This was the last drop in the 
 cup of provocation to the other side, and in the twinkling 
 of an eye a Ballysadare tradesman, still living, stretched 
 this huge hulk this Goliah of the Philistines at full length 
 on the ground by a skilful blow, calling out, at the same 
 moment, to his comrades " First fall, boys ! Forward 
 and at them ! " 
 
 In an instant the Penny Boys were in rapid motion all 
 along the line, but it was not in the direction of the Strand. 
 Notwithstanding all the braggadocio, they no sooner saw 
 the leader taken off his feet than, instead of rushing to the 
 rescue, they took ignobly to their heels to save themselves 
 from a similar fate. The others started in pursuit, and, to 
 the credit of Collooney and Ballysadare be it said, made 
 no fc use of sticks or other arms on coming up with the
 
 270 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 fugitives, but were satisfied with administering what the 
 French call a coup de pied, which generally inflicts less 
 injury than disgrace. The Penny Boys, however, were in 
 no frame of mind to resent this indignity ; nor did they 
 stop to take breath until they had put miles between them- 
 selves and the pursuers. It is fortunate that the runaways 
 showed such aversion to fight ; for, had they tried to carry 
 out their design, and penetrate into the parish of Ballysa- 
 dare, the Strand would have been once more stained with 
 blood ; but their cowardice stood them in good stead ; and 
 contempt or some better feeling saved the filibusters from 
 the sound thrashing that was in store for them. A heated 
 partisan here and there grumbled that the poltroons were 
 getting off so easily, but zealots were restrained by the 
 advice and remonstrance of the mounted leaders ; and 
 Father Peter Doudican and Father Dominick O'Connor of 
 Collooney, who had watched all the movements of the day, 
 coming up and throwing their influence as is usual with 
 the clergy on the side of peace and charity, induced the 
 victors to desist from further pursuit, and to retire quietly 
 across the Strand to their respective homes. Such was the 
 " rise and fall " of the Penny Boys. In their rout some 
 were heard to threaten that they would come back to the 
 charge, but it is hardly necessary to observe, that the bravos 
 never showed their faces again ; and report says, they were 
 so much ashamed and sorry for ever belonging to so dis- 
 reputable an association that they proved their sincerity 
 by doubling, from that day forward, their offerings to the 
 clergy. 
 
 This is the last event of any public interest that occurred 
 on the famous Strand, nor is it likely ever again to be 
 graced or cursed with the " pomp and circumstance of 
 glorious war." It is but illsuited at present to military 
 movements. The great rampart, erected in 1858 by the 
 Messrs. Buoy, in shutting out the sea was the means of 
 transferring a large part of Traigh Eothaile from Mars and
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 271 
 
 Neptune to the peaceful Ceres. Nearly half the Strand is 
 confined within the mound ; and few spots in Ireland have 
 undergone such a change within the memory of man as 
 this tract. The island, round which vessels of considerable 
 size used to sail, is now as much a part of the mainland as 
 the neighbouring mountains. Sheep and cattle move 
 about and graze on the former haunts of the salmon and 
 the herring ; labourers dig up with the spade fine potatoes 
 out of the sand, from which, a few years ago, fish cadgers 
 scraped cockles and other shell fish ; and in the place of 
 the breakers that formerly rolled on from the bar to the 
 shore, you may now see, at the season, luxuriant corn and 
 meadow fields rise and bend in graceful undulations under 
 the wind. Old Eochy must miss badly the lullaby which 
 the waves had been performing over his resting place for 
 three thousand years. The warriors and saints of ancient 
 days would be sadly puzzled to recognise this portion of 
 the strand under its altered aspect. If Bronus and Olcan 
 were now to traverse the passage which they crossed four- 
 teen hundred years ago, the new rampart would save them 
 from the fury of the sea as effectually as formerly the 
 prayers of Saint Patrick. And if the Celt and Saxon, who 
 in the past contended for the mastery, were again to come 
 on earth and visit Traigh Eothaile with their old bellicose 
 tastes and habits, they should choose another field of 
 trial in their contests, if they were not softened into a more 
 gentle mood by the genius of the place, and induced to turn 
 their swords into ploughshares. 
 
 At the same time it may be doubted whether these 
 alterations have been, on the whole, a public benefit or 
 otherwise. While two or three rich men have certainly 
 gained by the change ; and somewhat more beef and mut- 
 ton is now sent into the market than formerly, several poor 
 persons, on the other hand, have suffered, and these com- 
 plain bitterly that they can no longer, to use their own. 
 expressive language, " take their living out of the sea."
 
 272 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 One word, before closing, on the scenery of the place. 
 Apart from its historic associations Traigh Eothaile de- 
 serves a visit for its very picturesqueness. Taken in con- 
 nection with the surrounding and neighbouring objects 
 it supplies a view which it would be difficult to surpass ; 
 but to take in all its beauties one must look at it from the 
 highest point of the road that crosses the Ox Mountains 
 on a tranquil summer's evening, when the tide is full in, 
 and about the hour of sunset. The man who ascends the 
 Ox Mountains on the Coolany side, and reaches the summit 
 under these conditions, finds spread out before him a view, 
 which, if he has taste, he can never forget at his feet, 
 Traigh Eothaile lying tranquilly, like an inland lake, 
 within grassy slopes and banks ; straight opposite on the 
 other side of the water, the majestic hill of Knocknarea, so 
 curiously outlined and smoothed as to suggest the idea of 
 some mysterious machinery having been employed in 
 fashioning it the crescent- shaped northern shore of Sligo 
 bay from Ballincar to Roughley and the famous plain of 
 Magherow (Hibernice Magh Eabha), (including the beauti- 
 ful demense of Lisadell), filled with associations of Conal 
 Gulban, the great ancestor of the O'Donnells ; on the west, 
 the fine barony of Tireragh, containing some of the richest 
 and greenest land in Ireland, diversified with handsome 
 country seats, and skirted by the sea stretching away to 
 the distant horizon ; on the east, the Ballysadare river, 
 Union Wood, Slieve-da-en, Benbulbin, Glencar and the 
 Leitrim mountains; and, on one side or the other, land and 
 sea, wood and water, hill and dale and sylvan glen, 
 majestic mountain and placid valley, stately mansion and 
 lowly cottage, 
 
 " Russet lawns and fallows gray, 
 Where the nibbling flocks do stray," 
 
 and such a range and variety of objects as make up the 
 noble prospect, and render Traigh Eothaile one of the most
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 273 
 
 picturesque localities in Ireland, as it certainly is one of 
 the most historic. * 
 
 * " Traigh Eothaile, which is a very famous locality in Irish history, is 
 a largo and beautiful Strand at the mouth, of the Ballysadare river, in the 
 barony of Tireragh, and County of Sligo." Tribes and Customs of Hy- 
 Fiachrach : by John O'Donovan. Mr. O'Donovan is in error when he says 
 that the Strand is in the barony of Tireragh, as it belongs to the barony 
 of Leyney. 
 
 It may be mentioned here that the late Sir William Wilde calls this 
 Strand Tracuchullin (Cuchullin's Strand) in his account of Beranger's 
 Labours, etc., in the Kilkenny A.rch(BologicalJournal, vol. xi, p. 142. And 
 in the same place Beranger himself supposes the famous cairn to be the 
 tomb of Cuchullin, for he writes, " Stopped to draw a plan and view of 
 Cuchullin's tomb, a circle of stones twenty-seven feet in diameter, but 
 much covered by the sand which the waves carry on it." 
 
 This supposition of Beranger is quite opposed not only to local tradi- 
 tion, but to the Annals of the Four Masters ; but though the cairn was 
 not Cuchullin's, it is not the less likely that this great hero of Ossian or 
 MacPherson performed some of his feats on the Strand, as " the tales 
 respecting Cuchullin's battles have placed them in this neighbourhood, 
 and between that and the Ford of Sods on the Boyle' water." Sir W. 
 Wilde, ubi supra.
 
 274 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LOILLTE LUIGHNE, ETC. 
 
 To the south of Traigh Eothaile is Coillte Luighne,* com- 
 prising, in depth, the slope of the Ox Mountains from the 
 summit to the Strand ; and in length, stretching, according 
 to the common account, from the western boundary of the 
 parish to the stream of Ballinamuc ; f but, according to 
 others, from Cashel Tullaghan to the same stream. This 
 district, which at present contains the quarters of Larkhill, 
 Knockacullion, Mullinashee, and LugnedifFe, was formerly 
 famous for its Wood, as the name shows, and is mentioned 
 often in Irish annals, more especially in connection with 
 battles and other occurrences on the Strand. At present 
 the wood has disappeared, though there is brushwood here 
 and there which would soon cover the mountain side again 
 only that it is confined and kept under by the tenants of 
 the place, who are constantly stubbing and clearing away 
 the roots to fit the soil for tillage or pasture. 
 
 The mountain side from Dromard to Ballysadare is a 
 very pretty bit of landscape : the clumps and strips of 
 variegated brushwood alternating with stretches of clear 
 land, kept singularly green and fresh by the exhalations of 
 Ballysadare bay ; while three or four bowl-shaped lakes or 
 lakelets add variety and beauty to the scene. The lakes, 
 though of small superficies, are said to be deep. Timber 
 must have formerly abounded on their banks, as specimens 
 are often dug up ; and that the trees were of good size and 
 
 * Coillte Luighne, i.e. The Woods of Leyney. 
 
 f This is the stream that divides the townland of Lugawany from that 
 of Lugnediffe.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 275 
 
 quality we may infer from the instance of a fir, found in 
 Coney lake about fifty years back, for which Mr. Abraham 
 Martin of Sligo offered fourteen guineas, with the view of 
 converting it into mill machinery ; and of which Mr. 
 M'Donnell of Ballysadare, who obtained it from the land- 
 lord, made two shafts of wheels and various other pieces 
 of gearing for the mills of Ballysadare. 
 
 This district was very populous in past times, judging 
 from the numerous raths and caves that one meets in it. 
 There is hardly a holding that does not contain one or 
 more of them ; some of the structures being very curious 
 and picturesque. In Larkhill, on the holding of Richard 
 Diery, there is a beautiful sod fort, with three lines of cir- 
 cumvallation, the innermost circle being ten yards in 
 diameter, the next thirty-two, and the outer one sixty. 
 The summit contains a cave ten or twelve feet long, and 
 four or five wide ; roofed with flags resting on sidewalls of 
 uncemented stones.* To the south-east of this, and in the 
 farm of John Gilgan, there is a fort still more remarkable, 
 called commonly Casiol Tullaghan. Casiol is the name 
 usually given to such forts as are surrounded by stones ; 
 the term, rath, being applied to those enclosed by sods ; 
 and as Tullaghan is encircled by two stone walls it has got 
 the name of Casiol. The inner wall is a Cyclopean struc- 
 ture, twelve feet, or thereabouts, thick, and built of immense 
 stones without mortar, but still compacted very closely and 
 solidly. The outer wall, which is of slighter proportions 
 and looser construction, is distant nine yards from the 
 other. The diameter of the circle within the inner en- 
 closure is twenty-six yards.f We have heard this fort 
 
 * " It is now well known that the majority of our raths and cashels 
 have within their internal areas, and beneath the surface, crypts con- 
 structed of masonry, on a variety of plans, and showing a variety of 
 arrangements of a curious and somewhat inexplicable character." Brash's 
 Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, page 144. 
 
 t Casiol Tullaghan, resembles Kulcashel or Culcashel, in the paiish of
 
 276 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 called on one occasion Casiol Kiltullagh, which would in- 
 dicate that it contained a church or burying ground, but 
 there is nothing in the place or in local tradition to con- 
 firm the indication. In this district stood, and, probably, 
 still stands, a remarkable fort, formerly called Lios 
 Ladhghuill, as we learn from the genealogical manuscript 
 of Duald M'Firbis, published by John O'Donovan, which 
 says : " O'Dunchadha of the tract extending from Coillte 
 Luighne to Seal atha na muice; Lios Ladhghuill is the 
 chief seat of the district." * And the same fort is men- 
 tioned in the celebrated poem of Griolla losa M'Firbis : 
 
 " Lis Ladhghaill, where the branch is purple, 
 The youth O'Muirghesa obtained 
 The head seat of the eastern district, 
 Where the corn-fields are quick of growth. 
 O'Dunchadha of the learned men obtained, 
 As far as the beauteous stream of the salmons. "t 
 
 O'Donovan observes, in a note on this poem : " Lis 
 Ladhghuill, which would be anglicised Lislyle, is now 
 forgotten, and the editor, after the most patient research 
 and correspondence, has not been able to fix its locality, 
 which he regrets exceedingly ; " and the writer has to add 
 that he has also failed to identify this interesting spot, even 
 after availing himself of all the advantages of his local 
 knowledge in numerous inquiries and searches.:}: 
 
 Between Casiol-Tullaghan and the Strand there is a small 
 hill or swell called Cruckawn a roghaun, that contains a 
 
 Kilmovee. The latter is 28 yards in diameter, and is better preserved than 
 Casiol Tullaghan. 
 
 * Tribes and customs of Hy-Fiachrach, page 173. 
 
 t Tribes and customs of Hy-Fiachrach, page 275. The "beauteous 
 stream of the salmons" is, of course, Ballysadare river. 
 
 \ Since this was written, the writer has made another visit to the district, 
 on which occasion he became satisfied that the fort or rath, now called 
 Lis-ard, is the one that went formerly by the name of Lis- Ladhghuill ; 
 but the reasons that brought him to this conclusion comprise too many 
 details to be stated here.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 277 
 
 large cave. Some tell you that this cave runs down to the 
 adjoining lake a distance of some hundred yards but 
 this is unlikely, though persons who have been in the pas- 
 sage say they followed it thirty or forty feet without seeing 
 any sign of their being near the end. The cave was used 
 for all the processes of distilling poteen before that branch 
 of business ceased in the parish. 
 
 A little to the east of the cruckawn is, or rather was, a 
 well, called Tubbermurro, where stations used to be per- 
 formed by the people of the neighbourhood. The well lay 
 in a hollow between two bushes, and the devotees made a 
 circuit on their knees round the bushes, attaching to one 
 or other of them, at the close of the exercise, a small strip 
 or scrap of cloth, in token, probably, of willingness to make 
 a more valuable offering if circumstances permitted or 
 required. Either by accident or design the water supply 
 was cut off and the well dried, about thirty years ago, by 
 persons quarrying close to Tubbermurro.* 
 
 In the townland of LuGAWARBY,f high up on the moun- 
 tain side, is one of those boulders or erratic blocks, which 
 are sometimes found in the most unlikely places ; where, 
 according to the more probable theory, they were deposited 
 by drift ice in the glacial period. The country people give 
 the name of dough scaulauber to the one under considera- 
 tion, and tell, that it was cast by a giant in ante-diluvian 
 times from Knocknarea across Ballysadare bay. This 
 Irish Titan had " power in his elbow ; " for one side of the 
 block, which is a kind of square, is nine feet high and ten 
 wide. The stone is manifestly of a different species from 
 those around it, and it is clear enough that it is of marine 
 formation, as small sea shells enter largely into its com- 
 
 * Tubbermurro signifies Mary's Well. 
 
 t The hollow of the bar, so called from lying near the bar or shoal of 
 sand in Ballysadare river.
 
 278 
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 position ; though it is covered with so thick a crust that it 
 is hard to tell the exact constituents. 
 
 But the most interesting object, natural or artificial, 
 between Ballysadare and Larkhill, is the old ruin called 
 Kildalough, or, as those who live in the neighbourhood 
 tautologically name it, Tempul Kildalough. All agree in 
 
 KILDALOUGH. 
 
 Drawn on the wood by Mr. Wakeman, from a Photograph by Mr. Edward Smith. 
 
 regarding this building as very ancient ; the neighbours 
 saying that Tempul Kildalough and Killaspugbrone are the 
 two churches " first prayed for in Rome," which seems to 
 mean that they are the two oldest churches in the country, 
 or at least, in this part of the country. "With the excep- 
 tion of this impression as to its great antiquity, the people 
 can tell next to nothing of Kildalough ; though we have 
 met one man who said it was a biatach, or religious house
 
 PARISH OF BALLY SAD ARE. 279 
 
 of entertainment ; and another, who called it Bishop 
 0' Daly's church ; while Father Walsh styles it a nunnery, 
 but on what authority we know not.* Two bishops of the 
 name of O'Daly sat in the see of Achonry : one, Nicholas 
 O'Daly, appointed the 3rd of September, 1436 ; and the 
 other, Dominick O'Daly, consecrated at Brussels, the 30th 
 of November, 1725 ; but neither of these could have built 
 Kildalough, as it is evidently ages older than either of 
 them ; though Nicholas may have lived near it, or repaired 
 it, or had some other relation to it, for which it got the 
 name of Kil-easpug- O'Daly, or Bishop O'Daly's church. 
 
 It occurs to us that Kildalough may be the religious house 
 to which Colgan refers in the Life of Saint Finian of Clon- 
 ard, and also in a note on that life. After telling in the text 
 of the life, how the saint had performed miracles in favour 
 of two brothers Moyses and Ainmire and how the 
 brothers, in gratitude, had devoted themselves and their 
 possessions to the service of Finian ; he adds these words 
 in a note : " In Hibernico habetur quod se et suam ecclesiam 
 seu monasterium de Drum-eder-da-loch, in Ibn Olilla, 
 hodie Tir Oillill, ei obtulerunt," which signify " In the 
 Irish it is said that they offered to the saint themselves 
 and their church or monastery of Drum-eder-da-loch, in 
 Ibn Olilla, or, as it is called at present, Tir Oillill." The 
 only objection to this conjecture lies in the mention of 
 Tir Oillill or Tirerrill, as Kildalough is not now in the 
 barony of Tirerrill, but in that of Leyney ; but this objec- 
 
 * Ecclesiastical History of Ireland : by Rev. Thomas Walsh, page 642. 
 Father Walsh's words are : " Near the beach or the banks of the Strand 
 are the ruins of an ancient monastic building, which was a nunnery of 
 the same order, to wit, Canonesses of Saint Augustine, and named Kil- 
 daloch." 
 
 In the Hearthmoney Eeturns for 1662 there is mention of a " Killin- 
 briely," which, as it is placed between " Carrownageeragh " and "Cor- 
 hawnagh," would seem to be what is now called Kildalough for 
 Kildalough occupies precisely the situation assigned in the Returns to 
 Killinbriely.
 
 280 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 tion is of no great weight ; for, in the first place, if Kilda- 
 lough is not in Tirerrill it is on the confines, within about 
 a mile of it near enough to be taken as part of it ; and, in 
 the second place, though the tract between the Strand and 
 Ballysadare belongs at present to the barony of Leyney, 
 old people, when they mention " Leyney " and " Coillte 
 Leyney," never include this spot, but mean by " Leyney " 
 the district to the south of Slieve Gamh ; and, by " Coillte 
 JLeyney," only so much of the mountain side as lies 
 between Lugawarry and Dromard. Indeed this tract 
 would seem to have been a kind of unsettled border ter- 
 ritory, belonging, at one time, to Tireragh ; at another, to 
 Tirerrill ; and later, to Leyney.* 
 
 This objection removed, we may consider Kildalough and 
 Drum- eder- da-loch as identical, the two names meaning 
 substantially the same thing. If there be any difference, 
 the difference makes for the present view, for drum- eder -da- 
 loch " the ridge between the two lakes " describes with 
 more nicety than does Kildalough, " the church between 
 the two lakes," the exact situation of the ruin, lying, as 
 it does, on the ridge of land that stretches between the two 
 Streamstown lakes. It may help to sustain this supposed 
 identity of Kildalough and Drum-eder-da-loch, that in the 
 very next paragraph of Colgan to that in which the pro- 
 ceeding of Drum-eder-da-loch is described, we find Finian 
 establishing a church at Achonry, which is in the same 
 diocese as Kildalough, and only eight miles distant from 
 it ; as if the saint, after parting from Moyses and Ainmire, 
 crossed Slieve Gamh and founded the new church. And 
 additional confirmation may be derived from the fact, that 
 in the Down Survey the district of Kildalough is called 
 
 * It is some confirmation of the opinion put forward, that Beaufort, 
 who was an extremely painstaking man, and lived so recently, places, in 
 his map, the old church of Ballysadare in the barony of Tirerrill, though, 
 as every one knows, it stands in Leyney Wm. Shaw Mason's Statistical 
 Survey of Ireland, vol. ii, page 29.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 281 
 
 Drum-derg, showing that the place was then known as a 
 drum or ridge, even after the rest of the denomination, 
 eder -da-loch , had become obsolete from the whole being too 
 long and cumbrous for popular use. 
 
 The western gable of the building has fallen, as well as 
 the greater part of the northern sidewall. The exterior 
 length of the house was forty-three feet, the exterior width 
 twenty-three feet, and the height of sidewall nine feet six 
 inches. The east window is three feet high, the open to 
 the outside seeming to have been only four inches, but with 
 a splay to the inside of five or six feet. This window is 
 square headed, being covered with two flags, each six or 
 seven feet long, and lying joined to each other in the thick- 
 ness of the wall, the inner one projecting a foot or so be- 
 yond the inside face of wall. Four feet six inches from 
 eastern gable, there is in the south sidewall a small 
 square-headed window, four inches wide to outside, but 
 splayed interiorly to three feet ; the open being formed on 
 the outside by three sand stones, two on one side and one 
 on the other. The walls* are four feet thick, formed of 
 
 * Most of the ancient wall sections that I have examined show that the 
 mode of construction adopted was as follows : " The facing stones were 
 dressed and laid, both beds and joints, in tolerably fine mortar; a grout 
 was then prepared of hot lime, sand, and gravel, and the heart of the 
 wall was filled with it ; stones of various sizes were then packed into the 
 grouting a treatment exactly similar to the concrete building lately 
 revived ; in fact the walls of our ancient churches may be called com- 
 pound walls of masonry and concrete. The stones are usually laid in 
 horizontal courses, with more or less irregularity, and wrth their joints 
 not always vertical except in the doorways and lower courses ; the stones 
 rarely extend as bonds through the thickness of the walls the space 
 between them being filled with rubble, and small stones, and thin grout- 
 ing." Brash's Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, page 162. 
 
 This is a correct description of the kind of masonry found in Kil-eder-da- 
 loch, and also in the old church buildings at Ballysadare. And another 
 observation Brash makes is also exemplified in the old church of Ballysa- 
 dare ; it is as follows : "One remarkable feature in our early work is 
 the custom which prevailed of what I would call interlocking, for want 
 of a more technical term. The old workmen, when they had a good
 
 282 PARISH OFBALLYSADARE. 
 
 very large stones, and well joined by grout and mortar, so 
 that the building has the marks of great antiquity upon it. 
 
 It is the opinion of the neighbourhood that the posses- 
 sion of the property on which Kildalough stands Abbey- 
 town and Streamstown bodes no good to those who may 
 hold it. This opinion too has found its way into print, for 
 we read in Eeverend T. Walsh's Ecclesiastical History of 
 Ireland: "Those possessions have frequently changed 
 hands ; they are now [1855] the property of a Catholic, 
 who purchased them about thirteen years ago, and on 
 whom they do not seem to confer either comfort or pros- 
 perity." At the suppression, Elizabeth leased them to 
 Bryan Fitzwilliams ; from him they passed by grant to the 
 Croftons of Moate ; from the Croftons to the Montgo- 
 merys ; from the Montgomery s to the M'Manuses doctor 
 and captain who purchased them in 1842 ; and, in the 
 year 1870, Abbey town was purchased in the Landed 
 Estates Court by Mr. Middleton, Ballysadare, and 
 Streamstown by Mr. Sim, Collooney. At each successive 
 transfer the estate was brought under the control of the 
 law courts, and remained so for years, thus distracting the 
 tenants' minds, and preventing farm improvement, which 
 very rarely takes place whenever tenure is uncertain. 
 
 It were probably better for the brothers M'Manus had 
 they never bought this property, as it certainly would have 
 been for the tenants. The moment the doctor and 
 captain were declared purchasers, they disquieted the 
 tenants by giving out that the rents should be forthwith 
 
 sized block in hand, having irregular corners, instead of reducing the 
 face to a square or rectangle, notched out the defective parts into regular 
 angles, and fitted the next stones into them ; they appear to have done 
 this from an objection to reduce the size of the material. This descrip- 
 tion of masonry will be found generally in our primitive churches, and in 
 the basement storeys of our round towers. The masonry of our Lady's 
 Church at Glendalough, is of a massive character, the stones large and 
 well jointed, and in some instances cut one into the other." Idem, 
 page 153.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 283 
 
 raised, as the purchase- money was very high. A more 
 preposterous reason for a rise of rent could not well be put 
 forward; for, if ambitious nobodies (novi homines) think 
 well of giving an exorbitant price for land, in order to have 
 themselves ranked among landed proprietors, that, assu- 
 redly, is no just cause why the tenant should have to pay 
 for the social elevation of the new landlord. By all means, 
 let aspiring misers become landlords if they will, only let 
 them pay, themselves, for the distinction, and not lay addi- 
 tional burdens, in consequence, on others who, if the truth 
 were known, feel rather hurt than honoured by having 
 such men over them. If public opinion once tolerated the 
 principle advanced by the M'Manuses, we should soon 
 have in Ireland scenes like those that most disgraced the 
 United States before the late war ; and as, in the South, 
 inhuman slave dealers outbid all others at slave auctions, 
 being resolved to exact from the slave an amount of work 
 which no humane man could think of, so also unfeeling land 
 jobbers would distance all decent competitors in the Landed 
 Estates Court, being determined to wring purchase-money 
 and profit out of the sweat and blood of their wretched 
 serfs. This is strong language, but not a whit too strong 
 for the state of things contemplated, nor, perhaps, for the 
 actual state of facts on some properties, where the so-called 
 tenant cannot keep a shoe to his foot, or a coat to his back, 
 or secure always a sufficient meal, even of the coarsest food. 
 The Streamstown and Abbeytown tenants, seeing the kind 
 of landlords they had now to deal with, decided to relin- 
 quish their holdings. It cost the poor men almost a death- 
 pang to quit for ever the places where they were born, and 
 their fathers before them ; but, with a spirit that all must 
 honour, they preferred even this sacrifice to living slaves 
 and paupers, though nominally tenants, under taskmasters 
 whom they both feared and despised. This, it is said, is 
 what the M'Manuses most desired ; and yet, when that 
 " par nobile fratrum " got the land into their own hands,
 
 284 PARISH OF BALIA'SADARE. 
 
 and stocked it with cattle and sheep, they fared so ill as 
 graziers, that they were glad after sometime, or at least 
 the survivor of them, the captain, was glad to let the 
 greater part of it to tenants again. 
 
 But whether with or without tenants, the M'Manuses 
 were equally miserable. They dwelt in a long shed-like 
 structure, which was erected originally for a cowhouse, and 
 which was generally surrounded by a moat of sludge, that 
 it was a very difficult and delicate matter to pass. This 
 squalid den they shared freely with pigs and fowl, though 
 the poor were kept at a distance by one or two horrible 
 mastiffs, that were so trained as to be able to scent a beg- 
 gar while still miles away. Their bedroom, which did 
 duty for parlour, sitting room, and rent office as well, had 
 an earthen floor full of holes ; and, for furniture, contained 
 two or three old chairs, a coarse deal table, and a rustic 
 four-posted bedstead, which, in the season, was sure to be 
 furnished, in the space between the mattress and the 
 ground, with two or three hatching geese. It was in this 
 wretched stye that the landlords of Streamstown and 
 Abbeytown passed their days and nights ; avoiding their 
 fellow-men, and avoided by them ; strangers to the com- 
 forts and decencies of life ; living on the plainest and 
 cheapest fare ; and deeming a rasher of bacon and a tum- 
 bler of whiskey punch as the ne plus ultra of high living 
 as delicacies and luxuries to which one may not aspire 
 except on very rare occasions. Far be it from the writer, 
 in these remarks, to seek to cast odium or ridicule on the 
 memory of those mistaken men, who were rather to be 
 pitied than blamed ; though they were themselves always 
 blaming and despising the rest of mankind for not follow- 
 ing their own example. If mention is made of their infatua- 
 tion in half-starving themselves while owners of landed 
 property worth 20,000, it is only for the purpose of call- 
 ing to mind, that tenants are sometimes liable to troubles 
 little thought on ; that they need protection from eccentric
 
 PARISH OF RALLYSADARE. 
 
 285 
 
 as well as from overreaching and tyrannical proprietors ; 
 and that those who turned the back on Doctor and Captain 
 M'Manus were, if they acted justly in other respects, to 
 be praised, rather than censured, as they sometimes have 
 been, for putting the Atlantic between themselves and such 
 un amiable landlords. 
 
 As the district we have been considering reaches to 
 Ballysadare, the point from which we set out, we have now 
 completed our itinerary of the parish, and, it is hoped, in 
 such a way that no object or topic of interest belonging to 
 
 PBOTESTANT CHURCH OF COLLOONEY. 
 
 Drawn by Mr. Wakeman, from a Photograph by Mr. Slater. 
 
 the place, and falling within the scope of our narrative, has 
 been left unnoticed. And, in bidding farewell to Ballysadare, 
 it may be observed, that since we left it we have met no spot 
 that surpasses it in interest, though we have been visiting, 
 meantime, some of the most remarkable places in the
 
 286 
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 county : Collooney with its picturesque scenery, its ruined 
 Celtic castles,* and its imposing series of churches, from 
 that of Shrah Phadruic to the Church of the Assumption 
 and the Protestant church; Markrea, with its stately 
 modern castle, its famous observatory, its extensive demesne, 
 
 MAEKREA CASTLE. 
 
 Drawn by Mr. Wakeman, from a Photograph by Mr. Slater. 
 
 and its distinguished owners ; Cloonamahon reminding one 
 respectively of the dark and the sunny side of bygone times, 
 in the eviction of Bishop Hart and the songs of Carolan and 
 O'Connellan ; Carrickbanaghan carrying back the thoughts 
 to days before Heber and Heremon touched the shores of 
 
 * See page 63. "Do the inhabitants of Leyney remember that 
 Colooney was anciently called Cul Maoile ? Do they remember that one 
 
 of the three first castles erected in Connaught was built at Colooney ? " 
 
 Letter of John O'Donovan, dated February 14, 1836, and addressed to 
 Thomas O'Connor found in Ordnance Survey Letter Book of County 
 Sligo.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 287 
 
 Ireland ; Billa sanctified by the footsteps and ennobled by 
 the birth of Saints Nathy and Fechin; and Tullaghan, 
 Beltra, and Coillte Leyney, with their Mirabilia Hibernice, 
 their scenes of history and fable, and their traditions of a 
 hundred battles, from that of Eochy and the sons of Nemedh 
 in A.M. 2737, to that of the Penny Boys, A.D. 1843. 
 
 Tempul Mor Fechin on the hill * is the oldest building in 
 the parish, even taking into account those that have long 
 since fallen into ruins, and in some of its parts (for its work 
 is of different ages f ) is probably the oldest mortared struc- 
 ture in the county, while the site is inferior to nothing in 
 Ireland, whether we consider its natural beauty or its pecu- 
 liar suitableness for a religious house with the peaks of 
 the neighbouring mountains constantly turning the thoughts 
 of its inmates heavenward; the Owenmore, in its rapid flow, 
 telling them of the flight of that precious time that is to be 
 redeemed (Ephes. c. 5, v. 16; Colos. c. 4, v. 5), and the 
 sea, as it receives and engulphs the waters at the fall, sup- 
 plying a lively image and memento of that eternity in 
 which they themselves are soon to be absorbed. 
 
 * The oldest epitaphs in the graveyard were given in a preceding 
 page (p. 29), and others are now added, some from the interior, and some 
 from the outside of this old church. See for epitaphs at the end of this 
 chapter. 
 
 f It was a common practice formerly, in building churches, to incorpo- 
 rate with the new building portions of older churches, when they existed 
 on the site. Brash's Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, pages 38, 40, 
 67, etc. 
 
 Brash gives an instance of this in the Church of Aghadoe, of which he 
 writes: "There appear to be three dates of masonry in this structure. 
 The north-west corner, partly on the west gable, and partly on the 
 north-west wall, appears to have belonged to a primitive church, portions 
 of the walls of which had been preserved and incorporated with a later 
 building. The masonry of this portion was composed of large blocks of 
 stone, of irregular forms, filled with occasional spawls. The rest of the 
 west end, for a length of 35 feet or thereabouts, appears to have been a re- 
 construction of the twelfth century, being built of smaller but more regular 
 masonry. The eastern end is thirteenth century work, the masonry rude 
 rubble, the stones small." Page 104.
 
 288 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 
 
 With such surroundings even a casual visitor of the 
 place cannot fail to be impressed, and the impression is sure 
 to deepen into lively emotion if he lingers for a little while 
 over the memories of the scene, and calls to mind that 
 great saints and heroes are associated with it ; that 
 Columba and Fechin preached and ministered around it ; 
 that Brian Boru, John De Courcy, Maurice Fitzgerald, the 
 O'HarasandBerminghams, the O'Connors and O'Donnells, 
 contended there for the mastery ; that a succession of 300 
 monks continued for several centuries to dispense from it 
 " the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion ; " 
 and that the dust of forty generations of his fellow-men 
 repose in the sacred spot, awaiting the trumpet of the 
 Resurrection. 
 
 Here lieth the body of 
 
 James Simpson who departed 
 
 this life the 6 of March 1795, 
 
 Aged 68 years erected by his 
 
 wife Isabella Simpson. 
 
 Sacred to the memory of 
 Mrs. Bridget Simpson alias Powell of 
 Ballisodare who departed this life on 
 the 28th of August, 1832 Aged 71 years 
 Who lost her life of a dreadful attack 
 of Epidemic Cholera and her 
 Regard for an Aged and infirm Hus- 
 band who now deeply laments her 
 loss in common with her three sons 
 This stone is erected by her son Adam 
 Surgeon in his Majesty's Royal Navy as 
 a testimony of his filial regard and esteem. 
 
 Underneath this stone 
 
 Lyeth inter 'd the body of 
 
 John Mitchell who departed 
 
 This life the 20th December 1771 
 
 Aged 53 years.
 
 PARISH OF BAIXYSADAKE. 289 
 
 Here are deposited 
 
 the remains of 
 
 John Hamilton of Knockbeg 
 
 who departed this life 
 
 26th of May 1819 
 Also his wife Eleanor Hamilton 
 
 alias Hudson 
 who died on the 3rd of January 1852 
 
 aged 65 years 
 
 Mary J Hamilton 
 
 died April loth 1859 aged 34 years. 
 
 Sacred 
 to the memory of 
 
 Jane Young 
 Who departed this life May 10th 1859 
 
 aged 22 years 
 Erected by her father Wm. Young. 
 
 Lord have mercy on the soul of 
 
 John Downs who departed this 
 
 life the 19th of May 1832 aged 48 years 
 
 This stone is erected by his beloved wife 
 
 Mary Downs 
 Also his son Martin Downs who depd this 
 
 life Feby 28th 1837 aged 23 years 
 
 Also the soul of Eleanor Cryan who depd 
 
 this life December 17th 1860 aged 43, years. 
 
 Beneath this tomb lie immersed 
 
 the remains of the late 
 Mr. Michael Farrell of Tubberscanavan 
 who departed this life 24th of 
 
 April 1833 aged 72 years 
 In him were united the virtues which 
 
 constitute a good Christian a 
 
 Good parent and an honest man 
 
 May he rest in peace. 
 
 Here lieth the body of Thomas 
 
 Colomb who departed this life 
 
 On the 16th day of Deer in the year 
 
 of our Lord 1805 
 
 Aged 80
 
 290 PARISH OF BALLYSADAUE. 
 
 Pray for the soul of 
 Anne Coleman who departed this 
 
 life March 1843 aged 57 years 
 
 Also her husband Thos who departed 
 
 this life April 17th 1865 
 
 Erected by their affectionate 
 son John. 
 
 OLord 
 Have mercy on the soul of 
 
 Owen Allen 
 Who departed this life August 3d 1832 
 
 aged 70 years 
 
 His wife Mary Allen alias Cunningham 
 
 who died February 9th 1865 aged 98 years 
 
 Erected by their son John Allen. 
 
 O Lord 
 
 Have mercy on the soul of 
 
 Mary Anne Derham alias Williams 
 
 who departed this life Octr 19th 1864 
 
 aged 30 years 
 
 Also her infant son Richard 
 
 aged 4 months. 
 
 O Lord have mercy on the soul of 
 
 Charles Kavanagh 
 who departed this life on the 24th May 1868 
 
 aged 39 years. 
 
 This tomb has been erected to his memory 
 By his bereaved sorrowing widow. 
 
 Sacred to the memory of 
 
 Jeremiah O'Hara 
 Who departed this life the 28th Deer 1859 
 
 Aged 35 years 
 
 Also his wife Mary O'Hara alias Harrison 
 
 who died the 8th March 1847 aged 75 years 
 
 May they rest in peace through Christ our Lord Amen. 
 
 To the memory of 
 Michl O'Connor 
 
 Annaghmore 
 
 died May 20th 1863 
 
 Aged 63 years.
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 291 
 
 Lord have mercy on the soul 
 
 of 
 
 Hugh Clarence 
 who departed this life Feby 
 
 25th 1868 Aged 74 years 
 
 Also his son Patrick J. Clarence 
 
 Who died August 20th 1869 
 
 Aged 37 years 
 William Patrick son to 
 
 Joseph Clarence 
 
 died May 8th 1875 
 
 Aged 2 years and 5 months 
 
 Erected to their memory 
 
 by 
 
 Joseph Clarence. 
 
 Of your charity pray for the soul of 
 
 Peter Purcell Esq 
 
 of Tralee, county Kerry, whose mortal remains 
 are here deposited He departed this life 
 
 on Christmas day 1865 aged 43 
 After having resided in Ballisodare the 
 
 last 12 years of his life 
 
 Universally beloved and respected 
 
 May he rest in peace. 
 
 Lord 
 
 have mercy on the soul of James Horan 
 who departed this life August 10th 1832 
 
 aged 59 years 
 
 Also his grandson Michael Horan 
 who died Sept 8th 1868 aged 16 years. 
 
 Lord Jesus who on a cross resigned 
 
 Thy sacred life to redeem mankind 
 
 .Receive the souls of those for whom we pray 
 
 Who underneath this tomb are laid in clay 
 
 Sacred to the memory of Denis Gorevin 
 
 \vho depd this life the 1st May 1824 aged 72 years 
 
 also Catherine Gorevin alias M'Donald who 
 
 depd this life the 21 of April 1825 
 
 aged 71 years 
 Impressed with feelings of gratitude and 
 
 regret their son James has erected this 
 
 tribute of respect to the memory of his 
 
 beloved parents.
 
 292 PARISH OF BAI.LYSADARE. 
 
 Lord 
 
 have mercy on the soul of 
 
 Charles Connington who depd this life 
 
 April 12th 1840 aged 60 years 
 
 Also 
 
 his wife Mary Connington alias Smith 
 who died Octr 9th 1845 aged 67 years 
 
 And 
 
 their Grand Son John Connington 
 
 who died Novr 17 1860 aged 17 years 
 
 Erectd to their memory by Jas Connington. 
 
 Pray for the soul of 
 Stephen Burns 
 
 died 3d Novr 1859 
 aged 60 years 
 
 Erected by his son 
 Stephen Burns. 
 
 Gloria in Excelsis Deo 
 
 O Lord have mercy on the soul 
 
 of Catherine McGragh alias Me 
 
 Cormick who departed this life 13th of 
 
 Novr A.D. 1836 aged 56 years 
 Erected by her affectionate husband Bernard McGragh 
 
 Gloria in Excelsis Deo 
 
 O Lord have mercy on the soul of 
 
 Mary Haran alias Christal who departed this 
 
 life Novr the 10th 1840 aged 48 years 
 
 also her son James Haran died July the 5th 
 
 1830 aged 18 years 
 
 This tomb 
 
 Erected by her affectionate husband 
 John Haran of Glan. 
 
 Charles Gilhooly 
 died 14th February 1862 
 
 aged 62 years 
 May he rest in peace
 
 PARISH OF BALLYSADARE. 293 
 
 Lord 
 Have mercy on the soul of 
 
 Michael Rochford 
 
 who departed this life 
 
 Deer 13th .1871 aged 60 years 
 
 May he rest in peace Amen. 
 
 Lord 
 
 have mercy on the soul of 
 
 Bridget Brother alias Thompson 
 
 who depd this life 16th of June 1847 
 
 aged 50 years 
 Also her beloved husband 
 
 Michael Brother 
 who died 15th August 1870 
 
 aged 74 years 
 Also their granddaughter 
 
 Mary Brother 
 
 who died 15th August 1872 aged 19 yrs 
 
 may they rest in peace through 
 
 Christ our Lord Amen. 
 
 Lord have mercy on the soul of 
 
 Michael Savage 
 who departed this life October 9th 1877 
 
 Aged 58 years 
 Erected by his son Martin Savage.
 
 PARISH OF KILVAENET.
 
 PAEISH OF KILYAENET, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OLD CHURCH OF KILVARNET, ETC. 
 
 THK parish of Kilvarnet* comprises an area of 6696 statute 
 acres, and is bounded on the east by the Owenmore river, 
 on the north by the Owenbeg, on the south by the parish 
 of Achonry, and on the west by that of Killoran. There 
 is no great variety in the scenery, though the beautiful 
 demesnes of Templehouse in the south, and of Annaghmore 
 
 * Unfortunately there is no map, properly so called, of the parish of 
 Kilvarnet among those of the Down Survey. In these maps there is 
 a sheet with the title or heading " Kilmacteigue and Killoran," but on 
 inspection one finds that this heading is a misnomer, as there is no further 
 reference in the place to Kilmacteigue, the map of which parish, by the 
 way, is given elsewhere ; while, though there is mention of Kilvarnet in 
 the body of the sheet, there are no details as to acreage, or the consti- 
 tuent denominations of the parish. Two parcels of Bishop -land are noted, 
 but the rest of the parish is marked as " Protestant-land,"' which, there- 
 fore, was left unmeasured. 
 
 We should remember that the object of the Down Survey was to ascer- 
 tain the extent and quality of the confiscated lands with a view to their 
 redistribution. Wherever, then, the lands were notoriously not forfeited 
 they were left unmeasured ; and hence we find that in Connaught, the 
 counties of Roscommon and Galway were not surveyed ; that the barony 
 of Tyrawley was the only one measured in Mayo ; and that in other places, 
 lands belonging to Protestant owners were left unnoticed, as in Kil- 
 varnet parish, and even in part of the parish of Ballysadare, where a strip 
 of land near the old burying ground is undescribed, being merely marked 
 as " Protestant-land " and as belonging to Kean O'Hara.
 
 298 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 the north, are very picturesque features while the bold 
 hills of Keash, Mucklety, and Knocknashee, in the adjoin- 
 ing parishes of Keash and Achonry, form a striking addi- 
 tion to the landscape. There is a large quantity of bog in 
 the parish ; tillage is general on Mr. Perceval's estate, and 
 extends also, over the greater part of Mr. O'Hara's pro- 
 perty, though four or five quarters of land on his estate 
 are let in three grazing farms. Clara, which, forty or fifty 
 years ago, was a most populous district, is now a wild 
 waste, inhabited only by the families of three or four herds. 
 Mr. Charles O'Hara had no hand or part in the depopula- 
 tion, and is incapable of having had ; for there is no land- 
 lord in the province more desirous of seeing a numerous 
 and happy tenantry around him than this kind-hearted 
 gentleman. It was in the " bad times," as the years 1846, 
 1847, and 1848, are so graphically and touchingly called 
 by the people, that the district was " wasted." The four 
 or five quarters of land that comprise it were held under 
 the O'Hara family by four middlemen, who let the lands 
 out in detail, at rack-rents, to under tenants, and these 
 wretched cottiers, breaking down under the pressure of the 
 famine years, dragged with them in the fall those from 
 whom they held. In this way about a thousand acres 
 came into the hands of the owner in fee, Major O'Hara, 
 and this gentleman scared, probably, by the failure so 
 common among the small tillage farmers of the period, 
 formed this extensive tract of country into three or four 
 holdings, and let them for grazing purposes ; an arrange- 
 ment natural enough, perhaps, in the exceptional circum- 
 stances in which it took place, but little suited to a state of 
 things like the present, when so many are anxious for land, 
 as well as willing and able to pay a good rent for it. 
 
 The parish derives its name from the old church of Kil- 
 varnet, the ruins of which still stand, and in fair preserva- 
 tion, between Clara and Finlough. The parishioners 
 think this house got the name from its founder, who, they 
 *
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 299 
 
 say, was called " Warnet " O'Hara. That it was built by 
 an O'Hara is pretty certain, as the O'Haras owned Ley- 
 ney, and built all or nearly all the churches of the territory ; 
 but that the builder's name was Warnet is a mistake, for 
 there was no such name in the O'Hara family, nor among 
 the Irish at all. Kilvarnet signifies the " Church of the 
 gap," varnet being one of the forms of bearnas (a gap) as 
 Bally varnet, the town of the gap ; * and the church under 
 consideration has evidently got its name from the gap or 
 valley in which the building is situated, and which stretches 
 from Mulnabreena on between Clara and Ropefield to the 
 parish of Killoran. There are some who say that this 
 church was built by Bishop O'Hara, and, in proof, point 
 to a spot in the neighbourhood called " Bishop O'Hara's 
 lawn ; " a denomination that certainly goes to show either 
 that he built the church, or had some local connection with 
 it. There have been at least two or three bishops of the 
 name of O'Hara in the diocese of Achonry : Murchad,f 
 who died in the abbey of Boyle in 1344 ; Brian, who de- 
 parted this life in 1409 ; J and O'Hara Roe, or the Eed 
 Bishop, who went to his reward in 1435 ; but there is 
 nothing to determine to which of these three the tradition 
 refers. 
 
 The old church is fifty- three, feet long, and twenty-six 
 wide, the side walls being about seventeen feet high, and 
 the northern one having two buttresses, slightly battering, 
 
 * Joyce's Irish Names of Places, First Series, page 394. 
 
 t "Murrough, son of Molloy O'Hara, Abbot of Boyle, and intended 
 Bishop of Leyney, died." Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 1344. Others 
 regard Murrough as a bishop who had retired from his see to the abbey 
 of Boyle ; and this would seem to be the opinion of Ware, who places 
 him among the bishops of Achonry, styling him " Murchard (MacMselmoi) 
 O'Hara, who for a time was Abbot of Boyle." 
 
 J " Brian, the son of John O'Hara, Bishop of Achonry, died after the 
 victory of [Extreme] Unction and Penance." Annals of the Four Mas- 
 ters, A.D. 1409. 
 
 " The Eed Bishop, O'Hara, Bishop of Achonry, died." Annals of the 
 Four Masters, A.D. 1435.
 
 300 
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 one at each end. The masonry, though not built in 
 courses, is solidly put together. There were two doors, one 
 in each sidewall, and both an equal distance nineteen feet 
 from western gable. The sanctuary was lighted partly 
 by a window in each sidewall, near the eastern end, but 
 
 OLD CHURCH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 Drawn on the wood by W. F. Wakeman, Esq., F.R.H.A.A.I., from a Photograph by 
 Mr. Edward Smith. 
 
 chiefly by two lancet windows in the gable, four feet apart, 
 each seven feet high, and seven inches wide on the outside, 
 but splayed on the inside to a width of five feet. No ves- 
 tige of altar remains, but a piscina two feet eight inches 
 high, and one foot seven inches wide remains quite perfect. 
 A gallery extended throughout the church, with the excep- 
 tion of the sanctuary part, and was lighted by a window in 
 the western gable, and a small open in the southern side- 
 wall, eighteen inches high and five wide, from under which 
 projects a gargoyle, the only one in the structure. The 
 roof was of shingles, cut, it is said, from fine black oak 
 trees dug out of the neighbouring bog.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 301 
 
 A curious legend is associated with the huilding of this 
 house. It is said that the builder contracted to receive for 
 his services such cattle as should be within view at the 
 moment of finishing the job ; and as the site of the church 
 commands a very extensive view of pasture land, one would 
 take the contract to have been a profitable one. But 
 builders sometimes met more than their match even in those 
 days ; and when the contractor looked around at the 
 moment of giving the last touch to the work, instead of the 
 flocks and herds he expected to see, there was nothing 
 within view except a few beggarly goats. It is little won- 
 der that the poor man should have lost temper, and that, 
 like others in ill humour, he should have vented his 
 passion on any object at hand. And accordingly he span- 
 celled the unfortunate goats, and hurled them into a 
 lake which was then hard by, and which got the name, 
 from the circumstance, of Lough-na-goicer lake of the 
 goats and the site of which, now that " the waters are 
 gone," is still known as Grellach-na-goicer the miry place 
 of the goats. 
 
 At the Reformation Kilvarnet fared like most of the 
 other churches * of the country, having been taken from its 
 
 * " A Ecgal Visitation Book of 1615," says Cotton, Fasti. Ecclesicn. 
 Hibernicce, vol. iv, p. 114 " sets down the disused prebends of Achonry 
 as follows : 
 
 Has Prtebendse spectavenmt 
 (ut asseritur) ad Ecclesiam 
 CathedralemAchadensem ; 
 et tenentur per Edwardum 
 Croftown. 
 
 Tenentur per Episcopum. 
 [This was Miler Magrath]." 
 
 Another Royal Visitation Book, of 1633," says Archdeacon Cotton, 
 
 seb. KILMOUOGHE, 
 
 (Kilmorgan). 
 
 IMLAFADDA, 
 
 
 CLONOGHILL, 
 
 
 KlLLOSHALWEY, 
 
 
 KlLLOKOAVE, 
 
 (Kilturrow). 
 
 de KILWAK .... 
 
 (Kilvarnet). - 
 
 et KILLOWEN, 
 
 (Killoran). 
 
 KlLMACTEGE, 
 
 
 KlLNEAGH 
 
 (Kilbeagh). 
 
 et KlLLEDAN, 
 
 
 KlLMAKEE, 
 
 (Kilmovee). 
 
 DOGHARNE, 
 
 
 MOYNELAGHY, 
 
 (Meemlagh).
 
 302 PAK1SH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 ecclesiastical owners and given to laymen. It was granted 
 to the Crofton family. But it would appear that the friars 
 did not relinquish their hold without a struggle ; for there 
 is a tradition that they continued to keep possession, living 
 on the gallery, and protected by a broad moat filled brim- 
 ful with water, and running all round the church.* But 
 this state of things could not last long, and we learn from 
 a Royal Visitation Book that Kilvarnet was in the hands of 
 Protestants in 1615, Edward Crofton, a layman, being its 
 rector, and Andreas Magrath, its vicar, f At this time the 
 
 Ibidem, " in the Prerogative Office, describes the prebends of Achonry, as 
 follows : 
 
 Prseb. DOUGHERNE, Eobert White, 
 
 ,, KILLORAN, John Fargie (Forgie). 
 
 , , KILLOSALVIE, vacant, worth 4s. per annum. 
 
 ,, CLOWNEOGHILL, vacant, worth 10s. per annum. 
 
 ,, IMLAGHFADDA, vacant, worth 10s. per annum. 
 
 KILMURROUGH, vacant, worth 12s. per annum. 
 
 ,, KILLARAGHT, Patrick Campbell, worth 30s. per annum. 
 
 KILMONIE, ditto, sequestrator, worth 8s. per annum. 
 
 ,, MOYNELOUGH, vacant, worth 5s. per annum. 
 
 KINAVE, vacant, worth 30s. per annum. 
 
 , , KILLIDAN, vacant, worth 30s. per annum. 
 
 KILFRIE, vacant, worth 5s. per annum. 
 
 KILVARNETT, vacant, worth 5s. per annum. 
 
 KILTURROUGH, vacant, worth 10s. per annum. 
 
 ,, KJLMACTEIGUE, vacant, worth 10s. per annum." 
 * The tradition that the church underwent a siege, derives some support 
 from several holes, each ten or twelve inches square, which may still bo 
 seen in the western gable and in other parts of the house, and which look 
 like port holes for the use of small arms. 
 
 t " Andrew Magrath, a son or nephew of Archbishop Miler Magrath," 
 says Archdeacon Cotton in his Fasti Ecclesice HiberniccE, vol. iv. p. 106. 
 Even Protestant writers are very hard on the memory of Miler Magrath. 
 " It appears," says Cotton, " that by some means or other, he had con- 
 trived to recommend himself strongly to Queen Elizabeth ; but he was a 
 most unscrupulous waster of the patrimony of the sees under his admi- 
 nistration." The Eegal Commissioners, at their Visitation in 1615, thus 
 name him : " Archbishop Miler Magrath, who would give the Commis- 
 sioners no satisfactory information respecting his revenues. He held four 
 bishoprics (Achonry was one of them) and a great number of benefices in 
 various dioceses." Miler died in 1622, and was buried in the Cathedral
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 303 
 
 Church and State officials took to rebuilding or repairing the 
 parochial churches, which, for the most part, they them- 
 selves had destroyed or injured in spite of the Catholics ; 
 and it gives a good idea of the iniquity of the times, that 
 it was on the Catholics, who alone strove to prevent the 
 
 of Cashcl, where his tomb bears the following puzzling epitaph composed 
 by himself: 
 
 Venerat in Dunum primo sanctissimus olim 
 
 Patricius, nostri gloria magna soli, 
 
 Huic ego succedens, utinam tarn sanctus ut ille, 
 
 Sic Duni primo tempore proesul eram. 
 
 Anglia, lustra decem sed post tua sceptra colebam, 
 
 Principibus placui, marte tonante, tuis. 
 
 Hie ubi sum positus, non sum, sum ubi non sum 
 
 Sum nee in ambobus, sum sed utroque loco 
 Dominus est qui me judicat 
 Qui stat timeat ne cadat. 
 
 When Protestants were so severe on Miler one may guess that he fared 
 indifferently at the hands of Catholics. In a coarse production entitled 
 " The Apostacy of Mylcr Magrath, Archbishop of Cashel : A Poetical 
 Satire, written by the Rev. Eoghan 0' Duffy, a Franciscan Friar, about 
 A.D. 1577; Literally Translated from the original Irish, by John O'Daly," 
 the writer concludes a very fantastic appeal to the Blessed Virgin, with 
 three stanzas levelled against three " conforming ecclesiastics," and run- 
 ning thus in Mr. O'Daly's literal translation : 
 
 " To William O'Casey, the potent 
 By the aid of the Saxon not by God' a ; 
 Give a stunning clencher on the ear, 
 In the halls of the Castle of Dublin. 
 The blessing of the hosts I will ever pray, 
 On the immaculate daughter of Anna, the spotless ; 
 If she gives a box or two to Conor O'Brennan, 
 The swarthy, the black, and hideous monster. 
 To the friar whose religion is false, 
 To Myler Magrath, the apostate ; 
 Until he submits to God's Word, the boor, 
 Give him a box on each big jaw." 
 
 Miler, after he became Protestant, was Bishop of Clogher, Archbishop 
 of Cashel, held in commendam the sees of Waterfordand Lismore, " and," 
 to use the words of Cotton, " laid his rapacious hands upon the two remote 
 aees of Killala and Achonry, which he held under a grant of commendam 
 from King James, until his death in 1622." Fasti Ecclcsia flibernica, 
 vol. iv, p. 67.
 
 304 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 injury, the whole cost of the so-called restoration was laid. 
 The Visitation Book informs us that Kilvarnet was " re- 
 paired " * in this way, and opened for Protestant worship ; 
 but the new service in it must have been a great rarity, 
 if it ever took place at all, as the aforesaid Andreas 
 Magrath had to look after half the other churches in the 
 diocese as well as Kilvarnet. Indeed he and a Reverend 
 Terence Connolly are set down as the only curates in the 
 diocese, while the rectors were laymen. f 
 
 The Catholics are said to have got back to their old 
 place of worship, and to have performed devotions privately 
 there for some time. And the cause assigned for their 
 quitting it is worth mentioning. There was a graveyard 
 then, as now, around the church, and as the women, when 
 returning from mass, could not be kept from setting up the 
 Irish cry J over the remains of relatives, it became necessary 
 to avoid the place altogether, lest these lamentations should 
 attract the public authorities from the neighbouring castle 
 of Templehouse to the spot. After Kilvarnet was aban- 
 
 * The entry in the Royal Visitation Book of 1615, which is in the 
 Public Record Office, Dublin, runs thus : " Vic. de Killwarnada, Rector 
 Crofton Edward ; Val. 3s. ; Andreas Magrath tenet per custodiam Archie- 
 piscopi ecclia. repata." (ecclesia reparata). 
 
 f "We get a startling idea of the state of religion in Ireland, about this 
 time, from a letter of Sir John Davys to Cecil, in which he says : " The 
 churches are ruined and fallen to the ground in all parts of the Kingdom. 
 There is no divine service, no Christening of children, no receiving of the 
 Sacrament, no Christian meeting or assembly wo, not once in a year ; in 
 a word, no more demonstration of religion than amongst Tartars or 
 cannibals." Calendar of the State Papers relating to Ireland : Edited by 
 Rev. C. W. Russell, D.D., and John P. Prendergast, Esq., Barrister-at- 
 Law. 
 
 "Andreas Magrath," according to Cotton's Fasti, "son or nephew of 
 Archbishop Miler Magrath, whose long arms reached to dioceses in every part 
 of Ireland." 
 
 According to the Regal Visitation Book of 1633, Kilvarnet was held, 
 in that year, "by Robert Connell, cleric and preacher of the Divine 
 Word." " Robertus Connell, clericus, verbi Divini Prcedicator" 
 
 I See page 207. 
 
 The epitaphs on the stones of this graveyard will be found at the end 
 of the chapter.
 
 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 305 
 
 doncd mass was said on Sundays and holidays in the open 
 air,* and generally on or near the rath of Fal-na-mgan. 
 A hedge-school was taught on week days in the same town- 
 land ; first, in the ditch of the rath ; and later, in some of 
 the adjoining cahins. A Mr. Devine, who taught about 
 1780, is the last of the Fal-na-sugan schoolmasters. There 
 are Catholics who feel humiliated when they call to 
 mind such scenes as these ; but, to those who know how 
 to reason, that rude altar in the open air, and that lowly 
 school in the ditch of Fal-na-sugan will afford as convincing 
 proof of the church's fidelity to her great mission of sancti- 
 fying and educating the world as the stately cathedral and 
 sumptuous college of her prosperous days. 
 
 Towards the close of the eighteenth century the place of 
 celebrating mass was changed from Fal-na-sugan to the 
 village of Ballinacarrow, where Mr. Tom Corkran kindly 
 placed the principal room of his house at the service of the 
 priest and congregation, till a chapel was provided. This 
 time was not long in coming ; for, in a few months, with 
 the aid of the landlord, Mr. Perceval, the parishioners 
 erected a plain oblong building forty feet long and twenty 
 broad for the celebration of the divine mysteries. It was 
 situated to the east of the high road, about twenty yards 
 behind Mr. Corrigan's house, where its walls may still be 
 seen. With the exception of an altar, or rather a stand 
 for a portable altar, which stood at its eastern end, the 
 house was bare and empty. The only repair it needed was 
 in the way of thatching, and for this each farmer supplied, 
 when asked, a "stook" or "bart" of oats, which was 
 thrashed in the chapel, the straw going on the roof, and 
 
 * In "A Tour though Ireland by two English Gentlemen" (Dublin, 
 1748), we read: "The poorer sort of Irish natives are mostly Roman 
 Catholics, who make no scruple to assemble in the open fields. As wo 
 passed yesterday in a by-road, we saw a priest under a tree, with a large 
 assembly about him, celebrating Mass in his proper habit ; and though at 
 a great distance from us, we heard him distinctly. These sort of people 
 seem to be very solemn and sincere in their devotion." Irish Names of 
 Places: by P. W. Joyce, A.M., M.R.I.A., page 109.
 
 306 
 
 PARISH OF KILVARKET. 
 
 the grain going to market to pay for labour and scollops. 
 On week days the building served for a school-house, and 
 was the means of keeping up a fair amount of knowledge 
 among the neighbours, though in other respects, it was a 
 contrast to the well-furnished and well- appointed schools 
 of the present day ; the whole stock of " requisites " con- 
 sisting of a few Reading-made-easys, one or two Vosters, 
 and half a dozen, or so, slates and copy books ; the knees 
 doing duty for writing desks ; and the teacher being a 
 graduate of the hedge school of Fal-na-sugan. A Mr. Peer 
 a rather queer name for teacher or pupil was the last 
 person that taught in the old chapel of Ballinacarrow.* 
 The present chapel was built in 1826 by Yery Eev. 
 
 BALLDTACAEEOV CHAPEL. 
 
 Drawn on the wood by W. F. Wakeman, Esq., F.R.H.A.A.I., from a Photograph by 
 Mr. . Smith. 
 
 * Protestant children attended this school as well as Catholics ; and, 
 what is very strange, all the children learned both the Catechisms, that is, 
 the Catholic one and the Protestant.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 307 
 
 James Henry. The late Colonel Perceval kindly gave an 
 acre of land as a site, and the parishioners contributed 
 according to their means towards its erection. The chapel 
 has of late undergone considerable alteration and repairs, 
 and with the elegant gallery running round three of its 
 sides; its well stuccoed walls and ceiling; its numerous 
 benches and imposing altar, is now a very commodious and 
 neat place of worship. It is to be regretted that Colonel 
 Perceval's gracious wishes have been frustrated, as his 
 grant of land has been for the most part resumed, and 
 instead of the acre which that large-hearted gentleman 
 generously bestowed, the chapel plot is now " cribbed, 
 cabined, and confined " to about half a dozen perches. 
 And to aggravate the evil, the land taken back is used as 
 a haggard in such a way that the ricks and stacks smother 
 up the place, intercept the view of the chapel from the 
 road, and thus give the appearance of a farmhouse to the 
 House of God.* 
 
 * If the 'poor Colonel or his excellent son, the late Mr. Alexander 
 Perceval, lived, either would little like to see Ballinacarrow chapel so 
 treated, for both wished it to he an ornament and not an eyesore on the 
 Teinplehouse estate. 
 
 The following are the epitaphs referred to in page 305 : 
 
 Hear lys 
 
 Tnterd the Body of Earth Wallace 
 who departed this life the 28th 
 April 1769 Aged 76. 
 
 Pray for the soul 
 of Oliver Wallace 
 
 who departed this 
 
 life March 17 1773 
 
 aged 23 years. 
 
 Pray for the soul of 
 Owen Donoghue who depart- 
 ed this life March 16th 
 1778 aged 60 years.
 
 308 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 
 
 Pray for the soul of 
 
 Mary Nangle alias 
 Conel who died Au 
 
 gust 8 1778 aged 
 
 48 years. Erected by 
 
 her son Bryan 
 
 Nangle. 
 
 Here are deposited the 
 
 remains of Anne Higgins 
 
 rho departed this life Deer 
 
 21 1791 aged 70 years 
 
 Erected by her daughter 
 
 Mary Henry. 
 
 Pray for the soul of Charles 
 
 Quigley who departed this life 
 
 October 10 1802 aged 46 years 
 
 Erected by his relict 
 
 Bridget O'Connor. 
 
 Michael Michell lieth under this stone 
 He is to rise again but the time is not known 
 This debt must be paid without control 
 Think of this reader and pray for his soul 
 
 who departed this life July 28 1803 
 
 aged 52 years. Erected by his brother 
 
 Martin Michel. 
 
 Lord have mercy on the soul of 
 
 Edmond Henry who departed 
 
 this life February 17th 1824 aged 
 
 67 years also the soul of Anne Me 
 
 Carrick his wife who . . . 
 
 This tomb erected by his son 
 
 Paul Henry in memory of his 
 
 loving father. 
 
 Lord have mercy on the soul of John Colleary of Ranaghan 
 
 who depaid this life 22 dec 1841 agd 56 
 
 Erected by his loving wife 
 
 Mary McGrath 
 Requiescant in pace.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 309 
 
 O'Lord 
 
 have mercy on the 
 
 so il of thy servant John 
 
 Armstrong of Falnasugan 
 
 who departed this life 
 
 on the 6th of Sepr 1843 
 
 aged 74 years. May he rest in ' 
 
 peace. Amen. 
 
 Lord have mercy on the 
 
 soul of Maggy Tarceny alias 
 
 Nicholson who departed this 
 
 life Sep 21 1850 
 
 aged 60 years 
 
 Erected by her husband 
 
 Patrick Tarceny. 
 
 Lord have mercy on the soul of 
 
 William Masterson who departed 
 
 this life 12 June Aged 
 
 96 years 
 
 Erected by his son Thomas Masterson 
 in memory of him and posterity. 
 
 Have mercy O Lord on the soul of 
 
 thy faithful servant James Corcoran 
 
 of Newgrove who is herein entombed 
 
 He died July 25th 1853 aged 40 years 
 
 May he rest in peace. 
 
 Erected 
 By 
 
 James Henry 
 
 to the memory of his father 
 
 Thomas Henry who died Sept 
 
 21st 1855 in the 75 year of his age 
 
 Sarah Corcoran 
 
 Alias Martin 
 
 Died 21 November 
 
 1857 
 Aged 77 years.
 
 310 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 Erected 
 
 by 
 
 Michael McDonnell of Collooney 
 
 in memory of his beloved wife 
 
 Mary McDonnell alias Henery 
 
 died 8th June, 1858 aged 54 years 
 
 also of 
 
 his father Patk McDonneU 
 died 7th Sep 1832 Aged 75 years 
 
 also of 
 
 his mother Honor McDonnell alias Henery 
 died 14th Jany 1824 aged 60 years 
 May they rest in peace. Amen. 
 
 In 
 
 memory of 
 
 William Corcoran 
 
 Ballinacarrow who departed 
 
 This life 16th March 1861 
 
 Aged 43 years 
 May he rest in peace.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 311 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 TEMPLEHOUSE. 
 SECTION I. THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS AND THE CROFTONS. 
 
 THE most beautiful spot in the parish of Kilvarnet, as well 
 as the most historical, is Templehouse or Teacli-iempul, the 
 seat of Minor Perceval. Templehouse lake a fine sheet 
 of water about two miles long and one wide would, under 
 any circumstances, be a handsome object, but its natural 
 beauty is greatly enhanced by the planting with which it is 
 edged, and which sets off the rich green of the sloping 
 banks, and forms some charming glades. The fine demesne, 
 comprising near a thousand acres, and most of it prime 
 land, is admirably timbered, being surrounded with a deep 
 border of trees, and interspersed judiciously with groves 
 and clumps, that draw out well to the eye the lines of its 
 rich undulating surface. The mansion, erected by the late 
 deeply and deservedly lamented Mr. Perceval, is a stately 
 and spacious structure of cut stone, with two elegant fronts 
 one facing the east and the other the south and stands 
 on a slightly rising site some hundred yards from the lake, 
 in the midst of extensive pleasure grounds, which are 
 diversified with sward, and coppice, and rock work, and 
 which contain two noble terraces that would do no discredit 
 to their surroundings if placed at Kensington or Versailles. 
 Near the water's edge stands the venerable pile of Temple- 
 house Castle and two immense secular ash trees ; and the 
 hoary ruin and the old trees contrast suggestively with the 
 modern mansion and the blooming parterres, showing that 
 Templehouse has a history, and a past, as well as an 
 honoured present.
 
 312 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 About half a mile outside the demesne wall is a hill or 
 rath called Kil, which, very probably, is the site of the first 
 place of Christian worship that was erected within the 
 present limits of the parish. There is neither written re- 
 cord nor oral tradition to throw light on the spot, but the 
 name Kil a church and the human bones that have 
 been, from time to time, found in a part of the mound 
 where the antiseptic nature of the soil has hindered their 
 putrefaction, prove that the place once contained a church 
 and a cemetery. And that the church was a very early 
 one is clearly seen. by a cursory glance at the spot, for it 
 contains the remains of one of those caskets that always 
 surrounded primitive religious houses ; and the stones that 
 lie in profusion about are so eaten away and honeycombed 
 by the weather as to make it evident that they have been 
 exposed an enormous length of time to the ravages of the 
 atmosphere. Anyhow, there can be no doubt of this house 
 having preceded, by centuries, the church of Kilvarnet, and 
 even that of Templehouse. 
 
 The church of Templehouse was built by the Templars.* 
 This is pretty certain, as all our annalists state it ; though 
 it is not known how the place came into the possession of 
 those knights. Indeed there is little known of the career 
 of the Templars in Ireland. Some writers seem to think 
 that these religious were always confined within the limits 
 
 * Mr. Edward Fitzgerald writes in the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal, 
 vol. iv, p. 291, as follows : "A list of Preceptories of the "Knights of St. 
 John, which we have seen, may he interesting, as follows Kilsaran, 
 County of Louth ; Kilbarry, County of Waterford ; Crook, same county ; 
 Ballinamoney, County of Cork ; Clonaul, Tipperary ; Teagh, County of 
 Sligo ; Killergy, County of Carlow ; Kilclogan, County of "Wexford > 
 Ballyheuke and St. Bridget, also in Wexford ; Kilbeg and Kilhed, Kildare, 
 Little Kilmainham near Nobber in the County of Meath ; Kilmainham 
 Wood, also in Meath ; Ardas, in the County of Down ; Any, County of 
 Xiimerick ; and Kilnallaken, County of Galway." Here "Teagh" or 
 Teaghtemple is set down as a house of the Hospitallers, but this must refer 
 to the time when the property of the place had passed to the Hospitallers 
 at the suppression of the Templars. See page 318.
 
 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 313 
 
 of the Pale, but the establishment at Templehouse, as well 
 as one in Limerick city, and another at Ardmoyle, Baly- 
 shythar, County Tipperary, disprove that assertion. Tem- 
 plehouse, as well as the rest of Leyney, belonged to the 
 O' Haras at the time of the English invasion ; and it is ex- 
 tremely unlikely that this family, who were always stout 
 in their opposition to the English, would have made a grant 
 of land to a body whose members were so identified with 
 the invaders as to fight in their ranks against the Irish. 
 It is probable that these military religious took forcible 
 possession, and fixed themselves at Templehouse for the 
 purpose of keeping the passes of Lower Connaught clear 
 for their countrymen, in the same way as the original 
 members of the order settled in the Holy Land in order to 
 keep the roads of Palestine open to the pilgrims of Europe. 
 "Ware, Harris,* Archdal],f and Allemande * tell us that 
 the Preceptory of Templehouse was founded in the 
 thirteenth century ; and, according to local tradition, the 
 
 * In Harris's Ware, vol. ii, p. 271, we read, " Teach-Temple, Co.Sligoe, 
 belonged first to the Templars, then to the Hospitallers, and was founded 
 in the thirteenth century." 
 
 t Archdall Monastic. Hibernic,, p. 639, writes, "Temple-House, on the 
 river Owenmore, in the barony of Leyney, and ten miles south-west of 
 Sligo ; here we find Teach-Temple, or the House of the Temple, which 
 was founded for Knights Templars in the reign of King Henry III, but 
 on the final overthrow of this order it was given by King Edward JI to 
 the Knights Hospitallers." 
 
 J And Allemande Histoire Monastique du Koyaume d' Irlande, p. 129, 
 says, "A Teach-Temple (dans le comt& de Slego) c'est a dire Maison dtt 
 Temple; il y a eu une Commanderie de Templiers. Je n'en scay pas 
 utre chose, car il est inutile de dire qu' elle fut donned avec toutes lea 
 autres de cet ordre aux Chevaliers de Saint Jean de Jerusalem." 
 
 " Preceptory " and "Commandery" mean one and the same thing, 
 though the former is the term most frequently used in the Bulls of Popes 
 and other ecclesiastical documents. " Surquoy il faut remarquer," says 
 Allemande Histoire Monastique, etc., p. 123, " en passant que Preceptorie 
 et Commanderie c'est le mesrr-3 chose, et qu'en Cour de Rome et dans le 
 Bulles on appelle Preceptorie, ce que nous appellons Communement Com- 
 manderie."
 
 314 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 church, belonging to it stood at the water's edge, on the 
 site of the old stables, and was called Tempiil-na-Srah* 
 
 A castle formed an important part of an establishment 
 of Templars ; and we read in the Annals of the Four Mas- 
 ^rsthat, in the year 1271, when the Templars are supposed 
 to have been in possession, the castle of Templehouse, with 
 others, was demolished by Hugh O'Conor. If the re- 
 ligious were in possession that year it is, to say the least, 
 doubtful whether they ever recovered from the heavy blow 
 thus dealt them by Hugh O'Conor ; or, at all events, 
 whether they recovered from it so far as to be able to 
 rebuild the castle. One does not see how they could 
 accomplish such a work in the last quarter of the thirteenth 
 century, which, even in those turbulent ages, was a period 
 of exceptional commotions and disorders a period (to use 
 the words of the Reverend Doctor O'Conor) of " anarchy, 
 robberies, and rapines ; of local feuds, horrid massacres and 
 assassinations ; of famines and disease ; during which 
 several castles were destroyed by the O'Conors, who had 
 penetrated even into the most flourishing provinces of the 
 English Pale." (Memoirs of the late Charles O'Conor, etc., 
 p. 46). It is said that Fearghal More O'Hara, the 
 eleventh in descent from Poprigh, built a castle in Temple- 
 house, and John O'Donovan, in his edition of the Four 
 Masters, alleges in proof a manuscript then in the posses- 
 sion of Major O'Hara, which Mr. O'Donovan saw, and of 
 which he has left a synopsis in English. 
 
 By the kind courtesy of Mr. C. W. O'Hara we have been 
 able to inspect this MS., and we are of opinion, after ex- 
 amining it, that the castle of Templehouse is substantially, 
 if not in all its parts, the work of the O'Haras. On the 
 subject of the castle the old writer says : " Fergal More 
 O'Hara made the large tower at Templehouse, and his son, 
 Teige, made the black porch, and John Boy, son of Teige, 
 
 * A quantity of human bones were found in this spot when Mr. 
 Perceval's men were excavating for the foundation of the stables.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 315 
 
 son of Tergal More, made the two small towers and the 
 bawn. The age of the Lord at that time was 1303." It 
 is not stated here that Tergal More, Teige, and John Boy 
 built the entire castle, which, perhaps, would have been 
 mentioned in terms had the case been so ; though, on the 
 other hand, it is not said that there was on the spot a 
 
 SMALL TOWER OF O'HAEA'S CASTLE, TEMPLEHOUSE. 
 
 Drawn on the wood by W. F. Wakeman, F.R.H.A.A.I., from a Photograph by Mr. 
 Edward Smith. 
 
 structure of the Templars, to which, had such existed, some 
 reference could hardly fail to have been made ; so that the 
 silence of the manuscript goes for nothing, as it tells for 
 one side as much as for the other. There is no proof 
 whatever, then, that any part of a Templars' castle 
 remained at Templehouse after 1271 ; and even if there 
 did, the O'Haras so altered, and extended, and strengthened 
 it, that the resulting structure, taken as a whole, may well
 
 316 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 count as one of the castles of that family, of which several 
 others existed through their principality of Leyney, in the 
 present counties of Mayo and Sligo. The ruins that still 
 remain at Templehouse, namely : one small tower of a 
 castle, and a wing, confirm the statement of the MS., as 
 they are manifestly the work of different hands ; the stones, 
 and mortar, and masonry in the tower being of a different 
 kind from those of the wing. 
 
 It was in the year 1307 that this Order was suppressed 
 in Ireland. Edward II, in the first year of his reign, for- 
 warded a mandate, dated 20th December, 1307, to the 
 Irish viceroy, Wogan, ordering the seizure of the persons, 
 papers, and properties of the Templars to be made on the 
 3rd of February, 1308 the Feast of the Purification.* The 
 viceroy tried to execute this mandate, but notwithstanding 
 his efforts many Templars evaded capture on the day 
 named, and for a couple of years subsequently ; and, con- 
 sidering the distance of Templehouse from Dublin, it is 
 only natural to think that the inmates of that preceptory, 
 if the Knights still occupied it, were among those who 
 remained at large. In 1311, Clement V formally abolished 
 the Order by a Bull, issued in the Council of Vienne, not as 
 a sentence of guilt in respect of the atrocious and infamous 
 charges alleged against them, but as a measure of ecclesi- 
 astical administration, something similar to that which his 
 namesake and successor, Clement XIV, felt constrained to 
 adopt, four centuries later, in regard to the Jesuits. The 
 same Pope transferred the property of the Templars to the 
 Hospitallers ; though the transfer was not effected without 
 a struggle on the part of the king to retain the possessions 
 
 * The mandate orders "Wogan " to seize all the goods, chattels, etc., as 
 well ecclesiastical as temporal, with the charters and muniments of the 
 brethren, cattle, etc. ; that the lands be sown out of their own profits ; 
 that the knights be not imprisoned, regard being had to their station, and 
 that an inventory be made and returned to the Exchequer." Kilkenny 
 Archaeological Journal, vol. xii, p. 328.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 317 
 
 for himself. A case was submitted by royal order to the 
 judges, who decided that, by the law of England, the pos- 
 sessions in question should revert to the original owners, 
 the lords of the fees. But in the end the king was forced 
 to yield to the Pope ; and, making a virtue of necessity, he 
 had an Act of Parliament passed, conferring the property, 
 that he could no longer retain, on the Hospitallers for 
 religious uses, but reserving, at the same time, his own and 
 his subjects' rights.* 
 
 The decision of the English judge, of course, became 
 known in Ireland ; and when the O'Haras found that the 
 white-robed religious had disappeared from the banks of 
 Loughelly, as Templehouse lake was formerly called ; and 
 that the striped banner no longer floated from the battle- 
 ments of the castle, they probably regarded the place as 
 derelict, and treated it as an escheat to themselves, the 
 original owners. Or, if they remained quiet at that time, 
 which is exceedingly improbable, they may have resumed 
 possession at some later period, and built portions of the 
 castle of which Major O'Hara's manuscript speaks. Any- 
 how, it is certain that the family took and kept forcible 
 possession of at least large portions of the Templars' 
 estate, if we are to rely on English official documents ; for, 
 in an inquisition, taken at Ballymote on the llth January, 
 1593, before Richard Boyle, the jury find that " eight quar- 
 ters of land, belonging to the Commandrye of Tag ht- team- 
 pie, and situated in Ballyhannagh and Ballinacarra, were 
 concealed and unjustly detained for a long time from the 
 Queen and George Goodman, Knight, to whom she had 
 let them, by Cormac O'Hara, otherwise O'Hara Boye, 
 without any right or title on his part known to the jury." 
 
 But whoever may have been the de facto masters of 
 
 * Under the year 1413, we read in Bowling's Annals, " Hospitalierii 
 milites Sancti Johannis Jerusalem fuerunt primo instituti in terra et pos- 
 sessionibus Templariorum per totam Hiberniam." Arehaological Society" 1 s 
 Edition, page 19.
 
 318 
 
 PARISH OF KILVAHNET. 
 
 Templehouse, it belonged, by English law, to the Hospi- 
 tallers. There is no evidence that these religious ever 
 occupied the place, but there is clear proof, supposing the 
 official documents not to have been forged, that the pro- 
 perty was bestowed on the Hospitallers' priory of St. John 
 the Baptist in Lough Ree, commonly called Randon * or 
 Teacheon, and that it continued in their legal possession 
 down to the suppression of monasteries, when it was 
 resumed by the Crown, and disposed of like other religious 
 houses. This appears from the inquisition just referred to, 
 which, though somewhat injured and effaced by time, as it 
 lies in the Record Office, Dublin, is clear enough on the 
 substantial facts. After inquiry the court finds " that the 
 prior and convent of the late monastery of St. John the 
 Baptist, Loghrie, in the territory of Imaine, County Ros- 
 common, at the time of its surrender, was seized in fee by 
 right of the same priory, of a certain religious house, called 
 the Commandrye of Taght .... four towns or sixteen 
 
 quarters of land, with their tithes and appurtenances, in 
 the County of Sligo, the denominations of these lands being, 
 viz. : four quarters of land with their tithes in the town 
 and fields of ...... four quarters of land, with their tithes 
 
 and appurtenances in the town and fields of Ballymorrey ; 
 four quarters, with their tithes,in the townandfields of Bally- 
 hannagh, and four quarters with their tithes, in the town and 
 fields of Ballinacarra, all which possessions aforesaid belong, 
 in virtue of different statutes to the Queen, in right of her 
 crown." The same fact is established by the Indenture 
 entered into in 1583 by Sir John Perrott and the chiefs of 
 Connaught, in which document it is mentioned that 
 
 * It appears, from the following remarks of John 0' Donovan, that the 
 Hospitallers had made Randon or Rindown a very strong military position : 
 " Rindown contains the ruins of a castle of great size and strength, and 
 of a military wall, with gates and towers of considerable extent and 
 magnificence, measuring 564 yards in length, and dividing the Sinn, or 
 point, from the main land by extending from water to water."- 
 O'Donovan's Four Masters, A.D. 1199.
 
 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 319 
 
 " Taghtampule in Magheralyny belongs to her Majesty as 
 in right of the abbey of St. John's, Maimagh." It is right 
 to observe that Mr. Hardiman has printed this and the 
 other indentures of Elizabeth's Composition with the 
 Connaught chieftains in his edition of O'Flaherty's West 
 Conn aught, but it detracts much from the value of the per- 
 formance, that he has left out many denominations of land 
 mentioned in the original, including Taghtample, and 
 several other places in the County Sligo.* 
 
 At the suppression of religious houses, Templchouse was 
 leased by Elizabeth to Thomas Chester and George Good- 
 man, for twenty-one years, the term running from the 20th 
 April, 1578. The property was granted by King James 
 (Patent Roll 3 James I, Part I), to Edward Crofton, son 
 of John Crofton, Esq., of Connaught, Sligo County, as 
 " Taghtample in O'Connor's country, sixteen quarters ; and 
 another waste town there " (probably Annaghmore), " con- 
 taining 200 acres arable, and 300 acres pasture, wood, and 
 bog ; parcel of the estate of St. John the Baptist, near 
 Loughrie, in O'Maney .... the rectories and tithes of 
 Taghtample aforesaid, the tithes and alterages due to the 
 vicars and curates of the said vicarages excepted." 
 
 Like most other grantees of the period, the Croftons 
 built a bawn on their new property. The residence was a 
 plain, oblong, two- storey d thatched house, running between 
 the wings of the old castle, and so constructed as to enable 
 its inmates to avail themselves of the lodging accommoda- 
 tion which the castle still afforded.f Portions of the 
 
 * This important fact wo ascertained by comparing the Indenture as 
 given in the West Connaught , with a manuscript copy in the Record Office, 
 Dublin. Even the able and painstaking Dr. Kelly was led into error in 
 this matter, for he writes as follows, in Cambrensis Eversus, vol. i, page 
 206, " The documents of the Great Composition are fully abstracted, and 
 for the first time printed, in Hardiman's lar-Connacht." 
 
 t The tower of the castle and one wing still remain, and in fair preser- 
 vation. The tower is 21 feet square, with stone roof, the walls being six 
 feet thick, battered to the outside, and well grouted. The surviving wing
 
 320 PARISH OF KILVABNET. 
 
 building remain, including the hall-door, over which may 
 still be seen the crest of the Croftons (seven ears of wheat 
 on one stalk) ; their motto, (" Deus Incrementum ") the 
 year the edifice was erected (" 1627 ") ; the second verse 
 of the lllth Psalm " The generation of the righteous 
 shall be blessed ; " and three pious proverbs in Latin 
 " Nocumenta Documenta ; " " Quos amat Omnipotens 
 percutiendo docet ; " "Ex paucis agrum nobis Deus auget 
 aristis." 
 
 Before building, William Crofton made sure the title to 
 the property in a way. common at the time, that is, by 
 surrendering the possessions to the Crown, and receiving 
 them back in a re-grant from the King. In his surrender* 
 are mentioned " the castle, house or commandery of Teagh- 
 temple, with three townlands, containing twelve quarters of 
 land, . . . with the tithes great and small, and the fishing 
 weir on the river of Owenmore . . . and the whole fishings 
 of the said river of Owenmore, and the lake called Loghelly,f 
 
 runs from south to north, is seventy feet long by thirty-six wide, and was 
 vaulted with stone, the floor over the vault supplying servants' apart- 
 ments even after the new bawn came to be built and occupied by the 
 Croftons and the Percevals. 
 
 There is near the castle a curious stone which the country people call 
 the Holy Water Stone. It is two feet 6 inches long, one foot eleven 
 inches wide, and one foot seven inches high ; the inside measurements 
 being twelve inches long, nine inches wide, and eight and a half inches 
 deep. See Kilkenny Archaologieal Journal, vol. ii, page 55, and vol. xi, 
 p. 25, where objects of a similar kind are mentioned and their nature 
 discussed, some regarding them as baptismal fonts, others as reliquaries 
 for large relics, or as coffers for valuables, or as bases for stone crosses. 
 
 * Dated 14th July, 1618 Patent Roll of James I. 
 
 t It is strange that this name has been completely lost in the neighbour- 
 hood. Mr. Brett's place at Templehouse is commonly called at present 
 Corn Abbey, a name that has come, by a succession of changes, from Cam 
 Hie or Cam Etty ; the earn, very probably, having been erected in memory 
 of the person from whom the lake got its appellation. "We read of a 
 Carn-Ailche in the Four Masters, 743, on which John 0' Donovan remarks 
 in a note, " Cam of Ailche, a man's name. This is most probably the 
 place now called Carnelly, near the town of Clare, in the County of Clare." 
 Might it not be our Carnelly of Templehouse ?
 
 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 321 
 
 extending between the baronies of Leyney and Corran ; the 
 rectory or impropriate parsonage of Taghtample with the 
 tithes and glc.be lands thereunto belonging, all which were 
 parcel of the late monastery or priory of St. John the 
 Baptist, near Loghrie, in the County of Eoscommon ; . . . 
 the site of the chapel or cell of Kilvasse, and two quarters 
 of land adjoining the island of Inish-Killighan in Loghgill 
 near Sligo, and certain other small islands there." 
 
 In the grant from the King to William Crofton,* his 
 Majesty gives in all form " the castles, lands, rectories, and 
 other the premises above particularly described at a rent of 
 4 19s. 8d., to be held in free and common soccage ; erects 
 said lands and premises into the manor of Templehouse, 
 with liberty to hold 600 acres in demesne, and to have and 
 to hold a court leet, view of frankpledge,f and court baron, 
 with jurisdiction to the amount of 40s. within the precincts 
 of the said manor, and to hold a fair at the town of Tem- 
 plehouse, on the feast day of Saints Simon and Jude (28 
 
 * Dated 18 July 1618 James I Patent Boll James I. 
 1" " View of frankpledge is an alias name for ' court leet,' and seems," 
 says a writer Mark S. O'Shaughnessy, Esq., in the Kilkenny Archceolo- 
 gical Journal, vol. ii, p. 259, " to have sprung out of the institution of 
 Alfred the Great, that all the freemen of the district should be mutual 
 pledges for the good behaviour of each other." The jurisdiction of the 
 Court Leet varied at different times, but in Blackstone's words it generally 
 " ranged from common nuisances and other material offences against the 
 King's peace down to eaves -dropping, waifs, and irregularities in public 
 commons." Kilkenny Archaeological Journal ibidem. The writer in the 
 Journal adds, " The class of offences for the punishment of which the 
 pillory and the tumbrell, or ducking-stool, in connection with the Court 
 Leet, were most commonly used, seem to have been the corruption of pro- 
 visions and all such arid other matters which could be accounted to be 
 common nuisances." Page 261. 
 
 Hudibras's account of the operation of the Court Leet makes it 
 " Be forced t' impeach a broken hedge 
 And pigs unring'd at vis-franc pledge. 
 Discover thieves and jades, recusants, 
 Priests, witches, eaves-droppers, and nuisance ; 
 Tell who did play at games unlawful, 
 And who fill'd pots of ale not half-full." 
 
 Y
 
 322 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 Octr.), and the day after, with a court of pie powder, at a 
 rent of 6s. 8d., and with liberty to have a ferry upon the 
 lake called Loghelly, and on the river of Owemnore, be- 
 tween the lands lying in the barony of Leynie in the 
 County Sligo, and the lands lying in the barony of Corran, 
 on the other side of the shore, with power to exact the 
 following fees, viz., for each man, ^d. ; for every horse, mare, 
 or cow, Id. ; for every horse-load, Id. ; for every sheep or 
 goat, d. ; for every heifer or pork, ^d. ; and so rateably 
 and proportionally for all things carried across, paying 
 thereout to the King, 4s. ; to hold in free and common 
 soccage." This ferry, which was a large, decked, flat- 
 bottomed boat, about thirty feet long and twelve broad, and 
 which was worked from the banks of the river by pulleys, 
 plied down to the year 1812, when it ceased, having been 
 rendered useless by the fine stone and mortar bridge 
 erected in that year, over the Owenmore at Templehouse. 
 The last ferryman was Eoger M'Getrick. 
 
 SECTION II. SIEGE OF TEMPLEHOUSE CASTLE IN 1641. 
 
 NOTHING noteworthy occurred at Templehouse from 1627 
 till the stormy period of 1641, when William Crofton, 
 grandson of Edward, and son of William Crofton and 
 Mary Usher, occupied the castle, and had to defend it 
 against the insurgents. Having heard what was passing 
 in other places, Mr. Crofton anticipated an attack, and 
 prepared for it by strengthening the castle and barricading 
 its approaches ; arming and disciplining his retainers ; and 
 laying in a stock of provisions and ammunition. Several 
 fled to the castle as a place of safety, and brought their 
 valuables to it ; but there is reason to think that few 
 strangers were admitted, except such able-bodied men as 
 could lend a hand in the defence of the place ; and that 
 females were excluded, with the exception of a few of the
 
 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 323 
 
 higher class ; such as the wife of the Registrar of Achonry 
 and Killala and Miss Boswell.* Mr. Crofton had fair time 
 to complete his preparations, as the insurrection made slow 
 progress in the beginning. For six weeks or more after its 
 commencement on the 23rd of October, the movement was 
 confined to the six confiscated counties of Ulster, and the 
 County of Leitrim, which had been recently taken from its 
 old lords, the O'Horkes, and planted with English and 
 Scotch undertakers and servitors : this march of the insur- 
 rection showing clearly that the object of those who directed 
 it was not to gratify low bigotry or sectarianism, but to 
 expel the new settlers, and to recover for the old Irish the 
 lands of which they had been deprived. The Croftons 
 were regarded by the insurgents as the chief intruders in 
 the County Sligo at the time; the Cootes, the Coopers, the 
 "Wynnes, the Joneses, etc., coming in later, when the sword 
 of Cromwell had cleared the way for them. 
 
 It was towards the middle of December, and a few days 
 after the capture of Sligo, that the attack on Templehouse 
 began. The whole neighbourhood took interest and part 
 in it. The men of Leyney were led to the place by cap- 
 tains of the O'Hara family, who regarded the castle as their 
 own, and resolved to recover their patrimony ; the Corran 
 contingent was commanded by the MacDonoughs of Keash, 
 anxious to avenge their removal from Ballymote, and, if 
 possible, to return, and by Luke Taaffe, who became, 
 later, one of the most distinguished officers in the Con- 
 federate ranks ; f the men of Tirerrill marched under the 
 
 * Miss Boswell lived probably about Tullyhugh, as we find in the 
 Hearthmoney Returns the name of " Jennet Boswell, Tullyhugh," who 
 may have been the lady in question, or at least, some member of the same 
 family. In the Down Survey, a John Boswell is mentioned as having a 
 mortgage on Carrickbanaghan. 
 
 t Major-General Lucas Taaffo was Governor of Ross when Cromwell 
 and his troops appeared before the town. Some correspondence passed 
 between the Governor and Cromwell, on which occasion the latter made 
 his well-known declaration in respect to the Mass, and the "liberty of
 
 324 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 M'Donoughs of Collooney, Coolea, and Cloonamahon, and 
 Captain Patrick Plunket of Bathgran or Markrea, who 
 took a very energetic part in the proceedings ; considerable 
 bodies were conducted from Sligo by the O'Connors and 
 
 conscience " he would allow Catholics in regard to this cardinal part of 
 their religion. Taaffe's letter and Oliver's reply are subjoined 
 
 "For General Cromwell: These 
 
 " Eoss, Wtk October, 1649. 
 
 '< g IR There wants hut little of what I would propose ; which is, 
 that such townsmen as have a desire to depart may have liberty within a 
 convenient time to carry away themselves and goods : and liberty of con- 
 science to such as shall stay : and that I may carry away such artillery 
 and ammunition as I have in my command. If you he inclined to this, 
 I will send, upon your honour as a safe-conduct, an officer to conclude 
 with you. To which your immediate answer is expected by, Sir, your 
 servant, 
 
 " LUCAS TAAFFE." 
 
 "REPLY. 
 " For the Governor of Ross : These 
 
 " Before Eoss, 19th October, 1649. 
 
 ' ' SIR, To what I formerly offered, I shall make good. A s for your carry- 
 ing away any artillery or ammunition that you brought not with you, or 
 hath not come to you since you had the command of that place, I must 
 deny you that ; expecting you to leave it as you found it. 
 
 " As for that which you mention concerning liberty of conscience, I 
 meddle not with any man's conscience. But if by liberty of conscience 
 you mean a liberty to exercise the Mass, I judge it best to use plain deal- 
 ing, and to let you know where the Parliament of England have power 
 that will not be allowed of. As for such of the townsmen who desire to 
 depart, and carry away, themselves and goods (as you express), I engage 
 myself they shall have three months' time so to do ; and in the meantime 
 shall be protected from violence in their persons and goods, as others 
 under the obedience of Parliament. 
 
 " If you accept of this offer, I engage my honour for a punctual per- 
 formance hereof. I rest, your servant, 
 
 " OLIVEE CEOMWELL." 
 
 Cromwell's Letters, etc. : By Thomas Carlyle, vol. ii, page 174. Major- 
 General Lucas Taaffe, "post varios casus et tot discrimina rerum," died 
 in Ireland, and is buried in Ballymote, in the tomb of his ancestors.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 325 
 
 O'Creans ; and the O'Rorkes, who were always ready to 
 strike a blow at the foreigner, on their own territory or out 
 of it, wherever and whenever the opportunity offered, 
 brought numbers of the hardy kerns and gallowglasses of 
 Breffney to the rendezvous. These forces combined num- 
 bered about 800 men.* 
 
 If the leaders expected that they had only to exhibit 
 these levies before the castle to obtain possession of it they 
 were much mistaken. "William Crofton knew too well the 
 value of his possessions, and felt too keenly the duties of 
 his position, to give in without a hard struggle ; and when 
 summoned to surrender, returned an answer of defiance, to 
 emphasize which he sent soon after it a discharge of cannon 
 among the enemy. The insurgents, judging it impossible 
 to take the fortress by a coup de main, and seeing nothing 
 for it but a regular siege, set themselves to the task, formed 
 a cordon round the building, to prevent ingress or egress, 
 and placed such cannon as they had, which must have been 
 of a very inferior description, in proper position to batter 
 it down. They spread themselves through Carrontavy, 
 Rathbane, and Kill ; along the Ballymote side of the lake, 
 all the way up to Greyfort, and down on the other side to 
 Rinbane, thus completing the circle of investment. The 
 firing was sometimes brisk enough on both sides, but though 
 the casualties from this cause are not recorded, there 
 would not seem to have been much loss of life on either 
 side. There is a tradition that a cannon, placed on the 
 hill over the present garden, did great damage to the castle, 
 and this may account for the disappearance of the sidewall 
 that stood over against the hill, the work having been so 
 injured at the time as to crumble easily away. After 
 having held out till the beginning of February, a period of 
 ten weeks, Mr. Crofton was obliged, from want of ammuni- 
 tion, to ask terms from the besiegers. The conditions 
 
 * Depositions concerning the rising of 1641, in Trinity College Library.
 
 326 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 agreed on, after considerable negotiations, were, on the one 
 side : that the castle should be given up to the Irish ; and, 
 on the other, that Mr. Crofton and his party should have 
 liberty to remain where they were for nine days, should 
 be then allowed to depart with bag and baggage, and should 
 be provided with a safe convoy to Boyle. These stipula- 
 tions were confirmed by oath ; Mr. Crofton and a Protes- 
 tant minister named Oliphant swearing on the Bible ; and 
 the Irish swearing on some other book, probably a missal,* 
 in presence of a priest. For some reason that is not men- 
 
 * The Missal, or Mass-book, was often used for swearing on. ' ' In the 
 bag marked ' Ireland,' in the Chapter-house, Westminster Abbey, there 
 is a paper, No. 53, containing an examination of Sir Gerald Macshayne, 
 Knight, sworn 19th March, 1529, ' upon the holy Masebooke, and the 
 great relike of Erlonde, called Baculum Christi, in presence of the King's 
 deputie, Chancellour, Treasurer, and Justice.' " Obits and Martyroloyy 
 of Christ Church, Introduction, page 15. 
 
 " Until the arrival of the English," says Dr. Reeves, "the custom of 
 swearing on the holy Evangelists was unknown to the Irish (who resorted, 
 instead, to croziers, bells, and other sacred reliquaries, to give solemnity 
 to their declarations.) Even when the Gospel was used, it was not 
 uncommon to introduce some other object to render the oath doubly 
 binding. Thus in a monition directed by Primate Prene, to O'Neil, he 
 requires him to be sworn ' tactis sacrosanctis Dei evangeliis ad ea, et 
 super Baculum Jesu in ecclesia Cathedrali Sanctas Trinitatis, Dublin.' "- 
 Primate Colton's Visitation, p. 44. 
 
 It is no harm to state that, in the Depositions, there is no charge brought 
 against a priest, or any other ecclesiastic, in connection with those transac- 
 tions at Templehouse. For the services of priests in saving Protestants, see 
 O'Flaherty's West Connaught, by Hardiman, pp. 406-7, where "Lieut. 
 John Gell testifies that the O'Flahertys of Ire Connaught would have 
 murdered all the English, had not some priests hindered them." And 
 Mary Bowler witnesses, " that she saw the priests of the towne, and 
 other priests, being about eight in number, going about the towne in their 
 vestments, with tapers burning, and the Sacrament borne before them, 
 and earnestly exhorting the people for Christ's sake, and our Lady's, and 
 Saint Patrick's, that they would shed no more blood, and if they did 
 they would never have mercy . . . that had it not bene for the said 
 priests, the people would have killed all the English Protestants they had 
 found in Gal way." 
 
 Dr. Leland admits that the priests ' ' laboured zealously to moderate 
 the excesses of war," though these labours were difficult and dangerous>
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 327 
 
 tioned Mr. Crofton declared he would not give possession 
 of the place to Captain Brian O'Hara or any of the chiefs 
 present, but only to Oliver O'Hara of Tullyhugh, whom 
 he requested to be sent for, and who was sent for 
 accordingly. 
 
 The agreement was no sooner made than it gave occasion 
 to a quarrel. The O'Haras and some others who had 
 entered the castle to take the oath, refused to leave, insist- 
 ing on the right to remain in possession, while Mr. Crofton 
 contended that he should have the exclusive occupation of 
 the place for the nine days mentioned in the compact. 
 The castle party charged the others with a flagrant violation 
 of the treaty ; while the Irish recriminated and retaliated 
 the charge, insisting on the right to have some of their 
 people in the place, and citing the usual practice under 
 similar circumstances in proof of the right. It is likely 
 that both sides were bona fide in the interpretation of the 
 agreement. A scuffle, however, was the consequence of 
 the misunderstanding, and in it Mr. Crofton, who sought 
 to eject by force those he considered intruders, was thrown 
 down by the O'Haras and disabled. This happened on 
 
 considering the excited state of the people, who replied to the priests in 
 the spirit of Mr. Duffy's stanzas 
 
 " Pity! no, no, you dare not, priest not you, our father, dare 
 Preach to us now that godless creed the murderer's blood to spare ; 
 To spare his blood, while tombless still our slaughtered kin implore 
 ' Graves and revenge' from Gohbin cliffs and Carrick's bloody shore. 
 
 " Pity ! could we ' forget, forgive,' if we were clods of clay, 
 Our martyred priests, our banished chiefs, our race in dark decay, 
 And, worse than all, you know it, priest, the daughters of our land 
 With wrongs we blushed to name until the sword was in our hand ? 
 
 " Pity ! well, if you needs must whine, let pity have its way, 
 Pity for all our comrades true, far from our side to-day : 
 The prison-bound who rot in chains, the faithful dead who poured 
 Their blood 'neath Temple's lawless axe or Parson's bloody sword." 
 
 The Muster of the North.
 
 328 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 Friday ; next day, if we can rely on the Depositions, the 
 insurgents divided the property found in the place ; and on 
 Sunday they had mass celehrated in the hall, all the 
 English and Scotch, except Crofton, Oliphant, and Miss 
 Boswell, assisting at it, like the Catholics. After this 
 Crofton and his people were removed to the castle of Bally- 
 mote, then in the hands of Sir George Goodman, where 
 they remained in safety for a quarter of a year, when the 
 agitation abated and they were able to leave. 
 
 Had the case rested here it were needless to say more on 
 the subject ; but it would appear that crimes and outrages 
 were committed, which it is right to mention, if it were 
 only to condemn and deplore them. Though the writer 
 believes that not even a tithe of what is averred in the 
 notorious Depositions of 1641 is worthy of credence, still it 
 is certain that some of this testimony must be true. 
 
 In regard to Templehouse, William Brown, Eegistrar of 
 the dioceses of Achonry and Killala, who lived at Kilvar- 
 net, and had six quarters of land, with a castle and mill in 
 Leyney, testified " that the insurgents did hang William 
 Oliphant a preacher of God's word tied him to a horse's 
 tail, and dragged him down the streets ; and, at the same- 
 time, that they did hang Marrix>t Careless and his wife, and 
 inhumanly stab George Wray Clarke, preacher of God's 
 word." The wife of this witness, Jane Brown, who was in 
 the castle during the whole period of the siege, testified : 
 that " she heard, while in the castle of Templehouse, that 
 the rebel captains did, at Rabane, near Templehouse, 
 wound six or seven women, British or Scotch Protestants, 
 then throw them into a ditch or pit, and cover them with 
 stones and earth, of which they died." 
 
 There cannot be an atom of truth in the sensational 
 story of Mrs. Brown. Had the horrid tragedy, which she 
 mentions, ever taken place, her husband, who was at large 
 during the proceedings against the castle, could not fail to 
 know all about it, and knowing it, to relate the facts in his
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 329 
 
 evidence, whereas he is quite silent on the subject. And all 
 the other witnesses examined are equally silent, though 
 they would have desired above all things to confirm, if they 
 could, allegations so damaging to the Irish, and thus pro- 
 mote the great object for which the Depositions were taken. 
 Nor is there a particle of tradition to support her. There 
 is not a man, woman, or child in the parish or in the county 
 that ever heard a word about the occurrence. Now if 
 such a tragedy happened about two hundred years ago, 
 can any one imagine that the memory of it should have 
 utterly died out by this time ? Is it not, on the contrary, 
 a matter of course, not only that the remembrance should 
 survive, but that it should have gathered about it new 
 circumstances of additional horror, such as always grow 
 around an event of this kind in transmission from genera- 
 tion to generation. The scene too of the massacre is as 
 great a mystery as the massacre itself. Doubtless a spot 
 stained with such a crime would be as infamous as the 
 valley of Topheth or the Black Hole of Calcutta ; and yet, 
 if you ask any inhabitant of Eabane for the place, he will 
 tell you that in all his life he never heard a word about it, 
 nor his fathers before him, though they have been living in 
 the same track for centuries. 
 
 Jane Brown's story then seems to be a deliberate 
 fabrication, like so many other things contained in the 
 Depositions. And a most improbable fabrication it is. 
 Had she charged those atrocities on some stragglers about 
 the Irish quarters, she might have found persons to listen 
 to her, as it is often impossible to restrain the excesses of 
 such characters, but to impute this racking and hewing, 
 this unmanly torturing, this burying alive of five or six old 
 women, to the " rebel captains," some of them, at least, 
 high spirited and cultivated gentlemen, who would risk 
 their lives to prevent or punish such barbarity, is to over- 
 shoot the mark, and to adventure a slander which no man
 
 330 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 
 
 of common sense or common virtue will ever believe.* 
 Verily, Iniquity hath lied to itself. 
 
 Some perhaps will say, that she could have heard during 
 the attack on the castle what she testifies, silly as the 
 rumour was. This is possible ; for it is well known that 
 in periods of great excitement, the most extravagant and 
 absurd reports are circulated, and any one who has read 
 the history of sieges knows that there is nothing too 
 monstrous for credence at such a time. If the story then 
 was gossiped about among the females in the castle, the 
 state of the times might excuse Mrs. Brown for believing 
 it, but that would not justify her to mention the matter 
 two years later, when she must have known its falsehood ; 
 and the very words she employs, that "she had heard so 
 and so while in Templehouse," go to suggest that she 
 selected the words for the purpose of guarding against 
 contradiction, while casting all the odium she could upon 
 the rebel captains. For, no matter how false and calum- 
 nious the imputation may have been, she could not be 
 convicted of giving false testimony, as she might still insist 
 that she had " heard " what she swore. Hearsay evidence 
 is excluded from courts of justice, and yet hearsay is the 
 beginning and end the alpha and omega the warp and 
 woof of the 1641 Depositions. 
 
 The allegations respecting Mr. Oliphant and the three 
 or four others mentioned by Mr. Brown, seem better 
 
 * Decisive evidence should be forthcoming before one believes men of 
 position and high courage to be guilty of cruel and unmanly conduct, to 
 whatever side or party they may belong ; and on this principle we 
 should withhold credence from many allegations regarding brave Eng- 
 lish generals, such as that conveyed in the tradition which John 
 O'Donovan mentions in a note to his Annals of the Four Masters, sub anno 
 1592, where he says : " According to the tradition in the country, Sir 
 Kichard Bingham murdered sixteen women of the Burke family in this 
 castle " (Cloonagashel, or Cloona Castle, in the parish of Ballinrobe, 
 barony of Kilmaine, and County of Mayo.)
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 331 
 
 founded. There can be no doubt about Mr. Oliphant's 
 having lost his life, as this is positively averred by Mr. 
 Brown and another trustworthy witness. Nor is it 
 unlikely that Marriot Careless and wife were put to death, 
 and that George Wray was wounded. These are the 
 casualties recorded ; and considering that the siege lasted 
 for ten weeks, and that men's minds were so embittered, 
 the list is not so startling. When we recollect some scenes 
 of the Franco-Prussian, the Anglo-Indian, the Carlist, the 
 Turco-Servian, and the Turco-Russian wars, and the 
 atrocities imputed to the Prussians, the English, the Turks, 
 the Spaniards and the Russians, at a time when men boast 
 of the humanity with which war is carried on, the excesses 
 of 1641 will bear comparison with those of recent years.* 
 Assuming Mr. Oliphant and the two others to have been 
 hanged, this severity and similar severities in other parts of 
 Ireland, lose much of their repulsiveness when set by the 
 side of such outrages as the blowing from the cannon's 
 mouth, the starving, the burning, the deliberate torturing 
 of the wounded, the cutting away of ears and noses, and 
 the various other acts of mutilation and torture said to 
 have been inflicted on their enemies by German, British, 
 Carlist, Turkish, and Russian soldiers. 
 
 The dragging of Mr. Oliphant, or of his dead body, at a 
 horse's tail seems the most revolting outrage with which 
 the besiegers are charged ; but the nature of this transaction 
 depends a good deal on the circumstances. It is well 
 known that at that time horses drew by the tail ; and if 
 Mr. Oliphant was merely taken in this way either to the 
 place of execution or the place of burial, the proceeding 
 would lose most of its repulsiveness ; but if, on the other 
 hand, he was attached to the horse's tail for the purpose of 
 treating him with foul indignity, language is not strong 
 enough to stigmatize the brutal and diabolical act as it 
 
 * " Appalling savagery" is the language the Times employs in a load- 
 ing article to describe the conduct of bo'th Turks and Kussians.
 
 332 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 deserves. The former is the more probable supposition, 
 though no direct testimony can be quoted in its favour.* 
 
 For it must not be forgotten that the Depositions give 
 only one side of the case. All the deponents, without ex- 
 ception, were brought forward to criminate the Irish, and 
 particularly such of the Irish as had estates to lose. And 
 this circumstance alone should leave the Depositions 
 valueless as evidence. Every one acquainted with courts 
 of justice knows how formidable trumped-up cases are made 
 to appear, while the plaintiff and his witnesses have all the 
 swearing to themselves, and how they collapse when the 
 rebutting witnesses are heard. While the Claimant and 
 Co. were swearing up his title to the Tichbourne estates, 
 nineteen out of every twenty Englishmen believed him to 
 be the lawful heir ; but most of these dupes pronounced the 
 man an impostor on hearing the evidence for the defence. 
 
 Something similar would happen if we could act on the 
 cnidi atteram partem principle in the case under considera- 
 tion, and hear what the Irish had to say. Many of those 
 concerned in the Depositions, either as commissioners or 
 witnesses, were almost as much claimants for other people's 
 property as Arthur Orton himself : and were it possible for 
 the incriminated to make defence ; to expose the self- 
 interest and corruption of the judges ; to cross-examine the 
 witnesses, and draw out their prevarications and perjuries ; 
 to set forth the injuries and outrages of which the Irish 
 were victims, it could be shown that the unfortunate in- 
 surgents were more sinned against than sinning. 
 
 Without justifying the excesses on which Mr. Froude 
 dwells in his English in Ireland, there can be no doubt 
 that they were committed in self-defence or in retaliation. 
 From the date of the Gunpowder Plot it seems to have 
 
 * Horses harrowed by the tail in this neighbourhood so late as 1776, 
 for in that year, Arthur Young, while staying at Markrea, writes : 
 " Horses are used for tillage only, four in a plough abreast, and some 
 harrowing still done by the tail. Young's Tour, vol. i, p. 332.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 333 
 
 "been the settled policy of English statesmen to root the 
 Irish and their religion out of Ireland, and to substitute 
 Protestantism along with English and Scotch colonists.* 
 
 Swarms of these colonists came in rapid succession, 
 spread themselves over the country, and took possession of 
 such lands as pleased them, sometimes using for their pur- 
 pose forms of law, and sometimes carrying everything with 
 the high hand. " The whole kingdom," says an important 
 contemporary report on the state of things in Ireland in 
 1611, published in the Ecclesiastical Record of February, 
 1874, "is filled and thronged with Englishmen, who daily 
 come over like swarms of bees, so that very shortly this 
 
 * The numbers of Scotch that passed over to Ireland, about this time, 
 may be inferred from what Sir William Brereton wrote in 1635 : 
 41 Above 10,000 persons, says he, have within two years last past, left the 
 country wherein they lived, which was between Aberdeen and Inverness, 
 and are gone for Ireland." The Ulster Journal of Archeology, vol. iv, 
 page 161. 
 
 And that a good number of Scotch settled near Templehouse, is clear 
 from the fact that the adjoining district of Clara is divided into the 
 townlands of Clara Scotch and Clara Irish. 
 
 A resolve to hold their own against Scotch and English, and to recover 
 it where it had been taken away, was the cardinal motive of the Irish in 
 the rising of 1641, a fact to which Gavan Duffy gives due prominence in 
 his magnificent ballad : 
 
 4( Now, now we'll teach the shameless Scot to purge his thievish maw ; 
 Now, now the Court may fall to pray, for Justice is the Law ; 
 Now shall the Undertaker square, for once, his loose accounts 
 We'll strike, brave boys, a fair result, from all his false amounts. 
 
 " Come, trample down their robber rule, and smite its venal spawn, 
 Their foreign laws, their foreign church, their ermine and their lawn, 
 With all the spacious fry of fraud that robbed us of our own ; 
 And plant our ancient laws again beneath our lineal throne. 
 
 " Our standard flies o'er fifty towers, o'er twice ten thousand men ; 
 Down have we plucked the pirate Red, never to rise again ; 
 The Green alone shall stream above our native field and flood 
 The spotless Green, save where its folds are gemmed with Saxon blood." 
 The Muster of the North. Spirit of the Nation.
 
 334 PARISH OF RILVARNET. 
 
 island will be unable to contain, much less support, such a 
 crowd. Wherever they appear the first thing they do is 
 to drive the natives from the lands and possessions inherited 
 from their grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and can be 
 proved to have been held peacefully by them for the last 
 500 or 600 years ; and even though possession be imme- 
 morial nay, even though it be by new favour and con- 
 firmation of the king, made in legal form, and as the laws 
 and statutes of these kingdoms require, notwithstanding all, 
 if an Englishman pleases he can enter a lawsuit and take 
 all, per fas aut per nefas .... so that the natives have not 
 a single foot of ground secure, and the English have every- 
 thing at their will." This exclusiveness was carried even 
 into the church. " And as regards " continues the 
 Report " all dignities, bishoprics, prebendaryships, and 
 ecclesiastical benefices, they have ordained that no native 
 can possess or enjoy them. Even one Miler, who was for- 
 merly a friar, and for the last thirty-six years has been the 
 pseudo Archbishop of Cashel, of whom they always made 
 much, has had to receive an Englishman as coadjutor and 
 companion in his dignity." And not only were the natives 
 robbed of their houses and lands, but they were stripped of 
 their moveables as well ; " and in the scrutinies and ex- 
 aminations they make in Catholic houses " says the 
 Report " they take away en passant the silver and jewel- 
 lery they meet with, saying : the chains are rosaries, and 
 that in the jewellery are inserted Agnus Deis and relics ; 
 and that the cups are chalices ; and that the pieces of silk, 
 cambric, and holland are altar ornaments ; and, under 
 colour of this they rob the outraged people of their 
 property. And the shamelessness of one of these heretics 
 has reached such a pitch that he keeps the chalices he has 
 taken in his pantry, and uses them at table." 
 
 All this time the practice of the Catholic religion was 
 felony, priests were banned, and concealed themselves in 
 woods and morasses, and the laity were fleeced by fines for
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 335 
 
 absence, on Sundays and Holidays, from places of 
 Protestant worship. Some ecclesiastics who fell into the 
 hands of the civil authorities were hanged. If the insur- 
 gents then hanged Mr. Oliphant, they were only following 
 the precedent set them. Even in tying to the horse's tail 
 they were copying the example of the English,* and the 
 only difference between them and the English was, that 
 they showed themselves much less inhuman ; as is clear 
 from the following extract of another contemporary 
 document published in the same article of the Record : 
 " The blessed Cornelius O'Duvena, Bishop of Down and 
 Connor, on the 5th of February of this present year 1612, 
 suffered glorious martyrdom in this form : They took him 
 from the prison at a horse's tail to the gallows, where they 
 half hanged him, and then cut off his head, tore out and 
 burned his bowels, and cut his body into quarters ; as also 
 Bishop O'Gallagher, who being unable to ride on account 
 of his great age he was over eighty was supported on 
 
 * It would seem that the English practised this barbarous act soon after 
 the. Invasion, for the Book of Fenagh tells us that they inflicted the in- 
 dignity on Tiernan O'Ruairc : 
 
 ' ' In Flachtga will be slain the King, 
 Tighernan, tho' numerous his companions ; 
 A burning to my heart now is 
 His slaughter by the invaders. 
 Bitter to my heart, and woe, is 
 That King at horse's tails." 
 
 Book of Fenagh, pp. 66-67. On this passage the learned Mr. Hennessy 
 observes: " This is the only account, as far as the editor is aware, in 
 which O'Euairc is stated to have been drawn at horse's tails after his 
 murder.' ' 
 
 In the Articles of Peace, concluded between James Lord Marquess of 
 Ormond and Lord.Mountgarret and other Catholics, on the 28th March, 
 1646, one of the articles runs thus : " It is further Concluded, Accorded, 
 and Agreed, by and between the said Parties, and his Majesty is further 
 graciously pleased, that two Acts lately passed in his Kingdom, prohibit- 
 ing the Plowing with Horses by the tail, and the other prohibiting the 
 burning of oats in the straw, be repealed."
 
 336 PARISH OF KILVAUNET. 
 
 horseback with, the points of their lances, so that the poor 
 old man's body was covered with blood on the way to the 
 scaffold, which they found he was unable to reach, and 
 they cut off his head, and threw him into a ditch." 
 
 All this is no justification of the excesses which the 
 Irish may have committed. If the English were 
 tyrannical and brutal in their proceedings, that is no 
 sufficient reason for the Irish retaliating with crimes. 
 Such a provocation might warrant the latter in trying to 
 strike off the odious tyranny that oppressed them ; for if 
 insurrection is ever lawful, it should be at a time when 
 men's religion is persecuted, their liberties crushed, and 
 their houses, lands, and lives assailed, but even when 
 insurrection is lawful, it is necessary, in prosecuting it, to 
 employ only lawful and honorable means. But though 
 crime cannot, in ethics, be pleaded as a set-off against 
 crime, it should still be mentioned in extenuation or expla- 
 nation of evil doings, for we judge differently a causeless 
 and a provoked offence. The observance of this rule, in 
 the matter in hand, would be likely to soften or to alter 
 men's feelings. If both English and Irish were to bear in 
 mind the part which some, at least, of their respective 
 countrymen had in the dark deeds in question, it might be 
 found that shame and sorrow for the past are far more 
 suitable feelings for both sides of the channel than the 
 anger and antipathies that at present prevail. And it 
 might also come to be believed, that, if either side has a 
 right to cast the first stone, it is not the clients of Mr. 
 Froude,* the countrymen of Sir Frederick Hamilton, Sir 
 Charles Coote and Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 * " According to Mr. Froude," says the Saturday Review, of July 18, 
 1874, "The colonists were an army of occupation amidst a spoliated 
 nation, who were sullenly brooding over their wrongs." "Granting 
 this," continues the reviewer, "all the rest follows naturally. The 
 spoliated nation, brooding over its wrongs, dealt with the army of occu- 
 pation as spoliated nations always will do when they have the chance.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 337 
 
 Before quitting this place, we may mention that, unlike 
 what happened in regard to the parish of Ballysadare, 
 where proprietors forfeited 5270A. IR. 8p., for complicity, 
 or alleged complicity, in the insurrection of 1641, the total 
 of lands forfeited in the parish of Kilvarnet, for the same 
 cause or pretext, was only 435A. 2R. OP., the whole of 
 which was Bishop-land, the rest of the parish being what 
 is called, in the Down Survey maps, " Protestant Land," 
 that is, land belonging, in 1640, to Protestant owners. 
 Except what belonged to the bishop of Achonry, who 
 owned two parcels, one of 143A. OR. OP., the other 277A. 
 OR. OP., as well as a division of 15A. 2R. OP. that had been 
 in controversy " between the bishop and the adjacent 
 towns," (Book of Distributions), the whole of the parish 
 was the property, in 1640, of Kean O'Hara, Irish Protes- 
 tant, and William Crofton, English Protestant, and thus 
 escaped confiscation. 
 
 SECTION III. TEMPLEHOUSE UNDER THE PERCEVALS. 
 
 TEMPLEHOUSE passed from the Creftons to the Percevals 
 by the marriage of Mary Crofton, daughter and heiress of 
 William, the defender of the castle, to George Perceval.* 
 
 We no more justify than Mr. Froude does those acts of violence on the 
 part of the natives, on which he is so fond of enlarging ; but we hold 
 that a crime of the same kind done by a member of a spoliated nation 
 brooding over its wrongs, is not equal in moral guilt to the same crime 
 when done by the army of occupation which is engaged in inflicting those 
 wrongs." 
 
 * Kean Oge O'Hara, it is said, had the offer of this young lady's hand 
 and estate. The tradition is : that the heiress's mother, after the death 
 of her first husband, married Kean O'Hara. At that time Mr. O'Hara 
 was a widower, with a son, Kean Oge ; and Mrs. Crofton, after the second 
 marriage, wishing to marry her daughter to her husband's son, suggested 
 the matter to the husband ; but he asked time to think over the proposal, 
 and made some slighting observations as to the perfections of the young 
 
 Z
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 This gentleman was the youngest son of Sir Philip Per- 
 ceval, the well-known statesman of the period of the Com- 
 monwealth, ancestor of the earls of Egmont and the 
 Percevals of Templehouse, and belonged to one of the 
 oldest and most illustrious families of England. Genealo- 
 gists trace the origin of the Percevals to a younger branch 
 of the sovereign dukes of Brittany in France.* In the 
 Patent creating John Perceval an Irish Peer, we read that 
 a member of the family attended William of Normandy in 
 the invasion of England ; and it is certain that Richard 
 Perceval, another member, accompanied Strongbow of 
 whom he was first cousin to Ireland ; and that, later, he 
 held high command among the Crusaders, whom Richard 
 Coaur de Lion led to Palestine. 
 
 Sir Philip, as his epitaph testifies, experienced both 
 extremes of fortune : 
 
 " Fortunam expertus jacet Phillippus utramque; " 
 
 for, after filling some of the highest and most lucrative 
 public offices in Ireland, and acquiring 1100 acres of land 
 in Wexford, Tipperary, Cork, and other counties, he was 
 so straitened by reverses, towards the close of life, as to be 
 obliged to sell the " manor of Burton, in England ; the 
 only remains of an estate which had continued for 500 
 years in the family" (Lodge, vol. ii, p. 240). Sir John, 
 the eldest son of Sir Philip, took also a prominent part in 
 state affairs, and was joined with Fleetwood in superintend- 
 ing the transplantation of the Irish Papists in Connaught ; 
 a [measure which he strongly advocated ; but which he 
 
 lady. The mother, indignant at this, proceeded with her daughter to 
 Dublin ; and when O'Hara, on thinking better of the offer, and finding it 
 a very advantageous one, followed the wife to accept it, he arrived only 
 in time to learn that Miss Crofton was already the wife of Mr. George 
 Perceval. 
 
 * Mervyn Archdall's Peerage of Ireland, vol. ii ; Article, " Percoval Earl 
 of Egmont."
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 339 
 
 advocated only with the view of averting other schemes 
 still more fatal to the Irish ( Yvery, ii, pp. 341, 342). 
 Having great influence over the mind of Henry Cromwell, 
 he employed that influence so effectually, that Henry 
 joined the elder and less ambitious brother, Richard, in 
 renouncing all pretensions to the Protectorate ; and the 
 government of the Restoration were so grateful to Sir John 
 for this important service, that they called him to the Privy 
 Council, created him a baronet, appointed him registrar of 
 the Court of Claims and Court of Wards " this latter an 
 office of immense and unknown profit," (Lodge, ii, p. 256), 
 and committed to him a leading part in executing the Acts 
 of Settlement and Explanation. George Perceval, the 
 founder of the Templehouse family, was, as well as Sir 
 Philip and Sir John, a high public official, being registrar 
 of the Prerogative Court; and it is supposed that this 
 gentleman had never set foot in Templehouse when he 
 was drowned near Holyhead, in 1675, leaving issue three 
 sons, Philip, "William, and Charles, and one daughter, 
 Catherine. At death he left the family considerable landed 
 property in Tipperary, Limerick, and Mayo, as well as the 
 Templehouse estate. 
 
 George Perceval, however, was not allowed to enjoy this 
 estate unchallenged, for the Croftons sought to get it back, 
 alleging in favour of their claim the will of William 
 Crofton, Senr. To repel this attack, George Perceval, and 
 Mary, his wife, instituted on the 15th of June, 1667, as 
 plaintiffs, a chancery suit against Henry Crofton, Esq. ; 
 Kean O'Hara, Esq. ; Rose, his wife ; John Williams ; and 
 John Reynolds ; as defendants. The decree in the suit was 
 issued on the 26th of November, 1670, and was against 
 the defendant "Henry Crofton, and his heirs, and all 
 claiming under him, or under the pretended will and settle- 
 ment of William Crofton, the elder, of Templehouse afore- 
 said. Defendant to bring in and leave with the registrar 
 of this court said pretended will and certain other
 
 340 PARISH OF K1LVARHET. 
 
 documents, to the end that plaintiffs may have attested 
 copies of same. Court dont give costs ; but if defendant 
 shall hereafter sue plaintiff for the matters in his now bill 
 set forth, Court will award costs against him." (Extract 
 of Decree as found in Public Record Office, Dublin.) 
 
 Seventy or eighty years after the siege, Templehouse 
 was the scene of very different occurrences from those of 
 1641. As at the theatre comedy or farce follows tragedy, 
 so it happened in the old haunts of the Templars. The 
 eighteenth century was a period of great relaxation and 
 excess in Ireland the time of bucks and bullies, duels* 
 and abductions, f cockfighting, carousing and gambling. 
 
 * ' ' The public mind was in such a state of irritation from the period of 
 1780 to the time of the Union, that it was supposed 300 remarkable duels 
 were fought in Ireland during that interval. Counties or districts became 
 distinguished for their dexterity at the weapons used : Galway for the 
 sword ; Tipperary, Roscommon, and Sligo for the pistol ; Mayo for equal 
 skill in both. So universal and irrepressible was the propensity, that 
 dwlling clubs were actually established, the conditions of which were : 
 that before a man was balloted for, he must sign a solemn declaration 
 that he had exchanged a shot or thrust with some antagonist ; and a code 
 of laws and regulations were drawn up as a standard to refer to on all 
 points of honour. This was called, ' The practice of duelling and points 
 of honour, settled at Clonmel Summer Assizes, 1755, by gentlemen dele- 
 gates from Tipperary, Galway, etc., and presented for general adoption 
 throughout Ireland.' This singular document is still extant, though, 
 happily, now never appealed to." 
 
 " Weapons of offence were generally kept at the inns for the accommo- 
 dation of those who might come on an emergency unprovided. In such 
 a case ' pistols were ordered for two, and breakfast for one ; ' as it might, 
 and did often happen, that the other did not return to partake of it, being 
 left dead on the field." Ireland Sixty Tears Ago, p. 22. 
 
 f " Abduction, or forcibly carrying off heiresses was another of those 
 crying evils which formerly afflicted Ireland ; but, it was an outrage so 
 agreeable to the spirit of the times, and so congenial to the ardent and 
 romantic character of the natives, that it was considered an achievement 
 creditable to the man, and a matter of boast and exultation to the woman. 
 When once it went abroad that a woman in any station of life had money, 
 she became the immediate object of some enterprising fellow, who readily 
 collected about him adherents to assist in his attempt. No gentleman or 
 farmer felt himself safe who had a daughter entitled to a fortune ; she
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 341 
 
 Reading, culture, even politics were neglected, and the 
 great principle of the day was, " Let us eat and drink, for 
 to-morrow we die." If Templehouse was not in advance, 
 it certainly was not backward in practising the follies of 
 the times, at least such of them as were less criminal. 
 Outside of Dublin there was no spot more remarkable for 
 frolic and feasting. The host was a Mr. John Harlowe, a 
 so called gentleman grazier, one of a class that became 
 very numerous about that time, though vigorously opposed, 
 decried, and denounced by ministers of the Established 
 Church, including Dean Swift and Primate Boulter " for 
 decreasing the number of the people, without which any 
 country however blessed by nature must continue poor,"* 
 and for reducing the humbler inhabitants to the condition 
 of " wild herdsmen like Scythian savages." 
 
 Harlowe rented for grazing purposes several large dis- 
 tricts of the country as well as Templehouse, had hundreds 
 of herds in employment, and owned more sheep and cattle 
 than it was easy to count. Unlike, however, most of this 
 class, he was hospitable and generous ; and the shooting 
 lodge at Templehouse, where he resided, as much as the 
 family residence in Rathmullen, near Keash, was an open 
 house of entertainment for all who desired to enter, with- 
 out distinction of rich or poor, gentle or simple, native or 
 
 was sure to be carried off with or without her consent, and he lived in. a 
 constant state of alarm till she was happily disposed of in marriage." 
 Sketches of Ireland Sixty Years Ago, p. 32. 
 
 * In his Short View of the State of Ireland, among the true causes of 
 any country's flourishing and growing rich, Dean Swift gives as the 
 seventh cause, " the improvement of land ; encouragement of agriculture ; 
 and thereby increasing the number of the people, without which any 
 country, however blessed by nature, must continue poor." And thereupon 
 he remarks: "As to the improvement of land, those few who attempt 
 that or planting, through covetousness or want of skill, generally leave 
 things worse than they were ; and by running into the fancy of grazing, 
 after the manner of the Scythians, are every day depopulating the 
 country." Swift's Works, vol. ii, p. 79; Bonn's Edition.
 
 342 PARISH OF XILVAKNET. 
 
 stranger.* The great business of the place was to cater, to 
 cook, and to consume ; and the wildest stories are told of 
 the mountains of beef and mutton, and the oceans of claret 
 and usquebaugh provided for daily use. It was a continual 
 feast, and the squireens of the neighbourhood, wherever 
 they passed the day, were sure to take a seat at Harlowe's 
 table in the evening, and have their fill of the good things 
 going. The revel lasted all night, the guests, according to 
 their several tastes, spending the hours in singing, drinking, 
 gambling, or dancing to the stirring strains of the fiddle 
 and the bagpipe, f which were in perpetual motion. 
 
 At stated times there were more formal banquets at the 
 lodge, to which the principal gentry of the county were 
 invited, and for which Carolan and the harp were always 
 secured as the chief attraction. It was on one of those 
 occasions that the bard composed the song of Cuppaun 
 O'Hara. When enjoyment was at its highest, and the 
 company were loud in praise of the host, one of the party 
 asked Carolan to give a planxty in Harlowe's honour, 
 something like what he was in the habit of composing for 
 the O'Haras, telling the blind bard, to reassure him, that 
 Kean O'Hara was not present, though that gentleman was 
 there and co-operating in what was meant as a practical 
 joke. Carolan was probably not in a condition, by this 
 time, to keep out of the trap so skilfully laid and gave, on 
 the spot, a song in honour of Harlowe, which was very 
 
 * In those days hospitality went into extremes in other places as well 
 as at Templehouse. " In the parish of Kilmurry, and County of Cork," 
 writes the Reverend Doctor O'Connor, "the M'Swineys set up a stone 
 near Clodagh, on which they inscribed in Irish an invitation to all pas- 
 sengers to repair for entertainment to the house of M'Swiney." Memoirs 
 of the Life and Writings of the late Charles 0' Connor, of Belangare, Esq., 
 M.R.I.A. : by the Eev. Charles O'Connor, D.D., Member of the Academy 
 of Cortona, p. 173. 
 
 t The bagpipe has been a favourite instrument with the Irish from 
 time immemorial, both on festive and on funeral occasions. " The Irish 
 music," says Cox Hibernia Anglicana Preface "was either a Harp 
 (which is the arms of the Kingdom), and makes an excellent sound if it
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 343 
 
 complimentary to that gentleman, and tended to place him 
 on a level with the O'Haras. Kean O'Hara, carrying on 
 the joke, now came forward, and pretending to be hurt, 
 remonstrated with the bard for " comparing him with that 
 bullocker Harlowe." The poor bard saw at once that he 
 was " sold ; " and inspired by devotion for the Celtic chief- 
 tain, composed and performed, on the instant, a melody in 
 which he awarded the palm to O'Hara's full cup, not only 
 over that of Harlowe, but over that of all the world besides. 
 The following is a translation, by Thomas Furlong, of two 
 stanzas of this composition, as they are given in Hardiman's 
 Irish Minstrelsy : 
 
 Oh ! were I at rest 
 
 Amidst Arran's green isles, 
 
 Or in climes where the summer 
 Unchangingly smiles ; 
 
 Tho' treasures and dainties 
 Might come at a call, 
 
 Still, O'Hara's full cup, 
 
 I would prize more than all. 
 
 But why would I say 
 
 That my choice it must be, 
 When the prince of our fathers 
 
 Hath loved it like me ; 
 Then come, jolly Turlough, 
 
 Where friends may he found ; 
 And our Kian we'll pledge 
 
 As that cup goes around. 
 
 be skilfully touched ; or a Bagpipe which is a squealing Engine, fit only 
 for a Bear-Garden ; nevertheless they are much used at Irish Burials to 
 en crease the Noyse, and encourage the Women to Cry, and follow the 
 Corps, for there is nothing coveted more by the Friends of the deceased, 
 than to have abundance of Company at the Burial, and a great Cry for 
 the Defunct ; which they think argues, That he was a Person of Figure 
 and Merit, and was well beloved in his Country ; therefore they bury 
 their Dead with great Ululations or Allelewn, after the Egyptian manner, 
 and hire Women to encrease the Cry: And I myself have often seen 
 strange Women come into the Crowd at a Funeral, and set up the Cry or 
 jLllagone for a Quarter of a Mile together, and then enquire of some of 
 the Company, Who is it that is dead ? And hence arose the Proverb, To 
 weep Irish, i.e., to cry without concern." (See page 207.)
 
 344 PARISH OF KILVARKET. 
 
 Nor was Carolan the only poet whose muse drew inspi- 
 ration from Templehouse. James Whyte, of Ballymote, a 
 contemporary of Carolan's and superior to Carolan himself 
 in comic humour, sang the extravagances of the place in a 
 rollicking style, eminently in keeping with the subject. 
 Of Whyte, the venerable Charles O'Connor, of Ballinagar, 
 says : " He had a genius for comedy : and had he been 
 bred in the school of Moliere, would have been one of the 
 most celebrated comic poets of the age ; " and of his com- 
 position on Templehouse an able critic, quoted in Walker's 
 Memoirs of the Irish Sards, (vol. i, p. 331), writes: 
 "Whyte's description of an entertainment and council 
 held at Templehouse in Connaught, may be considered as 
 the ne plus ultra of all the subjects that the wit of man 
 has ever devised to excite and continue the loudest peals 
 of laughter." It is to be feared that this production is no 
 longer extant, but should it or any other of Whyte's pieces 
 still linger about Corran, where formerly they were greatly 
 prized, it is hoped that some friendly hand will gather and 
 save them, before they are gone beyond recovery. 
 
 One of the best remembered events in the more recent 
 history of the Templehouse Percevals, is the duel of Philip 
 Caech Perceval and Centy O'Korke. Hyacinth, or, as he 
 is generally called, Centy O'Rorke, was one of the most 
 noted duellists of his day, and had in Lower Connaught 
 much the same reputation that Paul de Cassagnac enjoys 
 at present in France. Inheriting overbearing pride from 
 the O'Rorkes, " the proudest and most inflexible family of 
 
 Cox's opinion of the bagpipe agrees with that expressed by the author 
 of Httdibras : 
 
 " Then bagpipes of the loudest drones, 
 With snuffling broken-winded tones, 
 Whose blasts of air, in pockets shut, 
 Sound filthier than from the gut, 
 And make a viler noise than swine 
 In windy weather, when they whine." 
 
 Part 2, Canto ii.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 345 
 
 all the Irish race,"* he had, besides, an insolence, a reckless- 
 ness, and a capriciousness of temper peculiar to himself. 
 With a horsewhip in one hand and a pistol in the other, 
 this turbulent bully was the terror of high and low through- 
 
 * John 0' Donovan has left an unpublished fragment of a dissertation 
 on The O'Rourkes of Ancient Times, the first sentence of which is : " This 
 illustrious family, the proudest and most warlike of the Irish of Connaught, 
 is of the race of the Irish monarch, Eochy Moymedon, who possessed 
 themselves of the provinces of Connaught, Ulster, and Meath, which they 
 maintained till the period of the English Invasion." MS. in the posses- 
 sion of Alderman O'Eorke, J.P., Dublin. 
 
 And the same writer, in the Annals of the Four Masters, in a note under 
 the year 1591, observes : " The family of O'Eourke seems to have been 
 the proudest and most inflexible of all the Irish race." And 0' Donovan 
 quotes Sir Henry Sydney's saying : " And first of Owrycke (O'Eorke) I 
 found him the proudest man that ever I dealt with in Ireland." 
 
 The O'Eorkes were the most resolute and persevering adversaries that 
 the English ever met with in Ireland. From Tiernan, in the twelfth 
 century, to Bryan Oge, in the sixteenth, the chiefs of that family were 
 always in active hostility against the foreigner, whatever course other 
 Irish chiefs pursued ; and even when O'Connor Sligo and Eory O'Don- 
 nell submitted at Athlone to the English deputy, O'Eorke, though 
 strongly urged by friend and foe, refused to follow their example." "In 
 the meantime," writes Cox, " Sir Oliver Lambert had driven the Burkes 
 and their M'William out of the County Mayo; and on the 18th of 
 November the Deputy began his journey to Connaught, and on the 2nd 
 of December he came to Athloan ; and on the 14th of December O'Connor 
 Sligo and Eory O'Donnell came thither, and made their submission to 
 him; and although O'Connor did act his part well, and alleadged many 
 plausible excuses, yet, O'Donnell not only out-did him, but also exceeded 
 all others that had submitted up to that day. The Deputy kept Christ- 
 mas at Galway, and there received into favour the Flahertys, MacDer- 
 mods, O'Connor Eoe, and others ; so that only the fickle and treacherous 
 O'Eourk (notwithstanding his letters to the Deputy that he would sub- 
 mit) and Tyrone's Maguiro, and Tyrrell, persisted in this rebellion with 
 the Earl of Tyrone. The Deputy ordered that the Fort of Gallaway 
 should be finished, and appointed three several armies to attack O'Rourk" 
 Hibernia Anglicana : by Eichard Cox, Esq., Eecorder of Kinsale. 
 
 The O'Eorke of whom there is question in this extract is Biyan Oge, 
 the son of Bryan na Murtagh ; a father and son that bore as persevering 
 hostility to the English as Hamilcar and Hannibal did to the Eomans. 
 The father, Bryan na Murtagh, having given shelter to some Spaniards 
 who had escaped from the three ships belonging to the Armada that were
 
 346 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 out the country. And it were well, if he was free from a 
 different, a deeper, and a more damning blemish, than 
 mere faults of temper ; but, unfortunately, there is some 
 reason to suppose, that he was a kind of apostate from his 
 
 wrecked near Sligo ; brought on himself, for so doing, the vengeance of 
 the English, so that Sir Richard Bingham, the Governor of Connaught, 
 mustered two considerable armies, and made one of them invade O'Rorke' s 
 territory from the south, and the other from the north ; " and these 
 troops," says the ^Annals of the Four Masters, anno 1590, " proceeded to 
 burn and devastate, kill and destroy all before them in the country, until 
 both met together again." 
 
 In this extremity O'Rorke passed over to Scotland in expectation of 
 receiving aid from James VI (First of England) , thinking that the son of 
 Mary Stuart would sympathize with an enemy of his mother's great adver- 
 sary ; but that monarch, instead of giving aid, ordered Brian na Murtha 
 to be seized, had him sent to England, and delivered up to the tender 
 mercies of Elizabeth, who had him brought to trial, and executed under 
 circumstances so solemn and dramatic that an historic painter could not 
 find finer subjects for his talent than the trial and execution of the Irish 
 chief supplies. At the trial he bore himself with characteristic hauteur, 
 refusing to plead before anyone except the Queen in person, and receiving 
 with indifference the cruel sentence of hanging and disembowelling passed 
 upon him. 
 
 At the gallows O'Rorke exhibited the same lofty courage he had shown 
 in the court ; and when the authorities, who had refused his request for 
 a priest to minister the last rites, sent instead the apostate archbishop, 
 Miler Magrath, O'Rorke, in place of listening to Miler's words, inverted 
 the roles of both, making himself the minister and Magrath the condamtiet 
 and thus rejected his profered services : " No, but do you remember the 
 dignity from which you have fallen ; return into the bosom of the ancient 
 church, and learn from my fortitude that lesson which you ought to have 
 been the last man on earth to disavow " (Memoirs of O'Connor, page 113). 
 The death of this gallant chieftain filled Ireland with sorrow. "The 
 death of this Brian," says the Annals of the Four Masters, sub anno 1591, 
 " was one of the mournful stories of the Irish ; for there had not been for 
 a long time any one who excelled him in bounty, in hospitality, in giving 
 rewards for panegyrical poems, in sumptuousness, in (numerous) troops, 
 in comeliness, in firmness, in maintaining the field of battle to defend his 
 patrimony against foreign adventurers [for all which he was celebrated], 
 until his death on this occasion." 
 
 From the moment of Brian na Murtha's execution, Brian Oge, his son, 
 nursed only one desire that of vengeance on those who had put his father 
 to death. While Breffny was still in possession of Sir Richard Bingham,
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 347 
 
 religion : professing himself a Catholic in public to please 
 the people, but in private swearing himself in a Protestant, 
 and " conforming to the Church of Ireland, as by law estab- 
 lished." Let it be however stated at once, that there is no 
 
 O'Eorke, nothing daunted, invaded and overran it, punishing, in tl.e 
 midst of their armed protectors, those who sided with the English- 
 " The whole territory," says the Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 1590 
 "both waste and inhabited, was under the power of the Governor 
 [Bingham] until the ensuing Michaelmas, when Tiernan Bane, the son of 
 Brian, son of Owen O'Rourke, and Brian-na-Samhthach, i.e., Brian Oge 
 (the son of that O'Rourke who had been expelled) came into the territory. 
 These and the tribes of Briefny, and of Muintir-Eolais, and of the other 
 O'Rourkes who remained in the country, opposed the Governor, and con- 
 tinued spoiling everything belonging to the English to which they came, 
 until the end of the year.' ' 
 
 Brian Oge O'Rorke's part in the Battle of the Curlews was so important 
 that the English counted him, and not O'Donnell, to be the leader of the 
 Irish, as appears from what Moryson and Cox write on the subject, which 
 may be appropriately quoted here, as it regards an episode in the siege of 
 Collooney Castle (page 60). " Sir Conyers Clifford," says Moryson, vol. 
 i, p. 87, "marched this way with 1400 Foot by pole, and the Earl of 
 Southampton's Troop of 100 Horse, under the leading of Captain John 
 Jephson, with some other Irish Horse. And coming to the Curlew Moun- 
 tains, he left the Munitions and Carriages under the guard of the Horse, 
 till he passing forward with the Foot had tried the passage. He had not 
 gone far before O'Rorke, and other Rebels with him, upon the advantage 
 of Woods, Bogs, and a stony causey, assailed our Men, who at first 
 valiantly repelled them, till the Rebels finding the Munition our Men 
 had about them beginning to fail renewed the charge with greater fury 
 than before . . . killing some 120 in the place, among which the Gover- 
 nor, Sir Conyers Clifford, and a worthy Captain, Sir Alexander Radcliffe, 
 were lost, . . . And no doubt the rest had all perished, if the horse had 
 not valiantly succoured them." And Cox in the same way ascribes the 
 defeat of the English to O'Rorke, without even mentioning O'Donnell's 
 name at all: "And being now," says he, in his Hibernia Anglicana, 
 p. 421, " resolved for Ulster, he ordered Clifford, governor of Connaught, 
 to march to Belick, to distress Tyrone on that side; accordingly he 
 marched with 100 Horse and 1400 Foot; but being encountered by 
 O'Rourk, and 200 Rebels at a pass, our men being tired and wanting 
 powder, were routed, 140 slain, together with Clifford and Sir Alexander 
 Radcliffe, and as many wounded ; nay they had all been lost, were it not 
 for the valour of the Horse, who secured their Retreat ; and so next day 
 they marched back to Athlone."
 
 348 
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 clear evidence in support of this opinion, which it is right to 
 mention, as well as the ground on which it rests, if it were 
 only to give others an opportunity of clearing, if possible, 
 the memory of this popular favourite. What led to the 
 
 Being on the subject of the Battle of the Curlews and the Siege of 
 Collooney Castle, we may extract a few stanzas from a long ballad on 
 this theme, that appeared in an American paper The Irish World, of 
 April llth, 1874: 
 
 " Unmindful of the glories and the sufferings of the Gael, 
 O'Connor, chief of Sligo, made alliance with the Pale, 
 And held for Essex and the Queen Collooney' s Castle hold. 
 Beleagured by O'Donnell and his Ulster clansmen bold. 
 
 With nodding plume of emerald green before his fearless clan, 
 O'Donnell stands with dauntless mien and marshals Erin's van; 
 "While brave O'Euairc commands the rear wildBreffny's warlike band, 
 Bold mountaineers, with swords and spears, embattled for the land. 
 
 'Twas then O'Ruairc, with Breffny's clan, came thundering to the front, 
 Unheeding blade or bullet they faced the battle's brunt ; 
 Against the Saxon column they rushed with, might and main, 
 And hurl'd them back with slaughter upon the open plain. 
 
 Collooney Castle yielded, and its chief with newborn zeal 
 Made cause with Ulster's princes, O'Donnell and O'Neill, 
 And soon o'er Erin's warlike ranks O'Connor's banner shone 
 Beside the ancient standards of O'Donnell and Tyrone." 
 
 Brian Oge took part in the disastrous battle of Kinsale, after which he 
 returned home, resolved even when all was lost, to hold out to the end. 
 But what could one Irish chief avail, when deserted by the rest, against 
 the power of England ? And the consequence was that, after making his 
 castle of Leitrim the refuge of those who were outlawed by the English ; 
 after receiving with open arms M'Guire of Fermanagh and the brave 
 Donnell O'Sullevan at the close of the ever-memorable retreat from Dun- 
 boy ; and after contending successfully in the field with Sir Oliver 
 Lambert, the Governor of Connaught ; O'Rorke was forced by the 
 divisions and desertion of his followers, to withdraw from Breffny, and 
 take shelter in Ballyrourk, in the County of Mayo, where he died, it is 
 said, of a broken heart, after directing that his remains should be interred 
 in the abbey of Eoserilly, where the bones of this great Irish patriot 
 repose. Franciscan Monasteries of Ireland, p. 77. 
 
 The O'Eourkes threw themselves energetically into the movement of 
 1641, and took a prominent part in the sieges of Templehouse and Sligo ; 
 and that they were true to their principles and antecedents in the contest
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 349 
 
 surmise of apostacy was the finding of the name 
 "Hyacinth O'Rorke," on the so called convert-roll, 
 preserved in the Public Record Office, Dublin. The exact 
 entry is, "O'Rorke Hiacinth, Dublin, 12 Nov. 1767, enrol- 
 led 23 Nov. 1767." * 
 
 of 1691 the last great national upheaving appears well from the follow- 
 ing list of British " expenses and disbursements" on the occasion of the 
 surrender of Sligo by bir Teigue O'Regan : 
 
 *. d. 
 
 To Colonel Scott for horses taken from him, . . 60 
 Sir Teague O'Regan ,, 5 15 
 
 Colonel Tiernan O'Rourke ..810 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel O'Rourke ,, . . 5 15 .0 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel M'Donogh ..810 
 
 Major James Conner ,, . . 810. 
 
 Major Owen O'Rourke 6 18 0" 
 
 Letter, dated Sligo, Sep. 20, 1691, from Colonel Mitchelburn to the Lords 
 Justices, in " Clarke's Correspondence," a MS. of Trinity College, Dublin. 
 
 * The writer has also found in the Record Office, Dublin, O'Rorke' 8 
 certificate of conformity, which runs as follows : 
 
 CERTIFICATE OF CONFORMITY. 
 
 Arthur, by Divine Providence, Lord Archbishop of Dublin, 
 Primate and Metropolitan of Ireland ; To all whom these presents 
 may concern, GIIEETIKG. 
 
 We do hereby certify, That Hyacinth O'Rorke, Now of Dublin, 
 hath renounced the errors of the Church of Rome ; and was by 
 our order received into the Communion of the Church of Ireland, 
 on Thursday the 12th inst. November. And that the said 
 Hyacinth O'Rorke is a Protestant, and doth conform to the 
 Church of Ireland, as by Law established. In witness whereof 
 We have caused our Manual Seal to be affixed to these presents 
 this Twelfth Day of November 1767. 
 
 Arth. Dublin. | g ea j 
 
 DUBLIN ; Printed by Boulter Grierson, Printer to the King's Most 
 Excellent Majesty, MDCCLXVH.
 
 350 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 But apart from this weighty charge, Centy was far from 
 being as free from faults as one would wish ; and among 
 his follies, he was much fonder of going into debt than of 
 paying the bills, a peculiarity that led to the encounter 
 with Mr. Perceval. Having got rather deep in the books 
 of a spinster of gentle blood, named Jane O'Neil (half sister 
 of Roger O'Hara, then owner of Corroy, near Aclare) , who 
 kept a small shop in Ballincurry, where Centy resided, 
 instead of discharging the account, when sent in, with a 
 message that no more credit would be given till the bill 
 was paid, he went straight to the shop, and laid the whip 
 roughly on the shoulders of the proprietress, for daring to 
 send such a communication to an O'Rorke. The good 
 woman was not devoid of spirit, and smarting at once from 
 the whip and the loss of her money, she resolved to bring 
 her neighbour to book, great a bully as he was. She laid 
 her case before the neighbouring magistrates, but so great 
 was the dread of O'Rorke, that one and all refused to re- 
 ceive her information. In this extremity she carried the 
 matter to Mr. Perceval, who heard her statement, and, with 
 a courage becoming the descendant of a crusader, took the 
 information she came to lodge, and issued a warrant. 
 Centy, stung to fury on hearing this, hastened to Sligo, 
 where the gentlemen of the county were assembled at the 
 time for the assizes ; and, finding Mr. Perceval on the 
 steps of the Courthouse, struck him contemptuously with a 
 whip, in presence of the assembled magnates, an outrage 
 that resulted in a challenge for the insult, the very thing 
 O'Rorke desired. 
 
 It appears that Achonry was first fixed on for the duel, 
 but on the parties reaching that place, O'Rorke was fol- 
 lowed by such a crowd of sympathizers, that Perceval 
 exclaimed, " It seems to be murder you want and not a fair 
 fight," on hearing which O'Rorke drew a pistol, and 
 turning on those that were following, stormed and swore 
 that he would blow out the brains of whoever dared to
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 351 
 
 move an inch further. These friends, among whom was 
 his own brother, Hugh, were indignant at this treatment, 
 and leaving the man to his fate, he and Mr. Perceval, with 
 their respective seconds, Messrs. Nicholson and Gethin, 
 galloped about two miles further on, to a place called Lis- 
 cat.* Fourteen paces having been measured, from east to 
 west, and the choice of place belonging to O'Rorke as the 
 challenged party, he no sooner took up position, with back 
 to the sun, than Perceval complained of the disadvantage 
 at which himself was, having to face, though weak sighted, 
 the glaring morning sun. The remark was hardly made 
 when the impetuous Centy offered to change places, an 
 offer that Mr. Perceval without more ado accepted.! 
 
 Having been thus placed, and the "word" given, O'Rorke, 
 with characteristic precipitancy was the first to fire, and, 
 missing aim, stood next moment at the mercy of the 
 antagonist. " Beg your life, Sir," said Mr. Perceval in a 
 commanding tone. " No, never ; fire away, you blind 
 
 * Liscat is a beautiful rath, of about an acre in extent, in the parish, of 
 Achonry, quite near Commander Armstrong's residence. The position was 
 of old a very strong one, for it is still surrounded with three lines of circum- 
 vallations, and has within the inner area buildings, or, at all events, some 
 remains of traces of buildings. The place commands an extensive prospect, 
 stretching to the hills of Leitrim, the territory of the O'Rorkes, so that 
 unfortunate Centy, if he had time to open his eyes after receiving the 
 fatal ball, could have seen the beloved Brefihy of his birth and boyhood, 
 and been inspired with the thoughts of the dying gladiator, who, 
 
 " Dulces moriens reminiscitur Argos." 
 
 f It is said that Owen Eoe O'Neill owed the victory of Benburb very 
 much to his arranging his troops so that the sun shone full in the face of 
 the enemy. 
 
 "The battle between the Cimbri and the Roman army, under Marius, 
 furnishes an incident exactly parallel with one which occurred in a cele- 
 brated Irish engagement. The Roman general took up his position in 
 such a manner that the sun should shine full in the faces of his enemy ; a 
 manoeuvre which contributed greatly to his victory. At the battle of 
 Benburb, in 1646, the Irish general, Owen Roe O'Neil, adopted precisely 
 the same tactics with the army of Munro, and with equal success." 
 Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. vi, p. 278.
 
 352 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 rascal," shouted back O'Rorke in a rage ; and as Perceval 
 coolly rested the pistol on the left arm, and was taking slow, 
 deliberate aim, O'Rorke, pointing to his heart, exclaimed, 
 " Send it here, you coward," a defiance that was hardly 
 uttered when the fatal tfall entered the speaker's forehead, 
 causing instantaneous death, and supplying a new illustra- 
 tion of the gospel saying, " All that take the sword, shall 
 perish with the sword."* 
 
 Hugh O'Rorke was not far from Liscat at the moment 
 the brother fell ; and having heard the two shots succeed 
 one another, and observed the dead silence that ensued, he 
 divined what had happened, and said to those near, "Centy 
 is down ; he fired first, as always, and the silence shows 
 that the second shot killed him." Crowds soon reached 
 the top of the hill, and, seeing their favourite on the 
 ground, they filled the air, for miles round, with lamenta- 
 tions. At that moment Mr. Perceval's son and heir, after- 
 wards the Rev. Mr. Perceval, having learned that his 
 father had left home to fight, was riding through Rinbane 
 in search of him, but the moment the young man heard 
 the wild Irish cry, he turned back to Templehouse, knowing 
 well that O'Rorke had fallen, and that the father was safe. 
 
 These are the circumstances of the meeting, as far as 
 they can be ascertained after long and patient inquiry. Of 
 course there is some variety in the popular versions of the 
 transaction, as always happens in such cases. For 
 instance, it is said, in one account, that O'Rorke fought 
 without a second, his intended friend being, according to 
 some, his own brother, who was left behind at Achonry, 
 and, according to others, Mr. Jones, of Banada, who, on 
 account of the change of place to Liscat, did not reach the 
 place till some minutes after the fatal shot was fired. But 
 it is more likely that his friend was with O'Rorke, which 
 the blame traditionally thrown on the second for standing 
 
 St. Matthew, xxvi, 52.
 
 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 353 
 
 quietly by, while the principal was deliberately shot down, 
 goes to prove.* 
 
 A cairn, four or five feet in diameter, and two or three 
 high, raised by the affection of the people, stands on the 
 exact spot where unfortunate Centy fell. The body was 
 buried in Banada, but his Leitrim followers, with a touching 
 devotedness, came by night, took it away, and consigned it 
 to the natale soluni of Breffuey, in the churchyard of Kil- 
 mactrany. Several lyrical lamentations were composed for 
 him, the most popular being the production of a local 
 Sappho, named Molly Kennedy, who was his next neigh- 
 bour at Ballincurry. Nor did Philip Caech, on the other 
 side lack the sacro vate, for until recently, an Irish song, 
 making much of him for courage and other high qualities, 
 was commonly sung at all the merry meetings about 
 Templehouse and Ballinacarrow. 
 
 In or about the year 1814 a painful sensation was caused 
 through the country by the perpetration at Templehouse of 
 two great crimes, burglary and rape, both of which at the 
 time were capital offences. The greatest sympathy was 
 felt for the victim of the double outrage, a Miss Gale, who 
 kept a shop at Somerton, in the townland of Templehouse, 
 and the greatest indignation against the guilty parties. It 
 came out in evidence on the trial of those charged, that 
 eight men were implicated on the occasion ; of whom three 
 were hanged, three were transported, one escaped, and one 
 turned King's evidence. Most of these men were labourers 
 in the employment of Mr. Cooper, Cooper- hill, who received 
 private information, while they were still at large, of their 
 guilt, but as there were no constabulary in those days, it 
 was far from an easy matter to apprehend those desperate 
 men, resolved to use violence at any risk to themselves or 
 others, in case arrest were attempted. Mr. Cooper's 
 steward, however, undertook to secure them himself, and 
 
 * Another account has it that a Mr. Robert Weir, an attorney, was 
 Centy 's second. 
 
 2 A
 
 354 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 performed the undertaking in a very ingenious way. 
 Riding in haste to the dwellings of the incriminated, and 
 alleging some sudden accident at Cooper-hill, that needed 
 the presence of the labourers, he directed the person wanted 
 to take a seat behind him on horseback, and then returned 
 with this companion, and lodged him in safe custody ; and 
 going successively to the houses of each of the accused, he 
 thus captured them all. 
 
 The wretched men were easily convicted, as Miss Gale, a 
 most respectable witness, and her servant, equally trust- 
 worthy, swore home against them. One of the convicts 
 excited widespread commiseration by narrating, in the 
 dying speech on the drop of the gallows, how he became 
 involved in the crime for which he was about to suffer. 
 This miserable man declared, and everybody believed the 
 declaration, that he rejected with horror the project when 
 it was first broached, that he left nothing undone to turn 
 the others away from it, that this refusal and resistance 
 delayed the crime for eight days, and that he yielded to 
 the tempters at last, solely from the fear of losing life, which 
 those wicked men were sure to take away if he withstood 
 them to the end. Of course these fears were no justification 
 of his participation, but they stripped it of some of its repul- 
 siveness, by showing that it should be set down to weak- 
 ness, much more than to wickedness. 
 
 Philip Caech dying in 1787, was succeeded in the posses- 
 sion of Templehouse by his eldest son, Guy Carleton 
 Perceval, at whose death in 1792 the property passed to 
 his brother, Rev. Philip Perceval, who was curate of Kil- 
 loran, and who seems to have never reached any higher 
 ecclesiastical preferment. This reverend gentleman had 
 two sons, Philip and Alexander ; but Philip dying young, 
 Alexander, the late Colonel Perceval, became the proprietor 
 of Templehouse. The Colonel, who was fonder of politics 
 than other members of the family, contested unsuccessfully, 
 in 1822, the representation of the County Sligo with the
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 355 
 
 Hon. Henry King, in an election that was unique in the 
 country for duration and expenditure, but was returned for 
 the county in the elections of 1831, 1832, 1835, 1837 and 
 1841, retiring in the last named year from Parliament, on 
 the occasion of his appointment as Sergeant at Arms to the 
 House of Lords, an office that he held until 1858, the year 
 of his death. He is buried at Norwood, near London. 
 
 The latest of the Percevals was as genial a gentleman as 
 ever came of the house of Ivery. He had no opportunity 
 of distinguishing himself in public life ; but, in recovering, 
 by self-sacrificing energy, the patrimonial estate, that had 
 already passed out of the hands of the family, Mr. Alexander 
 Perceval accomplished a work as worthy of admiration as 
 the highest feats of valour and statesmanship. Finding, 
 when he had grown up to manhood, that the family property 
 was so encumbered by the Colonel's election expenses as 
 to be in danger of passing away from the Percevals, this 
 high spirited young man resolved to make a great effort, 
 and gain, if possible, by commerce in a foreign land, what 
 would pay off the incumbrances and avert the threatened 
 calamity. It is curious that an ancestor, William, the 
 youngest son of George Perceval, took to trading in the 
 West Indies, and there married the daughter of an eminent 
 factor, an occurrence that may have inspired the resolution 
 of the descendant ; but however this may be, the late Mr. 
 Perceval went to China, engaged in the tea trade, and had 
 realized a fortune more than sufficient for the object in view, 
 when, unfortunately, news reached there that Templehouse 
 was already sold and in the hands of a stranger. But the 
 proverb, " Aide toi et Dieu t'aidera" was to have a new 
 illustration in this case ; for the purchaser, Mr. Hall Dare, 
 having incurred local disgrace, and desiring to quit the 
 neighbourhood, offered Templehouse again for sale, an offer 
 with which the representatives of Mr. Perceval at once 
 closed.
 
 356 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 The new landlord's first care, on entering into possession, 
 was to add to, or rather to build anew, the family mansion, 
 which was done in a style worthy of his ancestors and of 
 himself. Even while occupied in this weighty undertaking, 
 the benevolent mind of Mr. Perceval was full of projects 
 for benefiting all those who depended on him, either as 
 tenants, employees, or neighbours, for there was room enough 
 for all in the large heart he had inherited from both father 
 and mother. 
 
 Colonel Perceval, though a lion in politics, was a lamb in 
 private life ; a landlord so kind, that he allowed every poor 
 widow on the Templehouse estates a cottage and half an 
 acre of land, free of rent ; and a neighbour so charitable, 
 that, when great distress fell on the poor in 1812, the 
 Colonel, in company with Eev. James McHugh, then Catho- 
 lic curate of the parish, made a house-to-house visitation of 
 all the comfortable tenants on the Templehouse property, 
 in quest of relief for the famine-stricken. Mrs. Perceval 
 was a wife worthy of such a husband ; for when she was 
 dying in 1847, in the thick of the famine consequent on the 
 potato blight, she had only one regret and one wish the 
 regret of being taken away from the poor in the time of 
 their greatest need, and the wish a wish again and again 
 expressed that the soup kitchen and ovens for the poor, 
 which she had opened in her house, should be kept working 
 after her death, and even in the interval between death and 
 burial, just as they had been while she was alive ; an in- 
 stance of forgetfulness of self and solicitude for the poor, as 
 touching as any you can find in Alban Butler's Lives of the 
 Saints* 
 
 The son inherited the tender feelings of the father and 
 
 * This lady was buried at Rathbarron, where her tomb bears this in- 
 scription : " Jane Anne, wife of Col. Alexander Perceval, daughter of 
 Col. Lestrange, of Moystown, King's Co.; Died 20th January 1847 
 aged 57 years "
 
 PARISH OF KILVARXET. 357 
 
 mother ; and the writer of these lines can never forget the 
 solemn earnestness with which Mr. Perceval once averred 
 in his hearing, that one of the chief motives that brought 
 him from China to Ireland was a desire to make the old 
 neighbours happy ; * a desire to which the new landlord 
 gave effect, on arrival in Ireland, by calling home from 
 America and elsewhere those Templehouse people that Mr. 
 Hall Dare had dispossessed, and reinstating them in their 
 old positions. Bearing in mind the lofty nature of the 
 man, it is unnecessary to add, that in all this he made no 
 distinction on the score of religion, but treated all the old 
 and faithful followers of the family alike, whether they were 
 Homan Catholics or Protestants, proclaiming often that he 
 would always do so, as the Perceval family had done before 
 him ; an allusion which every one acquainted with the 
 unsectarian composition of the Templehouse tenantry could 
 appreciate. 
 
 And though belonging to a family that, in each gene- 
 ration since its arrival in Ireland, had given ministers to 
 the Established Church, and though himself an attached 
 member of that church, as well as nearly related to its 
 highest dignitary, Primate Beresford, still he both promoted 
 the dignity of Roman Catholic worship, and condemned 
 strongly the insulting talk and tactics, that proselytizing 
 bigots love to employ. Having noticed that the roof of 
 
 * Mr. Perceval belonged neither to the "griping, "nor to the "nothing 
 for nothing" class of landlords, hut was a fine specimen of the " live and 
 let live" species. " All persons employed on a large estate," writes the 
 editor of the Standard Newspaper, in a review of Mr. Froude's lecture on 
 The Uses of a Landed Gentry, "are gainers hy the semi-feudal relations 
 which belong to it. As the owner expects to get some return from it 
 other than a mere pecuniary one, so he is obliged to give something else 
 himself over and above the mere material value of the land he lets. An 
 old family, moreover, has traditions to keep up, a reputation to sustain, 
 and hereditary connections to preserve unbroken." It would be well if 
 owners of family estates acted always in the spirit of these remarks.
 
 358 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 Ballinacarrow Chapel, which is on the Templehouse pro- 
 perty, had been injured by a storm, and meeting casually 
 the parish priest, he handed him in the kindest man- 
 ner, when nothing was either asked or expected, a 5 note, 
 requesting that it would be expended on the required repairs. 
 And of his antipathy to proselytizing practices the writer 
 had likewise abundant proof; for having heard that a 
 person in high employment at Templehouse was tampering 
 with the faith of some poor persons of the neighbourhood, 
 and having brought the matter under the notice of Mr. Per- 
 ceval, who was in the dark as to what was going on, the 
 moment that gentleman learned the facts of the case, he 
 condemned in strong language all such mano3uvres, and 
 not only engaged to put a stop to the proceedings com- 
 plained of, but also to prevent annoyance of the kind in 
 question from being ever again given by anyone under his in- 
 fluence. Such a man was a general benefactor to the neigh- 
 bourhood ; for his high example rebuked bigots, and taught 
 the important lesson of regarding, in business and social 
 matters, not a man's sect or party, but personal worth and 
 efficiency a lesson nowhere, perhaps, more needed than 
 in the County Sligo. Had it pleased Providence to pro- 
 long this gentleman's years to old age, he would have 
 effected a great amount of good which, with all the energy 
 and activity of a most vigorous temperament, he was unable 
 to crush into a comparatively short life ; but, as it is, he 
 lived long enough to earn the right of passing, to all time, 
 with the Templehouse Percevals, for a second founder of their 
 family ; and with the tenants, labourers, and neighbours of 
 the estate for as just and generous a landlord, employer, 
 and country gentleman, as ever the County Sligo produced. 
 Mr. Perceval died in 1866 and was buried at Rathbarron, 
 in the family vault, which bears the inscription, "Alexander 
 Perceval, son of Col. Alexander Perceval. Died 8th of 
 May, 1866, aged 44 years.
 
 PARISH OF KILVABNET. 359 
 
 Before proceeding to the history of Annaghmore, it will 
 be convenient to say a few words of E/ATHMORE, most of 
 which district lies in the parish of Killoran, but part in 
 that of Kilvarnet ; the whole being about 400 acres in 
 extent. The rath from which the place has its name is in 
 the former parish ; but the most interesting spot in the 
 district is in that of Kilvarnet. This is Mount-Caulfield, 
 which was so named in honour of the Venerable Toby 
 Caulfield, Archdeacon of Killala, who married Anne 
 O'Hara, daughter of Adam O'Hara and Isabella Gore ; 
 this Isabella Gore being herself the daughter of Sir Francis 
 Gore, of Ardtarmon, Sligo. The mount, which is ten or 
 eleven feet high, of circular form, and fourteen feet in 
 diameter, seems to be a modern structure, though resem- 
 bling in shape the old raths or forts of the country, ,and, 
 like many of them, containing underneath a cave or vault ; the 
 cave, in this instance, being eighteen feet long, seven feet 
 wide, and about eight high, and being arched with brick, 
 which affords a more solid roof than one formed by the 
 large horizontal flags resting on rough, uncemented stones, 
 that were used in the ancient forts. On the centre of the 
 rath rises another structure that resembles the frustrum of 
 a cone, and is nine feet in height, and eight in diameter, 
 having round its base a projecting ring of masonry, fifteen 
 inches deep, and eighteen high, which seems designed for af- 
 fording sitting accommodation. A slab of chiselled limestone, 
 five feet high, and two wide, that stands at the entrance of 
 the vault, bears on its face a well executed escutcheon, 
 carrying the arms of the Gore family three crosses cross- 
 lets fitchee with the Gore motto In hoc signo vinces 
 the words, " Mount Caulfield," and the inscription : 
 " Erected by M. Isabella O'Hara alias Gore, daughter to 
 Francis Gore, Kt. of Sligoe, in May 1709." 
 
 The original destination of Mount Caulfield is a puzzle 
 to all the wiseacres of the neighbourhood ; the more com-
 
 360 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 mon opinion being, that it was intended to afford a view of 
 the ships that sailed into, and out of Sligo bay. The 
 holders of this theory must not forget that, as the Ox 
 Mountains intervene between Rathmore and the sea, it 
 would have been necessary for Isabella O'Hara, if she had 
 in view the object they suppose, to raise her structure 
 almost as high 
 
 ' ' as the tower which builders vain 
 
 Presumptuous piled on Shinar's plain." 
 
 But a lady of intelligence, like Mrs. O'Hara, could not 
 ignore the Ox Range, so that instead of acting from the 
 whimsical motive alleged, it is likely she only wished to 
 form a novel and curious garden retreat, and to compliment 
 her son-in-law by giving it his name. This theory, which, 
 however, is only an opinion comme une autre, fits well with 
 the conditions of the spot ; for it is certain that Mount 
 Caulfield was formerly surrounded by a great garden, 
 and one has only to ascend the rath to find that it contains 
 the finest views of all the adjacent country ; while the 
 vault or cave would serve as an arbour, to which persons 
 might retire from the scorching sun or the passing shower. 
 There is no trace at present of a residence, which, probably, 
 was only of the lodge or cottage kind. But there is abun- 
 dant evidence to show that great taste and large sums of 
 money were employed in laying out and beautifying the 
 grounds. The avenue, which was about a mile long, was 
 150 feet wide with a noble carnage drive in the centre 
 and was shaded on both sides, along its entire length, by 
 ashes and sycamores, many of which still survive. Over 
 the whole hill stretched a garden, singularly well fenced, 
 as the solid walls, ten or twelve feet high, parts of which 
 remain here and there, still attest. The lower slopes of the 
 hill, and part of the adjoining plain, were laid out as 
 pleasure grounds ; and the specimens of rare exotics that
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 361 
 
 one still finds, from time to time, in sheltered nooks, and 
 the aquarium, now empty and dry, the formation of which 
 must have entailed great expense, show that no effort was 
 spared to give attraction and elegance to the place. Alto- 
 gether it was a charming spot when in its prime ; and 
 whether one considers the immediate surroundings, or the 
 more distant landscape, there could be few points of view 
 so delightful to a spectator, and, more especially when the 
 spectator was an O'Hara, whose enjoyment of the scene 
 must have been greatly heightened by the reflection that 
 he and his were " monarchs of all he surveyed." 
 
 Rathmore belonged to the O'Haras from the arrival of 
 the family in Connaught, and was a part of their territory 
 of Leyney. Whoever was in immediate occupation in 
 1617 the date of James the First's grant to Teigue Buy 
 O'Hara the O'Haras obtained from Rathmore annually 
 a rent of 13s. 4d. in money, and 16 meders of wheat in 
 kind.* In the Down Survey, " the heirs of Roger Jones, 
 Protestant," are set down as the owners of the place ; and 
 the memory of this ownership is preserved to this day in 
 the name of a large field, that is still called " Jones's 
 Park."f It would appear, from what has been said above 
 of Isabella O'Hara, that Rathmore, or at least a part of it, 
 reverted to its old owners from the heirs of Roger Jones,J 
 though like so many other townlands belonging to the 
 Annaghmore estates, this, too, may have been alienated, 
 under the pressure of his sporting debts, by Charles 
 O'Hara. Major O'Hara bought the place, about fifty years 
 
 * Patent Roll, Jac. i, 14. 
 
 t Jones's Park is in the parish of Killoran. In the list of " Popish 
 Parish Priests," registered in Sligo, in 1704, we have Thomas Jones, 
 Eathmore, given as one of the "sureties" for Richard Cloane, "Popish 
 Priest " of Killoran. 
 
 J In the Hearth-money Returns, Teige O'Hara is given as living in 
 Rathmore in 1662.
 
 362 PARISH OF KILVARXET. 
 
 ago, from the representatives of those to whom his ances- 
 tor made it over ; and at the time of the purchase it was in 
 the tenancy and occupation of a family named Lilly, which 
 the major, after some years, dispossessed, incurring no little 
 odium for so doing ; but, whether deservedly or not, the 
 present writer is not in a position to say. At present 
 Rathmore is in the occupation of Mr. C. "W. O'Hara, and 
 may he regarded as forming a part of his demesne. But it 
 is time now to speak of Annaghmore.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 363 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ANNAGHMORE AND THE o'HARAS. 
 
 ANNAGHMORE owes its chief distinction to being the resi- 
 dence of the O'Hara family. No doubt the place possesses 
 natural advantages and beauties of a high order. The 
 soil is rich and fertile, and adapted alike to the purposes of 
 the agriculturist and the grazier. The surface is well 
 varied, and the bird's-eye view from Clane Hill, in the 
 demesne, brings under the spectator picturesque slopes, 
 and vales, and swells, and pretty views of the Owenmore, 
 as the river flows along with a composure and gravity that 
 harmonizes perfectly with the venerable associations of the 
 place. The outlook from this eminence is striking, com- 
 manding the finest aspect of the surrounding mountains, and 
 of hills, and raths, and various other objects, which cannot 
 be seen to such advantage from any other point. 
 
 But it is, after all, the owners that have imparted to the 
 place its chief charms ; and this not so much by the im- 
 provements which they have effected, as by their residing 
 there themselves. For though they have developed all its 
 natural capabilities and beauties ; have covered much of its 
 surface with venerable forest trees as well as with saplings 
 of younger and more vigorous growth ; laid out and adorned 
 its grounds with the choicest shrubs and flowers ; and just 
 crowned all their other improvements with a new mansion 
 of singularly chaste and classic design ; still it is not the 
 richness of the soil, the graceful movements of the river, 
 the stateliness of the oaks, and ashes, and beeches ; the 
 value and variety of the exotic plants and flowers ; the 
 elegance of the mansion, or all these together, that conse-
 
 364 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 crate Annaghmore in the affections of the people, but the 
 good old family that have made it their abode. 
 
 The O'Haras* are no aliens, but genuine scions of the 
 old stock of Milesius, true sons of the soil ; a family that 
 produced saints and princes ages before Strongbow or 
 Fit/empress set foot in Ireland. 
 
 * In a note to Connellan's Annals of the Four Masters, we read, 
 " O'Hara, chief of Leyney, now the barony of Leyney in the County of 
 Sligo ; but Leyney anciently comprised part of the baronies of Costello 
 and Gallen in the County Mayo. The O'Haras were descended from 
 Cormac Gaileng, son of Teige, son of Cian, son of Oilioll Olum, King of 
 Munster in the third century, of the race of Heber, and therefore of the 
 same stock as the Dalcassians of Munster, of whom the O'Briens were 
 kings. Prom this Cormac Gaileng, who lived in the fourth century, the 
 territory of Galenga, now the barony of Gallen, in the County Mayo, took 
 its name. The territory of Luighne or Leyney derived its name from 
 Luighne, a brother of Cormac Gaileng. The O'Haras took their name 
 from Eaghra, Lord of Leyney in the tenth century, whose death is 
 mentioned in the Annals, at A.D. 926. Many chiefs of the O'Haras are 
 mentioned in the Annals of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries ; 
 amongst others, Donal O'Hara, Lord of Leyney, who was killed A.D. 
 1023 ; and from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, they held 
 their rank as Lords of Leyney, and had large possessions to the period of 
 the Cromwellian wars, when a great deal of their property was confiscated 
 though they still hold considerable estates in the barony of Leyney. 1 n 
 the reigns of Queen Anne and George I, the 0' Haras were created barons 
 of Tyrawley and Kilmain, in Mayo, and some of them were distinguished 
 generals in the British service." Page 99. 
 
 Between Ballysadare and Ballydrehid, just at the mearing of the two 
 baronies Leyney and Tirerrill there is a spot that the neighbours call 
 Clughaun an Erin, from some stone or cairn, no doubt, that formerly 
 existed there. The legend is, that Cormac Gaileng, when coming to 
 Connaught, had a grant from the king of all the land he should travel 
 round in the twenty-four hours, and as he had reached in his curricle 
 Clughaun an Erin, quite resolved to inclose Sligo and the neighbourhood 
 before stopping, his horse fell, hurting itself and breaking the curricle, so 
 that further progress was impossible ; upon which Cormac took an arrow 
 from his quiver, shot the animal through the head, and had it buried 
 where it fell, when the cairn was raised over it that got the name of 
 Clughaun an Erin. 
 
 Indeed the configuration of the barony of Leyney, with the small 
 patch of Knockmuldowney to the east of the Owenmore, while all the 
 rest of it lies to the west of the river, is so strange as to give some colour 
 to the legend.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 365 
 
 The royal and imperial houses of Bourbon, Hapsburg, 
 and Este, may contend with one another for the palm of 
 antiquity, but they must all acknowledge the priority of the 
 O'Haras. The great Italian families of Colonna, Odescalchi, 
 and Orsini, and the great French families of Gramonts, 
 Polignacs, and Montmorencys, which are the oldest that 
 figure in the Almanack de Gotha, were unknown when 
 ancestors of the O'Haras occupied thrones ; while the 
 proudest noblemen in the British peerage, those even whom 
 their countrymen look up to as almost pre- Adamite and 
 super- Adamite in their origin, are only of yesterday in 
 comparison of this ancient and still flourishing Irish family. 
 Some probably will treat this as a piece of silly brag, 
 whereas it is only sober truth. No doubt the families re- 
 ferred to have other claims of precedence over the one 
 we are considering, but for early emergence into high 
 station, and for that vigorous inherent vitality which can 
 pass undiminished and undimmed through twenty cen- 
 turies, 
 
 " Quae bis dena suis includit ssecula fastis," * 
 
 they must all yield to the O'Haras, who come straight 
 from Olioll Olum, King of Munster in the second century, 
 himself being the twentieth in descent from Duach, Monarch 
 of Ireland (O'Flaherty's Ogygia, vol. i, p. 205, Hely's 
 Edition). 
 
 Olioll was the first king of the line of Heber Fionn, that 
 ruled in Munster, and was son-in-law of Con of the Hun- 
 dred Battles, whose daughter Saba he married, and by 
 whom he had nine sons. Seven of these young men fell 
 in the great battle of Moymucroihe near Athenry, and the 
 two that survived, were Cormac Gas, the founder of the 
 Dalcassians of Munster, and Cian or Kean, the progenitor 
 of the families of O'Hara, O'Gara, O'Carroll, O'Meagher, 
 and O'Connor Ciannachta. Thady, the illustrious son of 
 Cian, rendered most important services to his nephew, King 
 
 * Buchanan's Epithalamium of Mary Queen of Scottt.
 
 366 PAlllSH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 Cormac (son of Arthur the Melancholy), defeated the king's 
 enemies, and re-established him on the throne of Ireland, 
 from which they had removed him. Cormac, in gratitude, 
 bestowed considerable tracts of land in Leinster and Con- 
 naught on Thady, who had four sons Conla the Leper, 
 Cormac Gaileng, Muredach, and Conla Frither ; the second 
 of whom, Cormac Gaileng,* obtained the possessions in Con- 
 naught. These possessions were called, at first, indiffer- 
 ently, Gailenga or Lugny, from Cormac Gaileng and his 
 son, Luigh ; though, in the course of time, the southern 
 portion of the territory took the name of Gailenga or Gal- 
 len, and the northern, that of Lugny or Leyney. After 
 the introduction of Christianity it happened here, as through 
 the most of Ireland, that the civil and the ecclesiastical 
 districts were coextensive, so that the boundaries of 
 Gailenga and Lugny coincided with those of the diocese of 
 Achonry, which formerly was called the diocese of Lugny 
 or Leyney, and which comprised, as it still comprises, in the 
 County Sligo, not merely the present barony of Leyney, 
 but the barony of Corran, the half barony of Coolavin, and 
 the portion of the barony of Tirerrill that belongs to the 
 parish of Ballysadare ; as also, in the County Mayo, the 
 northern half of the barony of Costello known formerly as 
 Slieve Lugha, and containing the parishes of Kilcoleman, 
 Kilmovee, Kilbeagh, and Castlemore and almost the 
 entire barony of Gallen ; namely, the parishes of Attymas, 
 Bohola, Kilconduff, Kilgarvan, Killasser, Killedan, Mee- 
 lick, Templemore, and Toomore. The whole of this 
 territory was first called Corann,f and was inhabited by 
 
 * Cormac fled from Minister after having incensed his father by killing 
 the five sons of Conall, the son of Eochy, son of Magh Nuadhat, who 
 were fabled to have been transformed into badgers. The legend is given 
 at full length in a manuscript in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, 
 H. 3, 18, p. 42 ; but it is so wrapped up in fable, that it is of very little 
 historical value. Note to O'Donovan's Four Masters, sub anno 1558. 
 
 t " The country called Corann, formerly comprehended Galenga 
 (Gallen) in the County of Mayo, Lugny (Leyney) and Corann, in the
 
 PARISH OF KILVARKET. 367 
 
 the Damnonians and Galenians, who were Firbolgs and 
 slaves, and were banished from their lands in punishment 
 of the part they took in the Attacottian insurrection, thus 
 leaving the district ready for the family of the Munster 
 prince, on whom King Cormac conferred it.* 
 
 In consequence, however, of the new settlers not being 
 originally of Connaught, and their taking possession of 
 slave land, which was always burdened with heavier 
 charges than free land, they, belonging though they did 
 to the royal blood of Munster, had to pay to the King of 
 Connaught more than their rateable share of the public 
 taxes, as we learn from the Book of Rights f 
 
 County of Sligo. The Corco-Firtrians, the posterity of Lugny, so 
 called from his surname, inhabited this tract." O'Flaherty's Ogygia, 
 part iii, chap. 59. 
 
 The O'Haras, though generally called in the old Annals, the princes of 
 Leyney (Luighne), are sometimes styled princes or kings of Corann, as for 
 instance, in the Chronlcum Scotorum, under the year 1022, where we read, 
 " Domhnall O'Hara, King of the Corann, moritur.'' 1 The same authority 
 calls another O'Hara, under the year 1021, King of Leyney. 
 
 * It is but fair to state that the late Rev. Dr. Kelly suspects the O'Haras 
 and kindred families to be Firbolgs and not Milesians though in this 
 opinion or suspicion, he seems to be alone Dr. Kelly's Cambrensis 
 Eversus, vol. i, p. 471. 
 
 For the interesting legend connected with the coming to Connaught of 
 Cormac Gaileng, the ancestor of the O'Haras, see Joyce's Irish Names of 
 Places, Second Series, p. 238. 
 
 t Book of Rights, pages 104-105, as edited and translated by John 
 O'Donovan, for the Celtic Society : Dublin, 1847- 
 
 0' Donovan adds in a note, " The exact limits of their territory are 
 preserved in those of the diocese of Achadh Chonaire (Achonry), in the 
 Counties of Sligo and Mayo . . . The territory of Luigne or Gaileanga, 
 anciently belonged to an enslaved tribe of the Firbolgs, who inhabited it 
 down to the third century, when Cormac Gaileang fled thither, and ob- 
 tained a grant of this territory from his kinsman, Cormac Mac Airt, 
 Monarch of Ireland, subject, however, to the heavy tributes which had 
 been paid by the dispossessed Attacots." 
 
 It may be mentioned that Cormac Mac Airt, the greatest probably of 
 the Pagan Kings of Ireland, was a native of the district comprised in the 
 present County of Sligo, and diocese of Achonry, ' ' having been born in 
 Corann, in Athcormaic, near the mountain Keis (Keash) to the south, and 
 there educated with his stepfather, Lugny." Ogyyia, part iii, chap. 59.
 
 368 PARISH OF K.ILVARNET. 
 
 There are due of the Luighne without fault, 
 As a supply for the residence, 
 Seven times fifty milch-cows hither 
 To be brought every May-day. 
 
 Thrice fifty bull-like hogs 
 
 To be brought every Samhain 
 
 Thrice fifty superb cloaks 
 
 To the King of Connaught and Cruachin. 
 
 Of the same tribute it was heard 
 Without injustice, without tyranny, 
 Thrice fifty oxen on a day hither 
 To supply the ploughing. 
 
 Although the Luighne bring hither 
 Their tribute for their territory 
 It is not the tribes here are ignoble 
 But the grass and the land (are liable}. 
 
 While the descendants of Cormac Gaileng remained 
 united, and acknowledged one chief, their territory belonged 
 to them in common ; and even after the invention of sur- 
 names in the tenth century, and the division of the 
 Lugnians or Gailengs into the two families of O'Hara and 
 O'Gara, they had still for some time hut one chief, who 
 was taken now from one family, and again from another. 
 By degrees, however, the two families separated, like those 
 of Lot and Abraham, and the separation was complete 
 before the English invasion ; the O'Garas possessing the 
 portions of the County Mayo that are contained in the 
 diocese of Achonry, and the 0' Haras ruling over the parts 
 of the County Sligo, which belong to the same diocese.* 
 
 * In O'Dugan's topographical poem the Lords of Leyney are : 
 " O'Headhra (O'Hara) ; O'Huamarain (O'Haran) ; O'Dobhelein (Devlin) ; 
 and O'Duncathy." All these, however, sprang from the same stock. 
 
 " In Ortelius's map," says a writer in Shaw Mason's Statistical Ac- 
 count of Ireland, vol. ii, p. 29, "the OHaras were seated in Leyney, a 
 name which, at a more recent period, has appeared upon the pages of 
 general British history." 
 
 In Dr. MacDermot's map, in Geraghty's edition of the Four Masters, 
 " O'Hara, Lord of Leyney," is placed in the centre of the barony.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARXET. 369 
 
 After the arrival of the English, the Jordans and Nangles, 
 or Costellos, encroached on the O'Garas, drove them out of 
 Gallen, and confined them to Coolavin and the districts 
 surrounding the castle of Moygara, where they continued 
 down to a sufficiently recent date, powerful and respected.* 
 
 The O'Haras then share with the O'Garas the honour of 
 the same illustrious ancestry, as also the glory reflected 
 from the monarchs, princes, and saints of the pedigree, so 
 that Brother Michael O'Clery, if he lived at the present 
 day, might say to Mr. C. W. O'Hara, as he formerly said 
 to Ferghal O'Gara, " You are of the race of Heber Mac 
 Mileadh, from whom descended thirty of the kings of 
 Ireland, and sixty- one saints; and to Teigue Mac Kein 
 Mac Oilella Oluim, from whom eighteen of these saints are 
 sprung, you can be traced generation by generation." f 
 
 The O'Haras take their surname from Eaghra, son of 
 Poprigh, who died in 926, and from that time the annals 
 
 * Most Eev. Brian O'Gara was Archbishop of Tuam in 1734 ; Most 
 Rev. Michael O'Gara occupied the same see in 1742 ; and in 1656 Rev. 
 Ferghal O'Gara was an exile in the Netherlands for his religion, where 
 he made a very valuable collection of Irish historical poems that still 
 exists, and is at present in the Royal Irish Academy. In 1634 Fergal 
 O'Gara, to whom Ireland is indebted for the Annals of the Four Masters, 
 represented the County Sligo in Parliament ; and in 1689 Oliver O'Gara 
 was one of the representatives of the same county in the Parliament of 
 James II. This same Oliver distinguished himself at Aughrim and on 
 the Continent as Colonel of the Queen's Dragoons. He left after him 
 four sons, of whom three attained high rank in the Spanish military 
 service ; while the fourth, after a career still more distinguished, died a 
 Count of the Holy Roman Empire ; Imperial Councillor of State and 
 Chamberlain ; Grand-master of the Household to the Emperor's sister ; 
 and Knight of the Golden Fleece. History of the Irish Brigades. 
 
 t Dedication of the Annals of the Four Masters, O'Donovan's Edition. 
 In reference to a remark of John O'Donovan's on the superiority of the 
 O'Donnells over certain other Irish families, Eugene 0' Curry observes : 
 " But what is somewhat singular, in reference to Dr. O'Donovan's 
 remark, and as shown by the statistics of the Four Masters, is, that the 
 O'Gara (or O'Hara) represents Cian, another son of Oilioll Oluim, in 
 their ancient principality of Luigtie or Leyney in Sligo, from a period so 
 far back as the year 932 ; that is the name of the O'Gara (or O'Hara) is 
 
 SB
 
 370 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 of Ireland show them to have been always active and 
 prominent in the public affairs of the country. Though 
 they never attained the throne of the province,* which their 
 Munster origin probably hindered them from reaching, they 
 uniformly maintained a leading place among the Tiernas or 
 secondary princes. Unlike the O'Gara branch of the 
 family, the 0' Haras never retreated from their original 
 territory, though often attacked by Celt and Saxon, by the 
 O'Connors, O'Rorkes, O'Dowdas, as well ashy the Burkes, 
 the Berminghams, and the Binghams; and, as EaghraMac 
 Poprigh was the Lord of Leyney in 926, so his lineal 
 descendant, Mr. C. W. O'Hara, of Annaghmore, is chief of 
 the same territory in the year of grace 1878. 
 
 This is not the place for weaving a detailed pedigree of 
 the family, but it may be mentioned, that C. W. O'Hara is 
 the twenty-fourth in descent from Eaghra, son of Poprigh. 
 For Duald Mac Firbis tells us that Fergal More O'Hara 
 was eleventh in descent from the son of Poprigh, and that 
 Kean O'Hara, who died in 1675, was eighth in descent from 
 Fergal More ; f and we know Mr. C. W. O'Hara to 
 
 older even than that of MacCarthy by more than 100 years; than that 
 of O'Brien by about 80 years ; and than that of O'Donnell by about 300 
 years." The O'Haras and O'Garas are all the same in this respect. 
 Professor O'Curry's Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish 
 History, p. 158. 
 
 For " the succession of the chiefs of the O'Gara family from A.D. 932 to 
 A.D. 1537, see the same work, p. 546. 
 
 * It is curious that this circumstance was foretold by Saint Cormac, as 
 we learn from this passage of his life by Colgan, Acta Sanctorum, page 
 753 : "Dum haec expostulatio supervenit Diermitius Lugniae dynasta, qui 
 pie studuit viros sanctos ad pacem et concordiam reducere. Sanctus 
 Connacus piissimo viro magnas egit gratias, et in tantae devotionis mer- 
 cedem repromisit ejus posteros non inferioris ordinis quam regibus et 
 principibus deservituros." "While this altercation proceeded Diermid 
 the dynast of Leyney arrived, and tried to reconcile the holy men. Saint 
 Cormac returned warm thanks to the pious dynast, and, in reward of his 
 charity, promised that his descendants should never serve any persons 
 inferior in rank to kings and princes." 
 
 t O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters, sub anno 926. In a note 
 on the " son of Poprigh," O'Donovan observes: "He is the ancestor
 
 PARISH OF K1LVAKNET. 371 
 
 descend in the fifth generation from Kean, he having 
 succeeded his uncle, Major O'Hara, who succeeded his 
 father Charles, who succeeded his father, another Charles, 
 who inherited from his father Kean Oge, this Kean Oge 
 being the son of the Kean mentioned by Mac Firbis. 
 
 The leading branches of the family were the O'Haras 
 Buidhe, who lived in Coolany and Annaghmore, and the 
 O'Haras Reagh,* who resided in Ballyhara, near Tubber- 
 curry, their respective territories being sometimes called 
 Leyney Buidhe and Leyney Reagh. Subordinate chiefs of 
 the family were scattered throughout Leyney, as at Meem- 
 lough,t Tullyhue, Mucklety, and Coilte-Leyney.| 
 
 The Antrim O'Haras, who are a branch of the Leyney 
 family, separated, towards the close of the thirteenth or the 
 beginning of the fourteenth century, from the parent stock. 
 Hugh, brother to the hostage of King John, Conor Got 
 O'Hara, who died in 1231, is said by John 0'Donovan to 
 have been " the ancestor of this branch ; " but whether 
 that Hugh himself emigrated to the North, Mr. O'Donovan 
 omits to tell us, if indeed he knew the fact. As however, 
 
 from whom the O'Haras of Lcyney, in the County of Sligo, have derived 
 their name. According to Duald McFirbis, Fearghal Mor O'Hara, who 
 erected Feach-Teampla, now Templehouse, was the eleventh in descent 
 from Eaghra, son of Poprigh ; and Cian or Kean O'Hara, who was living 
 in 1666, was the eighth in descent from that Fearghal." 
 
 * The combined branches were sometimes called Muinter O'Hara. 
 See O'Donovan's Four Masters, sub anno 1392 Note. 
 
 t The portion of Meemlough Castle that still remains is 48 feet high, 
 51 feet long and 37 feet broad, the walls being 9 feet thick, and contain- 
 ing in their thickness stairs and passages. The floors of the interior were 
 formed by stone vaults, the traces of which still remain. 
 
 J Four O'Haras signed Perrott's indenture with the chieftains of Sligo, 
 namely, " Cormocke O'Harvy, of Cowlany, otherwise called O'Harey 
 buy, chief of his name; Ferrall O'Harey of Ballinefennock, otherwise 
 called O'Harey reogh, chief of his name ; Breene O'Harey of Tulevy, 
 gen. ; Owen O'Harey, of Cowlany, gen." 
 
 T/IP Tribes of Ireland, p. 52 note. It is pretty certain that O'Dono- 
 van got this information from Major O'Hara's manuscript, which he saw 
 and read, and of which he has left an analysis.
 
 372 
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 the O'Hara that first settled in Antrim accompanied 
 Richard Earl of Ulster, commonly called the Red Earl, and 
 received lands in the northern province from that nobleman. 
 Hugh, who if he still lived, must have heen at least eighty 
 or ninety years old at the time of the Red Earl's expedition 
 to Ulster, could hardly he this settler.* 
 
 O'HAEA'S CASTLE, MEEMLAGKE. 
 
 Drawn on the wood by "W. F. Wakeman, Esq., F.R.H.A.A.I., from a Photograph by 
 Mr. Edward Smith. 
 
 Mr. C. W. O'Hara, the present head of the family, is an 
 O'Hara 'Buidhe, and is the lineal descendant as well as 
 namesake (Charles being the English for Cormac) of the 
 " Cormac O'Hara of Coolany, chief of his name," that 
 signed Sir John Perrott's Indenture of Composition for the 
 County Sligo. By the way, it is very remarkable, all 
 through the pedigree of the O'Haras that the same names 
 
 The Red Earl died in 1326.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 373 
 
 constantly recur. Olioll, Kean, Teague, Cormac* or 
 Charles, you have here most of the nomenclature of the 
 twenty-five generations of the O'Haras. Olioll Ollum, Cian 
 or Kean, Teague or Thady, Cormac (Galeng) are the first 
 links in the chain of names that connects the present Mr. 
 O'Hara with the King of Munster ; and Olioll, Teague, 
 Cian, Cormac, Teague, Cian, Adam, Charles, Kean Oge, 
 Charles, Charles, Charles, are the latest links. 
 
 And the family had in general similar tastes and dispo- 
 sitions, as well as similar names, and were noted, in par- 
 ticular, for devotion to religion and addiction to field sports. 
 Their piety they manifested by bestowing lauds for religious 
 uses ; f by founding several churches Ballysadare, Billa, 
 Killassar, Killoran, Banada, Court, Kilvarnet, etc. ; by 
 entering, as religious, into various monasteries Cloumac- 
 noise, Ardnaree, Boyle, Benada, Moyne, Sligo, etc. ; by 
 
 * Charles is not the English equivalent of Cormac, though passing now 
 as such. " Cormac," says John O'Donovan in his " Origin and Meanings 
 of Irish Family Names," Irish Penny Journal, p. 407, "has nothing 
 whatever to do with Charles, for it is explained by all the glossographers 
 as signifying ' son of the chariot,' and it is added ' that it was first given 
 as a sobriquet, in the first century, to a Lagenian prince who happened to 
 be born in a chariot while his mother was going on a journey, but that 
 it afterwards became honourable, as the name of many great personages 
 in Ireland. After the accession of Charles I, however, to the throne, 
 many Irish families of distinction changed Cormac to Charles, in order to 
 add dignity to the name by making it the same with that of the sovereign, 
 a practice which has been generally followed ever since." 
 
 t In the Irish Charters in the Book of Kells (see Irish Archaeological 
 Miscellany, vol. i, p. 127), we have a charter granting certain lands for 
 the. use of pilgrims, but these lands, as part of Leyney, must have been 
 first made over to the Monastery of Kells by the O'Haras. The following 
 is a portion of this venerable document : " The family of Kells have 
 granted for the support of pilgrims Ardcamma, i. e. Baile Ui Midhrin, 
 with its mill, and with all its land, and Baile Ui Chomhgain, with all its 
 land and with its mill to God and to Columbkille. ... In the presence 
 of many distinguished leymen, i. e. in the presence of Tiernan O'Kourke, 
 King of the men of all Briefny ; Godfrey O'Reilly, King of Machaire 
 Gaileng, and Ade O'Hara, etc., these two townlands, in Luigne of 
 Connaught, were granted."
 
 374 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 laying down their lives as martyrs for the faith,* and by 
 giving three bishops and a great number of priests and 
 monks to the diocese of Achonry. Their love of field sports 
 is sufficiently proved by the epithets we find attached to 
 their names, such as Arthur of the Horses, Donnell of the 
 Hounds; and this characteristic shows itself all along their 
 line, up to the first of them that came to Connaught, 
 Cormac Galeng, who was styled " a tamer of men and 
 horses ; " f while whoever, at the present time, on a hunting 
 day sees Mr. 0. W. O'Hara in the midst of his gallant 
 company, at the " meet " of Collooney or Clara with the 
 Annaghmore hounds and Annaghmore huntsman, starting 
 for the field, must admit that the manly taste of the 
 'Haras for field sports exists still as strong as ever. 
 
 The O'Haras, though genuine Irish, and loyal to their 
 country, could appreciate the good qualities of the English. 
 O'Hara Boy and O'Hara Reagh were presented by Sir 
 Donnell O'Connor, at Sligo, to Sir Henry Sydney, in 1566, 
 during the first viceroyalty of that nobleman in Ireland. 
 The O'Hara is said to have manifested, on the occasion, 
 great admiration of the English, to gratify which he resolved 
 to accompany Sir Henry, when returning to England, to 
 the Court of the Queen. This we learn from the Viceroy 
 himself, who writes as follows in his Memoir of the Govern- 
 ment of Ireland: "Went to Sligo, where the lord of the 
 soyle, called O'Conor, made me and myne oste great chere 
 
 * " After some time had elapsed, the friars returned to Moyne ; and on 
 entering the church found O'Hara dead, and bathed in his blood, on^the 
 steps of the grand altar, where he thought his presence might induce the 
 English to respect the holy place, but where the sacrilegious miscreants 
 had murdered him." The Franciscan Monasteries, etc. : by Rev. C. F. 
 Meehan, M.R.I.A., page 60. 
 
 t In the Four Masters, under the year 1560, we read : " Teige Boy, the 
 son of Kian, son of Ollioll O'Hara, was slain by Cathal Oge, the son of 
 Tcige, son of Cathal Oge O'Connor. For a long time before there had 
 not appeared in Connaught, of the race of Cormac Gaileang, a man more 
 distinguished for horsemanship and hospitality to strangers than he."
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 375 
 
 and entertayument, and presented his lordings to me, 
 namely, O'Dowde, two MacDonoghs, two O'Haras (distinct 
 additions they have, but I have forgotten them) and 
 O'Hara brought me to Athlone, and promised to come to 
 me to Dublyn. He fell in such love and liking of English- 
 men and English government, as he vowed to goe into 
 England, to behold the majestic of our sovereign, which he 
 performed." Ulster Journal of Archeology, vol. iii. p. 40. 
 
 At the time of the Cormac that signed Perrott's inden- 
 ture, the O'Haras had lost somewhat of their strength and 
 splendour, as the much rarer reference to them in the 
 annals of the sixteenth century, than in those of previous 
 periods, amply proves. The high social position that the 
 family held in the thirteenth^century appears from the well 
 known historical fact thab Conor Got O'Hara was one of 
 the four princes committed to King John, in 1209, as 
 hostage for the loyalty of Cathal Crowderg O'Connor, King 
 of Connaught. And if their dignity somewhat waned at a 
 later period, it was very much owing to their own interne- 
 cine quarrels ; for there were few families so divided ; and 
 the following entry from the annals of Loch Ke, under the 
 year 1234, is only one of many that might be cited to show 
 the fatal and cruel divisions of the O'Haras : " Aedh 
 O'Hara, King of Leyney, was killed by Donnchadh, son of 
 Duarcan O'Hara (a house was burned over him, and he 
 was killed in the door of the house, after coming out of it) 
 in revenge for his having first killed his brother, and the 
 five sons of his father's brother, and having blinded his 
 other brother." 
 
 In the sixteenth century many of the O'Haras were 
 attainted, and their lands confiscated.* In an inquisition 
 
 * On the occasion of an entry of the Four Masters, under the year 1586, 
 recording the death of the " son of O'Hara Boy, namely Brian, the son of 
 Cian, son of Oilioll of the Gailenga of Connaught," John O'Donovan 
 observes in a note, " The Gailenga of Connaught, who received their 
 name from Cormac Gaileng, son of Tadgh, son of Cian, son of Olioll
 
 376 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 taken before John Crofton date and place illegible we 
 learn that " Donald O'Hary was attainted of high treason" 
 on the 21st of September, 1585, and seven quarters of land 
 adjudged to the crown ; in another inquisition, sped before 
 Richard Boyle, at Ballymote, on the 12th of January, 
 1593, we find, among the names of persons attainted in the 
 County Sligo, those of Rory Reagh O'Hara, Tomultagh 
 M'William O'Hara, Owen M'Edmund O'Hara, Arthur 
 O'Hara, Donald O'Hara, and Brian O'Hara; and in an 
 inquisition held in Sligo on the 30th June, 1617, before 
 Thomas Brown, it was found that " William, son of Cor- 
 cashel O'Hara, and Owen O'Hara of Castlecarragh, Brian 
 O'Hara, Art O'Hara, and Donald O'Hara, were attainted 
 of the murdering Teigue Dall O'Higgin, his wife, and 
 child." * 
 
 Olum, King of Minister, originally possessed the whole of the diocese of 
 Achonry, but at the period of which we are now treating, their territory 
 was very narrow. O'Hara Boy possessed ahout the eastern half of the 
 barony of Leyney, in the County of Sligo." 
 
 * O'Reilly's Irish Writers, p. clxx. O'Reilly adds, " To the last of his 
 poems is attributed the cause of his death. It is a satire on six persons 
 of the tribe of O'Hara, who forcibly took some refreshments in his house, 
 and so severely were the lashes of the poet felt by the delinquents, that 
 they some time afterwards returned to his house, seized him, cut out 
 his tongue, and otherwise abused him ; of which barbarous treatment it 
 is said he died." 
 
 In The Life and Letters of Florence MacCarthy Mor, at page 369, there 
 is mention of The Tribes of Ireland, a satire on Irish chiefs, written in 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century. M'Carthy, says the author 
 O'Daly, feared to satirize O'Donnell, " remembering Teige Dall O'Higgin, 
 whose tongue had been cut out, and his wife murdered, for satirizing 
 the sept of O'Hara." O'Daly, however, was not deterred by the fate of 
 Teige Dall from attacking the O'Haras himself, for he does not forget 
 them in The Tribes of Ireland ; but it is significant that he lets the Sligo 
 O'Haras alone, while he vents his venom on the Antrim branch of the 
 family in this fashion 
 
 " The families of O'Haras, of small booleys, 
 A tribe that never earned fame ; 
 Their music is the humming of the fly, 
 And the grumbling of penury in each man's mouth.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 377 
 
 The circumstances of Teigue Dall O'Higgin's murder are 
 so remarkable, and throw so much light on the period in 
 which he lived, that it is well to mention them. Teigue 
 Dall was the leading Irish poet of the day, and came of a 
 family in which the poetic faculty seems to have heen 
 hereditary, and which gave more bards to Ireland than any 
 other, either of ancient or modern times. Brother to 
 Maolmuire O'Higgin, Archbishop of Tuam, who was also 
 a poet, he was a person of recognized social status, and 
 owned fifteen quarters of land in the County Sligo. He 
 
 A long wide house on the middle of the highway, 
 And not enough for a pismire there of food ; 
 Heart-ache to the hungry kerne, 
 That did not build a crib-house of rods on a mountain." 
 
 This is the literal translation, as we find it in John O'Donovan's edition 
 of The Tribes of Ireland, p. 59. Charles Mangan renders the passage 
 thus :_ 
 
 " The tribe of O'Hara are men of some height, 
 
 But they've never been known to stand stoutly in fight ; 
 They have no other music but the hum of the flies, 
 And hunger stares forth from their deep -sunken eyes ! 
 
 There is one waste, wide, void, bleak, black, cold, old pile 
 On the highway ; its length is nearly one-third of a mile ; 
 Whose it is I dont know, but you hear the rats gnawing 
 Its timbers inside, while its owner keeps sawing." 
 
 Tribes of Ireland, p. 86. 
 
 Some think that the O'Higgins were the official poets of the O'Haras, 
 but there appears to be no authority for this opinion. In the Annals of 
 the Four Masters, A.D. 1439, O'Clumain (O'Coleman) is given as chief poet 
 to O'Hara. 
 
 So far from there being any ground for the reflection of the satirist on 
 the courage of the O'Haras, the family was distinguished from the earliest 
 times for its warlike spirit. O'Dugan designates them 
 
 Righ Luighne na m-bladhal ; 
 Luighne ne lasch lann. 
 
 The lords of Leyney of high fame ; 
 The men of Leyney of warlike swords.
 
 578 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 composed nineteen poems, including one of a very compli- 
 mentary character on the genealogy of the O'Haras, in 
 which he traces back the pedigree of Cormac O'Hara 
 Buidhe of Coolany to Olioll Ollum. It may have been this 
 very poem that brought Teigue Dall the ill-will of the 
 O'Haras Reagh, who would resent, as taken from them- 
 selves, the honour conferred on the Coolany branch of the 
 family. However this may be, they came to the poet's 
 house uninvited, and ate and drank against his will the 
 best eatables and drinkables that the place afforded. 
 
 Instead of invoking the law, Teigue Dall, in an evil 
 hour, invoked the muse, and hurled at his persecutors a 
 cutting satire of forty-eight verses, which stung them to 
 madness ; and, while writhing under the infliction, they 
 proceeded in a body to Teigue Dall's house, and, after 
 throwing the satirist on the ground, and binding him, cut 
 out his tongue, of which inhuman treatment the wretched 
 man soon died. O'Reilly * is unable to give the date of 
 Teigue Ball's death, - and states it is not recorded in 
 Browne's inquisition ; but he might have found the desired 
 information in another inquisition, one taken before 
 Nicholas Brady, at Ballymote, on the 6th of June, 1610, 
 which informs us, " That Thadeus CSBCUS O'Higgin, ut 
 vocatur, died on the 8th June, 1595, seized of fifteen quar- 
 ters of land in the County Sligo, that Teigue Oge is his 
 son, and was twelve years old at the father's death, and 
 that he entered into possession " of the property. 
 
 The seventeenth century, which was so fatal to the 
 other leading families of North Connaught the O'Connors 
 Sligo, the O'Rorkes, the O'Dowdas, and M'Donoghs, was 
 propitious to the O'Haras Buidhe. Teigue O'Hara 
 Buidhe, the son of Cormac, was a man of great worldly 
 wisdom, and played his part so skilfully in those difficult 
 times, that he obtained from King James I, on the 28th of 
 
 * Idem Ibidem.
 
 PARISH OF. KILVAKNET. 379 
 
 October, in the fourteenth year of that monarch's reign, an 
 extensive grant of land and privileges, including or con- 
 taining : 
 
 "The castle town and lands of Coolany, Carrowoughteragh-Coolany, 
 Carroweightragh-Coolany, Carrow-rahoaise, Carrowhingnish, Carrow- 
 ganvy, Carrowneclohie, Carrowshancohie, Carrow-kortlekirhin, Carrow- 
 morroy, Carrowneadin, Carrowcashel, each 1 quarter ; Leaghcarrow- 
 ncleabragh, ^ quarter, Carrownecrivy, Carrowclandarrar, Carrowneboilly, 
 Carrowneleacky, Carrownecully, Carrowcashelvragan, Carrowlissrickey- 
 lisse, Carrowdromore, Carrowclonvickoola, CarrowvollainatoCarrowsess- 
 vickittricka, Carrowsessivickamany, Carrowneworan, Carrowtobbervickoo- 
 ver, Carrowteevin, each one quarter ; the town and lands of Kungell* with 
 2 quarters, viz., Carrowkungell and Carrowkungellrenagh ; Carrowgort- 
 drasse, Carrownbill, 1 quarter ; Ballinkearne with 4 quarters, viz., 
 Carrowfelduffe, Carrowkarne, Carrowknocklane, Carrownagorman ; 
 Ba]liclaragh,t with 4 quarters, viz., Carrowaughterclaragh, Carrow- 
 weightragtclaragh, Carrowroaghayn, Carrowlugdagown ; Carrownlaght, 
 Carrowfinlough, | Carrowragran, each 1 quarter; Leaghcarrowdurush, | 
 quarter, Carrowrabarin, Carro'wcrivan, Carrowlamy, Carrowvickarrack, 
 Carrownmullin, Carrowiranerna, Carrowardcrioughteragh, Carrow- 
 
 * A great battle was fought in Kungell, of which the Four Masters thus 
 write, under the year 1087, " A battle was fought between Eory O'Conor 
 King of Connaught, and Hugh, son of Art O'Ruairc Lord of Conmaine 
 and Breffney, at Conachail in Corann, where O'Kuairc was defeated and 
 killed. Of this battle it was said- 
 Seven years and eighty full, 
 And a thousand fair, complete, 
 Since Christ was born without a stain, 
 Till the battle of Conachail in Corann." 
 
 John O'Donovan identifies Conaichail with " Cunghill, a townland in the 
 parish of Achonry, barony of Leyney, and County of Sligo." Note under 
 year 1087, in O'Donovan's Four Masters. 
 
 t This is the place now called Clara. Carrownlaght is part of Clara, 
 at present commonly called Laghta, and was of old probably in Pagan 
 times a place of burial. It commands a very extensive prospect, as 
 Pagan burying places commonly do. 
 
 J Carrowfinlough, Carroragran, and Leaghcarrowdurush, have under- 
 gone little changes of name, the first being still called Finlough, the 
 second Eathgran, and the third Durush, by Irish-speaking people, but 
 by others Federneen. 
 
 Carrowardcrioughteragh and Carrowardcriweightragh are now known 
 as Ardcree, and form part of the Annaghmore demesne.
 
 380 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 ardcriweightragh, each 1 quarter ; Leaghcarrowranaghan, Leaghcarrow- 
 curra, Leaghcarrownerrnin, Leaghcarrowenlargan, 1 quarter ; Leagh- 
 carrowdownecorra quarter ; Leaghcarrowtringlenara alias Triencashel, 
 Leaghcarrownegirah, 1 quarter ; Leagcarrowknockiarra, Leaghcarrow- 
 lugewarry, Leaghcarrowcorcaerlam, Leaghcarrowkoltyleyney, Leagh- 
 carrowcoilly, Leagcarrownemoddow, Leagcarrowtulleghan, Leaghcarrow- 
 naforshogi, Carrowmore alias Carrownemore, 1 quarter; Eadinesheeh, 
 Carrowkiol, 1 quarter ; Carrowneleghan, Carrownecrivy, each 1 quarter ; 
 half of Knockdwo with 2 quarters, viz., Carrowknockdwo and Car- 
 rowkarnemore ; the town and lands of Doghurne, the quarters of Car- 
 rownegarkfrihe alias Carrownebrinny, Carrowkeile, Carrowleatrum, 
 Carrowpollroan alias Carrowmollogh, Carrowmoilleghan, Carrowneogh, 
 each 1 quarter ; half of Kashell, with the two quarters of Carrowdrum- 
 teample alias Ballynecurrie alias Carrowcashell, Carrowcoolecoyle, Car- 
 rowentracky, Carrowcloongownagh, Carrowkeydelly, Carrowletterhroar, 
 Carrowkinkoileclunbaragh, Carrowcloonbarne, Carrowkillmarnada, each 
 1 quarter; Teaghcarrowtrumna, 1 quarter ; Carrownelorgan, Carrow- 
 weakearney, 1 quarter; Leaghcarrowcollman, quarter; Leaghcarrow- 
 lissnefahie, ^ quarter ; Ballyannagh* containing 4 quarters, viz., Car- 
 rowannagoughteragh, Carrowcolglihlan, Carrowenwala, Carrowannagh- 
 weightragh alias Carrowannaghbigge ; parcels of the estate of Teagh- 
 tample, the chief rent of 2s. 8d. sterling out of each of the 5 quarters 
 of Tawniewilliam,t Balliowilliam, Cashellvickanan, Konee, and Kil- 
 voney, belonging to the town of Ballasadarra, called Termonland; 
 7s. out of each of the 4 quarters of Ardcotton, viz., Carrowcasselmore, 
 Carrowdrumcorba, Carrowlugnemackin and Carnefinne ; out of the 3 
 quarters of Kilnemanagh, 10s. Sd. ; out of Kamore, 13s. 4d., and 16 
 meders of wheat ; out of each of the 8 quarters of Killorne, viz., Lissilagh, 
 Ravickernan, Racolman, Lord Dynoid, Tremkearney, Carrowneclaragh, 
 Cairo wnecloonin, twelve meders of wheat ; out of Coylemore, 30 wooden 
 dishes, and six stone of iron ; rent, 6s. 8d. Irish. To hold a yearly fair 
 at Coolany on 15 August ; and the day following unless the same fall on 
 a Sunday ; with a court of pie-powder and the usual tolls, rent 6s. 8d. To 
 
 * Now Annaghmore. 
 
 t Tawniewilliam lies to the south of Ballysadare, and is now called 
 Knox's Park; Balliowilliam lies to the south-west of Ballysadare, and 
 goes now by the name of Curhownagh ; and these places, most probably, 
 got the names in question from their having been in the possession of 
 Bryan Fitzwilliams, " one of her Majesty's servants." (See page 17). 
 The quarter land, called Cashelvickanan, lay to the west of Balliowilliam, 
 where a small patch of land is still known as " Cashell Garden." Konee 
 retains the old name still, but the exact situation of Kilvoney is not so 
 clear. It may possibly be the spot on which the church of Kildalough 
 stood, but more probably it is the district marked as Cooimoney in a map 
 of the Down Survey, and lying between Cashelvickanan and the sea.
 
 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 381 
 
 hold for ever the 4 quarters of Ballyannagh as of the castle of Dublin, in 
 common soccage, and all the rest in capite by the 40th part of a Knight's 
 fee, for a fine of 40s. Irish." 
 
 This grant gave Teague a title, according to English 
 law, to lands, most of which had been in the possession of 
 the family from the third century by Irish tenure. For 
 some cause not recorded he alienated, without the leave of 
 the king, the property thus granted ; or, rather, vested it 
 in trustees for the benefit of himself and family. If one 
 may venture a conjecture in the matter, it is likely that 
 Teague took this step, lest, being a Catholic, he should be 
 deprived of the estate on account of religion. This would 
 appear the more probable from a tradition in the neighbour- 
 hood to the effect, that the father of the first O'Hara who 
 became Protestant,* having been asked to join the new 
 
 * The 0' Haras figure prominently on the " Convert Boll," as the fol- 
 lowing names extracted from the Roll will show : 
 
 Name of " Converts." 
 
 Residence. 
 
 Date of Certificate. 
 
 D. of Enrollment. 
 
 O'Hara, Henry, 
 
 Tullyhuh, 
 
 1 Dec., 1738, 
 
 2 Dec., 1738. 
 
 O'Hara, Mary, 
 
 Dublin, 
 
 1 Dec., 1738, 
 
 2 Dec., 1738. 
 
 O'Hara, Charles, 
 
 Longford, 
 
 17 May, 1740, 
 
 22 May, 1740. 
 
 O'Hara, John, 
 
 Dublin, 
 
 16 Dec., 1757, 
 
 16 Dec., 1757. 
 
 O'Hara, Edmond, 
 
 Dublin, 
 
 28 Sep., 1759, 
 
 17 Oct., 1759. 
 
 O'Hara, Cormick, 
 
 Dublin, 
 
 1 April, 1761, 
 
 10 April, 1761. 
 
 O'Hara, Charles, 
 
 Crosboyne, Co. 
 
 22 April, 1761, 
 
 23 April, 1761. 
 
 O'Hara, Alicia, 
 
 Mayo, 
 Swords, 
 
 13 Aug., 1765, 
 
 19 Sept. 1765. 
 
 O'Hara, Roger, 
 
 P. of Achonry, 
 
 26 March, 1779, 
 
 15 June, 1779. 
 
 Doubtless these 0' Haras were all from the country, but, to create doubts 
 as to their identity, some of them resided a few days in Dublin, and gave 
 that address. 
 
 In the following extract of a letter from Primate Boulter to the Bishop 
 of London, we find mention of an O'Hara, who from the context, would 
 seem to have been a priest : 
 
 " The priest your Lordship mentions has been several times with me, 
 and I do not find any of my brethren object to his sincerity; but most of 
 the priests here are so ignorant, and there is so much hazard in trusting
 
 382 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 religion, refused for himself, but encouraged his two, or, at 
 least, one of the two sons to conform, in order to save the 
 property. And, in fact, Kean, the younger son, is the first 
 O'Hara we find set down in public documents as a Pro- 
 testant, nothing being said on this head respecting Teague 
 Oge, the elder brother, who died unmarried at the age of 
 22. Their mother was Sheela O'Rorke. It was the 
 
 them in our church, that it is very hard to put them in. any way here of 
 getting their bread. If 0' Kara could be put into some little business in 
 the West Indies, I believe it would be better for him ; but I have not 
 yet talked with him whether he is willing to go thither, nor shall I till I 
 know whether your Lordship would be willing to send him." Letters of 
 Lord Primate Boulter, vol. i, p. 144. 
 
 The Primate, though always anxious te make converts, seems to have 
 had very little faith in their sincerity. In a letter to Lord Carteret, he 
 writes : " As to the bill requiring some years conversion in Papists be- 
 fore they practise the law, your Lordship knows the bad case we are in 
 here with new converts practising, and the dangerous consequence it may 
 have in length of time." Idem, p. 152. 
 
 And his suspicions were natural enough, if the " convert " mentioned 
 in the following extract of a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury was 
 a fair specimen of the class : " I have lately received a letter from your 
 Grace relating to one Mr. Carol, a convert, which I had answered sooner, 
 but that I staid till I had an opportunity of talking with my Lord Chief 
 Baron about his case, who tells me he has an extraordinary bad character, 
 whatever his religion may be, that he has been convicted of endeavouring 
 to suborn witnesses, and that a prosecution has been ordered against him 
 in the Exchequer for making a rasure in a record. I shall always be 
 ready to support any real Protestant here ; but I submit it to your grace 
 whether there be a possibility of shewing any countenance to one who has 
 so bad a character."- Id. Ibidem, p. 224. 
 
 In a letter to the Duke of Newcastle, the Primate returns to the sub- 
 ject, and asks the Duke's support for a bill, that had been sent to London 
 for the approval of English ministers, and that was meant by the Primate 
 to alter the state of things complained of. The following is an extract 
 from the letter: 
 
 " The practice of the law, from the top to the bottom, is at present 
 mostly in the hands of new converts, who give no other security on this 
 account, than producing a certificate of their having received the sacra- 
 ment in the Church of England or Ireland, which several of them who 
 were Papists at London, obtain on the road hither, and demand to be 
 admitted barristers in virtue of it, at their arrival ; and several of them 
 have Popish wives and mass said in their houses, and breed up their
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 383 
 
 universal belief in the neighbourhood that Kean renounced 
 the old religion for land, and not for conscience sake ; and, 
 in confirmation of this, an exclamation of his is regularly 
 handed down from father to son ; for it is said that as the 
 neophyte was returning from Collooney, after recanting, he 
 was constantly muttering, while riding along, an old Irish 
 proverbial saying : " an cuirce do thabhairt air ant eorna," 
 which, when translated, means, "Ah! me Ah! me, to 
 give up the wheat for the barley ! " 
 
 In alienating the property granted by James, without 
 the king's licence, Teague violated the law, and incurred 
 the risk of losing his estate. And the consequence, no 
 doubt, would have been serious only for Kean's change of 
 religion ; but no royal favour was beyond the reach of one 
 of the old Irish gentry who had renounced the faith of his 
 
 children Papists. Things are at present so bad with us, that if about 
 six should be removed from the bar to the bench here, there will not be a 
 barrister of note left that is not a convert. 
 
 " To put some stop to this evil, this bill endeavours to obtain some 
 farther security of the sincerity of these converts : 1. By obliging all that 
 come to the bar hereafter, or practise as attornies or solicitors, etc., or act 
 as sub-sheriffs, sheriff's clerks, or deputy officers in the courts, to make a 
 declaration against Popery, and take the oath of abjuration before they 
 are admitted to practise : 2. That every convert shall have been so five 
 years before his admission, or so practising or acting : 3. That he breed 
 up all his children under fourteen, as well as those born before his con- 
 version, as those after, in the Protestant religion : and 4. That whoever 
 fails in any of these points, shall incur the penalties and disabilities to 
 which those relapsing from the Protestant religion to Popery are liable. 
 
 " Everybody here is sensible of the terrible effects of this growing evil, 
 and both Lords and Commons are most eagerly desirous of this bill. We 
 have likewise, by this bill, inflicted the same penalties on every convert 
 or Protestant who shall breed up any child a Papist. But if the latter part 
 be thought too severe, or have too strong a party against it, I hope, how- 
 ever, that what relates to lawyers, attornies, solicitors, sub-sheriffs, etc., 
 will be granted us, or the Protestant interest must suffer exceedingly 
 here." Letters by Lord Primate Boulter, vol. i. p. 182. 
 
 Primate Boulter, never tired in the great work to which he devoted 
 himself of " converting" everybody, but " Nisi Dominus aedificaverit 
 domum in vanum laboraverunt qui sedincant earn." Psal. cxxvi, 6.
 
 384 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 
 
 forefathers to embrace that of the English king ; and ac- 
 cordingly Kean* had little difficulty in procuring a new royal 
 grant to cure the defect of title caused hy Teague's aliena- 
 tion. This grant is found in the Patent Roll of the 22nd of 
 James I, Part 2, bears date the 24th March, 1625, and is 
 in the following terms : 
 
 " Grant of pardon of alienation for Thadeus or Teague O'Hara of 
 Coolany, Sligo, who being seized in fee of the castle, town, and lands of 
 Coolany, 4 quarters ; Carrowcloghie, 1 quarter ; Leaghcarrowdewresse, 
 ^ quarter ; Carrowlaght, 1 quarter ; Carrowfirlough, 1 quarter ; Carrow- 
 ragran, 1 quarter ; Carrowamilla, 1 quarter ; Carrowranarrow, 1 quarter ; 
 Carrowrathbarrin, 1 quarter; Carrowknockanefossagh, 1 quarter; An- 
 nagh, als. Balleannagh, 4 quarters ; and the quarter of Carrownecarrigie, 
 byjhis deed of October 2, 1616, aliened the above lands to Oliver St. John, 
 Knight, Viscount Grandison, Sir John King, Knight, William Taaffe of 
 Ballymote, Knight, Brian M'Donogh of Cowlevony, Thadeus O'Higgins 
 of Coolecovally, and Owen M'Swine of Altenekeill, to hold for the use of 
 the said O'Hara, his heirs and assigns for ever. Also the said Thadeus 
 O'Hara, being seized in fee of half the town and lands of Knockdowe, 
 2 quarters ; viz. : Knockdowe and Carngmore alias Carrowmore, Sligo 
 county, by his deed dated 22nd April, 1616, aliened the premises to 
 Manus M'Sherragh of Knockanedown to hold subject to redemption. 
 Also the said Thadeus O'Hara, being seized in fee of the lands of Carrow- 
 negirah, 1 quarter; Ranecourlan, 1 quarter; Knockiharra, 1 quarter; 
 Coilte-Leyney, quarter; Tullaghan, J quarter; by his deed dated 
 January 2, 1613, aliened the premises to Andrew Crean of Annagh, to 
 hold subject to redemption. Also the said Thadeus O'Hara, being seized 
 in fee of the lands of Carrowkeille, 1 quarter; Carrowmore, 1 quarter; 
 Gortrashey, 1 quarter: Tubber M'Revelin, 1 quarter; by his deed of 
 25 November, 1614, aliened the premises to Patrick French Fitz- 
 Stephen of Galway to hold subject to redemption. All which appears 
 in a certain inquisition taken at Sligo 14 August, 1619; fine 75s. Irish." 
 
 Teigue is said to have died in 1616,f and in that year 
 made over to his brother Cormac of Mollane several quar- 
 
 * Of the three persons returned in 1644, by the judges, as fit for the 
 shrievalty of the County Sligo, namely, Thomas Crofton, Esq., William 
 Crofton, Esq., and Keane O'Hara, Esq., the last named was selected for 
 the office. He served also as sheriff in 1665. 
 
 t Teige's will is in the Record Office, Dublin. It is a short document, 
 and, is in substance, as follows: "In Dei nomine. Amen. I Teige 
 O'Hara of Coolany in the County of Sligo Esquire .... first, I will and
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 385 
 
 ters of land, and as he acted in this proceeding, too, with- 
 out the king's leave, James was induced by a fine of 
 6 13s. 4d. a large sum in those days to issue a pardon 
 of alienation to " Cormac O'Hara of Dowmore, in Sligo 
 County, in respect of following lands : Kearowheshwico- 
 man, Kerrowheshwickitrig, Kerrowclumtulla, Kerrowdow- 
 more, Kerrowlishmacellis, Kerrownequilly, Kerrowlecque, 
 and seven other quarters in Leyney ; enfeoffed to him by 
 his brother Teigue O'Hara of Coolany, in said county, by 
 deed dated 4th October, 1616, to hold to him and his heirs 
 male, remainder to the right heirs of said Cormac ; the 
 licence of the king not having been previously obtained." 
 
 Having mentioned Cormac of Mollane, it may be added, 
 that he had three sons, namely, Oliver, who, after marry- 
 ing a daughter of Roderick O'Flaherty, went into the 
 
 bequeath unto my loving wife Siby, during her life, the towns, lands, and 
 quarters and parcels following, viz. : the Castle, Town, Lands, and Mills 
 of Coolany, etc., etc., etc., in full recompence of all her Dowers and 
 Thirds ; I will, and my will is that my eldest son Teige Oge O'Hara, etc., 
 etc., shall receive etc., etc., etc. ; and that my second son Kayne O'Hara, 
 etc., etc., etc. Dated the Fourth day of October, Anno Domini niilesimo 
 sexcentesimo decimo sexto. Witnesses to this will Callagh Me. als. 
 M'Jurdan, Moilmorry M'Swyney, Bernardino .... M'Cultagh, John 
 Waters, cleric." 
 
 This Teague had a lawsuit with the notorious Miler M'Grath, Arch- 
 bishop of Cashel ; but, unfortunately, the particulars of the transaction 
 seem to be lost ; for, after a diligent search in the Record Office, all the 
 reference to the proceedings that could be discovered is the following few 
 words, which are found in an inquisition that is, for the most part, 
 illegible: " In the ^case of Teige O'Hara, plaintiff, and Archbishop of 
 Cashel, defendant. At Athlone the last of August 1612 by the Vice 
 president and Councell of Connaught. Decree." One can also make out, 
 in the inquisition, the words " Ballysadare " and "Lordship," from 
 which it would appear, that Miler M'Grath sought to possess himself of 
 the church lands of Ballysadare, as of so many other places ; and thut 
 O'Hara defeated the attempt by maintaining those lands to be part of his 
 own lordship ; a contention which he could make good ; for these lands 
 being part of Leyney, formed, therefore, a part of O'Hara's lordship or 
 patrimony. The same lands are marked in the parish map of the Down 
 Survey, as " Protestant Land," and as belonging to " Kean O'Hara," an 
 " Irish Protestant."
 
 386 PARISH OF K1IVARNET. 
 
 insurrection of 1641, and forfeited ; Brian, of whom we 
 know nothing ; and Cormac, who married another daughter 
 of Roderick 0' Flaherty, and by her had three sons Roger, 
 Heber, and Michael ; and five daughters. Michael was a 
 Dominican friar ; and Mr. Hardiman was of opinion that 
 the following extract from the 0' Gorman MSS. in the 
 Royal Irish Academy refers to Roger : " Captain Patrick 
 O'Hara, son of Roderick or Roger O'Hara (captain in the 
 service of King Philip V, slain Anno 1702, in the battle 
 near the river of Poe, in Italy), and of Bridget Burke, 
 daughter of Charles Burke Fitz-Richard Fitz-Daird, of 
 the house of Theobald Burke, created by King Philip the 
 Third of Spain Marquis of Mayo. All his predecessors 
 were Catholics since the conversion of Ireland to Chris- 
 tianity, and he descended of the best of the family of 
 O'Hara ; a family lineally descended from Olill Olum, 
 A.D. 137, King of Munster, whose third son, Kien, was 
 father of Thady, whose son, Cormac Galeng, was father 
 of Lauis, of whose son, Fidcuir, O'Hara and O'Gara 
 sprang."* 
 
 From the official documents quoted we learn the interest- 
 ing fact, that Annaghmore belonged formerly to the Temple- 
 house estate ; for it is expressly stated in James the First's 
 grant to Teague Buidhe, that the " 4 quarters of Bally- 
 annagh are parcels of the estate of Taghtample." And we 
 
 * The Oliver O'Hara who is buried in the Abbey of Court, may have 
 been another son of this Roger, for we read on his tomb in the old choir 
 of the church, the following inscription : Clare Olivere jaces hie O'Hara 
 nate Kogeri, cum proavis, tumulo quern tua cura novat. JEtat. 78 
 Crux Christi Domini portus et ara seni 1725." 
 
 In his History of Ireland and Annals of Boyle, vol. ii, p. 239, the late 
 Mr. D' Alton, in a note under this entry in the Annals, " Hugh O'Hara, 
 King of Leyney, died," found at the year 1155, observes : "Any illus- 
 tration of this ancient family from this compiler's manuscript is here 
 declined, as it is understood that a work, to which its illustration will 
 more legitimately apply, is about to be published." The writer does. not 
 know to what " work" Mr. D' Alton refers, or whether it has been pub- 
 lished. Might it be the Annals of the Four Masters t
 
 PAKISH OF KILVAKNET. 387 
 
 find that, in consequence, the O'Haras possessed Annagh- 
 more by a different title from that of their other lands, 
 holding Annaghmore in soccage, but the rest in capite. 
 Probably they would never have obtained Annaghmore from 
 James if they were not in actual possession, having helped 
 themselves to it when they got their opportunity, without 
 warrant of English law. The time at which they appropri- 
 ated it is not known, but it is certain, as has been seen, 
 that Cormac, the father of Teague, possessed Annaghmore 
 and Ballinacarrow. The possession of Annaghmore King 
 James I legalized by the grant to Teague Buidhe ; and as 
 we find no mention of Ballinacarrow in that document, it 
 is likely that O'Hara surrendered Ballinacarrow in con- 
 sideration of receiving in due legal form the fertile lands 
 of Ballyaunagh. 
 
 The O'Haras seem to have been near losing their estate 
 under Strafford. If this unscrupulous and resolute despot 
 the Bismarck of the seventeenth century lived to com- 
 plete the plantation of Connaught, it was like to fare ill 
 with that family ; for, in addition to the dangers that 
 threatened the other proprietors of Connaught, a special 
 one menaced them. From the time that Strafford set 
 about robbing the old lords of the soil, and vesting the 
 immediate ownership of the province in the king, applica- 
 tions poured in from all sides for portions of the land, of 
 which his majesty was to have the disposal. The solici- 
 tors, in general, were satisfied with claiming an estate, 
 without specifying this or that one, and leaving it to the 
 king to accommodate them where he pleased, but there 
 was one applicant, a Scotch lord named Kirkcudbright, who 
 coveted the plains of Leyney, and shamelessly proposed for 
 them, though in the possession of others. And the cunning 
 Scotchman sent in his proposal or petition through Laud, 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury ; the man who, of all others, 
 exercised most influence on the iron will of Strafford, as 
 well as on the narrow, obstinate mind of Charles. The
 
 388 PARISH OF KILVA11NET. 
 
 Archbishop enclosed Kirkcudbright's application to Straf- 
 ford in a letter dated Lambeth, July 6th, 1635, and 
 introduced the matter in this, which is the concluding 
 paragraph of that letter : 
 
 " So for this time I will cease to be further troublesome to you, but wish 
 you all good success in the Plantation of Connaught, where, while you 
 are, the King's express pleasure is that you take consideration of this 
 enclosed paper ; it concerns a lord of Scotland, that is a tenant to the Lon- 
 doners, but to tell you the truth, his name is too hard for my memory; 
 and when you have considered it, the King would have you return me 
 your answer, and then he will grant or deny, as you hold the thing and 
 conditions fit. I leave your Lordship to the grace of God, and rest 
 " Your Lordship's 
 
 " Very loving friend and servant. 
 
 " W. CANT." 
 
 Kirkcudbright's application was made in a letter to the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, which runs as follows : 
 
 " MAY IT PLEASE TOUR GRACE, 
 
 " When the Bishop of Rosse was here, I had some conference 
 with him about a church-living I have sufficient right unto by the law of 
 Scotland, which is worth unto me annually 150 sterling, and if it will 
 please his Majesty to bestow upon me the land of O'Harareough and 
 O'Haraboy lying in the county of Sligo and barony of Lynee in the 
 Kingdom of Ireland, (which said O'Harareough and O'Haraboy and their 
 predecessors have ever been rebels to the crown of England, as witness 
 Kinsale and all other rebellions)* I will be content to give my church- 
 
 * The 0' Haras were what Kirkcudbright calls them "rebels to the 
 crown of England," from the very beginning, for we learn from the old 
 Norman poem, called The Conquest of Ireland, composed in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, that they took part in demolishing the Castle of Hugh de Lacy at 
 Trim, the first castle erected by the English in Ireland. The following 
 are the words of the poem :_ 
 
 " O'Chonchor tut a estrus, 
 
 T)e Connoth li reis orgullus, 
 
 Od sei menad O'Flaverti, 
 
 Mac Dermot e Mac Herathi 
 
 Reis O'Kelli de O'Mani, 
 
 O'Harthire e O'Hinnathi, 
 
 O'Cabre e O'Flannagan, 
 
 E pus don O'Manethan 
 
 O'Dude e O'Manethan, etc." 
 
 O'Harthire is O'Ear.t. The late Dean Butler in his Notices of the Castle
 
 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 389 
 
 living unto the bishop of Edinburgh, or to any other bishop the King may 
 appoint ; and also I will bo bound to build, plant the land with British, 
 and pay such rents to the King, as my Lord Deputy shall think fitting; 
 and take it in satisfaction of the service done unto the crown by my prede- 
 cessors, and for my own service to his Majesty, whom I have served and 
 his late father twenty two years, a gentleman of his Majesty's Privy 
 Chamber ; And about eight or nine years since, upon his Majesty's com- 
 mands I did levy, arm and furnish with horses great saddles and all otlu r 
 furniture, and transport into Ireland 50 horsemen and 100 foot at my own 
 charge, which stood me in at least 2000 sterling, and at that time his 
 Majesty promised me, if I could find out any land in Ireland, in his 
 Majesty's gift, he would bestow it upon me. If it will please your Grace 
 to put his Majesty in mind of this, you shall tye me ever hereafter to be 
 " Your Grace's humble servant, 
 
 " KIRKCUDBRIGHT. " 
 Strafford's Letters, vol. i, p. 439. 
 
 Here, decidedly, in this simoniacal proposal, was a 
 terrible danger for the O'Haras. An application, backed 
 by the King and Laud, whose wishes were law to Strafford, 
 could hardly fail of success. And to make sure of his prey, 
 the Scotch lord came to Ireland, received a troop of horse 
 from the government, attached himself to the service of 
 Strafford, doing all the dirty work needed, and worming 
 himself so thoroughly into that despot's confidence, that the 
 Lord Deputy relied chiefly on the evidence of Kirkcudbright, 
 and of that other congenial agent, Sir Frederick Hamilton, 
 to vindicate himself from the charges made to the King 
 against him. But the death of Kirkcudbright first, and the 
 
 of Trim, makes "O'Manethan," be the name of O'Madden ; but it seems 
 more likely to the writer that it is the old form of O'Banaghan, the 
 O'Banaghans being neighbours of the O'Haras. 
 
 The O'Haras retained their anti- English feelings down to very recent 
 times : " No Puritan who had been cited before the High Commission of 
 Laud, who had charged under Cromwell at Naseby, who had been prose- 
 cuted under the Conventicle Act, and who had been in hiding on account 
 of the Rye House Plot, bore less affection to the House of Stuart than 
 the O'Haras and McMahons, on whose support the fortunes of that houso 
 seemed now to depend." Macaulay's History of England. 
 
 Art. O'Hara, Prince of Leyney, was one of those who fell in the disas- 
 trous battle of Athenry in 1316.
 
 390 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 execution of Strafford after, with the troubles that ensued, 
 delivered the O'Haras from this great peril, and saved 
 Leyney from the colony of " British," with which the 
 Scotch lord promised to "plant the land." With such 
 facts before him, an O'Hara cannot be blamed overmuch, 
 if he should not feel as acutely as some others the tragic 
 fate that overtook Charles, Laud, and Strafford, those three 
 conspirators against the venerable patrimony of his family. 
 In the last quarter of the same century, another blow was 
 aimed at the estate of the O'Haras, but this time, by a 
 domestic enemy, named Rosanna O'Hara, alias Loftus, 
 widow and relict of Kean O'Hara. This person, who was 
 great-grandaughter of Archbishop Adam Loftus, and had 
 been married to Richard Parsons, Esq., before her union 
 with Mr. O'Hara, instituted a suit in which she, Henry 
 Crofton, Esq., Senr., and Henry Crofton, Esq., were plain- 
 tiffs; and Adam O'Hara, Esq. and Sir Francis Gore, 
 defendants ; the object of the suit being to get possession of 
 Annaghmore, Annaghbeg, Carrowenwalla, Gurtcherin, 
 Ranarrow, Ardcrea, Carrowkeale, Carrowmore, Portdroasy, 
 Tubbermacever and other lands, which, plaintiffs alleged, 
 were conveyed to her by Kean O'Hara, on the llth July, 
 1665, to have and to hold for sixty-one years in payment 
 of her jointure. In their bill, plaintiffs allege, that " Kean 
 O'Hara died on the 22nd October, 1675, and that Adam 
 O'Hara entered into the aforesaid lands and kept the profits, 
 and they now pray that Richard Lord Baron of Collooney, 
 Sir Francis Gore, James Birne, Philip Ormsby, and Adam 
 O'Hara, being the present tenants and occupiers of the 
 lands, be compelled to attorn tenants to plaintiffs." Adam 
 O'Hara 'and Sir Francis Gore plead in defence, that the 
 conveyance depended on two conditions, first on Rosanna's 
 cohabiting with Kean O'Hara, and, second, on Kean's life ; 
 that both conditions failed, she refusing to cohabit with him 
 for a year before his death, and he being now dead ; that 
 Adam, as elder son and heir, entered into possession of the
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 391 
 
 lands ; that " the three quarters of Armagh and the two 
 quarters Portdraosey, and Tuhbermaciver were waste and 
 so continued till the time of plaintiff's action of recovery, so 
 that defendant could not make one penny profit of the 
 lands, while the other lands were in mortgage to Roger 
 Smith ; " that plaintiff " had no reason to put herself to 
 the charge and trouble of the said recovery, had she not 
 been minded to be more vexatious to the defendant than 
 necessary;" and that Adam O'Hara was now ready to pay 
 what he had received for Gurtcherin, Ranarrow, Ardcrea, 
 Carrowkeale, and Carrowmore, the reason why he did not 
 pay before being, that plaintiff " refused to produce the 
 deed." The upshot of these pleadings and proceedings was 
 a decree, " given at his Majesty's court of Exchequer, 30th 
 of November 1678," in favour of plaintiffs, for 154. 7s. 6d., 
 a result which was a triumph for the defendants ; for 
 though 154 was a substantial sum in those days, it could 
 not seriously affect the O'Hara estate, whereas if Rosanna 
 Loftus had carried her point, the best part of the Annagh- 
 more property would have been taken out of the hands of 
 its owners, with the greatest probability of its never coming 
 into the possession of an O'Hara again. 
 
 Though the 'Haras seem to have denied that Annagh- 
 more had ever belonged to the Templars, still they acted 
 as if they believed or, at least, feared this to have been the 
 case ; for, as was seen above,* they solicited and obtained 
 a grant of the place from the English king, who alone, 
 according to English law, was competent to dispose of the 
 suppressed monasteries ; and, in the days of the Kilkenny 
 Confederation, when there was a prospect of the Catholic 
 Church acquiring commanding influence in the country, 
 they applied to the Pope's Nuncio, Rinuccini, to cure any 
 defect that lurked in a title derived from a royal grant ; 
 thus acting like some high families in modern France, who 
 
 * See page 379.
 
 392 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 bring up some of their members monarchists, and others 
 republicans, in order to be able to weather the storm, how- 
 ever the wind blows. Binuccini, who had never much 
 misgivings about his own powers, and who was always dis- 
 posed to do a good turn for the old Irish, absolved the 
 O'Haras from any censures they might have incurred, in 
 the past, by holding Annaghmore, and dispensed from any 
 law that could interfere with their holding it in the future ; 
 stipulating only, that they should accord suitable support 
 to their parish priest in case they learned, on inquiry, that 
 he suffered from the secularization of the property. 
 Whether it was that Errill O'Hara, who was a Catholic, 
 and lived in Meemlagh, acted on behalf of Kean O'Hara, 
 who was a Protestant, and resided, probably, in Coolany, 
 or that he was moving in his own interest, and trying to 
 secure the place for himself, it was to Errill, and not to 
 Kean, was addressed the letter of the Nuncio, which ran 
 as follows : 
 
 " JOHN BAPTISTE RINUCCINI, by the grace of God, and of the Apostolic 
 See, ARCHBISHOP AND PRINCE OF FERMO and NUNCIO APOSTOLIC IN THE 
 KINGDOM OP IRELAND, to our beloved son in Christ, the Chieftain Errill 
 O'Hara, of the diocese of Achonry, health. 
 
 " We have received through our beloved father, Brother Bona venture 
 Mihan, Minorite, your petition in which you state that your forefathers, 
 from time immemorial, were in peaceful possession of the Castle of 
 Templehouse with sixteen quarters of land adjoining, in the diocese of 
 Achonry ; that you, too, had peaceful possession of this property, which 
 had descended to you by hereditary right, till you were disturbed in the 
 possession about forty years ago by an heretical pseudo -bishop on the 
 pretext that the said castle belonged formerly to the Templars, or 
 Knights of Malta, which he seems to have inferred from the name of the 
 place.* Fearing therefore that the castle and adjoining lands should be 
 
 * The chief reasons for holding that Templehouse belonged once to the 
 Templars, are, first, the Inquisitions already quoted (page 320), which 
 were taken by Government officials, and which decided, after due inquiry 
 on the spot, that the place had been a " Commandrye " of the Tem- 
 plars ; second, the fact that the Hospitallers were the legal owners of 
 Templehouse at the time of the suppression ; third, the name Teagh- 
 Templa, house of the Temple, or house of the Templars ; and, fourth,
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 393 
 
 held by future bishops to be ecclesiastical property, having been entered 
 as such in the recent register of the heretics, and that you should, in 
 this way, be deprived of your lawful possession, he has humbly begged of 
 us to secure you from those ecclesiastical pretensions, and, as far as may 
 be necessary, to dispense you in regard to the aforesaid castle and lands. 
 Wherefore, consulting for your interests, and mindful of your merits and 
 the many sufferings and losses you have endured for the preservation of 
 the Catholic faith, and the exaltation of the Catholic Church, as we have 
 learned from trustworthy witnesses, we do hereby, in virtue of our 
 Apostolic authority, first of all, absolve you from all excommunications, 
 interdicts, and other ecclesiastical sentences and penalties (should you in 
 any way have incurred such), so far only as may be necessary to qualify 
 you for receiving the present favour, and in the next place, acceding to 
 your supplications, we, in virtue of the same Apostolic authority, absolve 
 you from all obligation in reference to the alleged right of the Church, 
 and also so far as may be necessary, dispense you, so that you and your 
 descendants may, notwithstanding the aforesaid recent register of the 
 heretics, use and enjoy, with a safe conscience, the aforesaid castle and 
 lands, even in the forum externum, and that no one, no matter what may 
 be his dignity, shall presume to disturb or molest you ; on condition^ 
 
 local tradition. With all this evidence there could and can be but very 
 little room for doubt. On the other hand it is strange that, in a MS. in 
 the British Museum that professes to give ' ' a full account of the property 
 of the houses of the Knights of the Temple in Ireland, at their dissolution 
 in the first year of King Edward II (1307), there is not one word of 
 Templehouse, though there is mention of all the other foundations of the 
 Templars in Ireland. See this document in the Kilkenny Archaeological 
 Journal, vol. xii. p. 331. 
 
 In answer to the argument, founded on the document of the British 
 Museum, it may be said that the Templars perhaps no longer inhabited 
 Templehouse in 1307, the date of the paper, though living there pre- 
 viously. From the Annals of the Four Masters, and various other quarters, 
 we learn that Hugh O'Conor, King of Connaught, demolished the Castle of 
 Teaghteampla in 1271, an event that may have caused the knights to 
 forsake the place, being unable to rebuild in the midst of Irish enemies. 
 
 The name Teagh-Templa, or Templehouse, is not conclusive as to the 
 ownership of the Templars as the place might receive that name frojn 
 some other temple than the one of the Templars. Indeed temple, or 
 " tempul," in Irish, was a common name for an old church. For instance, 
 the Church of Ballysadare was often called "Tempul-Mor," the big 
 temple. In this way Templehouse might have had its name from the old 
 church that existed in Kil ; and this conjecture is the less improbable, as 
 Eathbane, on which district the Church of Kil stood, appears in some old 
 documents under the alias of Clon- Tempul, the meadow of the temple. So 
 it is clear the 0' Haras had something to say for themselves.
 
 394 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 however, that you and your descendants, respectively accord congruous 
 support to the parish priest, if you learn in the course of time that the 
 said property helonged to the church, and that the parish priest used to 
 derive his maintenance from it, and if not, that you give such alms as 
 your confessor shall enjoin, hut not otherwise, nor at any other time, nor 
 in any other manner. In confirmation of which we have set our hand 
 to this letter, and had it authenticated with our seal. 
 
 " Given from our residence at Killaloe, the Sixteenth of January, 1648, 
 old style. 
 
 "Jo. B., Archhishop of Fenno and Apostolic Nuncio."* 
 
 [ORIGINAL.] 
 
 " Joannes Baptista Rinucinus Dei et Apostolicse Sedis gratia Archiepis- 
 copus et Princeps firmanus ac in regno Hiberniaa Nuncius Apostolicu.s 
 Extraordinarius. 
 
 " Dilecto nohis in Christo filio Domino Urieli O'Hara, Capitaneo Dio- 
 cesis Achadensis Salutem. Accepimus per dilectum patrem fratrem 
 Bonaventuram Mihanum Minoritam tuas supplicationes quibus exponehas 
 quod tui proavi ah immemorabili tempore fuerint in possessione pacifica 
 Castelli Teachteampla cum sexdecim quarteriis terrae ipsi adjacentibus 
 in Diocesi Achadensi quse jure hereditario in tuam possessionem translata 
 ' etiam pacifice possedisti donee perquemdampseudo-episcopumhsereticum 
 predicta possessione pacifica ante circiter 40 annos deturbatus fueris 
 pretextu quod dictum castellum spectaverit olim ad Templarios sive 
 equites Melitenses prout ex sono vocis videbatur inferre ; quare veritusne 
 per episcopos subsequentes utpote recenti hsereticorum registo in heretico 
 Dominio Castellum cum terris adjacentibus tanquam bona ecclesiastica 
 inseri debeant (sic) ac proinde a tua legitima possessione expelli cogaris 
 nomine tuo humillime coram nobis supplicavit quatenus super hujusmodi 
 pretensionibus juris ecclesise et liberare et absolvere ac super predictis 
 Castello et terris adjacentibus opus fuerit dispensare dignaremur. Nos 
 igitur consulentes tuis commoditatibus propter merita tua et propter 
 calamitates et incommoda plurima quse ob fidei Catholicae incolumitatem 
 et ejusdem ecclesiae splendorem et nuper passus fuisti prout fide digno 
 testimonio commendaris, &c. in primis auctoritate Apostolica a quibusvis 
 excommunicationis et interdict! vinculis aliisque ecclesiasticis sententiis et 
 penis si quibus quomodolibet innodatus es ad presentium duntaxat as- 
 secutionem absolventes et absolutum fore consentientes in hac parte tuis 
 supplicationibus inclinati super predicto pretento jure eadem auctoritate 
 Hberauius et absolvimus ; nee non super predicto castello et sexdecim terraj 
 quarteriis adjacentibus quatenus opus sit dicta auctoritate Apostolica 
 
 * This document is written on a sheet of vellum, fifteen inches wide and 
 eleven inches deep, which, besides the heading and signature, contains 
 eighteen lines.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 395 
 
 dispensamus ita ut tuta consciencia uti ac frui predicto castello et bonis 
 fttljacentibus tarn tu quam tui descendentes valeatis et in foro externo 
 etiam non obstante supradicto necenti hereticorum registro nemo quacun- 
 que digiiitate prsefulgens turbare aut molestare audeat soluta tamen per 
 te et descendentes tuos respective congrua sustentatione Parochi si noveris 
 ductu temporis dicta bona spectare ad ecclesiam, ct Parochum ex eorum 
 redditibus substentari consuevisse vel si non eleemosyna aliqua arbitrio 
 confessarii et non aliter nee alias aut alio modo. In quorum fidem pre- 
 sentes manu nostra firmavimus et sigillo muniri fecimus. Daluili ex 
 riostra residentia die xvi Januari 1648, stylo veteri. 
 
 " Jo. B. ARCHIEPISCOPUS FIRMANUS NUNCIUS APOSTOLICUS." 
 
 Errill O'Hara gained nothing by this letter, for Cromwell 
 coming to Ireland in 1 649, and overrunning the country by 
 himself or his generals, unfortunate Errill not only for- 
 feited all pretensions to Annaghmore, but lost, in addition, 
 the lands of Meemlough and Kinnagrelly, which .were 
 granted, a few years later, to Richard Coote, Baron of 
 Collooney. It -is probable that Errill passed Rinuccini's 
 letter to Kean, and that it has since continued in the pos- 
 session of Kean's descendants. Anyhow, it belonged to 
 one of them Mr. Charles O'Hara, M.P. towards the 
 close of last century ; for it is a well-known fact in the 
 neighbourhood that, as this gentleman was returning from 
 England with the letter in his possession, the vessel in 
 which he sailed was overtaken and overhauled by the 
 redoubtable Paul Jones, who, while searching for valuables, 
 found the document, which, however, after examining, the 
 famous filibusterer returned to the owner, but not without 
 having first detached and pocketed the seal, an appendage 
 that is now conspicuous by its absence from the empty 
 case still attached to the parchment.* 
 
 * Paul, it seems, was no respecter of persons in his attentions, as we 
 learn from Father Cogan's Diocese of Meath, Ancient and Modern, that he 
 treated Bishop Plunket, of that diocese, much in the same way as he had 
 treated Mr. O'Hara. " Dr. Plunket," says Father Cogan, " after making 
 all necessary preparations, left Paris for Ireland, about the end of May, 
 1779, and on his way home was robbed of his books and episcopal outfit 
 by no less a personage than Paul Jones the celebrated American privateer. ' '
 
 396 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 There is little more known for certain of the old history 
 of Annaghmore, but it is probable at least, if not quite 
 certain, that the place once contained a monastery of nuns. 
 There is a tradition to this effect in the neighbourhood, and 
 people say that Nymphsfield the name by which the 
 place was known fifty years ago, and long before is only 
 a corruption of Nuns-field.* They say, besides, that the 
 site of this building is a spot two or three hundred yards 
 in front of Annaghmore House, where the late Major 
 O'Hara, about forty years since, had extensive brick 
 foundations dug up, and the ground levelled off. It is 
 added that the nuns came from Templehouse, to which 
 they were so attached that they had some of its earth 
 carried down and spread under their feet in the floor of the 
 new nunnery, f 
 
 But it is, perhaps, as likely that the brickwork men- 
 tioned belonged to a Dominican monastery 'of men, which, 
 there are some grounds to believe, existed once in Annagh- 
 more. The reason for thinking so is derived from an 
 inquisition, sped before John Crofton towards the close of 
 Elizabeth's reign, but the manuscript (for the inquisition 
 was never printed) is so injured by time as to make it im- 
 possible at present to ascertain much of what it originally 
 
 * Mi". C. W. O'Hara is of opinion that " Nymphsfield is a fancy name 
 given by some young ladies, staying at Annaghmore in the time of Major 
 O'Hara's grandfather." 
 
 t The tradition is so clear that there can be hardly any doubt of a 
 nunnery having been somewhere on the lands of Annagimore. The 
 country people, in speaking of the nuns that came from Templehouse, 
 call the ladies caillechs, which is the term employed by old Irish writers 
 to designate female religious religieuses as we see in the Annals of the 
 Four Masters, under the year 1211, where there is an entry about " Ragh- 
 nailt and Caillech De, two daughters of Roderic O'Connor," to which 
 passage John O'Donovan subjoins this note : " Caillech De, i.e. the Nun 
 of God It would appear to be the feminine form of Cele De, which is 
 Latinized Deicola by Giraldus Cambrensis, and Anglicized Culdee." The 
 Cemetery of the Nuns at Clonmacnoise is called in Irish, Relig Calllaeh 
 Brash's Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, p. 79.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 397 
 
 contained. The following is a translation of the document, 
 as far as the meaning can now be made out : " Inq. in 
 the monastery of .... 28 .... year of the reign of the 
 Queen .... before John Crofton .... that Donald 
 O'Hary was attainted of high treason 21 Sep. 1655 .... 
 seized in fee of qur called .... Carrownip .... in the 
 territory of Leyne (alias O'Hares Boye's country) and of 
 seven qur in the same country, which on account of the 
 quarrel between himself and his brothers, were assigned to 
 him, viz. qur of .... qur of Dromcon, qur of Lyseneche, 
 qur of Clonagearra, qur of Banney, qur of Sgo, qur of 
 Clarra. There is a certain monastery or house of the late 
 friars of St. Dominick near the town of .... containing a 
 church with a belfry, and that there is one weir, commonly 
 called .... and that the aforesaid are still in the occupa- 
 tion of certain priests who were formerly friars of the said 
 monastery." There is nothing decisive in this inquisition 
 as to the locality of the Dominican monastery in question, 
 but the data given would seem to point in the direction of 
 my conjecture rather than in any other, as Annaghmore 
 lies in O'Hara Boey's country, and contained formerly a 
 weir that crossed the river about the spot on which the 
 wooden bridge now stands. Unfortunately we can get no 
 assistance in this matter from those who have written on 
 the history and antiquities of the country ; for neither De 
 Burgo, Ware, Usher, Archdall, Lanigan, O'Connor, nor 
 any other author, native or foreign, seems to know any- 
 thing of a Dominican house having ever existed in O'Hara 
 Boye's territory, though the inquisition quoted is quite 
 clear upon this point.* 
 
 It may be mentioned that a well, which is on the bank 
 of the river, or was there lately, near the new pump, was 
 formerly called St. Anne's well, though the late Major 
 
 * The monastery in question may perhaps have heen that of Court, 
 which, though a house of the Franciscans, might have been mistaken by 
 the English authorities for a Dominican one.
 
 398 
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 O'Hara used to call it Fechin's well ; a name, probably, 
 which it generally bore before it was called perhaps by 
 the Dominicans after the mother of the Blessed Yirgin. 
 
 Soon after James the First's grant to Teague Buidhe, the 
 O'Haras began to reside in Annaghmore. It would seem 
 to be Cormac Oge, the youngest son of Cormac of Coolany, 
 that first lived there ; but on the forfeiture of his sons by 
 rebellion, the elder branch took up residence in the place. 
 Kean, son of Teague, is styled 'Kean of Coolany and 
 Annaghmore,' of course because he had residences in both 
 places. After Kean's time the family abandoned the old 
 castle of Coolany and confined themselves to Annaghmore, 
 where they have since erected several successive residences : 
 the first near Tubbermullane, the second on the site of the 
 new stables, the third that of Major O'Hara, part of which 
 still remains, and the last, the elegant structure that Mr. 
 C. W. O'Hara has just raised. 
 
 ME, C. "W. O'HARA'S RESIDENCE. 
 
 Drawn by Mr. Wakeman from a Photograph by Mr. Edward Smith.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 399 
 
 The modern O'Haras have exhibited the same tastes as 
 their predecessors, and have been quite as fond of dogs and 
 horses. If we are to rely on the gossip of the country, 
 Charles, the son of Kean Oge, won his wife and a fine 
 fortune by skill and grace in horsemanship. The story 
 runs that, being in England and after the hounds, Mr. 
 O'Hara displayed such dash and gallantry in the presence 
 of the Queen and the ladies of the Court, who had come to 
 see the sport, that one of the maids of honour, a Scotch lady, 
 lost no time in offering him her hand and fortune. This 
 was Lady Mary, eldest daughter of the Earl of Hyndford, 
 and sister to Dr. Carmichael, the Bishop of Killala, up to 
 the present day spoken of by the poor about Annaghmore, as 
 Lady Carmichael.* Whether this story be apocryphal or 
 not, and a hundred others like it that are told of him, and 
 that turn, for the most part, on his wonderful horses, Ar- 
 pinus and Sejanus, with their silver shoes ; f his Irish 
 servant, Johnny Cuffe, who was more than a match for all 
 the English turfites and jockeys ; his fabulous feats of 
 horsemanship, such as the jump from the precipice of 
 Knocknashee ; and his successes, but, still more, his losses 
 by gambling ; they at all events show the manner of man 
 this Charles was in the minds of admiring neighbours. 
 
 Charles, son and heir a Charles too was also a sports- 
 
 * Lady Mary's portrait by Ramsay, is at Annaghmore, as is also that 
 of her son, William Henry O'Hara, who was a captain in the navy, and 
 died about his thirtieth year. 
 
 f This calls to mind the Jeunesse Doree of the French Eepublic, and 
 still more, the Brigata Godereccia of Sienna, in Italy ; for the members of 
 the Brigata Godereccia "had their horses shod with silver shoes, and 
 forbade their servants to pick up the precious shoes if they dropped off." 
 Gary's Dante, L' Inferno, canto xxix. We are not told whether Johnny 
 Cuffe received similar orders from Mr. O'Hara. The Italian poem, 
 Dittamonde, 1. xi, cap. 24, mentions a .Robert Guiscard that had his horses 
 similarly shod 
 
 " Ancora in questo tempo si fu visto 
 
 Quel Roberto Guiscardo, cho d'aryento 
 
 I cavallifetb per far i'acquisto."
 
 400 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 man, though engaged so actively in politics that he was 
 less frequently in the race course and hunting field than 
 the father. An anecdote is told of this Charles, however, 
 which shows how devoted he was to the traditional tastes 
 and habits of the family. In his day it was thought undig- 
 nified for a gentleman of estate to mount a black horse, and 
 Mr. O'Hara, seeing his only son, the late Major O'Hara, 
 riding a horse of that colour, hung the head with shame, 
 and exclaimed mournfully, " Ah ! the day I die there will 
 be no O'Hara in Annaghmore to succeed me." This 
 gentleman* was Member of Parliament for the County 
 Sligo during forty years twenty in the Irish, and twenty 
 in the British House of Commons always performing the 
 duties of the ofiice in a manner creditable to himself and 
 the constituents. A speaker of no mean order, he took his 
 turn in debate, and was always listened to with attention 
 and interest. He spoke and voted against the Union, and 
 opposed monumental honours to Lord Cornwallis. Being 
 an advocate for the removal of Catholic disabilities, if not 
 all of them, at least such as were most noxious, he presented 
 to the Commons, on the 23rd of January, 1792, the famous 
 
 * In Plowden's History of Ireland from its Union with Great Britain, 
 we read in vol. ii, page 275 : " Amongst the earliest Parliamentary 
 proceedings on the change of the ministry [in 1766], which in any way 
 related to Ireland, must be noticed Mr. O'Hara' s spirited objection to 
 Lord Castlereagh's vote for monumental honours to Marquis Cornwallis, 
 who died in India. He opposed the motion because he could not, with 
 consistency, vote funeral honours to a man who had brought about the 
 union between Great Britain and Ireland, with regard to which he 
 trusted, that some time or other it would come under the consideration of 
 the House ; and if it were not, as he hoped it would be, entirely rescinded ; 
 it would at all events be considerably modified, and, if possible, ame- 
 liorated." It was on the occasion of these observations of Mr. O'Hara, 
 that Charles Fox declared that ' ' the union was one of the most disgrace- 
 ful transactions in which the government of any country had been in- 
 volved." 
 
 His portrait, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, is at Annaghmore, 
 where, it may be stated, are also two fine full length portraits of 
 William III, and his queen, Mary, by Sir Godfrey Kneller.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 401 
 
 petition of the Catholics,* a service which the petitioners 
 had solicited in vain from other members of the House. 
 But politics in that day were generally an expensive pur- 
 suit, and Mr. O'Hara had to pay the penalty ; for having 
 had a contested election or two on hands, he not only spent 
 all his income, but went into debt and in cumbered the 
 estate. 
 
 The same inordinate desire of success at elections, that 
 
 * This was? the first petition presented to Parliament by the Catholics 
 of Ireland, who were themselves much divided in regard to the docu- 
 ment, for a considerable number, including most of the aristocracy aud 
 gentry, considered it intemperate, or at least, quite too strong, while the 
 majority of the body insisted on its adoption just as it stood. It wag 
 drawn up by the son of Edmund Burke, who, lik<; his illustrious father, 
 was a Protestant, and wrote more like the freeman that he was, than the 
 semi-slaves and outcasts that he represented. " We are excluded from the 
 constitution," say the petitioners; " wo incur no small part of the penal- 
 ties of a general outlawry, and a general excommunication. . . . For 
 our religion we offer no apology. We have only to say that it is founded 
 on revelation, as well as the religion established by law. Both you and 
 we are regenerated in the same baptism, and profess .our belief in the 
 same Christ. We do not enter, we disdain to enter, into the cavils of 
 antiquated sophistry, and to insult the understanding of Parliament by 
 supposing it necessary to prove, that a religion is not incompatible with 
 civil government which has subsisted for so many hundred years under 
 every possible form of government, in some tolerated, in some established, 
 even to this day. . . . We hunger and we thirst for the Constitution 
 of our country. If it shall bo determined that we are qualified for the 
 base and lucrative tenures of professional occupation, but unworthy to 
 perform the free and noble services of the Constitution, we submit, in- 
 deed, but we solemnly protest against that distinction for ourselves and 
 our children. Whatever j udgment may await our merits and our fail- 
 ings, we cannot recognize, for a consideration, the principle of servility 
 and perpetual degradation." This was bold speaking, a little trop fort 
 perhaps in form, at least, if not in substance, for an " humble petition," 
 so that it is not very surprising that Mr. O'Hara was the only member 
 of Parliament courageous enough to present it. And even he, according 
 to Mr. Froude, in The English in Ireland, "handled it as if it was red 
 hot iron," but he handled it, nevertheless, what nobody else ventured to 
 do, and presented it in due form to as hostile an assembly as one could 
 encounter, to men stung to madness by all the circumstances of the pro- 
 ceeding. It surely needed no little political and personal pluck to per- 
 form the feat that Mr. O'Hara accomplished. 
 
 2 D
 
 402 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 tempted Mr. O'Hara to go into debt, induced him also to 
 import Protestants from the North, and to settle them on 
 the Annaghmore estate.* The period between the enact- 
 ment of the Octennial Bill in 1768, and the passing of the 
 Relief Act of 1793, was amongst the most trying arid 
 perilous for the Catholic religion through which this 
 country has passed. At that time, a mad ambition for 
 political influence turned the heads of the Irish gentry; and 
 as Catholics were disabled by law from voting, landlords, to 
 acquire voting power, tried hard to make their Catholic 
 tenants conform to the established religion, and, failing 
 generally in that, evicted them, to clear the farms for 
 Protestants. Even landlords who were no bigots, took 
 part in these practices, caring little what religion the tenant 
 cherished at heart, if he could only be got to comply out- 
 wardly with the requirements of the electoral law. And 
 an instance will serve to show that a Catholic might be 
 found so silly as to believe that he could, (to use the phrase 
 of the day) " go to church," a Sunday or two, and still 
 
 remain loyal enough to religion; Tom , who had been 
 
 to the parish church once or twice, and had thus become a 
 Protestant in the eye of the law, having occasion to make 
 an oath in a registration court, first of all took deliberately 
 a beads out of his pocket to bless himself with ; and when 
 Mr. O'Hara, who was present, exclaimed, on seeing the 
 beads, " Tom, is that the way with you still " ? " Egad, 
 it is, your honour, I cannot do without it." " Well, then, 
 Tom, do with it, and I'll never think the worse of you for 
 it." This incident proves that Mr. O'Hara was free from 
 
 * "The late Mr. O'Hara about twenty-five years ago built houses for 
 about eighty weavers, got them looms from the Linen Board, and gave 
 them very cheap bargains of land. Those people have ever since resided, 
 and gave one of the first springs to the trade in this country. They being 
 Protestants, Mr. O'Hara got from the Board of First Fruits every neces- 
 sary assistance to purchase a glebe and build a church for their accommo- 
 dation." Statistical Survey of the County Sligo : by James MacParlan, 
 page 18.
 
 PAKISH OF KILVAKNET. 403 
 
 sectarian motive in creating Protestant votes; and that he 
 had at heart the traditional feelings of the family towards 
 Catholics was well seen in his giving poor Catholics, who 
 were banished from the North towards the close of the last 
 century, houses and land in Lugawarry and all along the 
 mountain foot, where their descendants still live.* Mr. 
 O'Hara was buried at Rathbarron, where his tomb is thus 
 inscribed, " Here lie the mortal remains of Ch. O'Hara, 
 Esq., M.P., who died 12th Septr. 1822, aged 77." 
 
 At the time of Mr. O'Hara's death, an O'Hara of the 
 old school would hardly have been the required successor, 
 whereas his son, the major, was exactly the " right man in 
 the right place." Inexpensive in tastes, frugal, alive to 
 the condition of the estate, with strong family feeling, and 
 a high sense of what was due to the venerable name he 
 bore, the major seemed as if entrusted with a mission from 
 Providence to retrieve the errors and extravagance of 
 father and grandfather, and from the post set himself 
 steadily to the performance of this duty. Beginning by 
 taking a public situation that brought a moderate income, 
 he lived unmarried ; arranged his household so as to cut off 
 all sources of extravagance ; and, on coming into the 
 
 * In 1791 a terrible persecution was set on foot and carried on against 
 poor Catholics in the County Armagh, and some districts of Down and 
 Tyrone, by a confederacy that took or received the name of Peep-o'day- 
 Boys, from their pursuing their peculiar practices at the break-of-day. 
 The object of the association was to exterminate Catholics, root and 
 branch ; and in pursuance of this end, the confederates scoured the 
 country, robbed the Catholics of fire-arms, loaded them with curses and 
 indignities, and bade them take themselves, without delay, out of tho 
 country, under pain of having the houses burned over their heads within 
 a few hours. And these threats were ruthlessly executed, so that it was 
 not uncommon of a morning to see scores of homesteads in a blaze, 
 while the high roads were black with droves of men, women, and children 
 Hying away, they knew not whither, from these scenes of barbarism 
 a ad desolation. There are hundreds of families at present in the County 
 Sligo, and a still greater number in the County Mayo, whose ancestors 
 were among these fugitives.
 
 404 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 possession of the property, associated with himself in its 
 management a gentleman of ability and zeal. Between 
 them they ordered things so well that the major was able 
 to hand down to his successor the fine family estate nearly 
 unencumbered. And all this time Major O'Hara was, in 
 many respects, a model landlord, and under him improve- 
 ments of a most extensive and, generally, of a permanent 
 character, were carried on over the property. The major's 
 cardinal principle was, to encourage the tenants to make 
 these improvements themselves ; and this principle he car- 
 ried out by paying them liberally for building, draining, 
 planting, fencing, stubbing, or bettering the condition of 
 the farm in any other way.* It was a subject of boast to 
 this gentleman towards the end of life, that there was not 
 a single tenant on the Annaghmore estate but had a com- 
 modious cartway between his residence and the high road, 
 and all made at the landlord's expense. Nor did this 
 intelligent proprietor neglect the beautiful while thus 
 promoting the useful ; for, whoever, at the present day, 
 ascends the Ox Mountains, and casts an eye on the O'Hara 
 property, observing not only the well cultivated fields, but 
 the symmetrical hedge rows, the shining cottages, the 
 numerous picturesquely situated strips and clumps of 
 planting, cannot fail to come to the conclusion that Major 
 O'Hara was not only an improving but a most tasteful 
 landlord as well. 
 
 And speaking of the major, it would be unfair to be silent 
 in respect of his charities. However economical this gen- 
 
 * " Mr. Charles King O'Hara is a resident landlord who is univer- 
 sally well spoken of. The system of this gentleman appears to be to let 
 his land at its full value, and to pay his tenants for all the improvements 
 of which he approves, whilst his personal supervision and advice encou- 
 rage them in their efforts. The effect has been greatly to encourage a 
 spirit of order, cleanliness, and industry among them." Letters on the 
 Condition of "the People of Ireland : by Thomas Campbell Foster, Esq., of 
 the Middle Temple, Barrister-at-Law (The Times Commissioner), page 
 185.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARSET. 405 
 
 tleman may have been in other matters he was liberal in 
 alms. All the year round, as cases of distress occurred, he 
 gave something to relieve them, and every Christmas dis- 
 tributed liberally clothing and meat to the demesne 
 labourers, their families, and the poor of the neighbour- 
 hood ; getting for this purpose, from Dublin, two cartloads 
 of calicoes, cottons, and woollens, and killing a couple of 
 fat cows or bullocks at every return of the festive season. 
 
 While giving the major credit for the management of 
 his estates and for his charities, duty compels us to state, 
 that he was still, if not exclusive, at least somewhat one- 
 sided in relations with Catholics and Protestants. Unlike 
 the 0' Haras that had gone before, who made no distinction 
 on the score of religion in regard to those whom they 
 employed or benefited, choosing domestics and others 
 irrespectively of religious profession, the major gave com- 
 paratively few good things, either in the way of employ- 
 ment or patronage, to Catholics, so long as there were 
 persons of his own religion to receive them. For this the 
 major should not be blamed overmuch, as his mind, if 
 sharp and fitted for business, was not of that lofty character 
 that rises above the prejudices around one ; and his heart, 
 though kind, was of limited capacity, and not large enough 
 to take in, like that of the good Samaritan, persons of all 
 religious denominations. A good deal, too, of this unamiable 
 partiality may fairly be set down to the character of the 
 times, which were noted for bitter party politics and sec- 
 tarian squabbles. 
 
 Major O'Hara's mortal remains are at Rathbarron, and 
 the monument erected over them is inscribed with this 
 double epitaph : " In memory of Mary O'Hara, who died 
 on the 20th of March, 1846, in the 64th year of her age." 
 " Also Of Charles King O'Hara, Esq., of Annaghmore, 
 who died on the 26th of May, 1860, aged 74 years." 
 
 Besides the members of the O'Hara family who have 
 been mentioned, and who resided in the parish of Kilvarnet,
 
 406 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 there have been many others that attained to great dis- 
 tinction in other places and in different walks in life, 
 as saints, patriots, church dignitaries, warriors, statesmen? 
 and authors ; such as James O'Hara, who reached the 
 honours of the peerage as Lord Tyrawley, and was also 
 created Baron of Kilmaine ; * General O'Hara, who, after 
 distinguishing himself in the American war, was wounded 
 and taken prisoner at Toulon in a sortie against French 
 troops led on by Napoleon Bonaparte, this being the first 
 occasion on which that wonderful man exhibited to the 
 world the genius with which he so often afterwards dazzled 
 and astonished mankind ; Sir Charles O'Hara, who with 
 others obtained a Patent Grant from King William and 
 Queen Mary, for lighting Dublin with convex lamps ; and 
 Kean O'Hara, the dramatic author, who died in Dublin on 
 
 * According to the Ven. Charles O'Connor in his Dissertations on the 
 uintient History of Ireland, page 243, the Baron of Tyrawley belonged to 
 the Coillte Leyney O'Haras, who were a junior branch of the Annagh- 
 more family, for Mr. O'Connor thus writes : " The Settlements of the 
 Clan-Kiens fell in the country of Corran ; of which the present baronies 
 of Leyney and Gallen were a part. The late Kian O'Hara, of Nymphs- 
 field, in the County of Sligoe, Esq., was the chief of this Name, leaving 
 two Sons, worthy of their Ancestors Charles, the present Head of the 
 O'Hara Race, and Kian, his Brother. From the many Revolutions, which 
 bore so hard on the Milesian Race, this family have still reserved to them, 
 out of their former great Possessions, an Estate of two thousand Pounds 
 a Year ; a Remnant the more precious, as it is a Tenure of one thousand 
 four hundred and seventy years. 
 
 " From this Family, descended the O'Haras of Kelty- Leyney in the 
 County of Sligoe ; of whom I make particular Mention, as they were the 
 immediate Ancestors of the present Right Hon. James O'Hara, the Lord 
 Baron of Tyrawley." 
 
 In Boswell's Life of Johnston, we read, " Dr. Johnson allowed the merit 
 of good wit to Lord Chesterfield's saying of Lord Tyrawley and himself, 
 when both very old and infirm ; ' Tyrawley and I have been dead these 
 two years; but we don't choose to have it known.' To this, Mr. Croker, 
 in his edition of Boswell, adds this note, ' James O'Hara, Lord Tyrawley, 
 a general oflicer, was born in 1690, and died July 13, 1773.' " 
 
 This par nobile died in the same year, 1773, but Tyrawley had the 
 longer life, having been born in 1690, whereas Chesterfield's birth was in 
 1694.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 407 
 
 the 17th June, 1782, after he had been for many years a 
 leader and arbiter in the fashionable and literary societies of 
 that city, and had produced a series of burlettas of such 
 merit as to entitle him to the first place among burletta 
 writers, " his Midas," says an able modern critic, " being the 
 most perfect thing of the kind in the English language."* 
 
 From what has been said it is clear that the blood of the 
 O'Haras is singularly mixed. As two separate rivers, 
 coming from widely different sources, and through very 
 different beds, join their waters at Annaghmore, so two 
 different streams of blood, the one Irish and Catholic, the 
 other English and Protestant, meet and mingle in the veins 
 of the present owners of Annaghmore ; the one connecting 
 them with whatever is most Catholic and National in Ire- 
 land its saints, bishops, priests, and religious, as well as 
 with the oldest Milesian families : the O'Connors, O'Rorkes, 
 O'Briens, and O'Flahertys and the other joining them 
 with England and the Reformation, through the families 
 of Archbishop Loftus, Queen Elizabeth's pet prelate ; of 
 Dr. Carmichacl, the bishop of Killala ; and of the Gores, 
 the Croftons, the Matthews, and the Coopers. It is doubt- 
 less to this composite character, if one may so speak, of the 
 family, we may trace the wide and hearty sympathies 
 which the modern O'Haras, with very little exception, 
 have exhibited towards their fellow-countrymen. And it 
 is to the same cause you may ascribe the cordial respect in 
 which the family are held by all their neighbours; by 
 those of Saxon as well as by those of Celtic origin, the 
 
 * The order and dates of Kean O'Hara's pieces were: Midas, 1764; 
 The Golden Pippin, 1773; The Two Misers, 1775; April Day, 1777; and 
 Tom Thnmb, 1780. 
 
 Kean O'Hara was so tall that he was nick-named "St. Patrick's 
 Steeple ; " and an Italian glee, that was very popular in Dublin in his 
 day, containing the line, " Che no hanno crudelta," the words were 
 parodied and often sung as " Kane O'Hara's cruel tall." History of the 
 City of Dublin : by J. T. Gilbert, M.R.I.A., vol. iii, p. 270. 
 
 Kean O'Hara's portrait is at Annaghmore.
 
 408 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 former being moved chiefly by the later alliances of the 
 family, and the latter, seeing nothing in the O'Haras but 
 the descendants of native saints and princes, being drawn 
 to them, in comparison of other families, much in the same 
 way as was the " one of the ancient Irish," mentioned in 
 the following amusing anecdote, thus told by Boswell : 
 " Dr. Johnson mentioned, that the few ancient Irish gen- 
 tlemen yet remaining have the highest pride of family ; 
 that Mr. Sandford, a friend of his, whose mother was Irish, 
 told him that O'Hara (who was true Irish both by father 
 and mother), and he, and Mr. Ponsonby, son to the Earl of 
 Besborough, the greatest man of the three but of an 
 English family, went to see one of those ancient Irish,* and 
 that he distinguished them thus : " O'Hara, you are wel- 
 come ! Mr. Sandford, your mother's son is welcome ! 
 Mr. Ponsonby, you may sit down ! " The O'Haras have 
 good reason to feel proud of this popular predilection, and 
 should never forget, while reflecting on the high and varied 
 honours of the family, that their greatest distinction in the 
 eyes of the country is to be " bone of the bone and flesh 
 of the flesh " of our old Irish princes. 
 
 With such ancestors and antecedents, it is no wonder 
 that the O'Hara family should be popular. A family that 
 carries back the memory, along an unbroken line of suc- 
 cession, to the first Christian centuries ; that has always 
 occupied a leading place among the magnates of the land ; 
 that has given champions and protectors to the weak and 
 the persecuted around it, commends itself to the respect 
 
 The Irish gentleman referred to in this anecdote, was the MacDermot 
 .of Coolavin, as we learn from Arthur Young's version of the incident, 
 which runs as follows : " Another great family in Connaught is JMac- 
 dermot. . . . Lord Kingsborough, Mr. Ponsonhy, Mr. O'Hara, Mr. 
 Sandford, etc., came to see him, and his address was curious. O'Hara ! 
 you are welcome ; Sandford, I am glad to see your mother's son (his mother 
 was an O'Brien) ; as to the rest of ye, come in as you can" Tour in Ireland. 
 vol. i, page 305.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 409 
 
 of all Irishmen, and to the veneration and gratitude of 
 immediate neighbours. These sentiments in their regard 
 are not confined to the members of any one creed or class, 
 but are shared alike by all who appreciate high station and 
 generous feeling, be they Catholics or Protestants, rich 
 or poor.
 
 410 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SAINTS NATHY AND FECHIN. 
 
 BUT there is another fact that surrounds the family with a 
 halo of veneration in the eyes of Catholics, and that is 
 the saints it has produced ; and in speaking of the honours 
 of the O'Haras, it would he a grave omission to pass over 
 in silence what forms their chief glory in the estimation of 
 many. Brother Michael O'Clery tells us * that eighteen 
 saints have sprung from the great ancestor of the O'Haras, 
 Teague or Thady, the son of Cian, the son of Oliol Ollum, 
 King of Munster ; hut as most of those saints belonged to 
 other branches of Teague's descendants, or to other districts 
 of Ireland, they do not come within the scope of these 
 pages, which is to illustrate the annals of Ballysadare and 
 Kilvarnet. But there are two of the eighteen Saint 
 Nathy and Saint Fechin who belonged to the O'Hara 
 family, and were connected with this district ; and of these 
 we shall try to give some account, glad to have the oppor- 
 tunity of offering our homage to these great and holy men. 
 And in considering the times in which the Irish saints 
 lived, it would be well to lay aside our nineteenth century 
 ideas, and to avoid measuring the persons and things of 
 that period by standards of to-day, as nothing can be 
 more different than the character of those remote ages and 
 of that in which we live. Instead of the highly civilized so- 
 ciety around us, with its central and subordinate authorities, 
 its towns and railroads, its banks and police, its con- 
 veniences, elegancies, and culture, Ireland was then little 
 better than a continued wilderness, with hardly any of the 
 
 * In the Dedication of the Annals to Ferghal O'Gara.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 411 
 
 elements of modern civilization (if we except religion) even 
 in separate existence without towns or roads the people 
 living in tents, or caves, or huts without current coin 
 the little business or commerce that was carried on con- 
 sisting of cumbrous exchanges, such as that of cattle, with 
 other objects, and with the order and peace of the little 
 communities that existed depending on local dynasts and 
 " saints " or eminent ecclesiastics, the former employing 
 material, and the latter moral force, to effect their respec- 
 tive objects. Bearing this state of things in mind one may 
 not feel as much surprise as one would otherwise experience 
 at witnessing many of the rude and strange scenes to be 
 met with in the times of our primitive saints. 
 
 SECTION I. SAINT NATHY. 
 
 THAT Saint Nathy* was a member of the O'Hara family 
 we learn from the life of Saint Cormac, as it is given by 
 Colgan in the Acta Sanctorum, under the 26th of March. 
 This Cormac lived in the early part of the sixth century, 
 being a contemporary of Eugene Bel, King of Connaught,f 
 who died, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, in 
 the year 537. The saint was born in Munster, but he and 
 five brothers abandoned their home, and betook themselves 
 to different parts of Ireland, with the view of spreading 
 
 * " Hibernice" writes Colgan in a note on Saint Fechin's Life, "nunc 
 Nathi, nunc Dathi, i.e. David vocatur ; Latine vero Nathyas, Dathyus, 
 David, etc., de quo vide Aengussium, Mar. Gorm., Mart. Tamlacht., et 
 Aengussium, auctum ad 9 Augusti, in quo die honoratur ut patronus 
 Achadensis, sedes episcopalis Connactiae." 
 
 t " Eugenius was the father of six saints St. Cormac, St. Becan of 
 Kilhocan in Muskerry, St. Culan, St. Evin, St. Diennot of Kilmac- 
 neoguin, in Carbry, in the County of Sligo ; and St. Boetan of Kilhoedan, 
 in Dalaradia." O'Flaherty's Ogygia, partiii, c. 81. 
 
 " Venit in primis adaulam, Eugenii Bel, filii Kellachii Connaciae regis. 
 Acta, SS. Colgani, Vita S. Corbmaci, Abbatis, 26 Marlii.
 
 412 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 religion among their countrymen, and practising greater 
 piety themselves. Three of the young men came to Con- 
 naught, one or two of them founding the church of 
 Kilmacowen,* near Sligo, and the third, Oormac, settling 
 on the banks of the Moy, near the spot where the river 
 empties itself into the sea. After having passed some time 
 there, the holy man made a visit f to the neighbouring 
 territories of Leyney, Galenga, and Corco Thid ; districts 
 which are comprised in the present diocese of Achonry, 
 and in which the family that subsequently took the names 
 of O'Hara and O'Grara ruled at the time. 
 
 Cormac met with a courteous and cordial reception 
 from Diermid, the chief of the family, who, in token of 
 devotion, bound himself and posterity to make a yearly 
 offering of three cows to the saint, and, after the saint's 
 
 * " Saint Diermid, the eldest brother, proceeding to the northern and 
 maritime parts of Gonnaught, founded the church of Rosnedheadh, in the 
 district of Carbury. This church was afterwards called Kil-mac-neoguin, 
 that is, the church of the sons of Owen ; and a dynast, named Flaun- 
 dubh, endowed and enriched it with ample possessions, making over to it 
 the entire district that lies between Droiched Martra (Belledrehid) and 
 Brugh-chinnslebhe." Colgan's Vita S. Corbmaci, cap. 3. 
 
 t The following is the statement of the Life : " After this the man of 
 God made a visit to the neighbouring territory of Leyney, in which and 
 the adjoining districts of Galenga and Corco-thid, Diermid, the son of 
 Finbarr, of the race of Kien, the son of Olioll Ollum, King of Munster, 
 bore sway at the time. This chief received the man of God with the 
 greatest kindness ; and along with other benefits which he conferred on 
 him, bound himself and his posterity to give three cows every year to the 
 saint and the saint's successors. 
 
 ' ' Diermid had a brother named Niel, who showed himself equally kind 
 and devoted. Throwing himself on his knees, Diermid begged the saint's 
 blessing for himself and his descendants. The saint gave the blessing, 
 and then prophesied the birth, in a short time, of Priest Nathy, a man of 
 the greatest sanctity, and the grandson of Niel, Nathy 's father being 
 Conamal, Niel's son. On the same occasion the man of God foretold 
 many things about the other glorious saints who were to confer such 
 honour and. benefit on the district by their virtues and labours, such as 
 Saint Luthrenna, the virgin, daughter of Falbeus ; Saint Fechin, abbot ; 
 and Saint Moby, the grandson of Finbarr, being the son of his daughter, 
 Huanfinna." Colgan's Vita S. Corbmaci.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 413 
 
 death, to his successors. The pious Niel, brother of Diermid, 
 showed equal, if not greater reverence and affection. 
 Falling on his knees, this fervent chief besought the 
 saint's blessing on himself and his descendants ; and dor- 
 mac not only imparted the blessing that was asked, but 
 filled the heart of the petitioner with joy by declaring that 
 great saints would soon issue from his family ; a prediction, 
 the author of Cormac's life remarks, verified by the birth 
 of Saint Nathy, Saint Luathrenna * of Killoran ; Saint 
 Mobianus or Moby, surnamed Claireneach, of Glasnevin ; f 
 and the great Saint Fechin. 
 
 Nathy then belonged to the O'Hara family, being the 
 nephew of the dynast Diermid,:}: and, most probably, was a 
 native of the district comprehended now in the parish of 
 Ballysadare, as this district, if we are to trust local tradition, 
 has been always the head-quarters of the O'Haras from their 
 first arrival in Connaught. And independently of- the 
 strong presumption thus established by tradition, an 
 incident is mentioned in the life of Saint Fechin, which 
 goes a good way to prove this connection of our saint with 
 the locality ; for we read in the aforesaid life that, on some 
 occasion, on which Fechin's father gave a slight blow to 
 the son, while yet a little boy, or child, under the domestic 
 
 * St. Luathrenna, orLoran, was daughter or granddaughter of Colman, 
 son of Falbeus, son of Fennflatha, son of Dalacus, son of Droma, son of 
 Sualius, son of Fidhern, son of Fidcurr, son of Artchorb, son of Fidchorb, 
 son of Niacorb, son of Lewy, son of Cormac Galeng, son of Teague, son 
 of Kien, son of Olioll Ollum. Her festival was held on the 8th of June, 
 at Killoran. 
 
 1" Saint Mobianus or Moby, surnamed Claireneach, was the nephew of 
 Niel, being the son of his sister, Huanfinna. His death is recorded by 
 the Four Masters under the year 544. 
 
 Mageoghegan, the translator of the Annals of Clonmacnoise, says that 
 Moby is supposed by some to be one and the same person with the 
 English Merlin. 
 
 The parish of Kilmovee is so called after Saint Mobius Kilmovee sig- 
 nifying the Church of Mobius. 
 
 J Colgan's Acta Sanctorum, Vita S. Corbmaci,
 
 414 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 
 
 roof at Billa, Nathy was present at the occurrence, and, 
 standing up, remonstrated with the father for striking a 
 child that, he said, was destined one day to he set as 
 patron over all Leyney. From the way in which the in- 
 cident is mentioned, it would look as if Nathy lived in the 
 house of Fechin's father as a member of the family, so that 
 there is reason to believe that our saint was uncle or some 
 near relation of Fechin. 
 
 Though Nathy has always enjoyed as high a reputation 
 for sanctity as any saint of the Irish church, there is little 
 known of his life, and hardly anything of his earlier years. 
 Irish hagiologists, when the name occurs, speak of our 
 saint in terms of the greatest respect, as most holy (sanctis- 
 simus) as of exquisite sanctity, (sanctimonice spectatissimce) * 
 as of consummate perfection, but still none of them gives a 
 formal account of his life, or even mentions incidentally 
 such facts as would throw much light on his career. 
 
 It is certain, however, that Nathy lived in the sixth 
 century, being a contemporary of Saint Finian of Clonard, 
 who died in 552,f or thereabouts. Colgan, Harris, and 
 "Ware call him a disciple of St. Finian, | but, as Dr. Lanigan 
 remarks, they bring no proof for their assertion, nor does it 
 appear that any positive proof exists. Considering, how- 
 
 * Colgan's A.cta Sanctorum, Vita S. Corbmaci, .Abbatis, p. 753. Modern 
 writers mention our saint with the same respect. Ware (Harris's ed., vol. 
 ii, p. 658), says, " Nathy was commonly called Comrah or Cruimther, and 
 was a man of great sanctity." Lanigan, vol. ii, p. 90, observes, " Nathy's 
 name is always mentioned with the greatest respect." Dr. Kelly, in his 
 Calendar of Irish Saints, -page 136, speaks of him as the "holy priest, 
 Nathi." 
 
 t O'Clery says of Saint Finian, " He died on the 12th of December, in 
 the year of our Lord, 552, or according to others, 563, and was buried in 
 his own church at Clonard. " 
 
 J " Saint Finian, having built the church of Achonry, immediately 
 gave it to his disciple, Nathy." Ware, vol. ii, p. 658. See Lanigan, vol. 
 ii, p. 192 Note 38. 
 
 "His master," says Colgan, was St. Finian of Clonard." Vita S. 
 Note.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 415 
 
 ever, the absence of great schools in the north of Connaught 
 in the early part of the sixth century, it is pretty certain 
 that our saint had to leave his native district to acquire 
 the education necessary for the priesthood ; and as the 
 reputation of Saint Finian of Clonard, "the tutor of 
 the saints of Ireland," * stood so high throughout the 
 country, it is probable, though by no means proved, that 
 Nathy, on leaving home, bent his steps to the famous school 
 of Clonard, with its three thousand scholars. f This con- 
 jecture derives considerable support from the pains that 
 Finian subsequently took to provide the saint with a 
 religious establishment, as it is little likely that he would 
 take such interest if Nathy were a complete stranger. 
 
 And this brings us to the chief event in the life of Nathy, 
 the foundation of the church and monastery of Achonry, 
 which was the joint work of him and Saint Finian, and 
 which was accomplished in this wise. Finian, near the 
 close of life, paid a visit to Connaught, for the purpose of 
 diffusing religion among the inhabitants of that province ; + 
 and when he reached Leyney, falling in with Nathy, a 
 priest of great perfection, and admirably qualified by learn- 
 ing, prudence, and sanctity, to rule an ecclesiastical com- 
 munity, Finian resolved to utilize those talents and virtues. 
 With this object the holy man went in search of a suitable 
 site for a religious house, desiring above all things, in con- 
 formity with the marked taste of all the religious founders 
 
 * Four Masters, A.D. 548. 
 
 t Trium virorum millium 
 Sorte fit doctor humilis ; 
 Verbi his fudit flavium 
 Ut f ons immanans rivulis. 
 
 Colgan, Acta SS. Hib., p. 401. 
 
 { It was then the occurrences already mentioned (279) took place at 
 Drum-eder -da-loch. If the conjecture put forth there (Ibidem] as to the 
 identity of Kildalough and Drum-eder-da-loch is well founded, Saint 
 Finian had only to pass over the Ox Mountain to find Nathy at Billa, which 
 lies at the foot of that mountain on the south side. Indeed, the proximity of 
 the two places much favours the conjecture.
 
 416 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 of the period, that the place should be pleasantly and 
 picturesquely situated. Such a spot was found in Achonry,* 
 a stretch of fertile land, lying tranquilly at the foot of 
 JVIucklety, not far from the beautiful lake of Templehouse, 
 on a plain of immense extent, bounded and sheltered by the 
 curved and stately mountains of Leitrim, The Ox range, 
 Keash, and the Curlews. 
 
 But it was one thing to desire, and another to obtain, 
 this charming spot, this locus amonm, as it is called in the 
 life of Saint Finian. The dynast of the district, who was 
 called Caenfahola, that is, Caput lupi, or Wolfhead, 
 probably from his brutal manners and disposition, hearing 
 that the holy men were on the land, hastened in a rage to 
 them, loaded them with abuse, and ordered them away. 
 Caring little about themselves, the saints bore patiently the 
 treatment they received, but urged, all the more, the appli- 
 cation for the site, and urged it so wonderfully and so 
 effectually, that "Wolfhead became a new man and granted 
 what .they sought. The following is the account of the 
 transaction, which we find in the old life of Finian ; and 
 whatever some may think of the alleged miracle, the nar- 
 rative proves at least, that the saints had great difficulty in 
 succeeding in their object; "After this Finian proceeded to 
 a place where a holy priest named Nathy lived, and here an 
 angel appeared to him and said : ' You shall found a church 
 
 * Ware, vol. ii, p. 658, asserts that " Saint Fiuiaii, Bishop of Tlonard, 
 founded the church of Achad, commonly called Achonry, about the year 
 530. Dr. Lanigan differs from Ware as to the date of this foundation, 
 and observes, with great show of reason, "Finnian's excursion to Con- 
 naught and his meeting with Nathy are related as having taken place 
 after almost all Tiis Clonard disciples had left his school, and formed 
 establishments of their own. Ware is, therefore, wrong in assigning the 
 foundation of the church of Achonry to about 530 ; for at that time 
 Finnian had scarcely begun to teach at Clonard. I should rather assign 
 it to about 550 ; and according to the series of his transactions, as given 
 in his Acts, it appears as one of the last of his life." Ecclesiastical History 
 of Ireland, vol. ii, p. 192.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 417 
 
 on whatever spot the man of God shall select as a convenient 
 and pleasant site. And when they had reached the chosen 
 spot, the prince of the territory, that is, of Leyney, whose 
 name was Caenfahola, Capui lupi, approached them in 
 a rage, for the purpose of driving them from the place ; 
 but the man of God, seeking to convert this hardened 
 sinner to the faith by a striking miracle, made the sign of 
 the cross on a great rock that lay hard by, and broke it 
 into three parts. This spectacle astonished and softened 
 the savage prince ; and being now changed from a wolf into 
 a lamb, he humbly made over to Finian the scene of the 
 miracle, which is called in the Irish language, Achad- 
 chonaire,* and in which the man of God established the 
 aforesaid priest of the name of Nathy." f The tradition 
 of this miracle is still vivid in and around Achonry, and 
 the part that Saint Finian had in the transaction is com- 
 memorated in the name of a well, Tubber-Finneen,$ which 
 lies within a few feet of the ruins of the old cathedral, and 
 which has on its edge a great pile of stones, deposited one 
 after another by the crowds of devotees that used to fre- 
 quent the place to invoke the intercession of that saint. 
 
 The monastery thus established became a school of piety 
 and learning for the surrounding neighbourhood ; and, 
 considering the passion that then existed throughout 
 Ireland for science and sanctity, it must soon have been 
 crowded with scholars. We are told that Nathy taught 
 
 * It was first called Achad-coain. Harris's "Ware, vo]. ii, p. 658. Achad- 
 coin signifies " pleasant or beautiful field." In Adamnan's Life of 
 Columba, Ard Caoin is rendered " Altitudo anuena." Achonry or Achad- 
 chonaire, means the field of Conaire, a man of that name. 
 
 f Colgan's Acta Sanctorum, p. 306. 
 
 J A " patron" used to be held here, but the parish priest put an end to 
 it for the abuses it occasioned. Quarrels were usual at the patron, and 
 it is said that lives were lost, so that the priest who removed the occasion 
 of so much uncharitableness deserved well of Church and State. 
 
 Saturday was the day on which devotees frequented the well. There 
 used to be as many as two or three hundred present on the Saturday that 
 immediately preceded the 15th of August Lady Day.
 
 418 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 several eminent persons in this establishment.* A Saint 
 Kenan is said to have received his moral and literary 
 education from the "most religious Nathan " or Nathy.f 
 
 But the disciple that conferred most honour on the 
 school of Achonry was Saint Fechin, who followed his 
 master and relative, Nathy, into the monastery, as soon as 
 it was opened. The most tender friendship always existed 
 between the two saints. Even after Fechin left Achonry, 
 Nathy's thoughts were often occupied with his young 
 friend ; and we are informed, that on one occasion the saint 
 suspended suddenly the business of the monastery to 
 announce to its inmates the glad tidings, learned mira- 
 culously, that his beloved disciple was just at that moment 
 founding the great monastery of Fore. 
 
 If we are to rely on a statement in the life of Saint 
 Attracta, which cannot certainly be reconciled with other 
 statements in the same life, such as that of her receiving 
 the veil from Saint Patrick, though it is perhaps more trust- 
 worthy itself than these, Saint Nathy was a contemporary 
 of this virgin, and aided her in some difficulties in which 
 she was involved by the exactions of the ruling prince. 
 
 Keannfaelaid, for such was the name of this ruler, 
 engaged in constructing a castle, and laid on his subjects the 
 obligation of bringing contributions in kind to the work. 
 Attracta tried hard to procure an exemption from the 
 duty, alleging the immunity to which her establishment, 
 as a religious house, was entitled, as also her inability to cut 
 
 * Lanigan, vol. i, p. 345. 
 
 f " Bonis moribus literisquea religiosissimo viroNathano eruditus." 
 Ussher's Brittanicarutn Ecclesiarum A.ntiquita,tes, p. 1070. 
 
 Dr. Lanigan supposes the Saint Kenan referred to in these words of 
 TJssher, to have been a native of Connaught, and adds, " I am confirmed 
 in my suspicion by the circumstance that Kenan is said to have been in- 
 structed by the most religious Nathan. Who could this person be except 
 the celebrated Nathy of Achonry, who lived in the sixth century, and 
 had taught several eminent persons, among others, the great St. Fechin, 
 who died A.D. 665 P "
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 419 
 
 down and remove timber, which seems to have been the 
 chief material employed in the new structure. But no 
 exemption would be granted her ; and, thus, obliged to go 
 out to the forest, it was with the assistance of Nathy, who 
 had also to furnish a contribution for himself, that she 
 felled and delivered the quantity of timber required from 
 her.* 
 
 It is not agreed who this Keannfaelaid was, Colgan sup- 
 posing him to have been a local dynast, and Lanigan main- 
 taining that he was king of Connaught ; but, as the king 
 of Connaught of that name lived towards the end of the 
 seventh century, he could not be a contemporary of Saint 
 Attracta. It seems to the writer, that the person in question 
 is the Keannfaelaid, son of Diermid, and given as Diermid's 
 son and successor, in Brother Michael O'Clery's genealogy 
 of Fearghal O'Gara.f This prince, as lord of Leyney, was 
 ruler of the districts to which both Attracta and Nathy 
 belonged, and must, in due course, have lived in or about 
 their time, if they were contemporaries, and may have been 
 the very person from whom Saints Finian and Nathy ob- 
 tained the site for the monastery of Achonry. 
 
 Though Nathy is commonly supposed to have been 
 bishop, it is doubtful whether the holy man ever passed 
 the grade of priest. There is no express statement in all 
 antiquity of his having been a bishop. Nor is the evidence 
 of the past on the subject merely negative, for, as far as it 
 
 * There is no evidence nor indication that our saint sought to have 
 himself freed from this impost, though he may, perhaps have shared the 
 views of Attracta as to the liability of religious superiors to such burdens. 
 If he coincided with her in opinion, still in his great meekness and 
 humility he deemed it, no doubt, better to forego a right than to run the 
 risk of causing public inconvenience, not to say commotion. 
 
 The task was so extremely severe for Saint Attracta, that her biogra- 
 phers, to account for its performance, have recourse to most extraordinary 
 legends, saying that she lied the poles with her hair, and got deer to 
 remove them to the new palace. 
 
 f "Finnbharr, Diarmaid, Cinnfaeladh," etc.
 
 420 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 goes, it points to his being only a priest. Crumther Nathy, 
 or Presbyter Nathy, that is, Priest Nathy ; for Crumther 
 signifies exclusively, priest,* is the appellation our saint 
 invariably receives whenever the name is mentioned in the 
 annals of the early church ; and one cannot understand 
 how such an epithet could have been applied as a kind of 
 surname without great impropriety, had he ever been con- 
 secrated bishop. And the opinion, that Nathy never re- 
 ceived episcopal orders, is greatly strengthened by the fact 
 that no bishop is mentioned as his successor in the annals 
 of the country. Melruan O'Ruadhan, who died, according 
 to the Four Masters, in 1170, is the first bishop of Achonry, 
 or Leyney-Connaught, of whom we read ; and if Nathy 
 was bishop of the diocese in the sixth century, it is 
 incredible that we should hear of no successor of his before 
 the twelfth.! 
 
 * In John O'Donovan's edition of Reilly's Irish-English Dictionary, 
 the only meaning of Crumther is " a priest." And in the Hook of Fenagh, 
 Mr. Hennessy says, in reference to the phrase, Crumther-Fraech, " The 
 word Cruimther seems cognate with the Welsh Premier; and both appear 
 to be borrowed from Latin " praesbiter." Book of Fenagh, p. 198. 
 
 And Harris, in his edition of Ware Note, vol. ii, p. 658, observes : 
 "It is a mistake to make Comrah or Cruimther, a name. Cruimther was 
 only an addition of honour to Nathy 's name, and signifieth in the old Irish, 
 the same that " Sagart" now does, which is a priest. So that Cruimthir 
 Nathy is Priest Nathy, and so Colgan explains it in many places." 
 
 f On the question, whether Nathy was a bishop or only a simple priest, 
 Ware and Dr. Lanigan take different sides. The former declares, " I 
 cannot but be of opinion that Nathy was made bishop of this church 
 of Achad ;" but Dr. Lanigan, on the other hand, observes, "In those 
 times Achonry must be allowed to have been an episcopal see, if it be 
 true that the celebrated Nathi of that place was a bishop. But it is much 
 more probable thitt he was not," vol. ii, p. 190. And in a note, page 192, 
 the doctor adds, " In Colgan's works, as far as I can discover, he is never 
 called bishop. It is true that in one of the lives of St. Fechin, Nathi is 
 styled antistes. Yet a few lines before, he is called Presbyter. Besides, 
 the title, antistes, is often given to priests." 
 
 Dr. Kelly, in the Calendar of Irish Saints, says nothing on this moot 
 point when speaking of the " Patron Saints of Ireland." 
 
 The Bishop of Achonry is not mentioned as such in the old annals of
 
 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 421 
 
 On the other hand there are weighty means for thinking 
 that the man of God did receive episcopal ordination. The 
 cultus of confessor-pontiff, with which the church honours 
 Nathy, supplies in itself a strong presumption in favour of 
 this opinion. Whether this cultus was paid from time 
 immemorial, or is of more recent origin, in either case 
 those who originated it had better means of knowing the 
 facts of the saint's life than we have at present, as they 
 lived so much nearer to his time. Indeed the office of 
 confessor-pontiff could hardly have been assigned to our 
 saint at all if there did not exist, in the past, stronger proofs 
 of his having been bishop than have come down to us. 
 Furthermore, considering the great number of bishops that 
 crowded the early Irish church, as attested by Saint Ber- 
 nard,* Keating, Ussher, Reeves, f and Todd,+ and that the 
 office was sometimes conferred in consideration of the great 
 sanctity or learning of individuals, as a kind of personal 
 distinction without any view to diocesan jurisdiction, 
 
 the country, but as the Bishops of Leyiiey or Luighne Connaught. See 
 Annals of the Four Masters under the years 1170, 1213, 1218, 1226, 1230, 
 1237, 1264, 1265, 1266, 1297, 1312, 1328, and 1344. 
 
 * In the Life of St. Malachi, St. Bernard writes : " Nam quod inaudi- 
 tum est ab ipso Christianitatis initio, sine ordine, sine ratione, mutabantur 
 et multiplicabantur episcopi pro libitu Metropolitan!, ita ut unus epis- 
 copatu uno non esset contentus, sed singulse pene ecclesiae singulos 
 haberent episcopos." 
 
 t See Reeves's Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down and Connor, pages 
 134, 135, 137. 
 
 J St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland : by John Henthorn Todd, p. 27. In 
 this place, Dr. Todd tells us, " The consequence was necessarily a great 
 multiplication of bishops. There was no restraint upon their being con- 
 secrated. Every man of eminence for piety or learning was advanced to 
 the order of a bishop as a sort of degree or mark of distinction. Many of 
 these lived as solitaries or in monasteries, many of them established 
 schools for the practice of the religious life, and the cultivation of sacred 
 learning, having no diocese or fixed episcopal duties ; and many of them, 
 influenced by missionary zeal, went forth to the Continent, to Great Bri- 
 tain, or to other then heathen lands, to preach the Gospel of Christ to 
 the Gentiles." 
 
 On this point, Dr. Lanigan writes : "It was quite usual in Ireland 
 to raise pious monks to the episcopacy without giving them fixed sees."
 
 422 PARISH OF KILV AHMET. 
 
 leaving the new bishop to the discharge of his old duties as 
 abbot, hermit, or head of school, it was only natural that 
 the exalted character of Nathy, and the great school over 
 which he presided, should bring the saint the distinction of 
 the episcopal dignity. And the new office need have caused 
 little alteration in his ordinary avocations. The bishop 
 would rule the monastic establishment and lecture its 
 pupils as before, merely conferring orders, in addition, when 
 required, and consecrating such churches as might be 
 erected in the territory of the clan. Nathy's jurisdiction 
 was not diocesan, properly so called, the territory not having 
 been ecclesiastically constituted into a diocese at the time ; 
 but as the saint resided and officiated in the district, which 
 those, who subsequently became the territorial bishops of 
 Achonry, governed, they took him for their patron, though 
 they would not call themselves his successors, as he was 
 never ordinary of their diocese. And for a similar reason 
 they selected his monastery as the site of their cathedral.* 
 In some such way as this the apparently conflicting opinions 
 regarding our saint may be reconciled. 
 'The designation of Crumther, which is the strongest 
 
 * A small portion of the eastern gable of the cathedral still stands, as 
 also a little of the chancel sidewalls. The chancel was twenty-three feet 
 in the clear. The tracery of the eastern window is said to have heen 
 very fine, and to have been filled with stained glass. The chancel was 
 roofed with stone. The church contained a central tower ; and, as in 
 most Irish churches, the cloister adjoined the northern sidewall. Some 
 hundreds of paces to the north-east are ruins and rubbish of a building, 
 which the inhabitants of Achonry call The College. There were persons 
 living lately who saw service in the cathedral. The stones of this edifice 
 were made use of in building the Protestant church that stands hard by. 
 There is a story current in Achonry of a churchwarden who was the first 
 to tear stones out of the cathedral walls. It is said that he got paralyzed 
 the night of the day on which he did this, and continued so afflicted to 
 the end of his life, which lasted several years from the attack. The 
 people regarded this misfortune as a judgment, so that whenever the poor 
 man appeared on the public road, where he was moved along in some 
 small wheeled vehicle, the little urchins of the neighbourhood used to 
 taunt him with his church demolition, and the bad luck it brought him.
 
 PARISH OF K1LVAHNET. 423 
 
 objection to his having been bishop, is not conclusive 
 against the opinion ; for it is easy to understand how people 
 of the neighbourhood, who had known Nathy, and spoken 
 of him as Crumther Nathy before he entered the monastery, 
 while he lived among them, should continue to talk of our 
 saint in the same style even after the holy man had 
 received the higher order, of which perhaps they understood 
 or heard little. Children would take up the epithet from 
 their parents, and in this way the phrase would get stereo- 
 typed and pass on to after ages. 
 
 It is agreed that Nathy lived to a very advanced age. 
 He must have been about thirty years old in 552, the sup- 
 posed year of Saint Finian of Clonard's death, for the holy 
 man was a priest for some time, previous to that event ; 
 while, on the other hand, he was still alive when Saint 
 Fechin founded the abbey of Fore, which could hardly be 
 earlier than the second decade of the seventh century, see- 
 ing that that saint died only in 665, of the Yellow Plague.* 
 Nathy, then, was about ninety years when he passed to 
 the reward of the just. He was buried within the precincts 
 of the monastery!, and over his remains, after some time, 
 was raised the cathedral of Achonry, which was dedicated 
 to the saint, and called, after him, the Church of Crumther 
 Nathy, contracted sometimes into Crum-Nathy. 
 
 This contracted form reminds one of a notion which 
 some have of Saint Nathy, and which is so whimsical as 
 hardly to deserve mention here. These persons have got it 
 into their heads that Crum-Nathy and Crum-cruach have 
 the same signification, and that Crum-cruach, instead of 
 
 * On the whole it is plain that Nathy could not have lived less than 
 about ninety years, or probably more. Lanigan, vol. ii, p. 193. 
 t Remember the passion of Antonius, 
 Of Firmus of brave family ; 
 In Achadh Cain was buried 
 Nathi the devout priest. 
 Metrical Calendar of JEngus Ceile De. >
 
 424 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 being an idol destroyed by Saint Patrick, was a magician 
 wbom the apostle converted, and who, after conversion, 
 became the famous Saint JNathy of Achonry. Of course 
 there is no truth in such supposition. 
 
 The foregoing is all that has come down to us with 
 regard to the man of God. Even this meagre account had 
 to be gleaned from various quarters from general Irish 
 history, from local tradition, and from the published lives 
 of Saint Finian, Saint Fechin, Saint Attracta, and Saint 
 Cormac, no formal life of Saint Nathy, as has been stated 
 already, having ever been written, or, if written, having 
 reached our time. Almost all the particulars of his long 
 life are lost. The countless good works that the holy man 
 performed during his hundred years for the glory of God, 
 for the sanctification of his own soul, and for the evangeli- 
 zation of Leyney-Connaught have followed him, and form 
 now his crown, but are known only in heaven. The 
 impression, however, which these works produced on the 
 minds of contemporaries has been handed down from gen- 
 eration to generation, in the tribute which the successive 
 writers that mention the name of Nathy never fail to pay 
 to his extraordinary sanctity. Other Irish saints are noted 
 for characteristic virtues : Columbkille, for love of churches ; 
 Finian of Clonard, for zeal in teaching ; Brendan, for pious 
 voyages ; Columbanus and others, for missionary enter- 
 prise ; but the patron of Achonry shines chiefly by pre- 
 eminent personal sanctity. It is a great distinction ; and 
 when we call to mind that holiness is the divine attribute 
 which forms the chief theme of praise in heaven,* we cannot 
 fail to feel the greatest reverence for a saint whose virtue 
 reminds one of the most admirable and adorable of all 
 God's perfections. 
 
 * Apocalypse, chap. 4, verse 8.
 
 PARISH OF KILVAR3TET. 425 
 
 SECTION II. SAINT FECHIN. 
 
 Saint Fechin was, probably, the most active and influ- 
 ential of the Irish saints of the seventh century. He is the 
 first priest that is named in the Third Order of Irish saints, 
 on the famous Catalogue published by Ussher in the JBrit- 
 tanicarum Ecclcsiarum Antiquitates* The order of the 
 names is : " Fechin, presbyter ; Airendan, Failan, Coman, 
 Commian, Colman, Ernan, Cronan ; and very many others, 
 presbyters." 
 
 Unlike his master, Nathy, who has never found a 
 biographer, Fechin has had his life written by several 
 persons. Colgan gives three lives of the saint ; one com- 
 posed by Augustine Magraidin, who was a Canon Regular 
 of the island of All Saints, in the Shannon, and died there 
 the " Wednesday next after All Saints, in 1405 ; " f 
 another in twenty-seven Latin hexameters, translated and 
 abridged for the Ada SS. Hib. from seventy- four metrical 
 Irish districts ; and a third, compiled by Colgan himself, 
 who tells us that he made the compilation from four differ- 
 ent lives of the saint, viz. : that by M agraidan, the metrical 
 life, and two others in Irish, one of which he supposes to 
 be a translation of a Latin original, composed in the time 
 of Saint Aidan, a contemporary of Fechin. This last he is 
 inclined to ascribe to Saint Aileran, the author of a life of 
 Saint Patrick, and a life of Saint Bridget. We are told in 
 Magraidan's life, which is the first life given by Colgan, 
 that Aileran the Wise recorded the miracles of Saint 
 Fechin in the island of Imay. It does not appear from 
 
 * Page 913. The title of this document is " Incipit Catalogus Sancto- 
 rum Hibernise secundum diversa tempora." See also Todd's St. Patrick, 
 pages 88-89. 
 
 Colgan says that, in an Irish life of St. Molaise, Fechin is counted 
 among " the Twelve Apostles of Ireland." 
 
 t Ware's De Scriptoribus Hibernia, lib. i, cap. 11, p. 75.
 
 426 
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 this announcement whether Aileran composed a detailed 
 life of our saint or not ; but whichever Aileran's work was 
 a full life or a mere report of the saint's doings in Imay 
 we have, in either case, proof of the great respect in which 
 Fechin was held ; for the biographer of Saints Patrick and 
 Bridget would hardly devote his pen to the proceedings of 
 Saint Fechin, if these proceedings did not partake of the 
 importance and dignity of those that the writer had already 
 described. 
 
 Considering, then, the circumstances under which the 
 Second Life* was drawn up, it ought to be the most 
 valuable of all the records that we have of Saint Fechin. 
 As Colgan had materials to draw on that are no longer 
 available, and was, from special knowledge of Irish history 
 and hagiology, singularly qualified to make proper use of 
 these materials, his conclusions regarding the saint should 
 be more trustworthy than those of any other biographer. 
 Such, however, is not the opinion of Dr. Lanigan, who 
 manifestly regards the First Life as the superior almost 
 as the only authority. The learned doctor was, doubtless, 
 led to hold this view by the sound canon of historical 
 criticism, that the nearer the record of an event approaches 
 in date to the event itself, the more valuable is that record, 
 cceteris paribus. But the canon just quoted does not war- 
 rant the doctor's preference ; for the Second Life, though 
 put into shape by Colgan, is not, as far as its facts and 
 statements are concerned, his work, but the work of early 
 Irish writers, one of whom, the contemporary of Saint 
 Aidan, must have written 900 years before Colgan. " This 
 compilation (Second Life)," says Father O'Hanlon, " pro- 
 ceeded from three different lives of Fechin, which were 
 composed in Irish. One of these had been taken from a 
 much older codex, written, it is said, in the time of Saint 
 
 * Magraidin's composition goes commonly by the name of the First 
 Life, or Prima Vita ; while Colgan' s composition is called the Second Life, 
 or Secunda Vita.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 427 
 
 Aidan, who was a contemporary of Saint Fechin, and over 
 900 years before Colgan wrote. This was a codex of 
 Immaigh, in Connaught, where our saint lived. The 
 second very old life wanted both the beginning and the 
 end, although otherwise very trustworthy. The third was 
 very old, likewise, and written in seventy-four elegant 
 metrical distichs, recounting a great number of the saint's 
 miracles. The three codices were found to be over prolix 
 for separate publication, so that Colgan thought it better 
 to collate and abridge their contents, which substantially 
 he has published." If, then, Colgan, instead of " collating 
 and abridging " the lives that he had before him, and 
 giving their substance in the Second Life, had published 
 them separately, exactly as they were written, these lives 
 would be found to precede in date the composition of 
 Magraidin, and to have, in a greater degree than that 
 work, that element of authenticity which they now seem 
 to lack. Bearing this consideration in mind, it is clear 
 that the Second Life has the strongest claims on our 
 deference to what it asserts respecting the career of the 
 saint. 
 
 It is the almost unanimous opinion of those who have 
 written on Saint Fechin, that he was born in Billa, a vil- 
 lage in the County of Sligo, barony of Leyney, and parish 
 of Ballysadare. The Menelogium Genealogicum * seems to 
 hold that he was a native of Meath, but it is only from 
 gross ignorance of the facts of the case that this opinion 
 could be advanced, as the proofs in favour of Billa are 
 patent and irresistible. In the first place, the identical 
 spot on which he is said to have first seen the light is, 
 at present, and has been from time immemorial, a place of 
 pilgrimage under the name of Leaba- Fechin, (Fechin's 
 bed),f a fact of itself decisive on the subject. In this spot 
 
 * Colgan's Acta SS., etc., p. 143. 
 
 t In his Lectures on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish, 
 Eugene O'Curry quotes a very remarkable stanza from a poem by
 
 428 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 there is a large stone, on which are impressions looking 
 like indented hand marks ; and the legend is : that these 
 marks were made by his mother, Lassara,* as she grasped 
 the objects near her in the agonizing travail that accom- 
 panied the birth of so great a saint. Between this stone 
 and another close by there is a hollow in which men suffer- 
 ing from pain in the back lie down, invoking Fechin, 
 " who was born there," in the fond hope of being thus 
 cured of their infirmity through his intercession. Over 
 these stones was erected (it is said by the saint himself) a 
 
 MacCoise, poet and historian to Malachy the Second, King of Meath. 
 O'Curry introduces the matter in those words : " This interesting 
 poem," on the death of Brian Boroimhe, " concludes with the following 
 curious stanza : 
 
 " There were found at Saint Feichin's frigid bed, 
 "Wells of overflowing blood, 
 The sign of kingly Brian's death, 
 In the western border land of Erin." 
 
 " The place mentioned," proceeds the lecturer, "as Saint Fechin's Bed 
 is the ancient abbey of Cong, in the County of Mayo, which was founded 
 by Saint Feichin, who died in the year 664 ; but of the legend of the 
 bloody wells and their connection with the death of Brian Boromha, I 
 have never met any other account." Lectures, etc., vol. ii, p. 119. 
 
 With great deference to O'Curry, he seems to have fallen into an error 
 in placing Fechin's Bed at Cong ; for though the saint founded the cele- 
 brated monastery of that place, there is no object, in or about the build- 
 ing, called "Fechin's Bed." It is clear then the poet meant Billa, 
 where " Leaba-Fechin," or, "Fechin's Bed," has existed since the time 
 of the saint, and has always gone by that name. Billa, too, might well 
 be referred to as " in the western border land of Erin," as it lies on the 
 western coast, and much nearer than Cong to the sea. 
 
 * " No less than fourteen distinct entries of holy women named 
 Lassara occur in the Calendar of Donegal." Lives of the Irish Saints : by 
 the Rev. John O'Hanlon, M.R.I.A. 
 
 According to the Tract on the Mothers of the Irish Saints (Book of 
 Lecan, fol. 89 ), the name of St. Fechin' smother was Sochla ; but Colgan 
 reconciles the apparent discrepancy by showing that Sochla and Lassair 
 mean much the same thing. Sochla signifies charitable, and Lassair a 
 Jlame, so that the mother of our saint was called by one and the other 
 name from thejlame of charity that constantly burned within her.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 429 
 
 church, which was called the Church of Saint Fechin, the 
 walls of which were standing about seventy years ago, the 
 foundations being still to be seen. 
 
 In the next place, the numerous memorials of the saint 
 that meet one at every step in the neighbourhood, prove it 
 to have been his native place. Adjoining the ruins of the 
 church is a piece of land called Parc-Ehin Fechin's Park 
 where the saint is said, when a little boy, to have tended 
 cattle for his parents, an occupation that was not counted 
 demeaning in any one in those primitive times. In Parc- 
 Ehin may still be seen the stone on which he is reported, 
 even in Magraidin's life, to have performed a singular 
 miracle. Wishing to tie up an animal some say a cow, 
 some a calf, and others a wolf * and having within reach 
 no stake to which the tying could be attached, the saint 
 ran the hand through a large stone, and, passing a cord 
 through the hole he had made, thus accomplished his 
 object. Were all other evidence wanting, that stone f 
 alone, bearing still, after the lapse of 1000 years, the mark 
 
 * Local tradition has it that the animal was a cow which the saint had 
 for giving milk to the masons who built the church of Billa. Magraidin's 
 statement is, that it was a wolf. His version is, that the saint having 
 been chid, when a little boy, by his mother for having allowed wolves to 
 destroy a calf, Fechin went away for a little, and brought back a wolf, 
 which he tied near the cow, and which remained so quiet that the cow 
 gave her milk. 
 
 Mr. Prendergast, in a paper published in the Kilkenny Archceological 
 Journal, vol. ii, p. 424, writes, "Moryson says that when a cow, upon her 
 calf being taken away from her, refused to give her milk, they used to 
 stuff the skin of the calf with hay and set it before the cow, wh^o would 
 smell it and lick it, and when so doing, would give down her milk." 
 Doubtless the wolf was intended to answer the purpose of stuffed calf- 
 skin. 
 
 t This stone is wedge-shaped and is nine feet long, five deep, and four 
 wide at its greatest width ; its width at the hole being two feet three 
 inches. It is partly sunk in the earth, and points to the east. Though 
 isolated till lately in the centre of a large field, it is now part of a fence 
 and projects a couple of feet on each side of the ditch, as the people would 
 not break anything off it, regarding it as sacred. It is the only stone in 
 the fence, the rest of which is composed of clay.
 
 430 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 of the supposed miracle, would suffice to connect our saint's 
 birth and boyhood with Billa, even to the satisfaction of 
 those who regard the Prima Vita that of Magraidin as 
 the only sure authority on the life of Fechin. A few 
 hundred yards to the north of Parc-Ehin, in the townland 
 of Kilnemonogh, is " Fechin's Well ; " half a mile or so 
 to the south is another " Fechin's "Well," as also a 
 " Fechin's Bridge ; " * in the demesne of Annaghmore is a 
 well, formerly called Fechin's Well, though now known as 
 Saint Anne's Well ; the strand of Ballysadare and Streams- 
 town was called " Fechin's Strand ; " and throughout the 
 parish are several other objects associated with the saint's 
 name. Killassar,t near Billa, the site of an old church, 
 said to have been erected by our saint in honour of his 
 mother, leads to the same conclusion ; while " Bile- 
 Fechin," the common name of Billa in former times,:}: 
 should remove all doubt on the subject in hand, if any such 
 could still exist in some mind little pervious to evidence. 
 As to the inhabitants of Billa and the neighbouring dis- 
 tricts, their belief in the saint's being a native is so strong 
 and universal is, indeed, so much a matter of course with 
 them that they would regard it as a proof of extreme 
 ignorance or perversity to question the fact. And except- 
 ing the writer of Menelogium Genealogicum, if he is an ex- 
 
 * Old people say that in their parents' time stations in honour of our 
 saint used to be performed at Fechin's-bridge. 
 
 t Killassar was a prebend in the diocese of Achonry. We read in 
 Cotton's Fasti EcclesiccE Hibernice : " KILLASSER. 1605. This prebend, 
 with two quarters of land, is granted, by patent from the Crown, to 
 Edward Crofton (Erck's Register, p. 255)." Fasti, etc., vol. iv. p. 113. 
 
 J Billa or Bile must have got its name at first from some sacred tree 
 (see page 220), under which, probably, local chiefs were inaugurated. 
 
 This manner of inaugurating kings and dynasts was not peculiar to 
 Ireland : " All the sovereigns," says the Journal des Debats of June 16, 
 1877, " who succeeded one another on the throne of Castille, or of Spain, 
 began by taking an oath to respect fhefueros and to preserve intact the 
 ancient customs ; and the oath was taken under the oak of Guernica, the 
 consecrated tree whose age was never known."
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 431 
 
 ception, which, we cannot decide for ourselves, not having 
 seen the work, no one seems to have questioned it ; for all 
 the writers of authority : Colgau, Ussher, "Ware, Harris, 
 Archdall, Lanigan, Kelly, O'Hanlon, etc., are unanimous 
 in assigning Billa as the saint's birth-place, even though 
 these writers were not acquainted with many of the con- 
 vincing particulars that local knowledge enables us to state 
 now for the first time. 
 
 It is equally certain that Fechin belonged to the O'Hara 
 family, or, rather, to the family whose two branches sub- 
 sequently took the names, respectively, of O'Hara and 
 O'Gara. This appears, firstly, from his being classed, in 
 Saint Cormac's life, with the other saints of that family 
 Nathy, Luathrenna,* and Moby Clairenech and secondly, 
 from his being traditionally called O'Hara or O'Gara. To 
 this day the people of Leyney call him Fechin O'Hara, 
 while we find him named O'Gara in the 121st stanza of 
 Bishop O'ConnelPs Dirge of Ireland. O'Brennan's transla- 
 tion of the stanza is : f 
 
 " Conmara of the bays, who surpassed in generosity ; 
 Friar 0' Gara that was a hermit ; 
 Mochua, Molua, Lacten, Benignus, 
 Bridget of Meath and Gohenata." 
 
 It is not clear whether it is by the father or by the 
 mother that Saint Fechin is connected with the O'Hara 
 family. The paternal pedigree derives him from Eochy 
 Finn Fuothairt, and not from Oliol Olluim, the ancestor of 
 the O'Haras and O'Garas, so that if this pedigree is 
 accepted as that of the saint, his relationship with the 
 families mentioned would come through the mother. And 
 this would be well in keeping with what is said both in the 
 
 * Killoran has its name Kil-Luathren from this saint, though in the 
 Book of Extracts, Ordnance Survey of the County ISllgo, and in various 
 other places, the parish is erroneously stated to be so called from a 
 " Saint Odhran." 
 
 t O'Brennan's Antiquities, vol. i, p. 175.
 
 432 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 Vita Prima, and Vita Secunda of Colgan, where we read 
 that Fechin's mother " was of the royal blood of Munster," 
 which seems to indicate that it is in this way the saint 
 shared that blood. And the very phrase employed lends 
 some colour to the Finn Tuothairt origin, for to this dav 
 when the neighbours speak of the family of the O'Haras, 
 the phrase used is that " they are of the royal blood of 
 Munster." 
 
 If, however, we adopt the genealogy traced in the Leabar 
 Breac, our saint was descended paternally from Oliol 
 Olluim, as that genealogy runs thus : Fechin, Coelcharna, 
 Cillin, Grillin, Coel, Aedh, Sain, Art Corb, Niadh Corb. 
 And the missing links are thus supplied by Mr. W. M. 
 Hennessy from M'Firbis's Genealogies (p. 739, col. 1) : 
 Lae, Cormac Gaileng, Tadg, Oliol Olluim. The two 
 pedigrees, then, run thus : 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 1. Fechin. ~\ 1. 
 
 Fechin. 
 
 2. Son of Coelcharna. 
 
 2. Coelcharna. 
 
 3. 
 
 Cillin. 
 
 3. 
 
 Killin. 
 
 4. 
 5. 
 6. 
 
 Grillin. 
 Coel. 
 Aedh. 
 
 Leab.Braec,-^. f' 
 21, col. 1. g' 
 
 Coel. 
 Aid. 
 
 Saine. 
 
 1^ 
 
 Sain. 
 
 7. 
 
 Airtcorb. 
 
 8*. 
 
 Art Corb. 
 
 8. 
 
 Carbre Niadh. 
 
 9. 
 
 Niad Corb. 
 
 9. 
 
 Cormac. 
 
 10. 
 
 Lae. 
 
 10. 
 
 Aengus Menn. 
 
 11. 
 
 Cormac Gaileng. 
 
 M'Firbis's 11. 
 
 Eochadh Fionn Tuothairt 
 
 12. 
 
 Tadg. \ Genealogies, 
 
 
 13. 
 
 Cian. | p. 739, col. 1. 
 
 
 14. 
 
 Oliol Olluim. J 
 
 
 As it is reported of several other Irish saints,* so also 
 it is said of Fechin that his birth and sanctity were pre- 
 dicted. Saint Columba, passing one time through the 
 valley of Fore, in Westmeath, was pressed by the owner 
 of the place to found a church there, but excused himself 
 by saying, ,that that honour was reserved for a great 
 saint named Fechin, who was soon to be born. Stellanus, 
 
 * Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, p. 6 Dean Keeves's edition.
 
 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 433 
 
 the proprietor of the valley, saw it once filled with beauti- 
 ful birds, having in their midst a column of fire * that 
 towered up to heaven, and learned from an angel that the 
 vision prefigured Fechin and his fervent monks. A similar 
 vision is said to have been vouchsafed to a man named 
 Cruemus, who is commonly supposed to be Crumther-Nathy, 
 and who saw in spirit the valley swarming with doves, one 
 of which was of great size and striking beauty, the large 
 bird representing Fechin, and the others the members of 
 his community.! 
 
 As prophecy foretold the birth, so supernatural prodigies 
 of all kinds marked the life of the saint, if we are to receive 
 the statements of old biographers in the literal sense. 
 Some of these miracles are of so trivial, some of so incongru- 
 ous a nature, that they would not add to our esteem for the 
 saint, even if it were proved that they took place. But the 
 extravagance of admirers can take nothing from the merits 
 of the holy man. Leaving, however, this part of the sub- 
 ject for the present, let us now try to make out an outline 
 of the saint's career. 
 
 We are told in Magraidin's life, that Fechin was taken 
 away immediately after birth by a neighbouring chief, who 
 happened to be in Billa the night the child was born. The 
 story is, that seeing a great light over the house of Coel- 
 charna and Lassara, the parents of the infant, and tak- 
 ing the phenomenon to foreshow the new-born's future 
 sanctity, the chief asked and obtained charge of the child, 
 which probably means that our saint was committed to 
 a friend to be fostered, in accordance with the custom 
 of fosterage that prevailed among our ancestors. That, 
 
 * Prodigies associated -with fire and birds are often met with in old 
 Irish writers, as for instance, in the Four Masters, sub anno 1054. 
 
 f These predictions and legends are given by Magraidin Colgan's 
 
 Acta Prima Vita. Some of the statements in the old lives |may, no 
 doubt, be set down to what Bishop Butler terms, "the forward and 
 delusive faculty of imagination." 
 
 2F
 
 434 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 however, Fechin was soon returned to the father's house, we 
 may infer from an account we have of the saint's receiving 
 correction from his father, and reproof from his mother, 
 while a child under the domestic roof. 
 
 As we have seen in Saint Nathy's life, it is likely that 
 that holy man directed the child's education even at this 
 time.* It is certain that Fechin followed the saint to 
 Achonry, as soon as that establishment was opened, and 
 acquired there much of the learning and sanctity for which 
 he afterwards became so famous. It is stated in Magraidin's 
 life that Fechin passed from Achonry to another religious 
 house, which some think was Clonenagh, under St. Fintan ; 
 others Clonmacnoise, under Saint Kieran; but it is, to 
 say the least, very doubtful whether the saint left Achonry 
 at all before he was a priest ; and if so, it is less probable 
 that the youth went to either Clonenagh or Clonmacnoise 
 than to Aughris or some other part of Tireragh, as there 
 are still vivid traditions of Fechin's intimate intercourse 
 with saints of that district.f 
 
 * " Emensus infantia? tempus et litteris disciplinisque capessendis 
 habilis factus S., Nathineo Antistiti Achadh-Conerensi pietati et litteris 
 instruendus traditur." Colgan's Acta Sanctorum, p. 134. 
 
 f The opinion that Fechin completed his studies for the priesthood in 
 Achonry, is much favoured by what we read in Magraidin himself, when 
 taken in connection with facts we learn from other quarters. That 
 writer tells us, that our saint, immediately after entering the second 
 monastery, showed miraculous powers, by first putting to death horses 
 that had been driven against his will into a meadow of which he had 
 charge ; and, secondly, by restoring them to life again, on being requested 
 to do so. Now, the tradition at Achonry is, that these miracles took place 
 there, and the inhabitants point out the very spot or scene of the alleged 
 occurrence, which goes to show that Fechin was in Achonry when 
 Magraidin supposes Vn'm to have passed to another religious house. The 
 opinion about a second monastery arose most probably from the fact of 
 the saint's receiving his education partly at Billa, and partly at Achonry 
 two places which some biographers erroneously supposed to be two diffe- 
 rent religious houses whereas Billa was only the place of residence of our 
 saint's parents, in which he received instructions from Nathy, before that 
 saint removed to Achonry.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 435 
 
 Fechin's first care, on becoming a priest, was to furnish 
 the territory of Leyney with churches, which, at that time, 
 it greatly needed. Ballysadare was our saint's first founda- 
 tion, after building which, the zealous priest erected 
 religious establishments in Billa, Kilnemonogh, Drumrath, 
 Kilgarvan, and Ecclasroog or Edarguidhe.* Of these 
 structures, Ballysadare and Kilnemonogh were certainly 
 monasteries ; while the others may have been monasteries, 
 or simple places of worship ; though, considering the 
 monastic character of early Christianity in Ireland, it is not 
 improbable that all the houses enumerated belonged to a 
 species of monastery, f Dr. Lanigan questions the saint's 
 right to be called the founder of these establishments, but 
 as the doctor assigns no reason for this opinion, except the 
 silence of the Vita Prima,$ while, in advancing it, he runs 
 counter to local tradition, and to Colgan, who has made a 
 special study of Fechin, there is no need of dwelling further 
 on the subject here. And it is the less necessary, as some 
 observations have been already made on the matter when 
 speaking of Ballysadare. 
 
 * Colgan's Acta Sanctorum Sib., Seeunda Vita. 
 
 t Dr.Todd's St. Patrick, page 37. 
 
 J It is strange that Dr. Lanigan relies on this silence, as it is well 
 known that, except in the case of St. Patrick, the churches built by old 
 Irish saints are hardly ever mentioned by the biographers of these saints. 
 " Columb-Kille's countrymen," says the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 
 vol. vi, p. 9, "believed that he had founded three hundred religious 
 establishments in his native land; but his professed historians have 
 scarcely thought such enterprises worthy of even a passing notice. 
 Adamnanus does not notice them at all : Cummineus scarcely at all. The 
 splendid and enduring monuments by which Columba stamped the impress 
 of his mind not merely on his contemporaries, but on his countrymen for 
 many generations, they thought unworthy of a special record." 
 
 Page 4. 
 
 The Festology of Aengus, at the 20th of January, does not mention 
 our saint under the name of Fechin, but commemorates him as Moecca, 
 saying, "The four I join on the same festival most holy, Molaca, 
 Moecca, Sapaist [Sebastian], and Oenu;" for a note informs us that 
 "Mceccais Fechine Fabair." The scholiast explains the meaning of the 
 names Fechin and Mcecca, but in a way that seems to savour more of his
 
 436 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 Tt is right to mention, as there have been doubts and 
 differences of opinion on the subject, that Kilnemonogh is 
 the next townland, on the north, to Billa, from which it is 
 separated merely by the Coolany river ; that Drumrat lies 
 at the foot of Keash, towards the west ; and that Kilgarvan 
 is the parish of that name in the County of Mayo and 
 barony of Costello. Ecclasroog or Edarguidhe has not 
 been hitherto identified, but the writer believes that it is 
 the spot known as " Fechin' s Praying-place " or oratory, 
 in the glebe land of Dromard, quite near the junction of 
 Ballysadare and Dromard parishes, where there is a well 
 called Tubber Fechin, on a flag adjoining which the 
 country people tell you they discern the marks of the 
 saint's knees. This conjecture as to the situation of 
 Ecclasroog or Edarguidhe is the more likely, as the 
 " Praying- place " is within the limits of Killala diocese, to 
 which Colgan supposes Ecclasroog to belong. There is a 
 local tradition that Fechin and a Tireragh saint some say 
 Adamnan, others Molaise were in the habit of meeting 
 there daily for conference and prayer, our saint leaving 
 Ballysadare, and the other the monastery of Skreen or 
 
 own simplicity or puerility than of the virtues of so great a saint. Accord- 
 ing to him, Fechin would be the diminutive of fiac, a raven, and would 
 signify little raven, and was a term of endearment, or what we should now 
 call a pet name, in which his mother addressed the saint while a child. 
 " Inde," says this writer, " dictus est Fechin." 
 
 " Mceeca autem dictus est," adds the scholiast, from his power of vision ; 
 for it was to him this power of vision occurred ; as proof, to wit, when 
 Fechin was herding for Ciaran of Cluain ; it happened that his food was 
 left for him on the marsh. Fechin was angry, therefore, and went out 
 afterwards, and left the cell, and went from it eastwards. This was told 
 to Ciaran. " After him," said Ciaran, " and unless he comes willingly, 
 let him be brought back by force." He was pursued, and Fechin said he 
 would not come with his face before him. So that the way he was brought 
 was with his back turned. "That man really sees [backwards]," said 
 Ciaran ; et inde Mofecca [mo-my, and feca-seeing], nomen accepit.Fes- 
 tology of Aengus Note to 20th January. 
 
 The writer is indebted to Mr. "W. M. Hennessy for the translation both 
 of the note and text.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 437 
 
 xlughris, every morning, for the purpose of the pious in- 
 terview, and each returning home at night. And the 
 names of Ecclasroog and Edarguidhe confirm the above 
 conjecture. Ecclasroog signifies the " Church of the 
 rout ; " and as no district in the county has been the 
 scene of more hostile encounters than that on which the 
 Praying-place stands, there must have been many routs, 
 from one of which the church, no doubt, got its name. 
 The denomination, Edarguidhe too, meaning, as it does, 
 " Between two sea' streams," * is a perfect description of 
 the place, as it lies between two sea inlets, which used to 
 fill with the tide before the sea was shut out, in 1833, by 
 Boey's embankment. 
 
 But the most famous of the saint's foundations, and the 
 one in which the holy man habitually resided in later life, 
 was that of Fore,f in Westmeath. It was posterior to 
 those that have been mentioned. After furnishing Leyney 
 with churches, and providing for the permanence of 
 religion in his native district, + Fechin conformed to a 
 
 * John O'Donovan tells us that, " the word gaot or yaet," which enters 
 into the composition of Ederguidhe, signifies a shallow stream into which 
 the tide flows, and which is fordable at low water." Battle of Magh Rath, 
 p. 228. 
 
 t Colgan, in his appendix to the saint's life, has a separate chapter on 
 Fore. 
 
 J Owing to his family connection with the rulers of Leyney, our saint 
 was able to procure endowments for the religious establishments that he 
 founded in that district. " Saint Fechin," says Colgan (Act. Sanct. p. 134), 
 " founded the noblo monastery of Easdara, (Ballysadare) which the lord 
 of the territory of Leyney endowed with large possessions, and he gave 
 to it all the tract of land extending from the river washing [the monastery 
 to the sea, so that the said monastery was endowed with a noble and large 
 estate called Termon- Fechin, Refugium vel terminus Sancti Fechini. 
 The sanctuary or limits of St. Fechin." There are old persons still living, 
 who, in their early days, heard the district lying between Ballysadare 
 and Dromard called Tennon-Fechin. 
 
 To damage Fechin' s claim to be the founder of a monastery at Ballysa- 
 dare, Dr. Lanigan observes : " It is true that the monastery of Ballysa- 
 dare possessed some land called Tearmann Fechin, i.e., the sacred ground 
 of Fechin ; but it does not f ollow that he founded the monastery, or that 
 it was he that obtained the grants by which it was enriched. Fechin's
 
 438 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 practice common among the saints of that period, of quitting 
 the neighbourhood of their birth, and taking up abode in 
 some remote place. Committing himself to the good 
 providence of Grod, the saint turned the face to the south, 
 and having reached and crossed the Shannon, gave himself 
 up to prayer and fasting, with the object of learning the 
 Divine will in his regard. The answer was not long in 
 coming ; and after having passed three fervent days and as 
 many nights in these exercises, the holy man felt that it 
 was his mission to erect a monastery in the valley of Fore, 
 a place which there was no difficulty in obtaining from the 
 owner, Stellanus, who recognized in the saint the person 
 formerly shown him in vision, as destined one day to 
 occupy the valley. Fechin hurried on the work of the 
 monastery, assisting the workmen by his presence and 
 advice ; and a tradition still lingers in the parish of Fore, 
 which goes to show that the saint rendered very effectual 
 aid ; for it is said that he placed miraculously in its position 
 a huge stone lintel six feet long, two deep, and three 
 wide which all the workmen had tried in vain to raise. 
 Having laboured ineffectually all the morning at this task, 
 they went to breakfast, leaving the saint alone on the 
 ground ; but on returning, after the meal, resolved to make 
 another great effort to accomplish the feat, they were filled 
 with astonishment and awe at beholding the immense block 
 lying tranquilly in its place over the door-way, where it 
 has since lain, and where it may still be seen. The men 
 naturally ascribed what was done in their absence to the 
 
 system, as appears from his conduct at Fore, was one of poverty, and 
 different from that of procuring estates for his establishments" (vol. iii, 
 page 47). It is in this way Dr. Lanigan combats the formal assertion of 
 Colgan, which the hagiologist would never have made thus positively had 
 he not abundant authority for doing so. The doctor's comparison of 
 Fore and Bally sadare is far from conclusive, for Fechin could easily 
 secure, at Ballysadare, where his relative was dynast, a suitable endow- 
 ment, which it might have failed him to acquire at Fore, where he was in 
 the midst of strangers .
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 439 
 
 miraculous power of Fechin, an opinion which has been 
 since shared hy all the inhabitants of Fore.* In his 
 Chorographical Description of West meat h, Sir Henry Piers 
 thus refers to this matter : " The wall of Saint Fechin's 
 church is hard upon, if not altogether, three feet thick ; 
 the lintel that traverseth the head of the door is of one 
 entire stone of the full thickness, or near it, of the wall, 
 and, to the best of my remembrance, about six foot long, 
 or perhaps more, and in height about two foot or more. 
 Having taken notice of it as the largest entire stone I had 
 at any time observed, especially so high, in any building ; 
 and discoursing of it with an ancient dweller in the town, 
 I observed to him, that of old they wanted not their engines, 
 even in this country, for their structures. The gentleman, 
 smiling as at my mistake, told me that the saint himself 
 alone, without either engine or any help, placed the stone 
 there. He said, the workmen having hewn and fitted the 
 stone in its dimensions, and made a shift, with much ado, 
 to tumble it to the foot of the wall, they assayed with their 
 joint forces to raise it, but, after much toil and loss of time, 
 they could not get it done. At last they resolved to go 
 and refresh themselves, and after breakfast to make another 
 attempt at it. The saint also for, as the story goes, he 
 was then living and present advised them so to do, and 
 tells them he would tarry till their return. When they 
 returned, behold they find the stone exactly as to this day 
 it remains, over the door. This was done, as the tradition 
 goes, by the saint alone ; a work, for my part, I believe 
 impossible to be done by the strength of so many hands 
 only as can immediately apply their force to it." 
 
 * Ussher supposes Fore, or Bailie Fobhar, to be the same as Bailie 
 Leabhair, and to signify the " town of the books," but John O'Donovan 
 proves this opinion of the learned archbishop to be an "inadvertent 
 error," and shows that the phrase means the " town of the springs," i.e., 
 those " remarkable springs which flow from the hill into the mill-pond at 
 the village of Fore." Annals of the Four Masters (O'Donovan's edition), 
 A.D. 1175.
 
 440 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 
 
 Early [in the thirteenth century Walter de Lacy, in 
 gratitude for the kindness he had received while an exile 
 in France, at the abbey of St. Taurin, Evreaux, Nor- 
 mandy, had Fore constituted a cell of that abbey, under 
 the title of the Priory of Saints Taurin and Fechin. From 
 that date this Priory continued to be one of the most 
 flourishing religious establishments in Ireland down to the 
 27th of November, 1539, when it was surrendered to the 
 commissioners of Henry VIII. The Anglo-Normans 
 desired to make Saint Taurin the chief patron of the house, 
 but nothing could dislodge Saint Fechin from the first place 
 in the affections of the people ; and while Taurin is now 
 almost forgotten, our saint is as vividly remembered at the 
 present day in and around Fore as in his native village of 
 Billa. Even the parish in which the ruins of Fore Abbey 
 lie is called after him the Parish of Saint Fechin. 
 
 A mill that Fechin erected under the Benn of Fore, to 
 grind grain for his community, was held in almost as much 
 respect as the church. And there is little wonder in this, 
 when we recollect the miraculous way in which the mill is 
 alleged to have been first erected, and, next, supplied with 
 water. As to the erection, Giraldus Cambrensis writes : 
 " There is a mill at Fore, which St. Fechin made most mira- 
 culously with his own hands in the side of a certain rock ;" 
 and in regard to the water supply we read in the Life of 
 Saint Mochua, as it is given by the Bollandists under the 1st 
 of January, that " Mochua came to Fore, a town of Heath, 
 in which Fechin had erected a mill at the foot of a moun- 
 tain, without having any water near ; and as nothing was 
 now wanting but the water, the mill being finished in 
 other respects, the two saints set out for Lough Lene, 
 which was two miles away. Arrived at the lake, Mochua* 
 
 * Mochua was a native of Leyney, the present diocese of Achonry, 
 like St. Fechin, as we learn from an old life of the former, which begins 
 thus : " Clarus genere vir erat nomine Mochua, films Lonand, ex Lugne 
 Connactice trahens originem." Harris's Ware, vol. ii, page 305.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 441 
 
 makes a hole with the point of a staff in the hank that lay 
 next to the mill ; Fechin and the priests that accompanied 
 him did the same ; and, on the moment, the water passing 
 in a wonderful manner under ground through the moun- 
 tain, dashed out not far from the mill, and, falling on the 
 wheel with great force, set the mill a-going." The follow- 
 ing additional remarks of the credulous Giraldus were well 
 adapted to impress people with awe in respect to the mill 
 and the other possessions of the monks of Fore : " No 
 women are allowed to enter this mill or the church of the 
 saint ; and the mill is held in as much reverence by the 
 natives as any of the churches dedicated to the saint. It 
 happened that when Hugh de Lacy was leading his troops 
 through this place, an archer committed a great crime in the 
 mill, hut sudden punishment overtook him, and, after a 
 fearful agony, he died that night. Moreover, the army, 
 having quartered for the night in this place, Hugh de Lacy 
 caused all the corn which they had pillaged from the 
 churches and the mill to he restored ; hut a small quantity 
 of oats which had been pilfered from the mill by two of 
 the soldiers was surreptitiously placed by them before their 
 horses. One of these men became insane, and dashed his 
 brains out the same night in the stable. The other, after 
 a comrade had jeered those who made restitution of the 
 corn, fell suddenly dead the next morning by the side of 
 Hugh de Lacy, in sight of the greatest part of the troops, 
 who were filled with amazement." * 
 
 Those few words regarding a place in which St. Fechin 
 passed so much time, will not De unacceptable to the reader, 
 though they are more or less a digression, as the object of 
 these pages is not to give an account of the establishments 
 founded by the saint, but of the saint himself. At Fore, 
 Fechin combined the life of an anchoret with that of 
 an abbot. While administering diligently the weighty 
 affairs of the great monastery, presiding over its religious 
 * The Topography of Ireland chapters lii, and liii.
 
 442 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 exercises, enforcing its discipline, regulating its classes of 
 Scripture, sacred music, and other ecclesiastical sciences, 
 providing for its temporal needs, and satisfying the edu- 
 cational and various other wants of the neighbourhood, the 
 holy man snatched, from time to time, from these occu- 
 pations, a day on which he would retire to some detached 
 hut or cell, and there in solitude, silence, and profound 
 meditation, receive from above the fervour and strength so 
 necessary for the due fulfilment of his great charge. Some- 
 times, at the call of duty, he moved further from the 
 monastery, making journeys to different parts of Leinster, 
 such as Termonfeckin in Louth, Tiprid, and Naas, and either 
 founding churches in these places, or so identifying himself 
 with the localities that churches raised in them subsequently 
 were put under his invocation.* In addition to the estab- 
 lishments in Leyney and in Leinster, of which he was 
 either the builder or patron, he also erected churches in 
 the island of Imay and elsewhere in West Connaught, but 
 as these western foundations were among the latest acts 
 of the saint's life, further reference to them will come in, 
 more opportunely, later on. 
 
 But Fechin was no Eastern recluse, shut up in his soli- 
 tary cell, careless and callous in regard to everything that 
 happened outside, but a saint overflowing with human 
 sympathies like the apostle of the Gentiles, and able to say 
 with him, " Quis infirmatur et ego non infirmor " ? No 
 ecclesiastic of the time took so conspicuous a part in the 
 public proceedings of the country, or exercised so marked 
 an influence on the monarchs and princes of the day. Like 
 St. Bernard, our saint was often solicited to interfere in 
 secular affairs, and, like the same saint, sometimes complied 
 with those solicitations, for the sake of promoting peace 
 
 * "There was a nunnery in the county of Louth, at a place called 
 Termon-Feckin, which possibly was built on some church ground anciently 
 granted to St. Fechin." Harris's Ware, vol. ii, page 234.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 443 
 
 and charity. On one occasion he proceeded to the palace 
 of the King of Leinster at Naas, where several distinguished 
 captives, under sentence of death, were awaiting execution, 
 and solicited their release. The King not only refused to 
 grant the petition, but refused even the request of Fechin 
 for an audience or interview on the subject. But the charity 
 of the saint would not be baffled ; and after failing with the 
 king, he turned in prayer to God, and soon found, we are 
 told, some means, which one is not bound to believe a mi- 
 racle, as old writers seem to suppose, of opening the gates 
 of the prison, and restoring its trembling inmates to liberty. 
 The hymn read at Lauds, in the old office of the saint, thus 
 alludes to the transaction : 
 
 Quemdam regem extra legem 
 Hie adivit et quesivit 
 
 Ut laxaret obsides ; 
 Quo negante, Deos dante 
 Sunt soluti restituti 
 
 Et egressi sospites.* 
 
 On another occasion a message of the holy man effected 
 with ease the liberation of a state prisoner, a feat that his 
 personal presence got it so hard to accomplish at Naas. 
 The saint's aid having been invoked by the mother of a 
 young man named Erlomhan, who lay in chains in the 
 palace of Maenach, King of Munster,f Fechin directed her 
 to go and convey his wishes for her son's release to the 
 king, giving her at the same time, to serve as a token of 
 his warm interest in her application, or, as a ransom for the 
 prisoner, in case a ransom were demanded, a golden torque 
 which he had himself received as a present from the monarch. 
 Maenach, on receiving the message and recognizing the 
 torque, handed back the golden ornament, and restored the 
 
 * The stone cross, commemorating this event, was still standing in 
 Colgan's day Colgan, Acta Sanctorum, Jan. 20, cap. 32. 
 
 t According to the Four Masters, " Maenach, son of Finghin, King of 
 Munster, died in the year 660.
 
 444 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 son to the longing arms of the mother. Having learned in 
 adversity the vanity of a worldly life, Erlomhan besought 
 Fechin to admit him among the monks of Fore a favour, 
 we are told, the saint accorded ; not, however, before the 
 young man had given the most convincing proofs of humi- 
 lity, obedience, and the other virtues required for the mo- 
 nastic state. 
 
 The joint monarchs of Ireland, Blaithmac and Diermid, 
 showed a similar disposition to oblige and please the saint. 
 They held in chains a military man named Aidan, for 
 whose liberation various efforts were made in vain. As a 
 last resource the powerful interference of Fechin, the great 
 friend and liberator of captives, was solicited ; and, touched 
 with the representations made to him, the saint proceeded 
 in person to the royal palace and preferred a petition for 
 the release of Aidan to the two monarchs. It cost the 
 monarchs and their council a great effort to give up a pri- 
 soner that all were most anxious to retain, but they could 
 refuse nothing to Fechin, whom they both loved and feared, 
 so that Aidan was soon delivered into his hands. Like 
 Erlomhan, Aidan too, after recovering liberty, sought to 
 serve God in religion, and was received into the monastery 
 of Fore ; and it is recorded that, though of savage manners 
 before conversion, and of so voracious an appetite as to re- 
 quire as much food as seven ordinary men, he was quite 
 satisfied, when a monk, with the meagre and stinted fare 
 of a brother, becoming, too, so docile, gentle, and learned, 
 that he was raised after some time to the priesthood. 
 
 If Blaithmac and Diermid obliged Fechin on this occa- 
 sion, the holy man at another time repaid the favour by 
 rendering them a service of much greater magnitude. Per- 
 haps the most important political affair with which the 
 saint had to do was his intervention between the Northern 
 and the Southern HyNials, as the friend of the latter. The 
 Northern HyNials being dissatisfied with the division of 
 Ireland, that existed between themselves and the Southern
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 445 
 
 branch of the family, Domnald II, son of Aid, descendant 
 of Conal Gulban,* and representative of the former, led a 
 great army into Meath for the purpose of effecting with the 
 sword what the Northern princes maintained would be a 
 more equitable partition. The sons of Aidi Slaine, Blaithmac 
 and Diermid, collected, at a place called Druimnua, an army 
 to resist the invaders ; but as this army was in every way 
 inferior to that of Domnald, the royal princes relied less on 
 their arms for deliverance from the dangers that impended 
 than on the prayers and influence of St. Fechin. Nor did 
 the holy man disappoint their hope. After feeding for three 
 days the whole army of Blaithmac and Diermid, which was 
 destitute of provisions, and assisting these monarchs with his 
 prayers and advice while they were entrenching themselves 
 at Rath Druimnua, he repaired to Domnald and begged that 
 king to relinquish further hostilities. Failing in this attempt 
 the saint had recourse to more severe and solemn measures, 
 denouncing the invaders, and threatening Domnald and the 
 Northern army with ills of all kinds, which were not slow 
 in coming, for, in a night or two, an immense fall of snow 
 took place, and destroyed a vast number of men and horses 
 in the invading army. Ascribing this and other calamities 
 that occurred to the saint's anger, Domnald came and threw 
 himself at the holy man's feet, imploring reconciliation and 
 peace. Fechin, it would seem, put the monarch's sincerity 
 and humility to a trying test, if we are to rely on the state- 
 ment of old writers, which, it is to be hoped, is an invention 
 or an exaggeration, for they tell us that the saint would not 
 grant peace and friendship, on his own part, or the part of 
 Blaithmac and Diermid, till he \vas first allowed to set the 
 heel, in sign of victory, on the neck of the prostrate Domnald. f 
 
 * From him the beautiful mountain of Benbulhan (recte Ben Gulban) 
 has its name. This transaction between the Southern and Northern 
 monarch is related in Colgan's^fcto Sanctorum, page 137. 
 
 t " The most signal instance of Domnald' s humility," says Dr. Lynch 
 in Cambrensis Eversus, cap. ix., " was when he threw himself at the i'eet 
 of St. Fechin to beg pardon for his crime, and allowed the saint to place 
 his foot on his neck."
 
 446 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 The unfortunate king, however, was glad to purchase peace 
 on any terms, and, having complied with all the hard and 
 humiliating conditions imposed, and obtained the saint's 
 pardon and blessing, led the army home, little disposed to 
 renew ever again an enterprise that had brought such losses 
 and disgrace on himself and his followers. 
 
 We will mention one other example of the saint's inter- 
 ference in the affairs of royal personages. It is the case of 
 Ragallach, King of Connaught, who died, according to the 
 annals of Tighernach, in the year 649. This monarch, 
 who was a tyrannous, treacherous, and lascivious prince, 
 having secured the throne of Connaught by the murder of 
 a nephew, gave himself up to a life of sloth and de- 
 bauchery, oppressing his subjects and insulting his queen.* 
 After trying in vain other means to reclaim her husband, 
 the queen laid the case at last before Fechin, and begged 
 the assistance of the holy man, who, moved by her state- 
 ments, took with him a large retinue of clergy, f and 
 repaired to the court of the king ; but their journey was 
 -fruitless ; for all the efforts of Fechin' s zeal could not 
 withdraw the monarch from scandalous courses and 
 wicked associates. As a last resource the man of God 
 threatened Ragallach with a speedy and ignominious death 
 
 * Her name was Muireenn O'Curry's Manners and Customs of 
 
 Ancient Irish, vol. ii, page 943. 
 
 t " A great number of eminent divines and religious persons of several 
 orders," says Keating, vol. ii, page 132. "They were soon admitted,' 
 adds the historian, " into the presence of Ragallach, and used all possible 
 arguments to prevail with him, but without success, which so enraged 
 the clergy that they left the court, and implored the justice of heaven to 
 overtake the king by a most signal stroke ; they loaded him with the 
 most dreadful imprecations, and prayed to God that he might not live 
 till the May following ; that he might receive his death by the most 
 despicable weapons ; that the meanest persons and the very scum of man- 
 kind might be the executioners of the divine vengeance ; and that he 
 might die in a place unbecoming the majesty of a king, and end his days 
 in the most vile and ignominious manner." Keating goes on to give in 
 detail the circumstances of the king's death, which are summarized in the 
 following note.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 447 
 
 unless lie changed his life ; but threats had as little effect 
 as exhortations on that obdurate heart ; and two or three 
 months after Fechin's return to Fore, this wicked man 
 lost his life in a low brawl, at the hands of an ignoble 
 rabble, thus fulfilling the saint's prediction, and closing 
 a vile and sinful life by an infamous and miserable 
 death* 
 
 But if our saint, like the prophets of old, had sometimes 
 to appear before kings and princes, he was always in a 
 hurry back to the solitude of the cloister, and while busy 
 about many things, never ceased to feel that the cultivation 
 of religion in himself and in those under his care was the 
 " one thing necessary." Hence the chief solicitude of the 
 holy man was to sanctify the monks, for their own sake, as 
 well as for the sake of others to whom they might become 
 sources of spiritual life. Although engaged chiefly with the 
 government of Fore, the home of his adoption, Fechin 
 watched with constant care over the religious establish- 
 ments of Leyney, which were always in his thoughts and 
 prayers. Nor could his numerous and weighty occupations 
 in Leinster, the difficulties of travel at the period, or the 
 great intervening distance keep the man of God away from 
 the scenes of his earlier years, and hence he visited Achonry 
 once and Ballysadare apparently several times, as we learn 
 from Colgan's life. 
 
 It was at the monastery of Ballysadare,f during one of 
 
 * " The king, being out hunting, pierced a large buck with his spear, 
 and then followed him into a bog where some men were engaged cutting 
 turf. These men had finished the buck before the king came up ; and on 
 his demanding what he deemed to be his lawful game, they set upon 
 himself and killed him also with their ignoble spades. King Kagallach's 
 family poet, Fintan, wrote a poem on his royal master's ignominious 
 death." Manners and Customs of Ancient Irish. E. 0' Curry, vol. ii., 
 page 343. 
 
 t Colgan Act. SS. Vita Secunda 8. Fechini. Colgan's words are, 
 "Quadam nocte vir sanctus in monasterio do Easdara existens ab angelo 
 in somno monitus est, quod accedat ad insulam quamdam Oceani, in 
 occidentali regione Connacias, quse Imaidh vocatur," etc. Page 135.
 
 448 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 these visits, that the saint conceived the design of convert- 
 ing the inhabitants of certain islands in the West of 
 Ireland, as it was from the same monastery he started to 
 engage in that great undertaking. It is not generally 
 known that these islands remained obstinately Pagan long 
 after the conversion of the rest of Ireland; nor is it 
 unlikely that good numbers on the adjoining coast were in 
 a similar state ;* and it was for St. Fechin was reserved 
 the honour of completing the work of St. Patrick, and 
 carrying the light of the Gospel to those islanders, as well 
 as to such dwellers on the mainland as still " sat in dark- 
 ness and the shadow of death." The saint and the monks 
 taken by him from Ballysadare met with extreme opposi- 
 tion in their labours to convert the island of Imay (now 
 Omey), being reduced, by the want of food and the active 
 hostility of the islanders, to the greatest distress, in which 
 state, however, the missionaries were relieved by Guaire, 
 surnamed the Hospitable, the well-known King of Con- 
 naught, who, on hearing what was happening, forwarded 
 to the saint and his party an ample supply of provisions, 
 and bestowed on them the island for religious uses.f After 
 those sufferings and privations the indefatigable missionaries 
 had the happiness of inducing the islanders to embrace the 
 religion of Christ ; and, having once embraced it, those 
 
 * Marron, or Muireen, wife of Eagallach, King of Connaught, was a 
 Pagan in the time of our saint. See Keating's History of Ireland, vol. 
 ii, page 129. Dublin (1809). 
 
 t "The name Imaidh," says John O'Donovan, "is Latinized Imagiaby 
 Colgan, and Anglicized Imay by Roderic O'Flaherty. The name is now 
 usually written Omey, and is that of an island on the coast of Connemara, 
 in the north-west of the county of Galwaj r . Guaire, the hospitable King 
 of Connaught, bestowed it on St. Fechin, wio founded an abbey on it in 
 the seventh century. Imagia was a parish church in the time of 
 Colgan (1645.) See his Ada Sanctorum, pp. 140, 141 ; see also O'Flaherty's 
 lar Connaught, page 113, where he says, " St. Fechin erected an abbey 
 therein, but now the parish church is only extant, whereof St. Fechin is 
 patron, the 20th January worshipped." Colgan had a manuscript Irish 
 Life of St. Fechin, which belonged to this church. Annals of Four Mas- 
 ters, A.D. 1362 Note.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 449 
 
 earnest souls became as fervent Christians as they had 
 been obstinate Pagans, so that they made over their 
 interest in the island to the saint, and left themselves like 
 children in his hands. In return the saint erected a 
 monastery to provide, in his absence, for the spiritual and 
 temporal interests of those simple converts. After succeed- 
 ing thus in Imay, the missionaries proceeded to Ardoilen, 
 where they founded without opposition another religious 
 house, " the ruins of which still remain with several stone 
 crosses around them."* It is right to remark that this 
 island is situated to the north-west of Imay, though 
 Colgan, Archdall, and Lanigan confound it with one of 
 the Arran Islands, which lie a considerable distance to the 
 south of both Imay and Ardoilen. f 
 
 It was doubtless at this time our saint laboured on the 
 mainland, and endeared himself to the inhabitants of West 
 Connaught, where the memory of the man of God is still 
 greatly revered, " and many holy wells and other hallowed 
 remains of antiquity yet bear his name." + But the 
 memorial in the west that reflects most honour on the 
 memory of Fechin is the abbey of C6ng, which was so im- 
 portant an establishment in its day, that " its annals, if 
 collected, would almost form a history of Ireland." This 
 
 * " Here the celebrated St. Fechin founded a monastery, formerly in 
 great repute. A considerable portion of its ruins still remains, and several 
 ancient stone crosses are erected around them. There are also here some 
 of those old stone houses or cells, called Cloghans." O'Flaherty's West 
 Connaught, page 114. 
 
 i O'Flaherty's West ConnaugU, p. 76. 
 
 J O'Flaherty's West Connaught, p. 106 Hardiman's Note. 
 
 There is a Tubber-Fechin in an island of Ballinahinch lake, another 
 at Tirnakilla, in the barony of Ross, and a third in Dooghty, a townland 
 in the parish of Cong, in which also there is a flag or stone, called Leac- 
 Fechin, by which men are put to the ordeal O'Flaherty's West Con- 
 naught, pp. 120, 121. 
 
 For an amusing account of Leac-Fechin, see Rev. Caesar Otway's Tour 
 in Connaught, p. 236. 
 
 Wilde's Lough Corrib, p. 162. 
 
 2 G
 
 450 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 renowned abbey was founded by our saint, from whom it 
 got the name of Conga-Fechin, or Cownga of Saint Fechin* 
 "Saint Fechin of Fore," says Sir William Wilde, "struck, 
 perhaps, with the extraordinary resemblance which the 
 natural features of Cong, and its underground rivers, etc., 
 bore to his ecclesiastical home in Westmeath, is said to 
 have blessed this neck of land, from which the extensive 
 parish of Cong still takes its name, and to have erected 
 a church here ; and the good man left his track, and gave 
 his name to several holy wells and churches in the dis- 
 trict westward of this village ; " but if resemblances of 
 this kind entered into the motives that induced the holy 
 man to erect a house of God at Cong, they were certainly 
 derived less from Fore than from Ballysadare, where, as 
 we have seen, p. 447 the saint first formed the design of 
 evangelizing the west, and where the rushing Owenmore, 
 the stately Ox Mountains, the splendid limestone quarries 
 of Abbeytown, and the stony slopes of Carricknagat, 
 remind one forcibly of the teeming and turbulent waters, 
 the imposing mountain ranges, the magnificent quarries, 
 and the thick lying boulders, that form the most dis- 
 tinguishing objects connected with the soil and scenery of 
 Cong. 
 
 The saint's labours in the west of Connaught seem to 
 have been among the latest of his life. Having brought 
 the lawless heathens of that region under the sweet yoke 
 of Christ, and provided for their perseverance in this happy 
 state, Fechin returned to Fore, resolved, no doubt, to rest 
 from missionary labours in future. 
 
 To this period may be referred an incident or two, that 
 throw interesting light on the opinions that prevailed on 
 some important matters among the pious people and monks 
 of those days. 
 
 A so-called Welsh "saint," who, however, seems to have 
 
 * Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 1204.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 451 
 
 had much more of the serpent than of the dove about 
 him, came to pay a visit of sympathy to Fechin in some 
 illness that had seized him. Wishing to do a hit of 
 business, while professing feelings of affection for the 
 patient, the " saint " asked the sick abbot, whom he would 
 like to have for a successor at Fore ? " Of course," replied 
 Fechin, " some monk of the monastery." " And should 
 none of your monks be fit for the office ? " rejoined the 
 Welshman. "In so unlikely a conjuncture," observed 
 Fechin, " I should like to have some of my masters in re- 
 ligion undertake the duty." But should no suitable person 
 be found even among them ? " urged the zealous man of 
 Wales. " Oh ! " said the good abbot, waxing warm, " could 
 so impossible a case occur, I would say : Let them give 
 my place to any Irishman they please, only let them be- 
 ware, under any circumstances, of ever giving it to a 
 Welshman." This honest sally seems to have put an end 
 to the conversation and the interview. 
 
 But this attachment of the monks to rulers of their own 
 choice, comes out still more strikingly, in the refusal of 
 another monastery to accept as superior even Fechin him- 
 self, great a saint as he was. Fintan Maeldubh, the second 
 abbot of Clonenagh monastery, was a warm friend and 
 admirer of our saint, and desired to have him for successor 
 at Clonenagh. It would seem that Fechin acquiesced in 
 the desire, for we find our saint, on Fintan's death in 626, 
 making a visit to Clonenagh, with the object, apparently, 
 of placing himself at the service of the monks, on which 
 occasion the religious received their visitor with courtesy and 
 deference, delivered to him Fintan's staff, chrism-vessel, 
 and vestments, (bequeathed to our saint, very probably, by 
 the deceased) but, at the same time, declined respectfully, 
 but firmly, to take him for their abbot. Very likely it was 
 during this visit that something happened which gave the 
 saint great offence ; for we are informed in the First Life 
 (Magraidin's) that, having been once at the monastery of
 
 452 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 
 
 Clonenagh, Fechin was so displeased with the treatment 
 of the monks, as to resent it by coming away without 
 giving them a hlessing. The good man's conscience re- 
 proached him for thus giving way to anger, for the narrative 
 adds, that, on reaching home, he was so sorry for what had 
 happened, that he transported himself miraculously back 
 to Clonenagh, and gave a cordial benediction to the monks 
 and their monastery ; a proceeding, we are told, that 
 raised the holy man very high in the esteem of the public. 
 This incident, manifestly, is greatly exaggerated, but there 
 must be, for all that, a substratum of truth ; and putting 
 aside additions, the facts on which it rests would seem to 
 be, first, our saint's rejection by the monks of Clonenagh, 
 and, secondly, his generous forgiveness of their treatment, 
 as shown by blessing them, and thus returning good for evil. 
 And, now that we have seen so much of the saint, this 
 is the time to say, concerning his virtues and alleged 
 miracles, a word or two, which there was no opportunity of 
 saying earlier, as we were so occupied with his public acts 
 and religious foundations. It is designedly the miracles 
 and virtues are coupled, for they will be found to throw 
 light on each other ; the miracles indicating the virtues for 
 which the saint was most remarkable, and the virtues cor- 
 responding with the miracles ascribed to him. And, at the 
 mention of those ecclesiastical miracles let nobody throw 
 up his hands in protest or defence, as if it was sought to 
 force them upon people. As far as the Church is concerned, 
 every man is free to receive or reject those alleged miracles, 
 according to the dictates of his own judgment, as they rest 
 entirely on human evidence, which we may assent to, or 
 dissent from, as we find the proofs conclusive or otherwise. 
 If a man believes the so-called miracle to be impossible in 
 itself or in its circumstances, or incongruous, or unsupported 
 by proof, he may disbelieve it, consistently with the most 
 perfect obedience to the Church, and the profoundest respect 
 for the saint to whom it is ascribed.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARXET. 453 
 
 At the same time, it would be absurd to reject some 
 miracles of the past, merely because we think they would 
 be out of place in our society of the present day. Miracles, 
 like tongues, are " for a sign not to believers but to un- 
 believers ; "* and it is easy to conceive how a priest or 
 bishop might find it necessary to work a miracle or miracles 
 to serve for credentials to heathens, which he would have no 
 call to work if surrounded by believers. Signs might have 
 been necessary for the Pagans of "West Connaught in the 
 days of our saint, though they would be superfluous among 
 their Christian descendants of the present time. 
 
 But this principle must not be pushed so far as to favour 
 alleged prodigies that are unsupported by evidence, or in- 
 consistent in themselves, such as are some that are found 
 in accounts of Saint Fechin, as of other holy men. For 
 miracles in great numbers, and sometimes of the most ex- 
 traordinary kind, have been ascribed to him. Without, 
 however, trying here to discriminate between these won- 
 ders, and taking them as they offer themselves in old 
 writings, it is said that, when only a few days old, he rose, 
 of himself from a luxurious bed, in which he had been 
 placed, and lay down on the bare floor of the apartment ; 
 that while still an infant he refused to allow flesh meat of 
 any kind to cross the lips, in spite of the efforts of attend- 
 ants to introduce it into his mouth ; that when a mere 
 youth or boy, and shortly after entering the monastery, he 
 struck dead, by a mere act of the will, some horses that 
 were forced in spite of him into the meadows of the 
 monks, and on being asked, restored the animals to life 
 again ; f that, having grown up, and become a priest, he 
 performed numerous and startling miracles by word, by 
 touch, by blessing, or by prayer ; healing, for instance, a 
 sick man at Ballysadare of a hideous disfigurement of face ; 
 giving sight to a blind monk named Eochy, that belonged 
 
 * 1 Cor., xiv, 22. 
 
 t A similar miracle is recorded of Saint Patrick.
 
 454 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 
 
 to the monastery of Snamluther ; * curing a priest called 
 Ronan of a terrible headache, that had failed all the doc- 
 tors, and was naturally incurable ; stopping the sun in its 
 course, like Josue ; appearing at Clonenagh in conference 
 with the inmates of that monastery, and at Fore, in com- 
 pany with his own monks, at one and the same time ; 
 sailing on a flagstone over the waters of Lough Cooter, in 
 "West Connaught ; removing, in an instant, from the 
 cemetery of Hy Foelain, a great range of rock that pre- 
 vented burials ; raising, at Fore, a huge stone that a num- 
 ber of labourers could not stir ; causing to fly open at his 
 word the strong-barred gates of royal palaces in Leinster 
 and Munster ; predicting the ignominious end of Ragallach, 
 King of Connaught ; foretelling the exact date of Saint 
 Mochua's death fourteen years before the event ; bringing 
 a young man named Tyrechan in an instant from Rome 
 to Ireland ; multiplying and transmuting a little corn, so 
 that it served, both as meat and drink, several days, for 
 the immense army of Blaithmac and Diermid ; and raising 
 at least three dead men to life. 
 
 Without affirming or denying the reality of these 
 occurrences, or their miraculous character,f it is certain 
 
 * Dr. Reeves identifies this place with Slanore, Co. Cavan. 
 
 t The following passage from the Introduction of the Comte de Monta- 
 lembert's famous History of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, acquaints us with 
 the sentiments of that great man in regard to the miracles of certain Saints : 
 " We avow, without shrinking, that we believe with the strongest good 
 faith, the most miraculous occurrences which have been recorded of God's 
 saints, and of St. Elizabeth in particular. It has not even cost us any 
 sacrifice of our feeble reason to attain to this conviction ; for nothing appears 
 to us more reasonable and more natural in a Christian than that he should 
 bow with gratitude before the mercies of his Lord, when he sees them 
 suspend or modify those natural laws which they enacted, to secure and 
 glorify the triumph of much higher laws in the moral and religious order. 
 Is it not soothing and easy to conceive how souls, tempered as was 
 Elizabeth's, and her contemporaries, elevated by faith and humility above 
 the cold reasonings of earth, purified by every sacrifice and every virtue, 
 living habitually, as though by anticipation, in heaven, presented a field 
 over ready for the operations of God's goodness ; and how the faith of
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 455 
 
 that they harmonize with the well-known virtues of the 
 saint. His lying on the naked floor in infancy, and repel- 
 ling flesh meat, would foreshadow his wonderful austerities ; 
 his healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, releasing the 
 captive, feeding the hungry, and restoring the dead to life, 
 would agree well with his unbounded charity; and his 
 sailing on a flagstone, raising the lintel of Fore, arresting 
 the sun in its course, and foretelling the future, might be 
 congruously expected from his perpetual and sublime prayer, 
 remembering that it is written : " Amen I say to you, that 
 whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed and 
 be cast into the sea, and shall not stagger in his heart, but 
 believe, that whatsoever he saith shall be done : it shall be 
 done unto him. Therefore I say unto you, all things 
 whatsoever you ask when ye pray, believe that you shall 
 receive : and they shall come unto you." * In a word, the 
 miracles noticed would imply, in their author, virtues like 
 those of Fechin ; while, reciprocally, the distinguishing 
 virtues of Fechin would naturally tend to acts like those 
 supposed to have been performed by him. 
 
 But whatever may be thought of these wonders, he was 
 not the less a saint. It is not miracle that sanctifies, but 
 virtue. On the last day it is not those who shall say, 
 " Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and 
 cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in 
 thy name " that shall enter into life, but those who shall 
 have done the will of God, and kept His commandments. 
 Whether, then, the alleged miracles were genuine or 
 apocryphal, our saint was equally certain of reward at the 
 close of his career ; for, all who know anything of the holy 
 man's life, must admit its extraordinary sanctity. 
 
 Fraternal charity, mortification, and the spirit of prayer 
 shone out among the saint's virtues ; and of these fraternal 
 
 the people, ardent and simple, claimed, and in a manner justified the 
 frequent and familiar interposition of that Almighty power which the 
 senseless pride of our days, by denying, repels." Page 104. 
 * St. Mark, xi, 24.
 
 456 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 charity was, perhaps, the most conspicuous. This great 
 virtue Fechin practised under all its forms : ministering to 
 the sick, redeeming prisoners, and feeding the hungry. 
 No sores or diseases were so loathsome as to repel the man 
 of God. On a visit to Ballysadare he cured a sick person 
 whose illness was so disgusting that the monks them- 
 selves had a horror of it, and forhad the man in consequence 
 to come near the monastery; but this miserable person, hear- 
 ing of Fechin's presence, came before the saint, who, far from 
 repelling or treating him like the monks as an outcast, 
 received him with open arms, consoled him, and restored 
 him to health and happiness. 
 
 At Fore our saint was one day accosted by a loathsome 
 leper, who begged piteously for some nurse that would look 
 after, and cleanse his sores. Taking this child of misfor- 
 tune on his back, Fechin thus carried the sufferer to the 
 hospital of the monastery, and, leaving him there, proceeded 
 in quest of a nurse.* Instead of searching among the mer- 
 
 * A similar legend is told of Fiilke's Count of ^Anjou, and is versified 
 in Legends of the Saints : Duffy, Dublin. The following are a stanza or 
 two of this piece : 
 
 " Still importunate, the leper stayed his footsteps with the prayer, 
 ' Fain I'd rest me in Saint Martin's but have none to bear me there ; ' 
 
 " And the squires were wroth to hear him; but, at once, the Count 
 
 outspake, 
 ' Freely, friend, I'll bring thee thither, for the Saviour's holy sake.' 
 
 " And he softly wrapped the leper in his mantle, furred and warm, 
 To his stalwart shoulders lifted up the shrinking form ; 
 
 " Then, with careful step and tender, mindful of his ghastly load, 
 Up the broken dusty pathway, in the fading sunlight strode ; " 
 
 This story of the leper reminds one of the similar occurrence related in 
 Montalembert's beautiful biography of the "dear Saint Elizabeth," 
 cap. viii. 
 
 Here again we are reminded of the Baculus Jesu, said to have been 
 given by our Saviour to a hermit in an island of the Tyrrhene sea, with 
 an injunction to deliver it to St. Patrick.
 
 PARISH OF K1LVARNET. 457 
 
 cenaries of the office if such, there were at the time the 
 holy man went straight to the palace of King Domnald, 
 who lived in an island of Lough Lene, and asked Dom- 
 nald's queen, by name Themaria, to take charge of the 
 leper, promising her in return the kingdom of heaven as a 
 recompense. Relying on our saint's promise, the queen 
 took charge of the patient, whom she tended with the 
 greatest devotedness, rendering all the offices needed, some 
 of which were so nauseous that they had better be left in 
 the obscurity of the old Latin biographer : " Inter alia 
 dura ministeria leprosus, divinum amorem allegando, ab 
 ea petivit, ut purulenta phlegmata e naribus suis proprio 
 ore exsugat." The heroic woman had her reward, for, 
 next day, when the saint was going to the hospital, he saw 
 a globe of fire ascend towards heaven from the roof of the 
 building, and on entering the sick room, found that the 
 sick man they had been nursing, and who had just departed 
 in the form of fire, was no other than our Lord Himself in 
 the person of the leper ; the whole occurrence supplying an 
 instance of the truth of the words : " So long as you did it 
 to one of these, the least of my brethren, you did it unto 
 me." In going away the leper left behind a staff, and a 
 lump of purest gold, with directions to the queen to give 
 them to Fechin, which she did ; and the staff became the 
 famous Bachal Fechin, with which the saint is supposed to 
 have performed many miracles through life, and which was 
 held in great reverence after his death ; but the gold the 
 saint employed in building hospitals, and in other works of 
 charity. 
 
 Our saint's charity to prisoners appears in his interviews 
 with the King of Leinster ; with Maenach, King of Mun- 
 ster ; and with Blaithmac and Diermid, in favour of the 
 captives that these monarchs held in chains ; while his 
 feeding the hungry is exemplified in the support of the 
 starving army of Blaithmac and Diermid, as well as in the 
 daily distribution of alms at all his monasteries.
 
 458 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 
 
 Fechin's mortifications or austerities were prodigious. 
 The Irish saints learned to practise mortification from 
 Saint Patrick, who fasted always on bread and water, and 
 prayed 100 times a day, and as many times a night, in the 
 midst of frost, and snow, and rain. It would be hard to 
 find another saint so animated with the spirit of our 
 national apostle as Fechin. To say nothing of the holy 
 man's fasts and prayers, and other rigorous observances 
 during the day, he is said to have divided the night into 
 three parts, passing the first part in chaunting psalms and 
 hymns ; the second he spent in solitary meditation under a 
 palm tree that grew near the monastery ; and in order to 
 keep away sleep and crucify the flesh, the fervent servant 
 of God bound one of his feet to the tree with an iron fetter, 
 and placed hard by a vessel of water, supporting, mean- 
 time, against the breast with his hands a large stone, 
 which, if sleep was allowed for a moment, would fall down 
 into the vessel and splash him with the water, thus punish- 
 ing negligence or indulgence. And the third part of the 
 night Fechin devoted to vocal prayer, standing all the time 
 deep in cold water. Even while asleep he practised mor- 
 tification ; for, as an old poem on the characteristics of the 
 Irish saints tells us : 
 
 " Fechin the generous of Fobhar loved, 
 It was no hypocritical devotion, 
 To place his fleshless rib 
 Upon a hard bed without clothes." 
 
 When we bear in mind these austerities, and read on the 
 other hand, in the Life of Saint Antony by Rev. Alban 
 Butler,* that " that great saint's food was only bread, with 
 a little salt, and he drank nothing but water; he never 
 eat before sunset, and sometimes only once in two or four 
 days ; he lay on a rush mat, or on the bare floor," we see 
 how appropriately Fechin was called in the middle ages 
 the " Antony of Ireland." 
 
 * Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints, January 17.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 459 
 
 The holy man's constancy in the practice of those 
 severities, or others resembling them, is well brought out 
 in an account of a proceeding that is supposed to have 
 happened about the close of his life. It is said that, having 
 occasion to visit the county Wicklow, he arrived with some 
 monks on a Sunday evening at the famous waterfall of 
 Poulaphooka. On reaching this charming spot, the saint 
 was so filled with religious awe by its " noise of many 
 waters," that, instead of reposing a little after an exhaust- 
 ing journey, he at once engaged in some laborious exercise 
 of devotion, which would seem to resemble that of the 
 Stations of the Cross, and continued so engaged for a long 
 time, utterly forgetful of everything else. The monks, 
 interfering at last, begged their master and father to have 
 pity on himself, and to take some respite, but Fechin only 
 replied that, with his rational and immortal soul, he could 
 not desist from the divine adoration, while the inanimate 
 waters hymned on, without pause or intermission, the praises 
 of their common Creator. At the instant the waters ceased 
 suddenly to fall or flow, which phenomenon the saint taking 
 as a notification of the divine will, he complied with the 
 request of the monks, but not till it was clear that nothing 
 short of a miracle could withdraw the fervent servant of 
 God from his devotions. 
 
 If anything could enhance the idea we thus receive of 
 Fechin's self- maceration, it would be those knee-prints, as 
 they ar e styled, which are to be found in many places 
 sacred to him. Near the numerous wells in Leyney, 
 Leinster, and West Connaught, that are called after 
 Fechin's name, you generally find flags, on which the 
 inhabitants of the localities point out those prints, telling 
 you that they were formed by the bare knees of the saint 
 in his continual- prayers. It is much more likely that the 
 impressions were made by numberless pilgrims, who came 
 to pray on spots sanctified, in their eyes, by the presence 
 of the saint, but, in any case, the popular notions witness
 
 460 PARISH OF KILVAKNET. 
 
 the belief which the faithful always entertained respecting 
 the surpassing austerities of the man of God, which belief, 
 being so constant and widely diffused, could come from no 
 other source except the austerities themselves. 
 
 With such a life Fechin had nothing to fear at its close. 
 When that close came, A.D. 664, the saint could hardly be 
 less than 80 years of age, having been a priest and founded 
 churches during the lifetime of St. Nathy, who is supposed 
 to have died about the year 615. Eighty years, so full of 
 perfection as to cause his life to be taken for a series of 
 miracles, filled the man of God with that hope which 
 " confounded not." After " finishing his course," like St. 
 Paul, as well as keeping the faith himself and spreading it 
 abroad among those destitute of it, like the same saint, it 
 only remained for Fechin 'to receive the crown due to his 
 many merits, as anchorite, as abbot, and as apostle. 
 
 The saint came to his end by the Buidhe-Chonnail, a 
 terrible plague that traversed Ireland, working such havoc 
 in all classes that a third of the population did not survive. 
 His death by this pestilence some writers regard as a divine 
 judgment, others as a divine mercy. In support of the 
 former opinion we are referred to a transaction that is 
 related in Colgan's Life of St. Gerald. We are there 
 informed that the reigning monarchs, Blaithmac and 
 Diermid, assembled their subjects by royal edict at Tara, 
 to deliberate on the best means of averting a famine, which 
 seemed ready to fall on the country. In fact, the evil 
 that Malthus apprehended in the nineteenth century 
 actually occurred in the seventh, for the population, at that 
 time, greatly exceeded the means of subsistence. Instead, 
 however, of the unsophisticated people of those days making 
 use of Malthus's " preventive checks," they were of opinion 
 that recourse should be had, in prayer -and fasting, to 
 heaven for relief. The only difference of opinion at the 
 meeting of Tara, turned upon the species of prayer that 
 should ,be put up. One side and they formed the great
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 461 
 
 majority of those assembled maintained that God should 
 be asked directly and expressly to sweep the lower 
 classes away by a pestilence in such numbers as to leave 
 plenty of food to the surviving population; while others 
 would not consent to pray for such wholesale extermina- 
 tion. In this state of things the assembled multitudes 
 agreed to leave this weighty matter to the decision of Saint 
 Fechin and Saint Gerald.* Unfortunately, the saints were 
 not at one on the subject any more than the assembly, 
 Fechin thinking that the wishes of the majority, more 
 especially as the majority contained the ruling classes, 
 should be complied with, and Gerald dissenting from this 
 opinion and contending that, no matter what numbers and 
 rulers thought they ought rather to beg God to save the 
 people, and to multiply their food, one thing being as easy 
 to Omnipotence as the other. God, it is said, was displeased 
 with the majority, and, in His indignation, sent the pesti- 
 lence they desired, thus granting their prayer, and, at the 
 same time, punishing them for it, so that the reigning 
 monarchs, several subordinate princes, and other persons 
 of station and influence, including our saint, were amongst 
 its first and most conspicuous victims. It were well that 
 the higher classes would learn from this notable example 
 that their ill-treatment of the lowly is sure to recoil one 
 day upon themselves. 
 
 Those who regard Fechin's death by the plague 'as a 
 mercy, cite an incident in his life as a proof of their view. 
 This incident happened at a meeting which took place at 
 Fore between our saint, Saint Ultan of Ardbraccan, and 
 Saint Ronan, son of Berach, on which occasion each of 
 these holy men and venerable abbots, who were all three 
 patriots as well as saints, prayed for their beloved country 
 immunity, during his days, from the evil which each 
 
 * According to the accurate Annals of Tighernac/i, St. Gerald died in 
 the year 732 ; and, surviving Fechir 68 years, it is not likely that he was 
 engaged with our saint in the transaction under consideration.
 
 462 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 regarded as the greatest that could befal her: Saint 
 Ultan praying that she might be free from pestilence, 
 Saint Fechin that she might not suffer from famine, and 
 Saint Ronan that she might not be profaned by foreign 
 invasions. Each got his prayer, for Saint Ultan died on 
 the 4th of September, A.D. 657,* seven years before the 
 appearance of the Buidhe Chonnail ; Saint Fechin went to 
 his reward on the 20th of January, 664, and therefore 
 before the famine had time to succeed to the plague ; while 
 E-onan passed to the crown on the 18th of November, 
 664, the same year as Fechin, and, of course, ages before 
 Dane or Anglo-Norman invader set foot in Ireland. From 
 this, then, it would appear that God was only granting the 
 prayer of Fechin in taking him to Himself at the earlier 
 stages of the pestilence, and before the famine, of which the 
 saint had such dread, wrought its worst horrors through 
 the land. 
 
 Whatever may be said of these opinions, the saint's end 
 showed the same exalted virtue that his career did. Though 
 falling by the plague, Fechin's last moments were as serene 
 as if death came on in the ordinary course of nature. Fore- 
 seeing, from the beginning, the issue of the attack, the saint 
 called the monks around him, and received, in their pre- 
 sence, the last rites of the Church, showing, while partaking 
 of the holy viaticum, a fervour both of faith and love, which 
 his biographers specially notice. While life and strength 
 lasted, the good father employed his failing voice in con- 
 veying blessings and exhortations to his afflicted children. 
 We are told that the dying superior pressed on them parti- 
 cularly the paramount importance of persevering in the 
 observance of their holy rule, reminding them ,of all God 
 had done for the community, and assuring those present 
 that His hand would be with them in the future as it had 
 been in the past, if they were themselves faithful to duty. 
 
 * Obits &c. Christ Church, Ixxiv.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 463 
 
 It was in this way, first fortifying himself with all the aids 
 of religion, and then, like Saint Peter, confirming his 
 brethren, that the man of God yielded his great soul to its 
 Maker. No doubt in the last moments the holy abbot had 
 in his thoughts and prayers the beloved inmates of his 
 distant monasteries as well as those of Fore, so that the 
 precious blessing the dying saint exhaled with his parting 
 breath was meant as much for the monks of Ballysadare, 
 Kilnemonogh, Omey, Cong, and other places, as for those 
 brethren who knelt, at the moment, by the deathbed. 
 
 As might be expected, a life that was so full of miracles, 
 during its progress, was not devoid of them at the close ; 
 and as a bright flame over his father's house is said to 
 have announced his birth, so also a pillar of light,* rising 
 from the monastery of Fore and reaching to the sky, is 
 alleged to have shone out at his decease. When this 
 phenomenon was mentioned to St. Mochua of Ardslaine, 
 who was already ill, the holy man knew that St. Fechin 
 was dying ; and remembering the prediction made fourteen 
 years previously by Fechin, to the effect that himself and 
 Mochua would depart this life together, the abbot of Ard- 
 slaine made at once his final dispositions, received the last 
 sacraments, imparted to his monks a parting benediction, 
 and gave up the ghost so soon that the saint's soul accom- 
 panied that of Fechin to the presence of the Great Judge. 
 
 St. Fechin's death caused a deep sensation throughout 
 Ireland. The many important transactions with kings and 
 
 * Extraordinary light is often said, in Irish history and biography, to 
 have accompanied the births or deaths of holy persons. After mentioning, 
 under the year 1173, the death of Murray O'Coffey, Bishop of Derry and 
 Eaphoe, the Four Masters add : " A great miracle was performed on the 
 night of his death namely, the dark night was illumined from midnight 
 to daybreak ; and the people thought that the neighbouring parts of the 
 world, which were visible, were in one blaze of light ; and the likeness of 
 a large globe of fire arose over the town, and moved in a south-easterly 
 direction ; and all persons arose from their beds, imagining that it was 
 daylight; and it was also thus on the east side of the sea."
 
 464 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 princes in which the saint had been engaged, the numerous 
 monasteries and churches he had established in different 
 parts of the country, and the friendly relations he had 
 maintained with several holy abbots and their communi- 
 ties, made Fechin generally known and as generally res- 
 pected. The ideas that people entertained of his extraor- 
 dinary sanctity are well preserved in a legend that arose 
 on the occasion of his death. Soon after that event the 
 devil is said to have appeared to a St. Molingus (apparently 
 the bishop of Ferns of that name, who died on the 7th 
 of June, A.D. 697) with the object of distracting him at his 
 devotions, when that saint, making use of the occasion to 
 force the wicked one to reveal some of his practices, com- 
 manded him, saying, "Wretch, declare to me whether you 
 and your imps are in the habit of tempting the saints at the 
 hour of death ?" Satan replied, that they were accustomed 
 to do so. "Tell me, then," proceeded Molingus, " did you 
 venture to tempt St. Fechin in his last moments ? " " Oh ! 
 far from doing so," rejoined the evil spirit, " myself and 
 the other demons were so terrified by the wonderful light 
 which shone over Fore on that occasion ',that we fled panic- 
 stricken from Ireland, and kept clear of the country for 
 full eight days." This anecdote* may raise a smile on the 
 countenances of the unreflecting, but it is, nevertheless, full 
 of historical value, for it shows, much better than any 
 formal narrative, the profound veneration in which the 
 saint was held by those who lived at or about his time, 
 that is to say, by those most competent to form a correct 
 
 * The late Dean Butler, of Trim, says of Irish legends: "These le- 
 gends are worthy of record. . . . It is reasonable to conjecture that 
 they were the forms of historical narrative used by one people, which, 
 falling into the hands of another people of different language and of other 
 habits of thought and turns of expression, were understood by them in a 
 sense which they were not intended to bear, and in which they were not 
 used by their authors. We would look upon these strange and portentous 
 narratives as the hieroglyphic records of forgotten but substantial history." 
 Preface to Clynn and Dowling's Annals, pp. vii, viii.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 465 
 
 judgment upon the miraculous life and holy death of this 
 great man of God. 
 
 After Fechin's death his memory came to be as venerated 
 as his person had been during life ; and that this veneration 
 began to be felt, immediately on the saint's decease, appears 
 from the anecdote just mentioned about Saint Molingus. 
 Devotion to our saint was general through the country, but 
 Ballysadare, Billa, and Kilnemonogh, in the diocese of 
 Achonry ; Cong, and the islands off the coast of Galway, in 
 the diocese of Tuam ; Fore, in the diocese of Meath ; and 
 Termonfeckin, in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh ; 
 were its chief centres, where churches were dedicated in his 
 name, where his festival was celebrated with extraordinary 
 honour, and where his praises were proclaimed with more 
 than usual warmth and frequency, as our saint was the 
 special patron of those places.* A good idea of the popular 
 belief in his power may be had from statements like the 
 following, which is found in the Annals of the Four Mas- 
 ters, under the year 1061, and which is only one of many 
 that might be cited : " An army was led by Murchadh, 
 son of Diermaid, into Meath, when he burned territories 
 and churches, namely, Granard, Tobhar-Feichin, and 
 
 * " Every principal family of the nobility and gentry throughout the 
 kingdom of Ireland expressed a singular veneration and reverence for 
 some particular saint, whose name they invoked, and whose protection 
 they implored upon all occasions. . . . There was not a county or ter- 
 ritory in all the kingdom but what had a particular saint, whose name 
 they invoked in all emergencies, and who was made choice of as the 
 guardian of themselves, their families, and their fortunes." Keating's 
 History of Ireland, Dublin, 1809, vol. ii, page 114. 
 
 It was in consideration of this state of things that St. Nathy remon- 
 strated with Fechin's father for striking the child Csee page 413). " Why 
 strike that royal head ?" asked the saint. And when the father inquired 
 the meaning of the strange question, Nathy replied, " I see a multitude 
 of angels hovering round the child, and I foresee that one day he 
 will be set over all Leyney," a prediction, adds the old author, that was 
 fulfilled when the inhabitants of Leyney became his clients, and acknow- 
 ledged him as their patron and tutelary saint. 
 
 2H 
 
 :
 
 466 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 Ardbraccan ; but Feichin slew him, face to face, and a great 
 destruction was made among the foreigners and Leinster- 
 men by various distempers." 
 
 Another thing that sfyows the faith of the people in our 
 saint, is the esteem and reverence in which his relics 
 were held, these being counted as part of the " chief relics 
 and guarantees of Ireland," which are thus enumerated in 
 the Annals of the Four Masters under the year 1143 : 
 " The altar of Kieran (Clonmacnoise) with its relics ; the 
 shrine of Kiaran, called the Oirenach ; the Matha-mor, the 
 abbot and the prior, and two out of every order in the 
 church ; Muiredach O'Duffy, the archbishop, the Lord of 
 Connaught, the successor of Patrick, and the staff of Jesus ; 
 the successor of Fechin and the belief Fechin, and theBohan 
 of Caeimghin." And under the year 1157, in the same 
 Annals, we read that the " sureties " of the lord of 
 Leaghaire, who had been slain by the king of Meath, 
 were : "The successor of Patrick, and the staff of Jesus, 
 together with the legate, i.e., Ma Condoirche ; the successor 
 of Colum-Cille, with his relics ; Greene, bishop of Athcliath 
 (Dublin) ; the abbot of Mellifont ; the successor of Kiaran, 
 with his relics ; the successor of Fechin, with his relics ; 
 O'Loghlen, king of Ireland : Donagh Ma Cearbhaill, lord 
 of Oirghialla ; Tiernan O'Ruairc, lord of Breifne ; Diar- 
 maid M'Murghada, king of Leinster ; and the chiefs of the 
 men of Meath, and of the men of Teathba in general." * 
 Here we see, though there is considerable difference in the 
 guarantees in this and the preceding case, that the " relics 
 of Fechin " have a place in both instances. Those relics 
 were the Cuach-Fechin, i.e., Fechin' s cup, the bachal-Fechin, 
 
 * The chief guarantees in Pagan times were the sun, the wind, and the 
 elements. Laoghaire, the last Pagan king of Ireland, on heing taken 
 prisoner at Ath-dara, " gave the guarantees of the sun, and of the wind, 
 and of the element, to the men of Leinster, that he would never again 
 come against them." St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland : hy James Hen- 
 thorn Todd, D.D., etc.
 
 PARISH OF KILVAR3XET. 467 
 
 or Fechin's staff, and Clocc-Fechin, or Fechin's bell. Of 
 the " cuach " or cup, nothing is known except that it was 
 given by King Guiare to the saint (Prima Vita, cap. 12), 
 and that it was in existence long after the saint's death 
 (Secunda Vita, page 135) ; with the staff he is said to have 
 performed many of his miracles, and it is probable that this 
 object was preserved in the monastery of Fore, where 
 Fechin is stated to have received it from our Lord ; while 
 it is likely that the bell in question belonged to Ballysadare, 
 as we see in the Annals of the Four Masters, under the 
 year 1261, that the Berminghams carried away a sacred 
 bell or bell-cover from that monastery ; unless we suppose 
 and the supposition is not improbable that there was a 
 Second Clocc-Fechin, and that it, like the bachal, was kept 
 in the abbey of Fore, the most famous of the saint's founda- 
 tions. 
 
 The fame of Fechin was well diffused at the time of the 
 English Invasion, for Giraldus Cambrensis, the chief histo- 
 rian of that event, dwells at considerable length on topics 
 connected with the saint. And from the frequent mention 
 of the holy man, and of his comorbans, in the annals of 
 the country, and the number of his biographies that were 
 spread about,* it is clear that this fame continued unimpaired 
 down to the period of the Reformation, when we find Dr. 
 Hanmer, in the Chronicle of Ireland,^ observe : " Ireland 
 remembreth the feast of St. Fekin, that he was of the 
 King's bloud, and an Abbot, cured many of the flixe or 
 fluxe, and dyed thereof himselfe." 
 
 From this statement of Hanmer we might conclude, that 
 a feast was instituted and celebrated in the saint's honour, 
 for, to say, " Ireland remembreth the feast of St. Fekin," 
 seems the same as to say, " Ireland commemorateth the^east 
 
 * In the catalogue of the Earl of Kildare's library we find " Saint 
 Feghin is lif." Preface to Bowling's Annals, p. vii, where the Retrospec- 
 tive Review, and Historical and Antiquarian Magazine, 2nd series, part i, p. 
 138, are quoted for the contents of the catalogue. 
 
 t Irish Histories, vol. ii, p. 96.
 
 468 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 
 
 of St. Fekin." And we might draw the same conclusion 
 from two hymns for his office, that are still extant, one for 
 lauds, and the other, apparently, for vespers ; as also 
 from the various martyrologies and calendars that fix his 
 feast on the 20th of January. But we are not left to in- 
 ferences in this matter, as we have positive proof, not only 
 that his feast was celebrated, but that it was celebrated 
 with special honour, by a proper office of nine lessons ; for, 
 in the Constitutions of Primate Colton, we find the Primate 
 in council, the highest ecclesiastical authority in Ireland, 
 providing for the due celebration of our saint's festival in 
 the following ordinance, in which he makes provision also 
 for the feasts of Saint Patrick, Saint Columba, and Saint 
 Brigid, where the very juxta-position of Fechin's name 
 with those of the three patrons of Ireland, cannot fail to 
 exalt our idea of the saint : " Item auctoritate presentis 
 
 concilii statuimus et ordinamus quodfestum almifici 
 
 Confessoris nostri et totius Hibernia3 Patroni a cunctis 
 Christi fidelibus nostrse provincisD ut festum festivum per- 
 petuis temporibus observetur, ab omni servili opere in eo 
 abstineatur, et quod more duplicis festi majoris in ecclesiis 
 celebretur, etc. 
 
 " Item quod festum Sanctse Brigidas virginis sub more 
 duplicis festi annuatim per totam provinciam celebretur, etc. 
 
 " Item quod festum Sancti Columbse confessoris et abba- 
 tis sub festi more novem lectionibus singulis annis in 
 ecclesiis provincial nostrai celebretur. 
 
 "Item eodem modo statuimus de festis Sanctorum 
 Feghini et Ronani quoad nostram diocesam Ardmacha- 
 nam."* 
 
 As this cultm of Saint Fechin was interrupted by the 
 Reformation and has not been since resumed, it is a pity 
 that the case was not considered a few years ago, when the 
 
 * Acts of Archbishop Colton, etc, : by Rev. William Reeves, D.D., 
 M.R.I.A., Introduction, p. six.
 
 PARISH OF KILVARNET. 469 
 
 Holy See restored public worship to several Irish saints ; 
 but it is to be hoped that the matter was not abandoned, 
 but only deferred to a more convenient time ; and when- 
 ever that time arrives, judging from the holy man's well 
 established sanctity, from the ecclesiastical honours already 
 paid him, and from the private devotions of which he is 
 still the object in various places, there can be little danger, 
 considering the principles that govern such examinations, 
 of his claims being disallowed.
 
 470 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND TCILVARNET. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PARISH PRIESTS OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 IN drawing up an account of the Parish Priests of an Irish 
 parish, one is made to feel the want of local records in this 
 country. If you had occasion to make out the succession 
 of Cures in a parish of the continent, you would, notwith- 
 standing the ravages of the French Revolution, and of 
 other insurrectionary movements, often find great help in 
 the documents of the presbytery, or, at any rate, in those 
 of the cathedral ; but you will generally search in vain in 
 Ireland for any such assistance. This of course, is owing 
 mainly to wars, invasions, and the religious persecution 
 that the country suffered, and that destroyed the books and 
 papers of churches and monasteries, though the evil may 
 perhaps be somewhat referred to the comparative distaste 
 for writing, which the Irish are said to have sometimes ex- 
 hibited.* Whatever may be the cause, there is not perhaps 
 a single line of writing in this diocese, for instance, on the 
 succession of the Parish Priests in the different parishes, or 
 
 * Adamnan's Life of St. Columba ; edited by William Keeves, D.D., 
 M.R.I.A., p. 337. Scotland too has fared ill in respect of her old records, 
 and would have fared still worse only for Irish monks. "Scotland" 
 writes the author of A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland, p. 240, 
 "would at this day be without a written monument of antiquity ante- 
 cedent to the ravages of Edward I, if some remnant had not been saved 
 in the Abbey of Hy Columb-cill," 
 
 " From about the year 1530," says Eugene O'Curry in Lectures on 
 Ancient Irish History, etc., p. 355, " in the reign of the English king, 
 Henry VIII, to the year 1793, the priests of Ireland were ever subject to 
 persecution, suppression, dispersion, and expatriation, according to the 
 English law ; their churches, monasteries, convents, and private habita- 
 tions, were pillaged and wrested from them ; and a Vandal warfare was 
 kept up against all that was venerable and sacred of the remains of ancient 
 literature and art which they possessed."
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 471 
 
 even on the succession of the Bishops in the See, though 
 this latter defect can be supplied from other quarters, and, 
 particularly, from original acts and documents at Rome. 
 
 There is nothing even to tell us when the parishes of 
 Ballysadare and Kilvarnet, that are now united, were thus 
 joined, though it is likely they have been connected in some 
 way, from about the period of the Reformation, when that 
 event disturbed much of what it did not destroy in the old 
 discipline of the Church. It is true, a proper Parish Priest 
 is assigned to Kilvarnet, under the Registration Act of 
 1704, in the person of Rev. William M'Donogh, who is 
 stated to have been ordained at Clonfert, in 1670, by Bishop 
 Donnellan, to have resided at Fialooher, (probably Falougher) 
 and to have hadfor sureties, Morgan M'Donogh,Roscrib,and 
 Charles Phillips, Oghane ; but the double Parish Priest may 
 have been allowed by the government, as the parishes of 
 Ballysadare and Kilvarnet were still separate in the eye of 
 the law ; * and the allowance, as giving an additional clergy- 
 man to minister to the people, would have been gladly 
 availed of by the Catholic ecclesiastical authorities, who 
 would appoint some simple priest to serve as the " Popish 
 Parish Priest of Kilvarnet," no curate being tolerated by 
 the law. If, however, William M'Donogh was the canonical 
 as well as the legal Parish Priest of Kilvarnet, as a separate 
 parish, it is very likely that he had no successor, and that 
 the two parishes have been ever since committed to the 
 same incumbent. 
 
 It would appear that both these parishes were adminis- 
 tered by religious before the troubles of the sixteenth 
 
 * It was only in 1819 these parishes were united, by act of council, 
 into the union of Killoran. Erck's Ecclesiastical Register, 1830, p. 265. 
 
 The church of Rathbarron was built in 1766, and cost 921, of which 
 500 came from gifts. The glebe of Killoran contains 75 acres, and the 
 glebe-house was built in 1811, at a cost of 575, of which sum 200 camo 
 from gifts, and 375 from loans.
 
 472 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 century. For Ballysadare, this seems certain, as the abbey 
 enjoyed the rectory of the parish, and served the vicarages 
 by the religieux ; and as to Kilvarnet, the tradition is, that 
 the state of things there was similar. This system existed 
 largely in Ireland, and therefore the suppression of the 
 religious houses threw much of the ecclesiastical machinery 
 of the country out of gear for a long time ; for in any case, 
 it would not have been easy to make new provisions for 
 public worship ; and, besides, the authorities of the Church 
 were in no hurry to interfere, hoping that the troubles 
 would pass away, and that the old order of things would 
 be re-established. "The system of vicars," says Mr. 
 Green, in his much admired " Short History of the English 
 People," p. 439, "so general in England, was rare in 
 Ireland ; churches in the patronage of the abbeys, were for 
 the most part served by the religious themselves, and the 
 dissolution of their houses suspended public worship over 
 large districts of the country." After their expulsion 
 from the abbeys, the monks continued to remain in their 
 neighbourhoods, and to discharge their old duties as far as 
 the change of circumstances allowed, which accounts for 
 the late appearance of secular parish priests in many 
 places.* 
 
 Whether it be owing to the cause here assigned, or to this, 
 that though there were earlier secular pastors, their names 
 and incumbencies are forgotten, the first Parish Priest of 
 Ballysadare whose name we meet with is REV. JAMES 
 O'CoNNELL, who is said to have been a native of Tubber- 
 scanavin, where his family resided till towards the close of 
 the last century, when they removed, some members to 
 Glen, and others to Collooney. Father O'Connell must 
 
 * ' ' As for the Franciscans, they continued, after their expulsion from 
 the monastery, to live in thatched cabins in the neighbourhood." The 
 Franciscan Monasteries and the Irish Hierarchy in the 1 1th Century : by 
 Eev. C. P. Meehan, M.K.I.A, p. 81. Fifth edition. Duffy, Dublin.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 473 
 
 have been born in 1648, having been fifty-six years 
 of age in 1704, when the register of the Parish Priests, 
 then living in Ireland, was made out. An act of Parlia- 
 ment for " registering the Popish clergy," was passed in 
 1703, which enacted that " all and every Popish priest or 
 priests, who are now in the Kingdom. . . . shall return his 
 or their names and places of abode, to the respective clerks 
 of the peace, in the several counties where the said Popish 
 priests shall dwell or reside, together with his or their age, 
 the parish of which they pretend to be Popish priests, the 
 time and place of his or their receiving Popish orders, and 
 from whom he or they first received the same ; and shall 
 then and there enter into sufficient sureties, and in the 
 Penal sum of 50 sterling, that every such Popish priest 
 shall be of peaceable behaviour, and not remove out of such 
 county, where his or their place of abode lies, into any other 
 part of the Kingdom ; " and we learn from the list of the 
 Popish Parish Priests, registered, in compliance with this 
 act, at the general quarter sessions of the Peace, held at 
 Sligo, the llth day of July, 1704, that " James Connell 
 resided at Annaghbegg," that he was 56 years in 1704, 
 that he " pretended to be Popish priest " of Ballysadare, 
 that he received orders at Cong, County Mayo, from 
 " James Lynch, archbishop of Tuam," and that the'sureties, 
 that entered into recognizances for him, were "John Crean, 
 Sligo ; " and " John Dolan, Collooney." 
 
 Father O'Connell's name occurs in an inventory of the 
 " goods and effects " of Holy Cross Abbey, Sligo, drawn 
 up at Bilboa, in Spain, in 1703, by Father Patrick 
 M'Donogh, the expatriated Prior of Holy Cross Convent. 
 In 1698 the friars had to fly to the continent from Sligo. 
 As they had no other means in the world to meet the ex- 
 penses of removal, they sold or pledged their chalices, with 
 the consent of their superiors ; and " Father James 
 O'Connell, Parish Priest of Ballisadair," is stated in the 
 inventory to hold one of the Holy Cross chalices, " with an
 
 474 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND K1LVARNET. 
 
 obligation and condition " that the convent of Sligo could 
 redeem it.* 
 
 Nothing further is known of this good priest ; and he 
 would seem to have passed through life unmolested by the 
 persecutors, though living in an eventful period, and in a 
 dangerous neighbourhood, when Shaftesbury's horrid plot 
 had sent several priests to " rot in Sligo gaol." f Our 
 Parish Priest may have owed his safety to the protection 
 of the 0' Haras, on whose property he resided at Annagh- 
 beg. He died in 1710, and was buried outside the eastern 
 gable of Ballysadare old church, as near the site of the 
 altar as was possible, considering that the Protestants had 
 appropriated all the inner area of the church, leaving the 
 poor Catholics " out in the cold." Over Father O'Connell's 
 remains lies a tombstone, bearing, first, a cross, hav- 
 ing four hearts in the angles formed by its arms ; next, 
 an open book with a hand, as if of a preacher, point- 
 ing to it ; and, lastly, the following inscription in raised 
 letters : " Hie jacet Jacobus O'Connell, sacerdos hujus 
 
 * " There was a generall licence," says Father M'Donogh in his most 
 interesting Inventory, etc., "given to every Prior to dispose of all the 
 goods and chalices of every convent with the mutuall consent of his con- 
 ventualls, as he thought more expedient and convenient for the present 
 necessity and for the future. The fathers of the Convent of Sligoe 
 haveing no other effects nor worldly meanes butt their chalices they 
 agreed unanimously to dispose of some of their chalices to redeeme the 
 present necessity, and found it more proper and lawfull before God and 
 the world to make use of them than to perish in foraigne countreys, not 
 knowing to what part of the universe would they be driven nor what 
 reception they would gett amongst strangers. It is most sure when the 
 V. E. fa: M. fr. Felix O' Conor was Prior of Sligoe the convent had 
 fiftheene silver chalices and their pixes. The said fa : died a prisoner in 
 Sligoe in the heate of Shaftesbury's Plott the year 1679. There was such 
 a cruel and rigorous persecution in those days that none of the fathers of 
 
 our convent cud assist him nor come neere him I made a 
 
 narrow search and straight inquiry after these chalices 
 
 John Bane Breanagh sould the chalice to Fa : James O'Conell Parish 
 Priest of Balisadair with an obligation and condition that the convent of 
 Sligoe cud redeeme it." 
 
 t Father M'Donogh's Inventory, etc.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 475 
 
 parochice qui .... die Aprilis, 1710." " Here lies James 
 O'Connell, priest of this parish who .... day of April 
 1710." It is to be regretted that the stone was injured by 
 the apex of the gable falling on it and breaking the flag. 
 In this way the missing portion of the inscription consist- 
 ing, apparently, of the word obiit and the day of the 
 month was destroyed. 
 
 The next Parish Priest of Ballysadare that anything is 
 known of was REV. PATRICK HINNEGAN, who died in or 
 about 1750. It is likely that "one or more Parish Priests, 
 whose names are now lost, intervened between him and 
 Father O'Connell, as there were forty years in the interval. 
 A Rev. Stephen Brett is said to have been some time in- 
 cumbent of Ballysadare, and may have lived in this period. 
 Very probably the Rev. Mr. Hinnegan's name would be 
 now forgotten, were it not that he was once hunted by 
 priest-catchers ; an occurrence that created a great sensa- 
 tion at the time, and that has left very vivid reminiscences 
 in the parish. There was a rude chapel at that time in a 
 hollow on the hill of Largan, near which sharp eyes kept 
 watch and ward while the priest offered the holy sacrifice ; 
 and on one occasion Father Hinnegan had just finished the 
 service when word was suddenly passed that the priest- 
 catchers, Harrison and Co., were hard by. In an instant 
 the priest started towards the friendly shelter of Annagh- 
 more, the residence of the O' Haras, with the human blood- 
 hounds at his heels. There was a desperate struggle 
 between the pursuers and the pursued, and until they neared 
 the Annaghbeg river, no one could tell the result ; but on 
 reaching the bank of the river, the priest-catchers stopped 
 suddenly short, while the priest plunged into the water, 
 ascended the opposite bank, and saved himself in Annagh- 
 more amid the enthusiastic cheers and thanksgivings of 
 the people that lined the mountain side. 
 
 It was a sad hunt for one of the priest- catchers ; for it 
 befel him, as it had befallen William Fitz Adelm Burke,
 
 476 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 of whom the Annals of Clonmacnoise tell us, under 
 the year 1204, that in punishment of the " spoyles of all 
 the churches of Connaught, his entrails fell and trailed 
 after him even to the very earth." The similar misfor- 
 tune of Father Hinnegan's pursuer may have been a divine 
 judgment or only an accident, but in either case, it con- 
 tributed not a little to the aversion which the neighbours, 
 Protestant quite as much as Catholic, felt for the wretched 
 man as long as he lived.* Harrison, it is said, had also 
 reason to rue the day that the priest was hunted, for, on 
 his returning home, he found a young daughter dead, who 
 had been accidentally drowned during her father's absence 
 in Collooney river, a little above the spot where the bridge 
 now stands. Father Hinnegan is supposed to be buried in 
 the same grave with Father O'Connell. 
 
 NOT was this the only hunt in which Harrison and Co. 
 were engaged, if we are to believe local tradition ; for they 
 are said to have given chase to a Friar Cunnan, who was 
 a native of Ballymote, but who was officiating somewhere 
 in the neighbourhood of Doocastle when set upon. Find- 
 ing the priest- catchers had come unnoticed so close that 
 there was not time to put off all the sacred vestments, the 
 poor man struck off, habited as he was, to Cloonmore, the 
 residence of Mr. Charles Phillips, a friend of the friar, and 
 a gentleman of considerable social influence, though a 
 
 * "Towards the close of the reign of Anne," says Dr. De Burgo, 
 Hibernia Dominicana, p. 160, " and the beginning of that of George the 
 First, there were several persecutions, and they would have been more 
 numerous and violent only that, by the dispensation of Providence, 
 nobody, not even the common hangman, was so infamous, even in the 
 eyes of the Protestants, as the wretch that was contemptuously called 
 Priest-catcher, Hence, once a man had turned informer against priests, 
 he could no longer appear in public except at the imminent risk of his 
 life ; a fact that I witnessed more than once myself when a little boy, for 
 the informer no sooner showed himself than he was hustled and pelted 
 with missiles by both Protestants and Catholics." The Collooney priest- 
 catchers were treated in the way described by De Burgo, as the writer 
 heard from very old men who, when littla boys, witnessed this treatment.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSABARE AND KILVARNET. 477 
 
 Catholic. As soon as the fugitive entered Cloonmore 
 House, and Mr. Phillips saw how things stood, he directed 
 the friar to take off the vestments and conceal himself. 
 This done, Phillips put part of the vestments on himself, 
 and running away from the house, attracted the attention 
 and pursuit of the priest- catchers, who soon came up with 
 and captured the runaway. They were sure they had the 
 friar, and proceeded at once with the captive to Collooney, 
 which, however, they did not reach till it was too late to 
 bring the prisoner that day before the magistrate. Pleased 
 with their day's work, they not only passed the night 
 carousing themselves, but, sure of the large reward await- 
 ing them, kept open house, as at election time, and gave 
 drink and refreshments to all comers. But they had to 
 " pay for their whistle ; " for, next day, when they brought 
 the supposed friar before the magistrate, the Rev. Adam 
 Caulfield, the then vicar of the parish, his worship at once 
 recognised an old friend Charley Phillips, and, delighted 
 with the discomfiture of the priest-catchers, sent them 
 ignominiously away. It was hard enough on these dis- 
 appointed men to have to endure the contempt of the 
 magistrate and the derision of the people, but it was a still 
 more serious evil to meet the liabilities incurred by the 
 lavish expenditure of the preceding night. It is said that 
 their efforts to pay the debt kept them in poverty all their 
 lives ; but there was no pity for them, and it was rare sport 
 to Protestants as well as Catholics to see these " engineers 
 hoist with their own petard." As to Mr. Phillips, the 
 incident made him the most popular man in the county ; 
 unlike, in this respect, to Saint Alban, the protomartyr of 
 England, who was brought to the block by exchanging 
 garments, in very similar circumstances, with Amphibalus, 
 in order to help that priest to escape the fury of persecu- 
 tors. (See Alban Butler.} 
 
 Father Hinnegan's successor was REV. CHARLES BRETT, 
 who lived as Parish Priest for eighteen years in the parish.
 
 478 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARMET. 
 
 Father Brett was born at Derroon, near Ballymote, and 
 came of a highly respectable Anglo-Irish family, who were 
 connected by marriage with the Taaffes of Carlingford and 
 Ballymote. While Parish Priest of Ballysadare, Mr. Brett 
 resided at Ardcotton ; and though occupying the whole 
 townland of that name, as well as the districts of Lugna- 
 macken, Camphill, and Carricknagat, he devoted himself 
 exclusively to clerical duties, leaving farms and stock to be 
 managed by others. The chapel was still in Largan, but 
 in that day there was no let or hindrance to the parishioners 
 frequenting it for public worship when they pleased. It 
 was an oblong thatched building, without a particle of 
 furniture except, at one end, a rustic timber stand, that 
 served to support the altar stone. 
 
 In this house happened an incident which deserves to be 
 recorded, as it throws light on the manners of the times, 
 and affords, besides, insight into the character of Father 
 Charles. As it was then the custom in the parish to cele- 
 brate Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, an immense fire 
 used to be lighted in the centre of the chapel to warm the 
 place and enable the priest and congregation to bear the 
 cold of a mid- winter night during the service ; but, on one 
 occasion, some giddy- headed members of the congregation, 
 forgetting what was due to the place and the circumstances, 
 snatched up the half-burned turves from the fire, and flung 
 them in frolic at each other and through the house, regard- 
 ing the proceeding as a harmless joke. " My father told 
 me," said the old man from whom the writer had the 
 account of this incident, " that the chapel, that night, was 
 like a corpse house ;" words, by the way, which convey a 
 striking picture to the mind of the kind of place a wake- 
 house was, when this unnatural horse-play, in presence of 
 the dead, was a common and characteristic practice. 
 
 Father Brett, arriving in the midst of the confusion, 
 showed himself equal to the occasion. After denouncing, 
 in the strongest language,, the disgraceful and sacrilegious
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 479 
 
 scene, lie dismissed all present, informing them that there 
 would be no Mass in the chapel on that night, or on any 
 other night, so long as he continued Parish Priest. And the 
 zealous pastor not only kept this engagement, but his suc- 
 cessors followed the example thus set them, so that there 
 has never since been a Midnight Mass in the parish of 
 Ballysadare. 
 
 And this extraordinary occurrence reminds one of another 
 strange event that took place in the parish during Father 
 Charles's incumbency, though the writer has not been able 
 to get at its exact nature. In the absence of particulars 
 we can only " tell the tale as 'twas told to us," and report 
 the matter in the words of the late Martin Ferguson, of 
 Lugnamacken, the great local shanachie. " In Father 
 Charles's time," said Martin, "there was a great trial at 
 Annaghmore. His curate, Father Nelson, was charged with 
 saying to Mrs. M'Cormack, the wife of Mr. O'Hara's 
 steward, that no Protestant could enter the kingdom of 
 heaven, for which the priest stood a trial. It was a trial 
 by fire. Mr. O'Hara was present and twelve Protestant 
 ministers ; and Father Charles, who was very great with 
 the O'Haras, went, like a man, with his curate. There 
 was a big fire lighted in the lawn, and when everything 
 was ready Mr. Nelson took off his coat and thrust his arm 
 up to the shoulder into the fire, taking it slowly out, after 
 some minutes, without burn or blister. Mr. O'Hara asked 
 the ministers to do the same : and when they refused, he 
 kicked them all out of sight, leaving the honours of the day to 
 Father Nelson." Knowing that there must be some grains 
 of truth in this extravagant fable, inquiry was made of other 
 old men about the matter, but they merely repeated Martin 
 Ferguson's story, and almost in the same words. It is now 
 impossible to find out the facts of the case, but what seems 
 likely is, that the priest was calumniously charged with 
 saying something obnoxious of Protestants, and that he 
 cleared himself to the satisfaction of Mr. O'Hara, all the
 
 480 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 -t-n ' other circumstances the fire, the ministers and the rest 
 being legendary, and supplying an instructive example of 
 the way in which legends may arise. 
 
 Father Brett died in Derroon, where he was born. 
 Finding death imminent, he removed to the family resi- 
 dence, died there in March, 1768, and was buried in the 
 sanctuary of the old Franciscan abbey, on the epistle side, 
 exactly in the angle formed by the eastern gable and 
 northern sidewall, where there is neither monument nor 
 inscription to preserve this good priest's memory. It may 
 be added that our Parish Priest rests in the same grave 
 with his brother or cousin, the Right RQV. John Brett, 
 bishop, first of Killala, and next of Elphin, who, like 
 Father Charles, elected to die at Derroon, and to be buried 
 with his ancestors in the venerable abbey. The bishop 
 died on the 22nd of June, 1775, in the 58th year of his 
 age. 
 
 The REV. JOHN FITZMAURICE, the next Parish Priest of 
 Ballysadare and Kilvarnet, was translated to the parish 
 from Killasser on the death of Father Brett. The writer 
 cannot tell for certain in what place or places Father 
 Fitzmaurice and the other priests that have been men- 
 tioned received their theological education, but there can 
 be little doubt that it was on the continent, where almost 
 all the Irish priests of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 
 turies made their ecclesiastical studies ; and if some un- 
 certainty may exist as to this particular in regard to 
 Father Fitzmaurice's predecessors, there can hardly be 
 any in his own case, as there is a tradition in the neigh- 
 bourhood that he passed several years in Rome, and 
 brought from the Eternal City some document conferring 
 on him the succession of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet 
 parishes. This popular impression goes at least to prove 
 that Father Fitzmaurice made his studies in Rome, and 
 carried home some influential testimonials and recom- 
 mendations.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 481 
 
 Father Fitzmaurice was the first Parish Priest of Bally- 
 sadare that resided in Collooney, the others having lived in 
 Ballysadare, Annaghbeg, or Ardcotton. To induce the 
 priest to take up abode in Collooney, the Right Hon. 
 Joshua Cooper placed at his service some land and the 
 best house then in the village, the one now occupied by 
 John Coleman, but which in the last century was three 
 storeys high, so that it afforded ample accommodation. A 
 handsome railing painted green stood in front of the house, 
 which gave those nuisances of the period the Bucks * 
 such offence, that they came one night and demolished it. 
 
 Father Fitzmaurice's incumbency lasted till about 1794, 
 when he died, and was buried in Father O'ConnelPs grave. 
 The circumstances of his death deserve perhaps to be re- 
 corded. Father John was so fond of dogs that old men who 
 remembered him never failed in their conversations to con- 
 nectthe priest and his dogs. Two of these animals constantly 
 accompanied their master, and whenever Mr. Fitzmaurice 
 dined or breakfasted out, he gave more thought to the fare 
 and care of the " twa dogs " than to his own. It were 
 well that the simple man had thought less of these pets, 
 for he died by the bite of one of them. Though there was 
 no hydrophobia, the bite brought on a complication of 
 ailments, under which the priest suffered a long and painful 
 illness, and eventually sank. 
 
 The REV. WALTER HENRY, spoken of familiarly and 
 affectionately to this day in the parish, as " Father Wat," 
 succeeded Father Fitzmaurice. The new Parish Priest 
 was born in or about the year 1744, in the parish of 
 Achonry, at the foot of Knocknashee, in a village called 
 Cloondriara, lying close to the source of the river Moy. 
 Desiring to serve God in the priesthood, and finding no 
 classical school in the neighbourhood, he went to Munster 
 to learn the Greek and Latin necessary for the clerical 
 
 * See page 163. 
 
 2i
 
 482 PAlllSHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 state. Having acquired this knowledge, the young levite 
 returned home, got ordained priest, and was sent to the 
 continent, we believe to Salamanca, to complete his studies. 
 Father "Wat's first mission was Killasser, of which parish, 
 after some time, he became Parish Priest, and from which 
 he was transferred, in 1794, to take the place vacated in 
 Ballysadare and Kilvarnet. 
 
 All through life this excellent priest was noted for his 
 pastoral zeal, feeling so sensibly the responsibility lying on 
 him, if any one should die without the last rites of the 
 church, that on receiving some urgent sick-calls, he is 
 known to have galloped as fast as the horse could move 
 from his residence to that of the patient. Till a year or 
 two ago there lived an old man in Coillte Leyney, who 
 loved to relate, how he saw Father Wat one day galloping 
 across the strand from Streamstown to Beltra, to attend a 
 person that had taken suddenly and dangerously ill, and 
 how, when the sick man died just after having received 
 the sacraments, the good priest knelt down in the middle of 
 the village, and called on the bystanders to kneel with him 
 and return thanks to God for the singular grace He had 
 vouchsafed to the deceased. 
 
 Remembering the inconveniences he had suffered in youth 
 for the want of a classical school in the neighbourhood, 
 Father "Wat taught classics himself, both in Killassar and 
 Collooney, to promising students, having generally about a 
 dozen pupils at a time receiving lessons. The late Arch- 
 deacon Coleman, of Swinford, was one of those who thus 
 became indebted to Father Wat, and the late Mr. Edward 
 Howley, Belleek, was another. 
 
 The places of Catholic worship in the parish, when 
 Father Wat took charge, were two ruinous thatched houses, 
 one in Tubberscanavin and the other in Curhownagh, but 
 he substituted for them two substantial slated chapels, one 
 in Collooney, and the other in Curhownagh. Those who 
 live at the present time, when collections for church funds
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 483 
 
 are so available and effective, and when tradesmen of the 
 different building trades are so numerous, can have no idea 
 of the difficulties that surrounded Father Wat, who lived 
 in a day when collections were unheard of, and when you 
 might search a parish in vain for a single mason. A church 
 builder of the last century, and a church builder of 1878, 
 stand to each other in the relation of the pioneer who first 
 visits a new country, when it is covered with primeval 
 forest and jungle, and the traveller who, later, when the 
 same country is cultivated, and the conveniences of civiliza- 
 tion introduced, lounges through it, at his ease, in a first- 
 class railway carriage. When Father Wat began to build 
 Curhownagh chapel in 1797, he could find only two masons 
 fit for the work, and even these needed constant instruction 
 and supervision. 
 
 Every hour that could be spared from ordinary duties 
 the priest passed at the building, directing those engaged ; 
 and so intent was the good man in this occupation, that, 
 instead of coming home to dine, he used to turn into some 
 of the neighbouring houses, and make a meal with the 
 villagers on a morsel of oaten bread and a cup of milk. 
 This supervision was necessary, as he could find no com- 
 petent substitute, though the ecclesiastic that should imitate 
 Father Wat in these matters at present, however he might 
 appear to the vulgar and the ignorant, would, perhaps, be 
 only misspending the time due to study and other essential 
 duties. 
 
 Father Wat lived in Collooney, in the house now occu- 
 pied by John Whitesides, which was then a commodious 
 and respectable residence ; and which, with land, was given 
 to him by Colonel Joshua Cooper, though this gentleman 
 was far from being the best disposed of the Coopers towards 
 Catholics and their clergy. 
 
 As to personal appearance, Father Wat was under the 
 middle height, compact but not corpulent, and energetic in 
 his movements. He usually wore over a brown wig, a low
 
 484 PARISHES OF BALLYSA-DARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 hat with broad upturned leaf, like those carried by priests on 
 the continent ; and as he never appeared out of doors without 
 a short cape coming down to the small of the back, the 
 " wig," the " three-cocked hat " as it was called and 
 " cape, " have become as associated with Father Wat in 
 the minds of the parishioners of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet 
 as the petit chapeau and redingcote grise are with Napoleon 
 the Great in the traditions of Frenchmen. 
 
 This good priest died of paralysis, with which he was 
 struck, while riding home from a sick-call. The deceased 
 was so beloved at once by the parishioners of Ballysadare 
 and the inhabitants of his native place, that there was near 
 being a battle between these parties for the remains on the 
 day of the funeral. On that day crowds streamed over 
 from Cloondriara and all the villages round Knocknashee, 
 resolved to take the corpse with them by force to Court- 
 abbey, but the parishioners hearing of the intended rescue, 
 armed themselves with sticks, and attended in such num- 
 bers that the Knocknashee people, deeming discretion the 
 better part of valour, withdrew from the procession, after 
 begging in vain for the corpse, which was then quietly 
 conveyed to the parish cemetery at Ballysadare. From 
 the circumstances mentioned, Father Wat's funeral is 
 always spoken of as the " funeral of the sticks."* His re- 
 mains were buried at first in the south-west angle of the 
 graveyard, but later they wer-e exhumed, placed in a 
 chest, and deposited in the vault erected for them by his 
 grateful and attached parishioners. 
 
 FATHER* JAMES HENRY, the next Parish Priest, was 
 born, like his uncle, Father Wat, at the base of Knock- 
 iiashee ; but, unlike him, was able to obtain a classical 
 
 * There was a similar dispute about the remains of Saint Patrick : 
 " There was a rising of battle, and a cause of dissension in the province 
 contending for the body of Patrick after his death. The Ui-Neill and 
 the Airghialla attempting to bring it to Armagh ; the Ulta to keep it 
 with themselves." Annals of the Four Masters, A.D. 49S.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLTSADARE AND KILVARNET. 485 
 
 education in the county. Low as Tubberscanavin has 
 fallen of late, it contained, towards the close of the last 
 century, an excellent classical school. The boys, though 
 not so strong in Greek, acquired a superior knowledge of 
 Latin for the time. They used to get by heart large por- 
 tions of Virgil and Horace, and to have a contest once a 
 month for the kingship of the school, the distinction being 
 awarded to the boy that showed the readiest and most 
 retentive memory. The conditions of the competition 
 were : that when one boy gave out a line of Virgil or 
 Horace, his opponent should cite, from the same author, a 
 second line, beginning with the letter with which the line 
 already quoted ended. Thus, if the line quoted was, for 
 instance, 
 
 " Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboria ?" 
 
 the next line should begin with an s, the last letter of 
 laboris, as thus : 
 
 "Sunt lacrimEe rerum et mentem mortal! a tangunt." 
 
 The respondent needed to be on the alert ; for if, on a line 
 being cited, he delayed so long in finding another as to 
 leave the opponent time enough to repeat thrice the for- 
 mula, " Victus es, captus es, nihil dicere potes," he was 
 cast in the contest. It was in this school Father James 
 learned classics ; and under its training he committed to 
 memory whole books of Virgil and Horace, and became 
 able, in after life, to illustrate any matter in hand with 
 apposite quotations from these authors. 
 
 After finishing this classical course the young man was 
 ordained priest, and sent, for philosophical and theological 
 studies, to Salamanca, where he had for class-fellow Dr. 
 Kelly, the late Archbishop of Tuam, with whom our Parish 
 Priest kept up very friendly relations through life. At the 
 close of their career in Salamanca both took missions in 
 London, from which city, after some time, Father Henry 
 was called home to serve as administrator to the Rev. Mr.
 
 486 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 Brown, Parish Priest of Swinford, who, by the way, was 
 uncle to the late-lamented Rev. John Brown of Buninad- 
 den. On Father Brown's death Father Henry became 
 Parish Priest of Swinford, continuing in that position till 
 1805, when, on the decease of Father Wat, he was ap- 
 pointed to the parish of Ballysadare, and made vicar- 
 general of the diocese. 
 
 Like his immediate predecessors, Father Wat and Father 
 Fitzmaurice, the new pastor resided in Collooney, where 
 Colonel Joshua Cooper first, and Mr. Edward Cooper next, 
 left nothing undone to make him comfortable. Desiring 
 to live beside the new chapel, he applied for a building 
 lease, and the landlord not only granted the lease on very 
 liberal terms, but gave the priest, at moderate rents, 
 several stretches of land, including the paddock opposite 
 the Church of the Assumption ; a small farm at Rathrip - 
 pon ; another at Lougheed's sandpit, in the townland of 
 Collooney ; and a third in Knockbeg, which are mentioned 
 thus in detail in order to show the gratifying relations that 
 existed between the Cooper family and the parish priests 
 of Ballysadare. 
 
 Father James was hardly installed in the parish when 
 he gave mortal offence to the Thrashers, who were then 
 numerous and formidable in the neighbourhood. So bit- 
 terly did they resent the priest's conduct, and so openly 
 and resolutely did they vow vengeance, that the good man 
 was obliged to fly for safety to the County Mayo, and to 
 remain there incog, for several weeks, rarely sleeping two 
 successive nights in the same house, the better to defeat 
 the machinations of the enemy. In spite, however, of all 
 precautions Father James was once on the point of falling 
 into the lion's mouth, when native tact and knowledge of 
 the Irish character stood him in good stead. Learning 
 from scouts that the object of their search was to pass one 
 night on a certain road, a large party of Thrashers, under 
 the command of Murty, lay in ambush, with their inhuman
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 487 
 
 cards ready for use, and acted their part so well that the 
 poor priest suspected no danger till he found himself iu 
 the midst of those misguided men. Counting on their 
 generosity, Father Henry said to the leader, who was an 
 old acquaintance : " Yes, Murty, here I am one against 
 a hundred. Come, Murty, fair play ! I will go into the 
 next field, and do you send the whole hundred of your 
 fellows, one by one, after me, and if any of them all cap- 
 ture or disable me, you may card or kill me as ye please." 
 These stirring words, spoken with emphasis, and addressed 
 to Irish hearts, which, no matter how perverted, have 
 always at bottom a chord that responds to the touch of the 
 Soggarth aroon, produced their intended effect, and, next 
 moment the priest was not only passed on, with all the 
 honours of war, through, the crowd, but was hailed, while 
 riding away, with a ringing cheer. 
 
 Returning to Collooney, Father James abated nothing 
 of his opposition to the Thrashers, and caring more for 
 the interests of the people than for popularity, he gave no 
 quarter to an association that was exposing them to the 
 vengeance of the law. The audacity, on the other hand, of 
 the confederates may be judged by the following inci- 
 dent : One of them, by name Billy Barden, a clerk of Mr. 
 Jackson, composed a long vindication of the principles and 
 proceedings, and one Sunday, when Father James had 
 finished Mass, and was putting off the vestments at the 
 altar, Barden drew forth this paper, and, without notice or 
 communication of any kind to the priest, began to read 
 it aloud in the chapel for the congregation. As Father 
 James was not the man to submit tamely to such a dese- 
 cration of the house of God, or such an insult to himself, 
 taking up the asperge and saying to the people that 
 nothing was so efficacious as holy water against the devil, 
 he descended from the altar and proceeded to sprinkle the 
 unfortunate reader, who retired backward, step by step, 
 and continued to receive the contents of the asperge at each
 
 488 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 successive move till he was clean out of the chapel. After 
 this extraordinary scene the priest received little further 
 annoyance from the Thrashers. It may he ohserved, en 
 passant, that this was not the only time Father James had 
 recourse to the asperge as an instrument of discipline, though } 
 pace tanti viri, the one or two other occasions that he used 
 it may not have called so strongly for its application as 
 the flagrant case. of Billy Barden. 
 
 The late Right Rev. Dr. M'Nicholas having heen 
 appointed, about the year 1812, president of the Lay 
 College that then existed at Maynooth, Father James 
 joined that establishment to assist the president in con- 
 ducting it, and taught for three years a class of Greek and 
 Latin, Father John M'Nulty and Father John Doddy 
 serving the parish as curates during the parish priest's 
 absence. Delicacy of health hindered Father Henry from 
 making as long a stay in the college as was intended and 
 desired, as it also interfered with his discharge of mission 
 duty towards the close of life. He died in 1832, and was 
 buried in Ballysadare. The funeral was probably the 
 largest that had ever entered that graveyard, being attended 
 by nearly the entire adult population of the parish, which 
 was then five times as populous as at present, by crowds from 
 the neighbouring parishes, and by all the priests of the 
 diocese, as well as by great numbers from Killala and 
 Elphin, the clergymen walking two abreast, in solemn pro- 
 cession, the whole way from Collooney to the burying- 
 place.* 
 
 Father James had a graceful presence, being over the 
 average height, well-proportioned, and with features ex- 
 pressive at once of kindness and dignity. Social in tastes, 
 this kind-hearted man loved to join the people in their 
 
 * A " conference" of Elphin priests was announced for that day in Sligo, 
 but on the priests assembling, the noble-hearted Bishop Burke adjourned 
 the ecclesiastical meeting, and, with characteristic charity, led his clergy 
 to the obsequies of their deceased brother.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 489 
 
 \vedding and christening feasts, where the presence and ex- 
 ample of the good pastor restrained excess, while his easy, 
 genial manners and numerous anecdotes made every one 
 happy. In youth Father Henry was singularly active 
 and athletic. When a boy he leaped over the Moy, a little 
 below its source, a feat, it is said, which no one has ever 
 performed since ; and soon after ordination the young 
 priest cast a heavy stone over the steeple of Court-abbey, 
 a performance also in which, if we believe local report, 
 Father Henry has never had a successful imitator. The 
 vault in which this priest's remains and those of his uncle 
 repose bears the following inscription or inscriptions : 
 
 " Vir Fidelis multum laudabitur. 
 If generous merit, without pride or state, 
 Or Heaven -born virtue could avert men's fate, 
 If a God-like mind inclined to aid and give, 
 Could furnish means to conquer death and live, 
 The worthy pastor that entombed lies here, 
 Would always live to give, instruct, and cheer 
 The helpless poor, illume the church, and be 
 God's faithful servant, Walter Henry. 
 
 This monument was erected by the voluntary contributions of the In- 
 habitants of this Parish as a melancholy token of their esteem for their 
 much-beloved Pastor, the Rev. Walter Henry, who departed this life on 
 the 3rd day of July, 1805, in the 61st year of his age. Requiescat in Pace. 
 
 Also the Very Rev. James Henry, V.G., who departed July, 1833." 
 
 RIGHT REV. DOCTOR DURCAN. 
 
 Father James Henry's immediate successor in the parish 
 was the late Right Rev. Dr. Durcan, who was appointed 
 to the cure a few days after it fell vacant. This venerated 
 ecclesiastic was born on the 6th of February, 1790, in the 
 Parish of Cloonacool ; and as the mention of Cloonacool 
 will come by surprise on even the relatives of the deceased, 
 who take it for certain that Dr. Durcan was a native 
 of Kilmacteige, where his parents lived before and after 
 the child's birth, and where they died, it is well to be sure 
 that the fact is, nevertheless, as here stated, the writer's
 
 490 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 informant being the bishop himself, who had the informa- 
 tion from his father and mother. Dr. Durcan was the 
 first-born of his parents, and it being usual at the time for 
 mothers to betake themselves to their parents' residence 
 on the occasion of a first birth, Mrs. Durcan conformed to 
 the custom, and thus conferred on Cloonacool the honour 
 of being the birth-place of the good bishop. The infant 
 was only a few days' old, however, when brought home to 
 the father's house in Kilmacteige, where he grew up and 
 was rooted and grounded in virtue. Both the bishop's 
 parents John Durcan and Mary Euane belonged to 
 families that had given many distinguished dignitaries to 
 Achonry. Among his mother's ancestors there were three 
 bishops of Leyney or Achonry, while his paternal, as well 
 as maternal, grandmother was an O'Hara, and in this 
 way, he received the " double spirit" of that great ecclesi- 
 astical family, that has given the diocese its great saints, 
 its chief bishops,* its leading dignitaries, f its best priests, 
 and nearly all its church builders. 
 
 Desiring to devote himself to the ecclesiastical state, to 
 which he felt a divine call, the boy acquired, partly at 
 home from a maternal, uncle, partly in Swinford, and 
 chiefly in Ballaghaderreen, the knowledge of Greek and 
 Latin necessary for entrance to college ; but owing to the 
 
 * See page 299. 
 
 f In the Provincial Synod held at Tuam in January, 1660, in quodam 
 refugii loco, Very Eev. Phelim O'Hara was one of the representatives of 
 the diocese of Achonry, as we read in the account of those present : 
 " Dominus Phelimus O'Hara, et Dominus Thadaeus O'Donocher, et 
 Dominus Hilarius Convey, Vicemgerentes Reverendi admodtim Domini 
 Jacobi Fallen, Vicarii Generalis Apostolici Accadensis jam incarcerati." 
 Dr. Ecnehan's Collections on Irish Church History, p. 504. 
 
 And in Dr. "W. Maziere Brady's Episcopal Succession in England, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland, vol. ii, page 191, we find this record: "1707, April 
 30, Hugh MacDermott. His brief was dated April 30, 1707. He con- 
 tinued in this see, until his death, which probably occurred in 1725, as on 
 the 10th of September in that year, faculties were granted to Charles- 
 0' Sara, Vicar Capitular of Achonry."
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 491 
 
 operation of the Penal Laws, the schools of these places 
 were of a somewhat inferior class, so that the deceased 
 prelate never ceased to lament the defective early education 
 he had to put up with in consequence. The hishop be- 
 longed to the first generation of students that entered 
 Maynooth College, and was distinguished throughout the 
 course in that great institution for piety, talent, diligence, 
 and devotedness to duty. His literary honours at college 
 were : In the class of Humanity, the distinction so well 
 known to Maynooth men as the "Atque"; in Logic, the 
 second distinction ; in First Year's Divinity, the eighth 
 distinction in Dogmatic Theology, none in Moral ; in Second 
 Year's Divinity, the second distinction in Dogmatic, and 
 the third in Moral Theology ; and in Third Year's Divinity, 
 the first premium in Dogmatic Theology, and the first also 
 in Moral. This record proves two things : first, the stu- 
 dent's imperfect education at entrance, and second, the 
 great talents and industry that raised him from the 
 "Atque" to a double first premium. 
 
 At the end of the ordinary College course, Dr. Durcan 
 was elected to a place on the Dunboyne establishment, but 
 was hardly in his new position when the bishop of the 
 diocese, the Right Rev. Dr. M 'Nicholas, who entertained 
 a very high opinion of the young Dunboyne-man's pru- 
 dence and learning, called him home to take charge, for a 
 year or so, of a small seminary opened at Cloonmore in 
 the County Mayo, for the purpose of completing the theo- 
 logical education of five or six priests who had been or- 
 dained for the mission without possessing as thorough an 
 acquaintance with ecclesiastical science as his lordship 
 deemed desirable. Having acquitted himself of this re- 
 sponsible commission to the satisfaction of all concerned, 
 Dr. Durcan returned to Maynooth and completed the Dun- 
 boyne curriculum. 
 
 Being now a priest and ready to undertake missionary
 
 492 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARXET. 
 
 work, Dr. M 'Nicholas appointed him to the important post 
 of administrator in the mensal parish of Ballaghaderreen. 
 This appointment took place in 1820, and a fearful famine 
 ravaging the country in 1821, the young clergyman went 
 constantly about among the people, like our Divine Lord 
 while on earth, " doing good," and sustained the strength 
 and courage of the famine-stricken by the corporeal and 
 spiritual succours that he administered. 
 
 In 1823 the bishop conferred on this zealous priest the 
 parish of Ballymote, which at that time was in a very 
 distracted state, owing to circumstances that it is un- 
 necessary to particularise in this place. At first certain 
 parishioners refused to receive the new pastor, and even 
 threatened his life ; but the good priest felt no fear ; pur- 
 sued unmoved the even tenor of his way ; returned good for 
 evil ; and in a short time not only overcame the prejudices 
 of the ill-disposed, but conquered their affections, which 
 went on increasing up to 1832, when he was transferred 
 from Ballymote to the parish of Ballysadare. 
 
 It is said that while Dr. Durcan was in Ballymote as 
 Parish Priest two men were told off to take his life, and 
 that they undertook the sacrilegious commission. They 
 provided themselves with a pistol ; and as Dr. Durcan was 
 to dine on a given day with Father Rickard Fitzmaurice, 
 Parish Priest of Keash, they chose the time at which he 
 would be returning from Father Rickard's for the execution 
 of their design. To learn, if possible, the hour at which 
 the party would break up, these men, having been on the 
 watch, approached stealthily the room in which Mr. 
 Fitzmaurice and guests were assembled. It so happened 
 at the moment that Dr. Durcan was singing; and they 
 were so fascinated by the noble voice, and the ardour with 
 which the singer threw himself into some sacred and 
 patriotic theme, that they became shocked at the crime 
 they meditated, and shrank away in horror from its execu-
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 493 
 
 tion. Their intended victim knew nothing of all this at 
 the time, and continued ignorant on the subject till one of 
 the accomplices came to him, several years later, to beg 
 forgiveness, and to deliver up the pistol that was procured 
 to do the murder. 
 
 About the same time Dr. Durcan manifested courage in 
 a very conspicuous manner, on a remarkable occasion, at 
 Buninadden. Bad as the ecclesiastical state of Ballymote 
 was then, that of Buninadden was still worse. In both 
 instances the evil arose from the adhesion of the people to 
 a suspended priest ; but in Buninadden the adherents were 
 more numerous and violent, and the priest abler and bolder. 
 So formidable was the excitement of the people that in a 
 visit which Dr. M 'Nicholas made to the place, the bishop 
 not only failed to secure the reconcilement he came to 
 effect, but it needed the protection of two or three magis- 
 trates to save his lordship from the violence of the mob. 
 Though the insurgent priest was duly suspended, that wily 
 man persuaded the people that the instrument of suspension 
 had never been served, and that, therefore, he was free as 
 ever from censure or disability of any kind. It was all 
 important to disabuse the people of their error ; but where 
 find a man to undertake this duty one hardly less perilous 
 than that which the prophet Samuel performed when, with 
 the Lord's word in his mouth, the man of God sought out 
 the prevaricating Saul in the midst of armed soldiers, and 
 proclaimed that his kingdom would not continue, and that 
 the Lord had already commanded a man according to His 
 own heart, to be prince over the people.* 
 
 But Dr. Durcan's spirit was exactly the spirit of the 
 Prophets, and, seeing the bishop in a strait, the fervent 
 priest offered himself in the words of Isaias, " Ecce ego, 
 mitie me : Lo, here am I, send me ! " and taking with him 
 a second suspension, the man of God proceeded, on a 
 
 * I Kings, xiii, 14.
 
 494 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 Sunday, to Buninadden chapel and entered it unobserved, 
 while the parishioners were assisting at a Mass, which was 
 being said by Rev. Bernard O'Kane. Mass being over, 
 Dr. Durcan expressed a desire to say a few words to 
 the flock, and began to speak with the consent of the 
 ex-parish priest who was present, and who, doubtless, 
 expected to hear some conciliatory proposal or message 
 on the part of the bishop. But the speaker had not 
 proceeded far till he blamed those who followed a " sus- 
 pended priest," and when the person, referred to, rose 
 in a rage and denied that he was suspended, Dr. Durcan 
 took the document quietly out of the pocket, and serving 
 it said, " Well, if not, here now is a suspension in due 
 form, and there are witnesses enough around to prove the 
 service of it." In a twinkling, the whole house was in an 
 uproar, and, during the commotion, the intrepid priest de- 
 scended leisurely the steps of the altar, and retired unmo- 
 lested through the infuriated crowd, the Divine protection 
 bringing him safe from the midst of his enemies. 
 
 On coming to the parish of Ballysadare Dr. Durcan met 
 with opposition there, as at Bally mote, but of a much 
 milder kind. Indeed the resistance encountered hardly 
 proceeded further than to prevent him from saying Mass in 
 Collooney and Curhownagh the first Sunday he presented 
 himself for that purpose in those places. The good priest 
 felt so little what had happened on this occasion as to 
 say to the crowds that stood around, as he was riding away 
 from Curhownagh, after hearing Mass, " Well, I like you 
 all the better for your 1 attachment to the priests you 
 have known ; but I must tell you, all the same, that I am 
 your Parish Priest, and shall continue so as sure as that 
 sun shines." The people had never any objection to 
 Dr. Durcan personally, but they had set their hearts on 
 having, as pastor, the late Rev. Canon Henry, who was 
 dear to them for his own sake, as also for the sake of an 
 uncle and grand uncle their last two Parish Priests, but in
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 495 
 
 a few days the proverbial sense and piety of the inhabi- 
 tants of Collooney parish, the meek and gentle bearing of Dr. 
 Durcan, and, still more, the calming advice and influence 
 of Canon Henry reconciled and even attached the 
 parishioners to the superior to whom they had been canoni- 
 cally committed, so that, for the twenty years he lived and 
 laboured in the parish of Ballysadare, there was not a more 
 popular, beloved, and respected Parish Priest in Ireland, 
 or in the universal Church. 
 
 And this popularity was acquired by no unworthy 
 means, but by strict and uniform attention to duty and 
 to the interests of the people. Indeed this high-minded 
 man cared so little for popularity, and was, besides, of such 
 inflexible integrity that he not only disdained those sensational 
 proceedings by which in the world cunning public men* some- 
 times gain for themselves the admiration of the ignorant 
 and the simple, but seemed by nature incapable, under 
 any circumstances Phalaris licet imperet f of being 
 
 * There was nothing in common between Dr. Durcan and the " cunning 
 man of the world," whose dark traits are thus painted by Churchill : 
 
 ' ; "With that low cunning which in fools supplies 
 And amply too, the place of being wise, 
 Which nature, kind, indulgent parent, gave 
 To qualify the blockade for a knave ; 
 "With that smooth falsehood whose appearance charms, 
 And reason of its wholesome doubt disarms, 
 Which to the lowest depths of guile descends, 
 By vilest means pursues the vilest ends ; 
 Wears friendship's mask for purposes of spite, 
 Fawns in the day, and butchers in the night." 
 
 t Esto bonus miles, tutor bonus, arbiter idem 
 Integer ; ambiguas si quando citabere testis 
 Incertseque rei, Phalaris licet imperet, ut sis 
 Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro, 
 Summum crede nefas animam preferre pudori, 
 Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas.
 
 496 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 actuated by anything but a pure sense of duty. His time 
 was divided between missionary work and study. Though 
 not a methodical student, Dr. Durcan was an inveterate 
 reader, but read always with a view to immediate practice. 
 Indeed his mind was of so practical a turn and so religious 
 withal, that he never cultivated science for the sake of 
 science, but rather condemned those who did without 
 having some higher motive to dignify and sanctify their 
 labour. In preaching, the zealous pastor was indefatigable 
 and singularly successful,* and the sermons, as might be 
 expected, were simple, straightforward, earnest, homely 
 addresses, appealing little to the fancy but much to the 
 reason, interspersed and seasoned with anecdote and apo- 
 logue, and filled with arguments and illustrations from 
 Scripture, from history, from the lives of the saints, and, 
 not unfrequently, from the occurrences of the day. 
 
 The Parish Priest of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet was one 
 of the first parish priests in the county to avail himself of 
 the educational appliances placed within reach by the 
 Board of National Education. As the conditions were not 
 then annexed to the Board's grants by which they have 
 been since marred, the zealous priest had no scruple in 
 applying for and accepting those grants,* and building, with 
 their aid, in 1835, a double school-house in Camphill, and 
 a second of the same kind at Lisaneena in 1837. And he 
 would have erected other schools, in the same way, only 
 for failing to obtain sites from local landlords. The mere 
 project of a National school at Camphill gave such offence 
 in influential quarters, that the late Mr. Cooper threatened 
 
 * We read in Boswell's Life of Johnson " I talked of preaching, and 
 of the great success which those called methodists have. JOHNSON. 
 ' Sir, it is owing to their expressing themselves in a plain and familiar 
 manner, which is the only way to do good to the common people, and 
 which clergymen of genius and learning ought to do from a principle of 
 duty, when it is suited to their congregations ; a practice for which they 
 will be praised by men of sense.' "Croker's Boswell, p. 156.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 497 
 
 to withdraw the 4 a year he was in the habit of allowing 
 to the clerk of the chapel, in case the work was proceeded 
 with, a threat which that gentleman actually carried into 
 effect, on the erection of the school. But let it be recorded 
 to the credit of this high-souled, though somewhat hasty 
 man, that the incident did not hinder him from following 
 the traditions of the Markrea family, and giving to the 
 priest such land and building accommodation as were 
 required. As soon as Dr. Durcan had completed the 
 school-houses, he began to build the Church of the Assump- 
 tion on the site of Father Wat's chapel,* and continued 
 the work, in the face of great difficulties, till the walls 
 were raised up and roofed ; and, though the distress of the 
 famine years prevented him from carrying the undertaking 
 further, still it was left in so advanced a state, that this 
 beautiful church must be always regarded as a monument 
 of the bishop's zeal and labours. It would be unjust to 
 the memory of the Rev. Dominick O'Connor, one of the 
 
 * Only that Dr. Durcan was so conscious of his own purity of motive 
 it would have cost him a sharp pang to take down the chapel, though, 
 probably, he felt this only all the more ; for being the man of God he was, 
 like St. Wulstan, of whom we read : " St. Wulstan, who was a Saxon, 
 though he found himself obliged to follow the general example in rebuild- 
 ing his cathedral of Worcester in the new style of magnificence, yet 
 appears to have done this unwillingly. When the former structure, 
 raised by St. Oswald, was taken down, the historian tells us : 'Lachry- 
 mas tenere nequivit et dixit : Nos miseri sanctorum opera destruimus ut 
 nobis laudem comparemus. Non noverat ilia fselicium vivorum rotas 
 pompaticas tedes construere, sed sub qualicumque tecto seipsos Deo immo- 
 larunt. Nos, e contra nitimur, ut animarum negligentes curam, accumule- 
 mus lapides.' (Unable to restrain his tears, he cried out : ' ' Wretches that we 
 are, we destroy the works of the saints in order to get ourselves praised. 
 The holy men of former days had not, to be sure, the art of erecting 
 pompous edifices, but they knew well how to sacrifice themselves to God 
 in all sorts of houses ; while we, on the contrary, disregard souls, but 
 pile up stones)." Do Pont. 1. 4. Quoted in A Treatise on the Ecclesiastical 
 Architecture of England, during the Middle Ages : by the Rev. John Milner, 
 D.D., F.S.A., etc., page 42 Note. 
 
 2K
 
 498 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 curates of the parish, to omit to mention that Dr. Durcan 
 received a good part of the money with which the building 
 was carried on from this zealous priest, who spent several 
 months in England collecting it, Father O'Connor died 
 in Collooney in 1846, of the fever that then raged in the 
 parish, and his remains were interred in the south transept 
 of the church that he had so effectually helped to raise. 
 
 The Eight Eev. Dr. M'Nicholas, dying in 1852, Dr. 
 Durcan, or Dean Durcan as he was then, was chosen for 
 his successor, and was consecrated on Tuesday, the 30th of 
 November, the same year, in the Church of the Assump- 
 tion, Collooney, the consecrating prelate being his Grace of 
 Tuam the Most Eev. Dr. MacHale, and the assistant 
 bishops the Eight Eev. Dr. Brown and the Eight Eev. Dr. 
 Derry. At his demise, in 1875, then Dr. Durcan was nearly 
 twenty two years in the episcopate, and during those years 
 of benediction for Achonry, the man of God impressed his 
 mark deeply on the diocese. His administration was 
 fruitful in every kind of blessing and benefit, of which 
 what was done in regard to churches may serve as a 
 sample. About the time of the bishop's consecration there 
 were very few slated chapels in the diocese, whereas, on the 
 day of his death there was not a single thatched house of 
 worship within the length and breadth of Achonry, with 
 the exception of that of Doo, which seemed left, by a 
 special disposition of Providence, to remind priests and 
 people of all they owe to the prelate who went so lately to 
 his reward. 
 
 The following table, containing, in the first column, the 
 names of all the parishes in the diocese, in the second the 
 names of those parishes in which places of worship, en- 
 tirely or substantially new, were built during Dr. Durcan's 
 episcopate, and in the third the probable cost, shows at a 
 glance the extent of his services as a church builder :
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 499 
 
 Names of Parishes. 
 
 New Churches. 
 
 Cost of 
 Erection. 
 
 Castlcmore and Kilcolman .. 
 
 one cathedral, one chapel 
 
 12,000 
 
 Achonry 
 
 . . 
 
 
 Attymass 
 
 
 
 Ballysadare and Kilvarnet 
 
 one church 
 
 7,000 
 
 Ballvmote 
 
 one church 
 
 6,000 
 
 Bohola 
 
 one church 
 
 5,000 
 
 Carracastle . , 
 
 one church 
 
 2,200 
 
 Cloonacool 
 
 one church 
 
 2,000 
 
 Curry 
 
 one church 
 
 3,000 
 
 Drumrat 
 
 one church 
 
 800 
 
 Kilconduff 
 
 one convent, one church 
 
 6,000 
 
 Kilfree and Killaraght 
 
 one church, two chapels 
 
 3,800 
 
 Kilgarvan 
 Killasser 
 
 one church 
 one church 
 
 500 
 2,500 
 
 Kilbeghagh 
 Killedan 
 
 one church 
 
 3,000 
 
 Kilmovee 
 
 one church, one chapel 
 
 3,500 
 
 Killoran 
 
 
 
 Kilmacteigue 
 Kilshalvy, Kilturra, and Cloon- 
 
 one convent 
 
 2,700 
 
 oghill 
 
 
 
 Templemore 
 
 
 
 Toomore 
 
 
 
 
 With these statistics under the eye, one can understand 
 why the Right Rev. Patrick Durcan was sometimes fami- 
 liarly spoken of by his priests as Patrick of the Churches, 
 after the example of Columbkille or Columha of the 
 Churches. It is surprising how the bishop was able to 
 raise 48,000, or, in round numbers, 50,000, the aggre- 
 gate cost of these churches and chapels ; and our surprise, 
 of course, increases when we add to this sum the 14,000 
 or so that must have been spent in the alterations and re- 
 pairs of other churches and chapels of the diocese, and, 
 more especially in the erection of school-houses. Sixty- 
 four thousand pounds is a large sum to find in any Irish 
 diocese even in one of those that are twenty times as rich 
 as Dr. Durcan's was but it needed little less than a miracle 
 to get it together in Achonry, a poor rural district, without 
 towns, without commerce, and with hardly a Catholic land- 
 lord or magistrate or merchant within its limits. All this,
 
 500 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND K1LVARNET. 
 
 too, was done without occasioning any of those complaints 
 about exactions or undue pressure, which one sometimes 
 hears of in other places where so-called charitable contri- 
 butions are said to resemble forced military requisitions 
 rather than free-will offerings. Leaving the people to them- 
 selves they gave spontaneously as well as largely, as they 
 had the fullest faith in the good bishop's disinterestedness 
 and purity of motive, and knew well he was building not 
 for self-glorification but for their benefit and the greater 
 glory of God. 
 
 And Dr. Durcan did as much for the functions as for 
 the fabrics of the churches. Before his time there was 
 little done in the places of worship through the diocese, 
 from one end of the year to the other, except to celebrate 
 a single Mass on Sundays and holidays, and that often in 
 threadbare vestments, and with other shabby surroundings, 
 but towards the close of Dr. Durcan's episcopate, the rule 
 in the parochial churches was, daily Mass on week days, 
 and two Masses on each Sunday and holiday, with a sermon 
 after one of them, and, occasionally, Benediction of the 
 Blessed Sacrament ; while there was hardly a parish but 
 had several sets of superior vestments, with altar plate and 
 altar linen to match, as well as a well-trained choir, some- 
 times, too, with an organ or harmonium to add to the dig- 
 nity of religious functions. 
 
 And, if possible, the bishop's zeal was still more occupied 
 with the ministers than with either the fabrics or the 
 functions of religion. He evinced the most anxious solici- 
 tude in preparing students for entrance to Maynooth ; and, 
 as the res angusta domi prevented him from organising one 
 of those well-appointed seminaries which the rich and 
 ample dioceses of other bishops enable them to have, Dr. 
 Durcan left nothing undone to turn to account such 
 diocesan school as existed. It was a single apartment, 
 hardly as imposing as an ordinary National school- 
 house, with only one teacher a layman, but a sharp
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 501 
 
 scholar ; and yet so judicious was his lordship's plan of 
 studies, and so effective the system of direction and 
 management, that that hare room, and that solitary school- 
 master, sent up, year after year, to Maynooth, pupils that 
 were able not only to hold their own in that great national 
 institution, but to carry away regularly the chief academical 
 prizes from students who had been taught and trained in 
 so called diocesan colleges, with their spacious study and 
 class halls, their well-stocked libraries, their choice scientific 
 apparatus, and their numerous staffs of clerical and lay 
 professors. 
 
 The learning the priests acquired in college, the zealous 
 bishop took care that they preserved and increased in diocesan 
 conferences. To these meetings he imparted an elevated and 
 business-like character, taking care, on the one side, that 
 they should not degenerate into a mere child's catechism of 
 question and answer, and, on the other hand, that they 
 should not deviate into frivolous conversations on things in 
 general; thus maintaining them, in conformity with the 
 designs of the Church, as serious classes of Scripture, Theo- 
 logy, and Canon Law, which needed long and laborious 
 preparation, and in which the knowledge of all present 
 was tested and improved by discussion. 
 
 Knowing that the possession of knowledge helps largely 
 to secure for clergymen that social consideration on which 
 the success of their ministry not a little depends, and that 
 this knowledge was never so necessary as at the present 
 time, the wise prelate desired to see his priests not only 
 virtuous, but learned and accomplished. Indeed, whatever 
 raised the clerical character in the esteem of the people 
 was dear to him, while everything that tended to lower the 
 same gave him pain, whether it was the fault or only the 
 misfortune of clergymen themselves. You could never 
 forget the distress of mind he once showed on hearing 
 casually in conversation that a priest, whose mind had 
 become deranged, and who had been taken into a public
 
 502 PARISHES OF BALLYSADAKE ANI> KILVARNET. 
 
 asylum, was so neglected by those who should look to the 
 matter, that the wretched man had to wear the pauper 
 uniform while in the institution. The good bishop felt keenly 
 for the poor priest, but felt still more for the Church, which 
 was thus degraded, before the eyes of friends and enemies, 
 in the person of one of her ordained ministers. 
 
 And still, it was not zeal in building that constituted his 
 merit in the eyes of priests or people, or, perhaps, of heaven, 
 so much as those other less conspicuous virtues and quali- 
 ties for which the modest prelate was distinguished. 
 
 Dr. Durcan had the greatest respect for authority, and 
 the deepest sense of responsibility in exercising it. While 
 a simple priest he was remarkable for obedience, taking the 
 bishop's order, or even the bishop's desire as decisive of 
 what ought to be done. It is true the bishop in question 
 was Dr. M'Nicholas, who was noted for moderation, and 
 whose name was a synonym for common sense, a quality 
 perhaps the most important of all in those who rule ; 
 but from Dr. Durcan's humility and patience it is certain, 
 though there were a different class of man to deal with, 
 that he would do all that could in reason be done to please 
 even such a one, mindful of Saint Peter's advice to those 
 who serve : " Be subject with all fear, not only to the good 
 and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thanks- 
 worthy, if for conscience towards God, a man endure 
 sorrows, suffering wrongfully." 
 
 But it was by the way in which he commanded, even 
 more than by the way in which he obeyed, that this model 
 superior showed correct appreciation of authority. There 
 was nothing in common between Dr. Durcan and the Sic 
 volo, sic jubeOy class of rulers. He learned from civil 
 history that authority may suffer more from those who 
 use, or rather abuse it, than from the resistance which it 
 sometimes meets with ; and that the age of your Louis the 
 Fourteenths, with their L'Etut, c'est moi, usually precedes 
 the age of anarchists and revolutionists. Apprehensive,
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 503 
 
 then, lest this sacred principle should suffer anything in 
 his keeping, the prudent prelate never performed an act of 
 authority of any moment without clear warrant in Scrip- 
 ture, in Canon Law, or in the examples of the saints. 
 
 After the Sacred Scriptures, there was no hook so often 
 in Dr. Durcan's hands as the Lives of the Saints, in reading 
 which he used to note carefully such passages as might 
 serve for guidance in the future. This practice stood our 
 bishop in good stead ; for, on having a call to deal with 
 some delicate or difficult matter lying outside of routine 
 duties, he would bring to mind what Saint Augustine, 
 Chrysostom, or Athanasius, for instance, among the ancients; 
 or Saint Charles Borromeo, Thomas of Villanuova, Francis 
 of Sales, Alphonsus, or some other holy and learned bishop 
 among the moderns, had done in the like case, and w6uld 
 copy the saint's proceedings as far as circumstances per- 
 mitted.* Decisions come to in this way commended them- 
 selves to the acceptance of all ; and if they bore hard on a 
 priest, that priest himself was always the first to admit 
 the spirit of justice from which they proceeded ; whereas, 
 if there was reason or even room for him to think that 
 they were the result of wilfulness, he might, if over sensi- 
 tive, have fallen into despair ; or, if proud and perverse, 
 as such persons sometimes are, might have been goaded 
 by his pride and resentment into some egregious folly or 
 fault. 
 
 Another property that struck at once every one that met 
 Dr. Durcan was the open, artless, natural carriage of the 
 man. If there are disingenuous and double-faced people 
 in the world, Dr. Durcan was their direct opposite; as 
 opposed as Mr. Carlyle himself could desire to " un veraci- 
 ties, astucities, semblances, and shams." 
 
 His scorn of duplicity, though restrained by the charity 
 
 * In this practice lie resembled Dr. Milner, who, we are told, generally 
 studied theology in the Lives of the Saints. Husembeth, p. 537.
 
 504 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 of the Gospel, seemed by nature animated with the energy 
 of that of Achilles, as described by Homer : 
 
 ot.f> jU,o< xsivo; bpaig ' 
 "Of p^' erepov p,ev xsvQy evl Qpevlv, aXXo 8e snrip. 
 
 Book ix, lines 312-313. 
 
 while the words of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs 
 " Os bilingue detestor" might have served as the most 
 appropriate motto for his crest and seal. Dark and crooked 
 ways he detested, as well from instinct as a man as from 
 sense of duty as a bishop ; and those who followed such 
 ways he shunned himself, and cautioned his friends against. 
 In this, too, as in other matters, this prelate took the ideas 
 of right and wrong from the Scriptures, where, it is said 
 that " the path of the just is a shining light," and the way 
 of the wicked is darksome ; " so that he always regarded 
 those that gave themselves to underhand practices as 
 " children of the world," and not as " children of light." 
 And in tracing out for his priests the line of conduct they 
 should pursue, he insisted on the duty of being always 
 simple and undesigning, quoting for them the text : 
 " Whilst you have the light believe in the light, that you 
 may be the children of the light." St. John, xii, 36. 
 
 Indeed Dr. Durcan reminded you of those clocks one 
 sometimes meets at Exhibitions, without case or cover of 
 any kind ; so that one has under the eye the whole 
 machinery at actual work, and sees distinctly the play and 
 bearing of the parts on each other. It was manifest that 
 the simple man had nothing to conceal, and cared little 
 if every thought, word, and act of his were proclaimed on 
 the housetops. His speech was the straightforward yea and 
 nay of the Gospel, without equivocation or mental reserva- 
 tion ; without a particle of either the suppressio veri or the 
 suggestio falsi. And he spoke sometimes when a man of 
 the world would be silent ; but whether Dr. Durcan spoke 
 or was silent it was alike for the glory of God, and with
 
 PARISHES OF BALlAsADARE AND KILVARNET. 505 
 
 a singular forgetfulness of self. An incident or two in 
 illustration will not be out of place. 
 
 Once he was making a little tour with a party of friends 
 clerical, it is said, and lay some of whom, perhaps, 
 were not quite so indifferent with regard to the figure they 
 made in the eyes of others as our holy bishop. As the 
 tourists were somewhere entering a steamboat or railway 
 carriage one of those canting hypocrites, or, perhaps, blind 
 zealots, that turn up in the most unexpected places, seeing 
 ecclesiastics, and desiring to insult, or, mayhap, to convert 
 them, cried out : " Who can forgive sins except God 
 alone ? " On meeting this interruption, Dr. Durcan's 
 companions stood on their dignity, and treated the ques- 
 tioner with silent contempt ; but the good bishop's bowels 
 of compassion were moved, and, turning to the author of 
 the interruption, he asked, more in sorrow than in anger : 
 " Foolish man, why do you act the part of the unfortunate 
 Jews, and fling in our face the words with which they 
 insulted our common Redeemer ? " The appeal had the 
 best effect ; the person addressed shrank back silent per- 
 haps repentant ; and the spectators of the scene, feeling the 
 full force of the comparison, called down a blessing on the 
 man of (rod. 
 
 A similar incident happened at Kingstown. It was 
 shortly after the definition of the Immaculate Conception ; 
 and as his lordship was walking along, some silly swaddler 
 asked sneeringly : " Well, sir, where was the Immaculate 
 Conception a thousand years ago ? " The bishop showed 
 no sense of annoyance, but turning quietly round answered 
 gently, " My good friend, just where it is at present, in the 
 revealed word of God," thus conveying an important lesson 
 in Theology, which, it is to be hoped, was taken to heart 
 by the poor fanatic. 
 
 The bishop had a great love of music, and especially of 
 ecclesiastical music. There were two things, either of 
 which even the most accomplished should have hesitated
 
 506 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 to do in presence of Dr. Durcan, namely, to quote a pas- 
 sage of Scripture, or to perform a piece of music. The 
 slightest verbal inaccuracy in the quotation could not 
 escape observation, and, impassive though he sought to 
 appear, a false note not only grated on the ear, but told 
 unmistakably on the countenance. He never looked so 
 happy as while singing in church the praises of God. Far 
 from troubling himself about what others thought, the holy 
 man seemed to forget every person and object present except 
 God ; and in the hearty way in which he threw himself 
 into the hymn or piece, reminded you of David dancing 
 with all his might before the ark of the Lord, and " being 
 little in his own eyes, to become more glorious in the 
 eyes of God." And the bishop had the secret of inspiring 
 others with the same taste for sacred music that he felt 
 himself. Set Dr. Durcan down in a drawingroom with 
 what company you pleased, and you were sure, after a little, 
 to find it filled with the sweet and thrilling sounds of the 
 Church's music. Not that the modest prelate ever ob- 
 truded his own preferences on others on the contrary, let 
 him be asked to sing, and you heard at once a melody of 
 Moore's, or a planxty of Carolan's in the original Irish, 
 or anything else which those present preferred.* But with 
 all that the time of the hymn was sure to come. A friend 
 once left him in a drawingroom with as unpromising ma- 
 terials for a sacred music choir as could well be imagined 
 some ladies who had a portfolio of novelties from Paris and 
 London, which they were eager to air, a couple of Protes- 
 tant clergymen who, though men of cultivation, had natu- 
 rally little leaning to Catholic practices of any kind, and 
 a few lively young gentlemen, who had less gout than 
 either the ladies or parsons for religious hymns ; yet on 
 this friend's return after half an hour's absence to the 
 
 * His piety was of the cheerful character inculcated by Saint Paul 
 (Philip., iv, 4), and spoken of in Ovid's line, " Di quoque ut cunctis hilari 
 pietate colantur."
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 507 
 
 drawingroom, there was the whole company, ladies, 
 bishops, Protestant clergymen, and fast young gentlemen, 
 singing enthusiastically the Adeste Fideles, while a young 
 lady accompanied them on the piano with the devotional 
 feelings as well as the taste of a Saint Cecilia. It is thus 
 that this good man was the means everywhere of turning 
 people's thoughts heavenward, and could find occasion of 
 doing good at an evening party, as our Lord did at a mar- 
 riage feast. 
 
 But the most characteristic of the bishop's virtues was 
 charity, a virtue to which he was singularly attached from 
 the tenderest years, as a striking incident shows. Brought 
 once, when only six years old, by somebody, to the fair of 
 Banada, and receiving there sundry pence for the purchase 
 of " fairings," from friends, instead of treating himself to 
 gingerbread and sweets, as was expected, the child sought 
 out some beggars and handed them over the whole store of 
 coppers. As the little boy began, the man continued through 
 life ; not that Dr. Durcan came much before the public as 
 an almsgiver, or that the name figured often in the charity 
 subscriptions of the newspapers, for the humble man 
 seemed to be always afraid that the left hand should know 
 what the right hand was doing. The favourite recipients 
 of the bishop's alms were not those who paraded, but those 
 who concealed their needs ; and according as such persons 
 appeared, he would make any sacrifice to aid and comfort 
 them. It was more especially to this class that he gave 
 all through life, as priest, in Ballaghadereen, Ballymote, 
 and Collooney ; and as bishop in Ballaghadereen. But if 
 this class had the preference, others were hardly ever 
 sent away empty. The common beggars had such experi- 
 ence of Dr. Durcan's habits of giving, that his house was 
 constantly beset by them, and particularly after he had be- 
 come bishop. The writer shall not easily forget the spec- 
 tacle witnessed on the occasion of a visit to the bishop 
 some eight or nine months before Lis death. It was one
 
 508 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 of the two days in the week on which his lordship used to 
 make a general distribution of alms; and on approaching 
 the house one saw forty or fifty beggars lame, blind, old, 
 infirm, stranger, and inhabitant sitting in a semicircle 
 round the hall-door, while the bishop handed them, one 
 by one, their accustomed doles, adding always a blessing 
 an addition that increased the alms a hundred-fold in 
 the estimation of the receivers. Later in the day as the 
 charitable prelate walked to the cathedral, he was sur- 
 roundedj and accompanied much of the way, by scores of 
 poor who were unable to' attend the morning distribution, 
 and who came now for their pittance. They certainly 
 formed an unsightly cortege, with their rags, and dirt, and 
 ailments ; and, kindly as the good bishop took to them, 
 would have fared ill had they come between the wind and 
 the nobility of certain other people, who seem to have 
 taken for their motto, in relation to beggars, that maxim 
 of Horace in regard to the mob, " Odi profanum vulgus et 
 arceo" 
 
 But after all it would be hard to find a scene more worthy 
 of a Christian bishop ; and if we, Catholics, think with plea- 
 sure and pride on the eminent gifts and powers of so many 
 prelates of the Church ; on Richelieu and Ximenes govern- 
 ing great kingdoms as no other men could govern them ; 
 or Bossuet holding learned conference on the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures with " the elite of the clergy of France," in prome- 
 nades through the abbeys of Versailles, reminding one of 
 Plato and his disciples in the groves of Academus* ; on 
 Pecci and Wiseman devoting the " spoils of the Egyptians'* 
 the humanities of Greece and Rome, and the languages 
 and learning of the East to the service of religion ; and 
 on Dupanloup championing the great cause of Christian faith 
 and morals in the tribune of the House of Deputies or of 
 the Senate, and confounding the infidel and the scoffer ; so 
 
 * Histoire de Bossuet par le Cardinal de Bausset, livre v, c. 2.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 509 
 
 also we must contemplate with gratification this saintly 
 Irish bishop reproducing, in the streets of Ballaghadereen, 
 the scenes of the Gospel, and by his example bringing vividly 
 before the mind our Divine Lord, as He moved about 
 amid the poor, the sick, and the miserable, through the 
 villages and towns of Judea and Galilee. 
 
 And the superiority of his virtues shone out as much by 
 contrast and resemblance as by direct inspection. If 
 few men approached nearer to the meekness and humility 
 of heart " * of the Great Model, no one was further removed 
 from the ostentatiousness of those that " love the first chairs 
 in the synagogues," and " salutations in the market-place, 
 and to be called Rabbi," and that " do all their works to 
 be seen by men." f While we sometimes find men in 
 authority who are for ever posing like subjects in a photo- 
 graphic gallery, who efface all subordinates in order to be 
 the only persons themselves " seen by men," and who seem 
 to imagine that they are the centre of the universe, and 
 that others are made to merely revolve, and at a very 
 remote distance around them ; Dr. Durcan knew not 
 jealousy or vanity, the faults of little minds counted it, like 
 Saint Paul, " a very small thing to be judged by man or 
 man's day," J effaced nobody but himself, exhorted the 
 modest and timid to come forward and take their candle 
 from " under a bushel," and if the good was done, little 
 cared whether it was by himself or others, as this anecdote 
 will help to show : 
 
 " A public movement was in progress, in which the whole 
 (ji ocese bishops, priests, and laymen, had and felt an equal 
 interest. In connection with this movement, one of the 
 clergy singled himself out, and took a conspicuous and 
 very popular part, a part that should in all propriety 
 
 * St. Matt., xi, 29. 
 f St. Matt., xxiii. 
 + 1 Cor., iv, 3. 
 St. Matt., v, 15.
 
 510 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 be left to the bishop ; and when another priest, indignant 
 at the proceeding, begged the bishop to reprove the tres- 
 passer, and to hinder his moving further in the same 
 direction, Dr. Durcan, with his unequalled facility and 
 felicity of Scripture quotation, answered : " Why hast thou 
 emulation for me ? that all the people might prophesy, 
 and that the Lord would give them his spirit," * words that 
 Moses made use of when asked by somebody to stop Eldad 
 and Medad, who were prophesying without leave in the 
 camp. That was the answer of our holy bishop ; and if 
 all other evidence were wanting, that answer alone, with 
 the forgetfulness of personal considerations, the spirit of 
 self-sacrifice, and the exclusive concern for the glory of 
 God, which it breathes, would prove Dr. Durcan to be a 
 saint, and a saint like Moses, of the highest type. 
 
 At home, Dr. Durcan was as simple and unpretending as 
 out of doors. The furniture and appointments of the 
 episcopal residence were solid and plain as far removed, 
 on the one side, from everything finical, as on the other 
 from what would be mean or unworthy the dignity of a 
 bishop. His library, if not large, contained a choice col- 
 lection of books, for though free from every taint of biblio- 
 mania, no money could hinder the purchase of any really 
 valuable and appropriate volume that issued from the press. 
 Rising at six o'clock, the holy man continued in prayer and 
 pious meditation up to eight, when he said Mass ; and the 
 rest of the day, with the exception of the time given to 
 dinner and breakfast the only meals he ever touched and 
 to a short walk or drive, was devoted to study, the Divine 
 Office, the reception of priests and others on business, the 
 writing of letters and sermons, and some other duties inci- 
 dental to his office. Being as hospitable a man as ever 
 lived, he loved to have priests and lay friends as often as 
 possible at his table, which was always spread with 
 
 * Numb., xi, 29.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 511 
 
 abundant and generous fare, though unaccompanied by 
 such rarities and delicacies as are fit only for those epicures 
 who " live to eat."* Ten o'clock was the usual hour for 
 retiring to his bedroom, where he was supposed to pass 
 long hours in oratione Dei, like the Divine Master while on 
 earth, f Few men fulfilled so literally the injunction of 
 " praying always." Even in bed, when beset by wakeful- 
 ness, it was his custom to take the beads that were always 
 under the pillow, and tell them over, after which, sleep 
 was sure to come on, so that he often said playfully, that 
 the best soporific in the world is the beads. + 
 
 In 1870 it was made known to Dr. Durcan that a second 
 bishop was to be sent to the diocese, and though the an- 
 nouncement came on him by surprise, he took no thought 
 of throwing obstacles in the way of the measure. As if our 
 prelate had no will of his own to gratify, he left the matter 
 entirely to the disposal of others ; and after the coadjutor 
 
 * " Possidius tells us," says Alban Butler, in his Life of St Augustine, 
 "that the saint's clothes and furniture were modest, but decent not 
 slovenly. No silver was used in his house except spoons. His dishes 
 were of earth, wood, or marble. He exercised hospitality, but his table 
 was frugal ; nor was wine wanted ; but a quantity was regulated, which 
 no guest was ever allowed to exceed." 
 
 t St. Luke, vi, 12. 
 
 J This cure for restlessness was not, it appears, peculiar to Dr. Durcan, 
 at least if we go back to the middle ages. For Sir Walter Scott, who is 
 such a master in the folk-lore of those times, represents Fitz-James 
 practising it : 
 
 " I'll dream no more by manly mind 
 Not even in sleep is will resigned. 
 My midnight orisons said o'er, 
 I'll turn to rest and dream no more. 
 His midnight orison he told, 
 A prayer with every bead of gold ; 
 Consigned to heaven his cares and woes, 
 And sunk in undisturbed repose, 
 Until the heath-cock shrilly crew, 
 And morning dawned on Belvenue." 
 
 The Lady of the Lake, Canto 1.
 
 512 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 was appointed and consecrated, and Dr. Durcan found in 
 him a considerate, sympathetic, and cordial private friend, 
 as well as a gentle, skilful, and prudent ecclesiastical admi- 
 nistrator a man, indeed, after his own heart, and every 
 way worthy of his confidence and esteem he gradually 
 committed all the concerns of the diocese to those ahle 
 hands, and devoted himself thenceforth more exclusively 
 every day, to preparing for death. 
 
 This holy man died on Saturday, the 1st of May, 1875, 
 in the full possession of his senses, and after receiving not 
 only all the ordinary aids and rites of religion, but also 
 the exceptional and extraordinary grace of the general 
 jubilee of that year. His last illness, which continued 
 several months, and which at times was very painful, was 
 borne with a cheerfulness that could have come only from 
 a perfect conformity of the sufferer's will to the will of 
 God. Death, indeed, Dr. Durcan never feared. Once 
 or twice towards the close of life, when he had to bear 
 excruciating surgical operations, the operator, a surgeon of 
 the greatest practice, and a Protestant, was so struck with 
 the bishop's firmness as to remark often since, " This old 
 gentleman of seventy was the most imperturbable patient 
 that has ever fallen into my hands." The man of God 
 exhibited the same calm courage at the moment of death, 
 his features wearing an expression of pleasure rather than 
 of pain, and his last words being those of the apostle, " I 
 desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." 
 
 The remains of the bishop were laid out in the room in 
 which he died, and were there visited by clergy and laity. 
 On kneeling, the visitors were as inclined to invoke the 
 intercession of the deceased as to put up a prayer for his 
 eternal repose, feeling sure that the good and faithful ser- 
 vant had already entered into the joy of the Lord. Many 
 even took with them beads, crosses, or medals, to apply 
 them to his person, convinced that these objects, like the 
 handkerchiefs and aprons brought from St. Paul to the
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 513 
 
 sick would derive virtue from contact with such a saint. 
 The coffin, containing all that was mortal of the lamented 
 prelate, was removed to the cathedral on the evening of 
 Monday, accompanied hy an imposing procession of clergy 
 and laity, headed by the bishop of the diocese and the bishop 
 of Galway, the bishops and priests chaunting hymns, and 
 continuing the solemn dirge till the coffin was deposited on 
 a catafalque raised in the choir of the church to receive it, 
 where it was surrounded, all night, by pious and devoted 
 watchers. 
 
 The following day, Tuesday the 4th, the obsequies were 
 solemnized in the cathedral in the midst of an immense 
 congregation. The Most Rev. Dr. M'Cormack, who showed 
 affectionate solicitude in honouring the memory of deceased, 
 presided at the Office of the Dead, was celebrant in. the 
 Solemn Mass, and performed the absolution, as well as the 
 ceremony at the grave. In the choir sat His Grace the 
 Most Rev. Dr. MacHale, their Lordships the Bishops of 
 Galway and Ardagh, nearly all the priests of Achonry, and 
 a large number from the dioceses of Tuam, Killala, and 
 Elphin. At the close of the solemn functions, the coffin 
 was lowered into the grave, formed in a spot chosen by the 
 bishop himself for his last resting place, in the noble cathe- 
 dral which he had erected, and in which the tomb might 
 well bear the inscription placed over that of Sir Christopher 
 Wren in St. Paul's, London, " Si monumentum quajras, 
 circumspice." 
 
 The Month's Mind took place on the 2nd of June, when 
 the cathedral contained a congregation as large and sympa- 
 thetic as that which had assembled within its walls on the 
 day of the burial. There were present three bishops, several 
 others being unavoidably absent ; nearly a hundred priests, 
 including a large proportion of the clergy of Elphin, who 
 knew well how to appreciate the frankness, the straight- 
 forwardness, and the candour of Dr. Durcan ; and a vast 
 concourse of the laity of the diocese, as well as numbers of 
 
 2t
 
 514 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 the good bishop's admirers from other places. As on the 
 day of the obsequies, Most Rev. Dr. M'Cormack presided 
 at the Office, sang the Mass, and spared no trouble or effort 
 to add solemnity to the celebration. The funeral sermon 
 was preached by the writer of these lines, who was selected 
 for the duty as possessing special knowledge of the deceased, 
 Dr. Durcan having been not merely his bishop, but his 
 lifelong and intimate friend. 
 
 To crown the honours paid to the memory of Dr. Dur- 
 can, the anniversary of his death was celebrated at Bal- 
 laghadereen, on the 2nd of May, 1876, under circumstances 
 highly gratifying to his admirers. With an abiding affection, 
 not often felt even by bishops for their predecessors, Most 
 Rev. Dr. MacCormack, who seemed to think that nothing 
 was done for the deceased so long as anything remained 
 that could be added, invited all the priests of the diocese 
 to an Anniversary Office and Mass, and by his exertions and 
 arrangements, first in the cathedral, and next in the 
 episcopal residence, made the occasion one that must be 
 long remembered in Achonry. The priests on their side, 
 with hardly an exception, betook themselves with alacrity, 
 in some cases at great personal inconvenience, from the 
 different parishes to Ballaghadereen, to bear a part in the 
 tribute of devotion and respect to their venerated father 
 and friend. And the laity of Ballaghadereen and the 
 neighbourhood, as impressed as either bishop or priests 
 with what was due to the day, suspended all business, 
 closed shops and offices, and assisted en masse in the 
 cathedral at the commemorative service of their beloved 
 bishop and benefactor. 
 
 This universal eagerness to respect Dr. Durcan after 
 death was in perfect keeping with his lot through life. 
 Though there was no bishop in Ireland that cared less, no 
 one perhaps that cared so little, for human respect, there 
 was none, notwithstanding, that elicited, wherever he was 
 known, truer esteem, profounder respect, or warmer attach-
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 515 
 
 merit. Others may have received more lip-service, but for' 
 that spontaneous homage of the heart, that is given only to 
 genuine merit, no bishop of the time received so much, as 
 everyone knows that mixed freely with the priests and 
 people of the County Sligo and the adjoining counties. 
 This popular predilection for one who loved to live un- 
 known, for one whose voice was not " heard abroad," and 
 who would " not break the bruised reed," nor " quench the 
 smoking flax," may be understood somewhat from what 
 has been said of his characteristic virtues, but will be 
 fully comprehended only by reference to the words of 
 Isaias, " Behold my servant, I will uphold him," * or to 
 the well-known saying of our Lord, " Whosoever shall 
 exalt himself shall be humbled, and he that shall humble 
 himself shall be exalted." f 
 
 * Isaias, xlii, 2. 
 
 t St. Matthew, xxiii, 2.
 
 516 PARISHES OF BALIA'SADARE AND K1LVARNET. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 IN concluding this narrative it remains now to say a few 
 words upon some miscellaneous matters that could not so 
 conveniently be noticed before. And, first, a fact that 
 meets one at every turn is the shyness " not to put too 
 fine a point upon it " felt by leading landed proprietors to 
 go outside the circle of their own co-religionists in giving 
 office or other employment. On this head there may be a 
 shade of difference between this proprietor and that, but 
 all, it is to be feared, are a good way off" from a state of 
 optimism as yet. Go into their rent offices, and you find 
 agents, under-agents, clerks/ bailiffs, and rent-warners all 
 without exception of one religious profession ; examine the 
 list of their domestics, reaching probably to twenty or 
 thirty souls, and you search in vain for a Roman Catholic, 
 unless, perhaps, you find one in the dairy where a Papist 
 that takes firsts in the butter market may be preferred, in 
 spite of her religion, to a more orthodox dairy-help that 
 could not reach beyond seconds or thirds ; look among 
 those employed in their demesnes as stewards, wood- 
 rangers, gamekeepers, gatekeepers, and you come every- 
 where across the same onesidedness. It is not bigotry but 
 hatred of bigotry that occasions these remarks, for the 
 writer, whose motto is, No social distinction on the score of 
 religious denomination, would condemn the ostracism in 
 question all the same if practised by Roman Catholics, as 
 he condemns it now that it is practised against them, his 
 firmest conviction being that the social condition of Ireland 
 will always be unhealthy until employers, to whatever 
 creed or party they belong, and whether they be corpora- 
 tions or individuals, come to regard personal fitness as the
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 517 
 
 essential qualification for office, and not nationality or 
 religious profession. But so far is this from being the case 
 in many quarters, that the wit was not so much astray who 
 remarked some time ago, that though St. Peter had 
 received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, he would still 
 find it hard, with his Popery, to obtain the key of a gate- 
 lodge in parts of the county Sligo. 
 
 No reasonable Irish Catholic could object to Englishmen 
 and Scotchmen or Protestants receiving their fair and full 
 share of the offices or other employment at the disposal of 
 our gentry. And least of all would he who offers these 
 remarks make any such objection, not only on personal 
 grounds, having many friends and neighbours in these 
 classes,* but also on public grounds; for he knows that the 
 characteristic virtues of the English and Scotch their 
 pluck, perseverance, business habits, and respect for the 
 law must prove highly beneficial to the country; and 
 that the regularity, the gravity, the decorum, with which 
 most Protestants perform their religious duties, more espe- 
 cially on Sundays, cannot fail of influencing advantageously 
 some Roman Catholics who often need the stimulus of such 
 an example.f But, on the other hand, every fair man will 
 condemn the systematic exclusion of Irish Catholics from 
 employment in Ireland, solely because they are Catholics ; 
 "though," to use the words of Edmund Burke, " they are 
 of the old, long-established religion of the country, and are 
 the far greater majority of the inhabitants. "+ 
 
 * ... Vicinitas 
 
 Quod ego in propinqua parto amicitiaa puto. 
 
 Terence Heautontimorumenos. Act 1, sc. 1, line 5. 
 t "The very presence of a rival religion is a perpetual incentive to 
 faith and devotion in men who, from the circumstances of the case, would 
 be in danger of becoming worse than lax Catholics, unless they resolved 
 on being zealous ones The Idea of a University, etc. : by John Henry 
 Newman, D.D., page 484. Third edition. 
 
 J Burke's Works Letter to Dr. Laurence, vol. viii, page 499. Bonn's 
 
 edition.
 
 518 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 The writer would much rather not touch this invidious 
 subject at all ; but without some reference to it, a volume 
 that professes to give the history and present state of the 
 locality would be incomplete ; and if any apology were 
 necessary for introducing such a topic, ample justification 
 would be found in the examples of Arthur Young and 
 Edmund Burke, both warm lovers of Ireland, and sterling 
 Protestants. The former, in his Tour in Ireland* observes, 
 " A few considerable landlords, many years ago, made the 
 experiment of fixing, at great expense, colonies of pala- 
 tines on their estates. The scheme did not appear to me 
 to answer. They had houses built for them ; plots of land 
 assigned to each at a rent of favour, assisted in stock, and 
 all of them with leases of lives from the head landlord. The 
 poor Irish are very rarely treated in this way ; and when 
 they are, they work much greater improvements than these 
 Germans. ... I am convinced no country, whatever state 
 it may be in, can be improved by colonies of foreigners, 
 and whatever foreigner, as a superintendant of any great 
 improvement, asks for colonies of his own countrymen 
 to execute his ideas, manifests a mean genius and but 
 little knowledge of the human heart ; if he has talents he 
 will find tools wherever he finds men, and make the natives 
 of the country the means of increasing their own happiness. 
 Whatever he does then will live and take root ; but if 
 effected by foreign hands, it will prove a sickly and short 
 lived exotic ; brilliant, perhaps, for a time in the eyes of 
 the ignorant, but of no solid advantage to the country that 
 employs him." And Edmund Burke writes : " Sure I 
 am that there have been thousands in Ireland who have 
 never conversed with a Roman Catholic in their whole 
 lives, unless they happened to talk with their gardener's 
 workman ; and so averse were they some time ago to have 
 them near their persons, that they would not employ 
 
 * Appendix, page 24.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 519 
 
 even those who would never find their way beyond the 
 stable. I well remember a great, and in many respects a 
 good man, who advertised for a blacksmith, but at the same 
 time added, " he must be a Protestant." It is impossible 
 that such a state of things must not produce alienation 
 on the one side, and pride and insolence on the other." 
 And Lady Morgan, who cites these words in Patriotic 
 Sketches, (vol. I, page 61), adds for herself:" It is to be 
 hoped, and indeed to be believed, that the fatal spirit of 
 prejudice thus strongly adverted to by Burke, is daily losing 
 its influence ; for myself, though one among the many in 
 my own country who have been educated in the most rigid 
 adherence to the tenets of the Church of England, I should, 
 like the poor Maritornes of Cervantes, think myself 
 endowed with very few ' sketches and shadows of 
 Christianity,' were I to confine virtue to sect, or make the 
 speculative theory of opinion the test of moral excellence, 
 or proof of human perfection." 
 
 These words, so wise and charitable, and the sentiments 
 they express, are no longer confined to lofty master spirits 
 like Arthur Young, Edmund Burke, and Sydney Morgan, 
 but are now fairly diffused through the whole community, 
 with some exceptions here and there, where, owing to local 
 circumstances, old-world ideas and antipathies still prevail. 
 Where such a state of things exists Catholics must submit 
 to conditions of life they cannot alter ; but submission is 
 one thing and acquiescence another ; and if any Catholic 
 should be so base as to feel at ease in such an environment, 
 and to kiss the rod that strikes him, all that can be said of 
 such a one is, that he richly deserves to live and die under 
 the ban. 
 
 Another fact calling for notice is the DEPOPULATION that 
 has been going on for a good many years, and that is even 
 still in progress. At the time Dr. Durcan became Parish 
 Priest of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet, in 1832, the Roman 
 Catholic population of the parishes comprised near eighteen
 
 520 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND K1LVARNET. 
 
 hundred families, while at present it reaches little beyond 
 six hundred. Marriages, during the earlier years of his 
 incumbency are said to have averaged 65 in the year, and 
 baptisms 350, while the marriages last year, for instance, 
 were only 9, and the baptisms 121. The process of thinning 
 took place, more or less over the whole area of the district, 
 but in some places it has been much more effectual than in 
 others. Entering the parish of Ballysadare from the south 
 you find only two tenants on the lands between Lackagh 
 and Tubberscanavin, though they contained not many years 
 ago some of the most comfortable farmers in the parish. 
 Passing beyond Collooney you meet the residences only of 
 a herd and two cottiers, on the fine alluvial plain that 
 stretches from Collooney to Ballysadare, where people re- 
 member to have seen twenty- six well-to-do families. And 
 to the north of Ballysadare you have large tracts in the 
 occupation of their owners. 
 
 Wastes or untenanted lands may be a greater deordina- 
 tion in one district than in another. In outlying parts of 
 the country that are remote from markets and from centres 
 of population, it is not so remarkable to see lands without 
 occupying tenants, as people often do not care to live in 
 such places, but the case is different in regard to the spots 
 that have been taken up by landlords in these parishes. 
 Take, for example, that lying between Collooney and Bally- 
 sadare. When you see at each end of this stretch a little 
 town full of inhabitants, many of whom are desirous to 
 have a bit of land, as well as able and willing to pay a good 
 rent for it, and find the whole given up to flocks and herds, 
 it is strange if such an arrangement does not strike you as 
 a blot in our social system. While admitting the perfect 
 legality of all this, as the law stands now, and without 
 presuming to cast blame on any person or persons, one still 
 feels forced to regard as unsound a state of things in which 
 the advantage of the community seems in an inverse ratio 
 with that of the individual, in which the to TTOAXO* are
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARK AND KILVARNET. 521 
 
 nothing, and one man everything; in which poorer people are 
 disinherited from their share of the earth " and the fulness 
 thereof," and a monopoly secured to some rich man, who, 
 as landlord grazier, may take thought for nohody but him- 
 self, may give little or no employment, may act as his own 
 agent, his own steward, his own seller and buyer, almost 
 as his own herd. Latifundia perdidere Italium* says the 
 Latin proverb, that is : " large estates were the undoing of 
 Italy ; " and if some legal check is not given to the multi- 
 plication of wastes like that under consideration, the future 
 historian may describe the fate of Ireland in the words of 
 the Romans Latifundia perdidere Italiam, that is: trans- 
 lating freely : " Stock farms and stock jobbers have ruined 
 Ireland." 
 
 Allusion has been made already to the crying need there 
 is in the district for more and better dwelling houses, but as 
 the subject is of great importance some additional reference 
 to it here will do no harm. At a time when the necessity 
 of bettering the condition of the poorer classes is more felt 
 than at any former period, when prime ministers, lord 
 lieutenants of Ireland, economic writers, sanitarians, and 
 the periodical press never tire of enlarging on the obliga- 
 tions landlords and employers of labour are under to supply 
 labourers and workmen with sufficient and decent lodging 
 accommodation, it is humiliating to think that in parts of 
 this district we are daily becoming worse and worse off in 
 respect of such accommodation. The exalted station and 
 public duties of the Prince of Wales do not hinder him from 
 superintending the erection of cottages for his labourers and 
 others at Sandringham ; charitable men, like Lord Shaftes- 
 bury, and charitable women, like the Baroness Coutts, spare 
 neither time nor money in promoting the good work ; the 
 State, to second the benevolent tendencies of the time, lends 
 money to landlords on advantageous terms, so as to leave 
 
 * C. Plin. Secundi, Nat. Hist. lib. xviii, 7.
 
 522 
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 owners of property without excuse for neglect of duty in 
 this respect ; and it is to be hoped that all these examples 
 and facilities, and inducements, and stimulants, will not be 
 lost for ever on those who have the power of moving in 
 this neighbourhood, whoever they are a problem that 
 the writer is unable to solve. In other parts of Ireland, 
 and still more 'in England and Scotland, wherever you 
 meet factories, mills, or other centres of employment, you 
 are sure to see, hard-by, rows of commodious residences for 
 the employed ; but in Collooney and Ballysadare, while the 
 mills are second to none in size and machinery, the lodging 
 
 COLLOONEY WATEEPALL. 
 
 Drawn on the wood by W. F. Wakeman, F.R.H.A.A.I., from a Photograph by Mr. 
 Slater. 
 
 of the mill men is miserably deficient in extent, and some 
 of what exists is unfit for human use. It is no wonder 
 that the poor (to say nothing of others, who have griefs of
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 523 
 
 their own) should feel hurt hy this indifference to their 
 interests and comforts. 
 
 As to education it is, at the least, as extended and 
 efficient in the parishes of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet as in 
 the neighbouring parishes ; hut, unfortunately, the only 
 education imparted is of the primary kind. It was not so 
 always in the district ; for to say nothing of the higher 
 education formerly given in the monastery of Ballysadare, 
 where there were 300 monks (page 23), and to come to 
 more modern times, Father Wat Henry in his day taught 
 classics to a good number of students (p. 482) ; while 
 towards the close of the last century there was an excellent 
 classical school in Tubberscanavin (p. 485), and another 
 about the year 1834, in the old chapel of Collooney. 
 
 At no time was the work of the schoolmaster neglected 
 in the district ; for even when the priest said mass on the 
 Ox Mountains, or in a lowland ditch, some reading, writing, 
 and cyphering, as well as the catechism, used to be taught 
 in the place of worship ; and as the priest, according to the 
 gradual relaxation of the Penal Code, descended from the 
 mountain to the plain, and passed from the ditch to the 
 hut, the cabin, and the barn, and from these to the slated 
 chapel, the schoolmaster followed in his footsteps till the 
 establishment of the National Board enabled them, or 
 obliged them, to pursue their respective avocations apart. 
 Nor was it Catholics alone that these schools accommodated, 
 but Protestants as well; and, doubtless, there are still 
 living in the parishes Protestant farmers and tradesmen, 
 who acquired in the old chapels of Collooney, Curhownagh, 
 and Ballinacarrow, such learning as they possess as there 
 existed, in their young days, no other schools in the neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 There are at present in the parishes of Ballysadare and 
 Kilvarnet, under the management of the Parish Priest, 
 seven National Schools, that were opened in the order that 
 follows : Camphill Male school, 1835 ; Camphill Female,
 
 524 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 1835; Lisaneena Male, 1836; Lisaneena Female, 1836; 
 Ballinacarrow Mixed school, 1851 ; Ballysadare Male 
 school, 1867; Ballysadare Female, 1867. The average 
 attendance of pupils at these schools in 1877 was : Camp- 
 hill Male, 72 ; Camphill Female, 46 ; Lisaneena Male, 48 ; 
 Lisaneena Female, 46 ; Ballysadare Male, 62 ; Ballysadare 
 Female, 44 ; and Ballinacarrow Mixed, 50. 
 
 Of these schools, those of Camphill (Male and Female), 
 and of Ballysadare (Male and Female) are particularly 
 efficient, being held in fine houses, conducted by singularly 
 able and zealous teachers, and attended as largely as can 
 be reasonably expected; and that the "Education Office" 
 shares this opinion appears from the fact, that while it 
 has never addressed a word of reprimand or remonstrance 
 to any teacher of these schools, its officers are very liberal 
 to them of the rewards and prizes at the disposal of the 
 Board, award them the highest " results fees " obtained in 
 the District, and have recently recommended two of them 
 for the Blake and Carlisle premium. Another fact that 
 reflects great honour on the Camphill Male school is this : 
 that three of its pupils, who have lately presented them- 
 selves as candidates at competitive examinations for the 
 Civil Service, have all three succeeded and come off with 
 great credit, taking higher places than were gained by 
 competitors who had been educated in the so-called 
 " grinding " establishments of Dublin, Cork, and Belfast. 
 And speaking of competitive examinations, it is but fair to 
 mention that the only candidate sent up from Ballinacar- 
 row school passed too with success through the ordeal, 
 which is the more creditable to teacher and pupil, as the 
 bad house in which that school is held must operate as a 
 great drawback on its efficiency. 
 
 Alongside of these schools there are in the district seven 
 others, under Protestant teachers and Protestant manage- 
 ment, namely: four of Colonel Cooper's two at Ballysadare 
 and two at Collooney ; two of Mr. O'Hara's one at his gate-
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 525 
 
 lodge and one at Lugnediffe ; and one of Mrs. Perceval's, 
 at Templehouse. 
 
 The leading industry of the parish is milling, or the 
 grinding of wheat, oats, maize, and sometimes barley, into 
 flour, meal, and other articles of food for man and beast. 
 Forty years since, and previously from time immemorial, 
 there were many tuck mills in the district for dressing frieze 
 and flannel, whereof there survives only one, that of 
 Richard Broder, Ballysadare ; three bleach mills the 
 largest and best appointed one standing in Collooney or 
 Camphill ; another at Ballysadare ; and the third, the only 
 <me that still exists, in Thornhill ; and several small corn 
 mills, all of which, without exception, have disappeared. 
 These mills were mere trifles in comparison of the immense 
 and stately structures that are now to be seen in Collopney, 
 Camphill, and Ballysadare. The Collooney milling con- 
 cerns are the finest in the world, at least for the area they 
 cover, comprising : 
 
 1. A mill 100 feet long and 36 feet wide, 6 storeys high, worked by 
 
 an overshot wheel [made by Graham of Glasgow] 36 feet 8 
 inches in diameter, of 80 horse power, and capable of grinding 
 600 tons weekly. 
 
 2. A mill 80 feet long, 42 wide, and 4 storeys high, driven by a tur- 
 
 bine wheel [by Eandolph, Elder, and Co.] of 300 horse power, 
 and capable of turning out 1000 tons per week, not including 
 100 tons of pot barley, made also weekly. 
 
 3. A mill 125 feet long, 42 wide, and 4 storeys high, driven by 
 
 another turbine [made also by Eandolph, Elder, and Co.] of 
 150 horse power, and able to grind 100 tons of fine flour 
 weekly. 
 
 4. Fire-proof stores of 107 feet long, 42 wide, and 4 storeys high, the 
 
 lofts being all arched with brick and asphalted. 
 
 The three mills contain thirty pairs of stones, and are 
 driven exclusively by water power ; the water at the wheels 
 having a fall of thirty feet. This noble block of buildings, 
 which includes also kilns and offices, as well as Mr. Sim's 
 fine residence, was, with the exception of mill No. 1, built 
 by that gentleman at a cost of 50,000. And having
 
 -.26 
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 mentioned Mr. Sim's name, it is a pleasure to be able to add, 
 that though forty years ago he incurred the ill-will of 
 some by purchasing Camphill, he is at present so popular, 
 that his recent appointment to the commission of the 
 peace was celebrated in Collooney by the burning of tar 
 barrels, and other manifestations of the people's delight. 
 
 Leaving behind us this noble concern, with the interesting 
 church ruin that adjoins, and passing to the other side of 
 
 OLD CHUECH OF COLLOONEI. 
 
 Drawn by Mr. Wakeman from a Sketch by Mrs. Moore. 
 
 the river, we find the Camphill mills, one a flour, the other 
 a meal mill, both driven by overshot wheels, (each twenty- 
 five feet wide) and a small turbine of fourteen horse power. 
 The flour mill can turn out about 300 tons of flour per 
 week, and the other, 240 tons of meal in the same time. 
 Both the mills are the property of Mr. Madden, Bray ; but 
 are leased for a long term to Messrs. Middleton and
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 527 
 
 Pollexfen. The building in Camphill called the bleach 
 mill, is also leased by the same gentleman to this firm, and 
 serves them for a store and saw mill. It was a bad time 
 for many when the old work of the bleach mill was given 
 up, and the rhythm of its beetles ceased, for in its palmy 
 days, forty or fifty years ago, it earned more money, gave 
 more employment, and diffused more comforts through the 
 neighbourhood, than is done at present by half the monster 
 mills of the parish. 
 
 If the Collooney mills are somewhat " cabin'd, cribb'd, 
 coufin'd " in area, though this facilitates supervision, and 
 
 BALLYSADARE RIYER AND MILLS. 
 
 Diawn on the wood by W. F. Wakeman, Esq., F.R.H.A.A.I., from a Photograph by 
 Mr. Slater. 
 
 brings with it other advantages as well, those of Avena, 
 Ballysadare, have " ample room and verge enough," being 
 built some on one side of the river, some on the other, and 
 all the buildings well apart. The bird's-eye view from the
 
 528 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 top of Knockmildowney gives a good idea of the largeness 
 and completeness of the concern, bringing all the parts at 
 once under the spectator the long, and lofty, and spacious 
 mills, three for dressing flour, one for grinding oats and 
 maize, and one for crushing maize, or, as it is more com- 
 monly called, Indian corn ; the kilns, and stores, and oftices 
 that serve for the working of these mills ; the gas works, 
 that supply the gas with which all the buildings are 
 lighted ; the cottages of the millers and millwrights ; the 
 house of the superintendent ; and, commanding and over- 
 looking all, Avena House, the residence of Mr. Middleton. 
 If the place contained, in addition, a row of workmen's 
 dwellings which might be built cheaper in Ballysadare 
 than in any other part of the county nothing would be 
 wanting to the completeness of the establishment ; but the 
 absence of this accommodation at present must be regarded 
 as a blot. 
 
 The three flour mills, which are all on the left bank of 
 the river, are driven by two three-quarter breast wheels, 
 and one undershot wheel, each eighteen feet in diameter, 
 and ten feet wide, the combined horse power of the three 
 being 195. These concerns contain twenty-eight pairs 
 of stones, and are capable of turning out 1,500 sacks of 
 flour per week. 
 
 The maize mill, which sometimes grinds oats, and some- 
 times maize or Indian corn, stands on the right bank of 
 the stream, contains nine pairs of stones, is worked by two 
 three-quarter breast wheels, eighteen feet in diameter 
 and six wide, and turns out 360 tons of ground bread-stuffs 
 per week. The mill for crushing Indian corn, for horse 
 and cattle feeding, is also on the same bank. 
 
 The working of these extensive concerns should, one 
 would think, tax to the utmost the abilities and energies of 
 their owners ; but when we recollect that the same firm 
 work, besides flour and corn mills in Camphill; flour and corn 
 mills in Sligo ; flour and corn mills near Dublin ; that they
 
 PARISHES OF BAMA'SADARE AND KILVARNET. 529 
 
 have agencies and stores in Wesport, Ballina, Castlerea, 
 Boyle, Donegal, Ballinasloe, and Galway ; and that Mr. 
 Middleton, the senior partner, is also a landlord, a ship- 
 owner, a magistrate, and a Sligo harbour commissioner, and 
 that he sees personally to the details of this multifarious 
 business, we shall be disposed to think that he needs the 
 hundred hands of Briareus, and the hundred eyes of Argus ; 
 and shall at all events be forced to admit, if he has only 
 the usual supply of hands and eyes, that he must be fur- 
 nished with a head to organize and to administer, such as 
 is rarely vouchsafed to mortals. 
 
 Touching the physical geography and natural history of 
 the district, the most conspicuous object is Slieve Gamh, 
 or, as the Irish has been corruptly translated, the Ox 
 Mountains a volcanic range stretching from Ballysadare 
 to Foxford, and composed of primitive rocks, containing a 
 large admixture of gneiss, mica, and quartz. Excepting 
 the area occupied by the mountains, limestone runs through 
 the whole district, and is particularly valuable in the 
 neighbourhood of Ballysadare, where the stone is of the 
 finest quality, and the strata of such variety as to supply 
 scantlings at once for the lightest and for the weightiest 
 works ; and as a matter of fact, while the quarry has 
 afforded the material of some finely cut mantel- pieces that 
 are in Sir Henry Gore Booth's mansion at Lissadell, and of 
 delicately sculptured monuments in the new cemetery of 
 Sligo and the old graveyard of Ballysadare, it has also 
 supplied the large stones of which the quay of Sligo is 
 built, as well as some of the huge blocks that have been 
 used in the Spencer Dock, Dublin.* 
 
 * Stonecutting has been carried on at Ballysadare for about a century, 
 but the quarries were never so extensively and vigorously worked as they 
 are at present by Mr. Joseph Clarence and Mr. Thomas MacDonough. 
 Mr. Clarence, the distinguished builder, is probably the largest employer 
 of labour in the parish, his ordinary staff comprising seventy tradesmen 
 (stonecutters, masons, carpenters, plasterers, smiths, plumbers, painters, 
 
 2M
 
 530 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 The parish of Ballysadare contains two silver-lead-and- 
 zinc mines one in Lugawarry, the other in Abbeytown, 
 both of which were undiscovered when Boate wrote in 
 1652, or, at least, unknown to that writer, as he tells us 
 that the only silver and lead mines "found out up to his 
 day were one in Ulster in the County Antrim, one in 
 Munster in the County Tipperary, and another in Con- 
 naught upon the very harbour mouth of Sligo, in a little 
 demy island, commonly called Coney Island."* It is likely 
 that the mine of Coney Island is a continuation of that of 
 Lugawarry and Abbeytown, which would thus run 
 across under the sea from the Ox Mountains to the north 
 side of Sligo harbour. Of the two mines in the parish, or, 
 of the two parts of the same mine, as the case may be, that 
 of Lugawarry was the first taken in hand, and, judging 
 from the quantity of debris on the ground, the works must 
 have been carried on for a considerable time. The working 
 of the Abbeytown mine was in progress when Arthur 
 
 and slaters,) and 69 labourers, including quarry men and carters ; and to 
 say nothing of his great outlay on materials, he pays in wages alone 160 
 a week. Along with being the largest, Mr. Clarence is also the most 
 liberal employer of the district more liberal than our country gentlemen, 
 who give their demesne labourers only fourteen pence a day more liberal 
 than our merchants, for though the wages paid is the same, two shillings 
 per day, the merchants' labourers work much longer time in winter than 
 his. Mr. Clarence's building operations extend to several counties, but 
 he is one of those cool, clear-headed, able men, that no amount or pressure 
 of business can overpower or disconcert. If his engagements multiply, 
 his mental resources multiply still more, so that had he been at the build- 
 ing of Babel, he would have maintained his self-possession amid the 
 general confusion. As it is, he not only continues perfect master always 
 of his numerous and weighty undertakings, but is also able to communi- 
 cate to those under him a steadiness, punctuality, and method, that con- 
 tribute not a little to the satisfaction he never fails to give to those who 
 employ him. 
 
 Mr. MacDonough, too, sends out of his quarry a considerable quantity 
 of highly finished work ; employs ten stonecutters, at 28s. per week ; and 
 pays his labourers from 2s. to 2s. 6d. a day. 
 
 * Boate's Natural History \n Thom's Tracts and Treatises, vol. i. p. 115.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 531 
 
 Young visited Ballysadare in 1776, as lie says, "near 
 Ballysadare is a lead mine, but not worked with success 
 though very rich."* 
 
 Recently Mr. Middleton has had portions of this one 
 analysed in England without, it seems, a definite result as 
 to ascertaining its value, though if Arthur Young's judg- 
 ment on the li richness " of the mine be correct, the proper 
 working of the concern should be highly remunerative. 
 
 From the appearance presented by the rocks that lie 
 alongside of the railway cutting at Ballysadare, a gentle- 
 man of some experience in mining concluded that they 
 contained iron in large quantity, but a sample having been 
 tested, some months since, in an English foundry, it was 
 found to contain only about one per cent, of the metal a 
 percentage that put an end to the idea of taking further 
 trouble in the matter. 
 
 Coillte Lcyney (the words of Leyney), as the name 
 signifies, contained formerly abundance of timber, but it 
 has all disappeared; much of it, no doubt, having gone to 
 smelt the ore of Lugawarry. Union-Wood, too, seems to 
 be of natural and immemorial growth, and may have been 
 the spot to which Arthur Young alludes when he says that 
 Mr. Cooper had 300 acres of wood.f 
 
 With these exceptions the district would seem to have 
 been void of timber less than a century ago. Towards 
 the close of the last century a tourist who had passed 
 through the parishes of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet, on the 
 way to Tubbercurry, noted the absence of trees and the 
 naked surface of the land as a striking feature of the 
 country, though it would be hard to meet now, in any two 
 parishes of Ireland, more extensive plantations and a 
 greater number of trees, in all stages of growth, than 
 we find on the estates of Markrea, Annaghmore, and 
 
 * Young's Tour in Ireland, vol. 2, p. 334. 
 
 t Young's Tour in Ireland, vol. 2, appendix 109.
 
 532 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE ANT) KILVARNET. 
 
 Templeliouse, and this, notwithstanding all the timber that 
 has heen cut down within the last few years in these places, 
 and sold in the saw mills of Sligo and Camphill, or at the 
 Chemical Works of Collooney, this last concern alone, 
 which could not have used more than a third or a fourth of 
 the whole, having purchased more than 21,000 tons* since 
 its opening. 
 
 * The itema, as supplied by the obliging and intelligent manager, Mr. 
 George Glen, are : Markrea, 9,000 tons; Annaghmore, 6,000 ; Temple- 
 house, 4,000 ; Hazlewood, 700 ; Hollybrook, 300. 
 
 Owing to the depression of trade caused by the Turco-Eussian war, 
 the Collooney Chemical Works are now idle, or comparatively so, which is 
 a pity, as the employment they used to afford was considerable, and 
 though believed to be somewhat unhealthy, much desired by the more 
 steady -going labourers of the neighbourhood. From a rare combination 
 of firmness and kindness Mr. Glen is able to get a greater quantity of 
 work from an Irish labourer, and to get it more freely, than any other 
 manager, steward, or ganger in the county ; and the moment labourers 
 get into his employment at the Chemical Works they seem to lay aside all 
 idle and flighty habits, and to take to their work as to a labour of love, 
 moving to and from it, for years together, with all the regularity and 
 steadiness of a chronometer. 
 
 The concern when at full work employed fifteen labourers at 15s. a 
 week each ; but we shall see that the wages of these men represents only 
 a small part of the money circulated by the Collooney Chemical Works, 
 when we call to mind the sums paid to owners for timber, to hatchetmen and 
 carters for felling and bringing it in, and to a regular staff of draymen for 
 carrying home the coal, lime, and other things needed, and conveying to 
 Sligo, for shipment, the products of the works. 
 
 These products are charcoal and pyrolignous acid, the acid being re- 
 solved in the concern into acid of lime, naphtha, and tar. 
 
 1. The charcoal serves mainly as an ingredient for gunpowder, but good 
 quantities of it are used by moulders or casters in foundries, for the finer 
 kind of castings, as also by manufacturers of the best steel, who prefer 
 charcoal to coal as being free from particles of sand. 
 
 2. The acid of lime is used in print-field and dye works, in preparing 
 colours for cloth and yarn, as it is also for the manufacture of verdigris 
 and sugar-of-lead. And from it is obtained acetic acid, which is preferred 
 by many for table use to all other kinds of vinegar. 
 
 3. Naphtha is mixed with spirits of wine, and thus serves as an ingre- 
 dient in varnishes. 
 
 4. Tar is used for making asphalt, which serves largely for covering 
 roofs, floors, footpaths, etc., as also for lay ing down under foundations of
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 533 
 
 Though about four miles of Ballysadare parish are 
 bordered by the sea, there is little fish taken at present 
 in the district except at Colonel Cooper's salmon fishery, 
 which is a work one might say a creation of the late 
 Mr. E. J. Cooper. The Act of Parliament empowering that 
 gentleman to establish it, passed in 1841, and from that 
 date to 1855, Mr. Cooper was engaged in constructing 
 the necessary works, which, with the Act of Parliament, 
 cost about 7,000. The "ladders" of Ballysadare and 
 Collooney are said to be the finest things of the kind in 
 Europe, except one structure in Norway. In 1855, the 
 first year the fishermen went to work, 150 fish were taken; 
 in 1856 about the same number ; in 1857 only 18 ; but 
 things soon began to improve ; and, in 1859, 2,000 salmon 
 were netted; in 1861, 3,000; in 1862 near 4,000; in. 1863, 
 6000 ; the number rising one year to 11,000 ; but averaging 
 one year with the other between eight and nine thousand, 
 a point at which things are likely to. remain. From the 
 opening in 1855 to the present the greatest number of 
 salmon taken, in one day, was 1,400 ; the greatest number 
 in one draught, 600 ; and the weightiest fish captured 
 331bs. In the season three boats are employed, and nine 
 men, exclusive of the manager, Mr. Hepburn, to whose in- 
 telligence and skill the success of the concern is said to be 
 very much due. The leading principles of his management 
 
 residences and other buildings to prevent damp. From tar, too, is ob- 
 tained, by a tedious process, the substance known as creasote, which is 
 much employed for curing toothache, for smoking flesh and fish, for 
 preserving anatomical preparations, and for various other antiseptic 
 purposes. 
 
 In Statistical Survey of the County SUgo, by Dr. M'Parlan, p. 83, under 
 the head of Plantations and Planting, the author observes : " Those are 
 extensively done and doing at Mercury, Nymphsfield, and Hazlowood, 
 the seats of Mr. Cooper, Mr. O'Hara, and Mr. Wynne. At Templehouse 
 a good deal has been done and is doing for Minor Percival. Mr. Holmes, 
 Mr. Meredith, Mr. Duke, and some others are contributing much to 
 ornament the country by planting."
 
 534 PARISHES or BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 are first, to send the salmon early up the river, when the 
 water is deep ; secondly, to take care that there shall be 
 always an abundant supply of spawning fish, securing this 
 object sometimes by taking off the fishermen before the 
 legal close of the season ; and, thirdly, to exercise the 
 strictest watch on the fish and their ova in the upper waters. 
 As has been said, there is no fish worth speaking of 
 caught at present in the parish except at the salmon 
 fishery. Formerly great quantities of herring used to be 
 taken. About eighteen years ago the number was so 
 large that each of the men engaged in the work saved 
 21 in about one month, but there are no herrings now in 
 Bally sadare bay. Flounders, too, abounded in the bay, 
 and abound there still, but it seems Mr. Cooper's Act of 
 Parliament has made it illegal for the people to fish for 
 them. Even mussels, which the poor, living near the sea, 
 used to gather for their own food, as also for sale, are now 
 reserved to the rich men who own oyster beds, and who 
 export the mussels to England and Scotland, as many as 
 four or five hundred sacks of them going at a time in the 
 steamers that sail from Sligo quay. There is no oyster bed 
 in the parish, as it is at present bounded, but in Derenge, 
 Island, which was included in the parish of Bally sadare 
 when the Down Survey maps were drawn, there is a fine 
 bed belonging to Mr. Verschoyle; and it would be hard 
 to find so genial a habitat for oysters, for the place always 
 teemed with this fish, so that the foundation of the island 
 is said to be composed of oyster shells.* The only thing 
 now left the poor in the bay is cockles, and, through them, 
 several cadgers continue still to draw a fair livelihood out 
 of the sea. There are four or five small lakes in the 
 district one in Larkhill, one in Coney, another in 
 Glanagulough, a fourth in Culnabraher, and a fifth lying 
 between Union and Ballygawley each differing from the 
 
 * Eilleni,y Archaoloyical Journal, vol. xi, page 143.
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KI1.VARNET. 535 
 
 other in the kind of fish contained. The Larkhill lakelet has 
 nothing hut trout, and an abundant supply of them, though 
 otters are very numerous on its hanks ; Coney lake yields 
 nothing hut pike and eel; Glanagulough, pike, roach, 
 perch, eel, and, formerly, trout in great abundance, but the 
 trout were destroyed by the steeping of flax and have not 
 since reappeared, though the late Mr. Culbertson had a 
 quantity of young trout taken in Ballysadare river and put 
 into the lake ; Culnabraher gives pike, perch, and eel ; 
 and Ballygawley lake affords bream, pike, perch, and eel. 
 In Culnabraher and Ballygawley there is found, besides, 
 a bivalve shell-fish, from two to four inches long, called by 
 the people " clam," which is said to contain, not unfre- 
 quently, pearl. 
 
 The longevity often reached on the mountain side that 
 stretches between Collooney and Coolariy is worth remark- 
 ing. Whatever may be the cause the fact is certain, that 
 the average age there at death is considerably above what 
 it is in the other parts of the parish. Though an individual 
 or two may, in the other parts, attain a highly advanced 
 age like the late Ned Gunning of Ballinabull, who is said 
 to have been 114 at his decease still this is a marked 
 exception, and people in general very rarely reach eighty 
 in these places, though that age is frequent on the slopes 
 of the mountain. There died recently in this district, 
 within a few years, nineteen heads of families whose average 
 age was eighty-six; and when it is stated that the full 
 number of householders there is only about seventy, the ex- 
 ceptional character of the place will be understood. It is 
 certain that an equal number of octogenarians did not die 
 within the same time throughout the rest of the two 
 parishes, though comprising, if we include Catholics and 
 Protestants, about 800 families. 
 
 The change that has taken place among the humbler 
 classes since the beginning of the century, in regard to 
 dress, food, and social habits, should not be passed over in
 
 536 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 silence. Seventy years ago these classes were clothed, 
 speaking generally, with material of domestic manufacture ; 
 the females wearing drugget and flannel, and the men linen 
 and frieze. " Tell me, Tom," said the writer, a little while 
 since, to an intelligent octogenarian of the parish, " what 
 do you think to he the chief difference between the people 
 of the present time and those of seventy years since ? " 
 " Oh, sir," was the reply, " the pride of dress in those 
 around us. When I was a little boy the women made 
 every stitch that was worn drugget and flannel for them- 
 selves and their daughters, arid good strong linen and warm 
 frieze for their husbands and sons. The money did not 
 then go, as it all goes now, into the big shops, to buy dandy 
 coats, and Carolines, and ties for the boys, and men's hats, 
 and doll's bonnets, and parasols, and all sorts of high-flying 
 things for the girls." No doubt, there is a good deal that 
 must pass unchallenged in the preference that this 
 " laudator temporis acti " gives to past generations, at least 
 as far as the greater industry of females is concerned ; but, 
 on the other hand, Tom forgets that women can now pur- 
 chase in the shops articles of clothing much cheaper and 
 better than they could make them ; while they are, at the 
 same time, left free to look closer than formerly after chil- 
 dren, and to attend to other important household duties. 
 
 Nor is it clear that the change in food that has occurred 
 is so beneficial as it is commonly supposed. If a meal of 
 potatoes- and- salt is a greater rarity than it used to be, and 
 the alteration is, so far, for the better, the common use of 
 tea, on the other hand, is certainly not an improvement. 
 Whoever knows anything of the food of the people is aware 
 that they have a decoction (not an infusion) of tea, with 
 little or no cream, and " soda bread," for a meal, as often 
 as they can ; a repast which many will not consider as 
 wholesome and nutritious as either " stirabout-and-milk," 
 or potatoes the fine flowery potatoes of the past with 
 butter, milk, eggs, and often oaten cake, which very fre-
 
 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND K1LVARNET. 537 
 
 quently formed the food of the labouring classes fifty or 
 sixty years back. The people hardly eat one egg now for 
 the hundred they used to eat then, when it was held dis- 
 graceful in a housekeeper to sell them, nor do they drink 
 a glass of milk for the gallon they then made use of. 
 Tea is the weak point in the popular diet of the locality ; 
 and if it be washy and innutritious for adults, it is little 
 less than poison for the children that are filled with it, and 
 that are sure to grow up, in consequence, a degenerate 
 race. 
 
 And if we allow what men eat and drink to have the in- 
 fluence on their dispositions and habits that physiologists 
 maintain, we must give the praise of superiority, in many 
 points, to the food of those that have gone before us, for 
 the light-hearted, joyous, amusement-loving generation of 
 the early years of the century were quite a contrast to the 
 staid, prosaic, plodding, demure people one now meets with. 
 It is surprising how fast fondness for amusement is dying 
 out in the country. In the past much of the holiday time 
 of Easter, Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other seasons, was 
 given to recreation and athletic sports ; hurling, football, 
 and handball were, all the year round, standing games in 
 which the man of forty took as warm a part as the stripling ; 
 and dancing was so popular that there are townlands in the 
 district where the villagers, young and old, after the day's 
 work in the fields, retired to the top of some fort and danced 
 away in the open air till bed-time. Even after meals, and 
 before resuming work, labourers passed, in jumping, wrest- 
 ling, pushing the stone, or other trials of skill and strength, 
 the time that they now spend, squatted like Mussulmans, 
 .or American Indians, smoking the pipe. And in the 
 exuberance of their animal spirits, labourers and cottiers, 
 after clamping turf, often took to leaping over the clamps ; 
 an exercise in which the father not unfrequently contended, 
 and contended successfully, with full-grown sons. Add to 
 this the regularly recurring fair days and patron days,
 
 538 PARISHES OF BALLYSADARE AND KILVARNET. 
 
 which were generally more given to pleasure than to busi- 
 ness or devotion, and it cannot be denied that our ancestors, 
 whatever else they did, or did not do, took, at any rate, 
 good care to amuse themselves. And in winter, when the 
 short days and wet weather often prevented outdoor pas- 
 times, the men, instead of sitting solitary and moody over 
 their own hearths, as so many do at present, assembled round 
 the fireside of some neighbour, and spent hours in discus- 
 sing local legends and traditions, rehearsing the old Fenian 
 tales, and fitting the so-called prophecies of Columbkille 
 to current or coming events. Looking critically at both 
 periods, one may see in each good points and defects. While 
 one must admire the love of the men of other days for open- 
 air exercises, which haVe been always held to be* the best 
 discipline for health and manliness, it may be granted at 
 the same time that their ideas of the aims and business of 
 life lacked somewhat in earnestness and solemnity. And, 
 on the other hand, if the men and boys of the present day 
 admittedly excel in gravity and worldly wisdom, it may, 
 perhaps, be contended that they want the freshness and 
 simplicity of their predecessors, and that they would help 
 both mind and body, by turning to more account the teach- 
 ing of Solomon, that " there is no better thing than to re- 
 joice" an aphorism which, in taking our leave now of 
 the reader, we would respectfully commend to his con- 
 sideration.f 
 
 * Cyropcedia of Xenophon, lib. 1, c. ii. 
 
 t The writer regrets that, owing to the great length this volume has 
 already reached, he is obliged to omit an Appendix he had prepared, con- 
 taining (1) a List of the Churchwardens of Ballysadare, (2) Hearth Money 
 Returns for Ballysadare and Kilvarnet, (3) Census of Ballysadare and 
 Kilvarnet in 1659, and, (4) the Census of 1871, as far as it regards the 
 same parishes.
 
 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 
 
 A regret and a wish, 356. 
 
 Abbey of BaUysadare, 24. 
 
 Achonry, 366, 367, 415, 418, 434. 
 
 Achros or Aughriss, 12. 
 
 Annals of the Four Masters, 7, 8, and. passim . 
 
 Annals of Loch Ce, 6, 7, 12, 55, etc. 
 
 Annaghmore, 363. 
 
 Anecdotes, 61, 164, 167, 190, 265, 402, 486, 492, 505. 
 
 Apostolic Letter, 392. 
 
 Attainted in County Sligo, List of, 66. 
 
 Almanach de Gotha, 365. 
 
 are, 1, 44. 
 Ballinacarrow, 306, 387. 
 Barony Constables, Stone blind, 244. 
 Ballymote, 13, 225, 344. 
 Ballydrehid, 44, 48. 
 Beads, a Soporific, 511. 
 Beads, the. and Tom M., 402. 
 Beltra, 251. 
 
 Berminghams, the, 7, 256. 
 Bell of BaUysadare Church, 8. 
 Benson, Sir John, 125. 
 Blockade running, 242. 
 Bucks, the, 163. 
 Butler, Dean, of Trim, 464. 
 Burke, Bishop of Elphin, 488. 
 Burke, Sir Bernard, 193. 
 
 Carolan, 201, 342. 
 Casiol Tullaghan, 275. 
 Carricknagat, Battle of, 72. 
 
 Fair of, 239, 240. 
 
 Carrickbanaghan, 214.
 
 540 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 
 
 Cats, wild, 239. 
 
 Celt and Saxon, 271. 
 
 Churches, old, 20, 24, 278, 300, 314. 
 
 Church of the Assumption, 108. 
 
 Protestant of Collooney, 118, 285. 
 
 of Ballysadare, 136. 
 
 Collooney, 49, 147. 
 Combination, illegal, 247. 
 
 incidents of, 248. 
 
 Coillte Leyney, 274. 
 Columba, Saint, 2, 99. 
 " Convert Eoll," 381. 
 Coup de pied, 279. 
 Cootes, the, 71, 105. 
 Coonamahon, 196. 
 Coopers, the Misses, 86, 179. 
 Coopers, the, in Markrea, 154. 
 Coopers and the Catholic Clergy, 481, 483, 486, 487. 
 Cooper, Edward Joshua, 167. 
 
 ,, cultivates science, 168. 
 
 a model landlord, 173. 
 
 ,, alive to the duties of station, 173. 
 
 ,, and the Neapolitan juggler, 190. 
 
 ,, and a cornucopia cart, 178. 
 
 lessons of his life, 192. 
 Cry, Irish, or caoine, 304. 
 Croftons, the, 19, 311. 
 Cuil Cnamh, 258. 
 
 Debentures, Cromwellian, 154, 155. 
 
 De Courcy, John, 5. 
 
 Depopulation, 298, 519. 
 
 "Depositions" concerning 1641, 63, 325, 328. 
 
 Doberck, Dr., 172. 
 
 Duke, Rev. Mr., 242, 243. 
 
 Duels, 244, 344. 
 
 Durcan, Right Rev. Dr., 489. 
 
 ,, courage of, 493. 
 
 his building labours, 498. 
 
 anecdotes of, 505. 
 
 characteristic virtues and qualities, 502. 
 
 and the poor, 508. 
 
 his death, 512. 
 
 and his coadjutor, 511.
 
 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 541 
 
 Education, 305, 306, 482, 485, 496, 523. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, 16. 
 
 Elphin, bishops of, 11, 480, 488. 
 
 Epitaphs, 120, 288, 307. 
 
 Excesses of 1641, 332. 
 
 Finance ecclesiastical, 293. 
 Fishery, Colonel Cooper's, 533. 
 Flynn, Father, and the cholera, 39. 
 Forfeited land in parish, 64, 337. 
 French Invasion, 72. 
 Froude, James Anthony, 159. 
 
 ,, and old Michael Gray, 160. 
 
 ,, and Saturday Review, 336. 
 
 Gamh Slieve, 227. 
 
 Giraldus Cambrensis, 225, 253. 
 
 Harris's Hibernica, 10. 
 
 Harlowe, Shaun, 341. 
 
 Hardiman's, Indenture of Co. Sligo, imperfect, 319. 
 
 Hart, Right Rev. John, 199, 208. 
 
 Hart, 0', Right Rev. Eugene, 202. 
 
 Hedge School, 305. 
 
 Hcnnessy, W. M., Preface, 8, 55, 254. 
 
 History, how sometimes written, 70. 
 
 History, Natural, of Parish, 529. 
 
 Hospitallers, Knights, 317, 318. 
 
 Hydrophobia, case of, 175. 
 
 Hibernia Dominicana, 14, 476. 
 
 Illustrations, 20, 24, 109,278, 285, 286,300,306, 315, 372, 398, 522,526,527. 
 Insurrection of 1641, 61, 332. 
 Ireland in the 18th century, 310. 
 Invoking the Muse instead of the Law, 378. 
 
 Jones, Very Rev. Daniel, S.J., 189. 
 
 Jones, Paul, 395. 
 
 Joyce, P. W. Dr., 17, 219. 
 
 Keating, Jeoffry, D.D., 3, 446, 448, 
 Kilkenny, Archaeological Journal, 23. 
 Kilnemonogh, 231.
 
 542 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 
 
 Kincaid, John, Esq., J.P., 213. 
 Kilvarnet, 297. 
 
 Lauigan, Dr., 6, 435. 
 
 Landlords and Bishop Latimer, 232. 
 
 ,, eccentric, 284. 
 
 different species of, 357. 
 Leech, Major, 79. 
 Legends, 301, 464, 480. 
 Letters, original, 67, 69. 
 Linen trade, 245. 
 
 Mass-book, 326. 
 
 Mass, the, and Cromwell, 324. 
 
 Madden, Mrs., 250. 
 
 Markrea, 148. 
 
 Meehan, Rev. C. P., M.E.I.A., 348, 472. 
 
 Merediths, 201, 211. 
 
 Memories, solemn, 288. 
 
 Minstrel O'Connellan, 203. 
 
 Mirabilia Hibermus, 225, 253. 
 
 MS. of Mr. C. W. O'Hara, 314. 
 
 Middleton, W., Esq., J.P., 529. 
 
 M'Donoughs, 11,46,105. 
 
 M'Cormack, Most Rev. Dr., 511, 513, 514. 
 
 Memoirs of Charles O'Connor, 61, 342. 
 
 Morgan, Lady, 42. 
 
 Murder of Teigue Ball O'Higgins, 377. 
 
 Nagnata, 32; 
 Neophyte, a, 383. 
 
 Observatory of Markrea, 171. 
 
 O'Connors, 8, 11, 13. 
 
 O' Curry, Eugene, 45, 
 
 O'Garas, 369. 
 
 O'Haras, the, 7, 8, 9, 18, 63, 102, 115, 229, 230, 231, etc. 
 
 lineage of, 365. 
 
 territory of, 366. 
 
 and Straflfbrd, 387. 
 
 and Rinuccini, 391. 
 
 and Catholic clergy, 206, 233, 474. 
 
 tastes of the Family, 373. 
 
 a Composite Family, 407. 
 
 Saints of the Family, 440. 
 O'Hanlon, Rev. John, M.R.I.A., 197, 426, 428.
 
 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 543 
 
 Ormsbys, 201. 
 O'Borkes, 59, 345. 
 O'Rorke, Centy, Duel of, 350. 
 Onesidedness, 405, 516. 
 Oxford University, 169. 
 
 Patron, a Famous, 259. 
 
 Parish Priests of Ballysadare and Kilvarnet, 470. 
 
 Penny Boys, 266. 
 
 Places, remarkable, 286. 
 
 Phibbs, the, 201, 218, 234. 
 
 Percevals, the 337. 
 
 Philip Caech, 344. 
 Perceval, Alexander, a genial gentleman, 355. 
 no bigot, 357. 
 
 antipathy to proselytising practices, 358. 
 
 Priests and a Grand Master of Orangemen, 179, 181. 
 
 ,. and the Penny Boys, 263. 
 
 ,, and the Thrashers, 264. 
 
 ,, the Insurrection of 1641, 326. 
 Priest -catchers, 113, 475, 476. 
 Protestant Trustees, 199. 
 Prendergast, John P., 96, 145. 
 Plantation of Connaught, 388. 
 
 Rathmore, 359. 
 
 Records, absence of in Ireland, 470. 
 Reeves, Dean, 2, 3, 220, 421, 432, 468, 490. 
 Religion under James I., 304. 
 Rinucinni, 391. 
 
 Saint Nathy, 411. 
 
 his parentage, 413. 
 
 and Achonry, 415. 
 
 very probably a Bishop, 421. 
 
 ,, characteristic virtue of, 424. 
 
 Saint Fechin, 425. 
 
 birth and parentage, 427. 
 
 no Eastern recluse, 442. 
 
 completes the work of St. Patrick, 448. 
 
 ,, miracles and virtues, 452. 
 
 ,, his death, 463. 
 
 ,, office and feast, 467. 
 Saint Finian, of Clonard, 279, 415. 
 Scene, a stirring, 261. 
 Scenery, 40, 41, 49, 272, 287, 363.
 
 544 ALPHABETICAL INDEX. 
 
 Senior, William Nassau, romancing, 177. 
 
 Sim, Alexander, Esq., J.P., 247, 523. 
 
 Sligo, 6, 31, 33, 44, 62, 64, 74, 77, 120, 349, 473, 474, 528 
 
 Siege of Templehouse, 322. 
 
 Societies, Secret, 167, 263, 486. 
 
 Stones, curious, 277, 320. 
 
 Station, duties of, 1 73. 
 
 Storm, memorable, 261. 
 
 Synod of Saints, 254. 
 
 Strand of Trawolully, 257. 
 
 Swift's, Dean, Notion of a Family Man, 191. 
 
 Social State of Parishes, 35, 478, 410. 
 
 Taaffe, Lucas, 323. 
 
 Teeling, Bartholomew, 76. 
 
 Tenants, 283. 
 
 Thrashers, 264, 486. 
 
 Titan, Irish, 277. 
 
 Templars, Knights, 311, 312. 
 
 Todd, Dr., 421. 
 
 Trout, enchanted, 228. 
 
 Trowse, 149. 
 
 Tragedy, aUeged, at Templehouse, 328. 
 
 Tubberhrida, 241. 
 
 Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 26, 351, 375. 
 Ussher, 4, 425. 
 
 Vereker, Colonel, 74. 
 
 Vicars, Protestant, of Ballysadare, 1 1 2. 
 
 Vigilance Committee, 244. 
 
 Virtues of Irish Saints, 424. 
 
 Ware, Sir James, 4, 11, 313. 
 Wages, 162, 530. 
 Wells, 224, 225, 397. 
 War, the Horn, 159. 
 Wilde, Sir William, 94, 450. 
 
 Dublin: Printed by JAMES MOOBE, 2, Crampton Quay.
 
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