Tuesday 2 August 2016

'TIS ALL THE ONE

Despite being Irish by both persuasion and birth, I found it extremely difficult to understand the districts and boundaries of parishes and townlands when I moved west.  In cities, areas are clearly defined and named.  Bus, train and road trips also contribute to make the visitor or native aware of their surroundings.  I was born in 'The Pale', a lexicon hardly used and largely unknown to the present generation.  In my time ; The Pale referred to Dublin.   My family of origin is of Connaught and the saluation 'To Hell or to Connaught' is familar with all of its complications! Fortunately for me; religion was more of a curiosity than a necessity and the strongest influences were cultural and sporting events.  However, my lack of knowledge of christian church structures, names and boundaries were a definite handicap.  It took months of frustrating labour before I understood an area I call the parish of Eastersnow is the Protestant term.  This same territory is identified by the catholic church as Ballinameen & Kilcola.I have set down below some extracted information regarding the various redistribution of lands and ownerships relating to Eastersnow, Clogher and a brief outline of Connaught.ROSCOMMON: 


According to Ptolemy (AD 168), Roscommon was inhabited by the Auteri, who occupied also the present county of Galway. Among the native septs by whom it was afterwards occupied, the O'Conors enjoyed the supreme authority in the central districts, the Mac Dermots in the northern, and the O'Ceilys or O'Kellys in the southern.





After the arrival of the English in the country, Murrough, son of Roderic O’Conor, King of Ireland, during his father's absence, persuaded Milo de Cogan to undertake an expedition into Connaught, who having come to Roscommon was there joined by Murrough, and their united forces commenced a marauding campaign through the neighbouring districts.

In 1204, this part of the island was ravaged by William Bourke Fitz Aldelm; in 1216, Athlone castle was erected by King John of England; and in 1268 Robert de Ufford, Lord Justice, commenced construction of Roscommon Castle, which shortly afterwards fell into the hands of the natives.

The erection of the county into shire ground must have taken place at a very early period, as notices of the sheriffs of Roscommon and Connaught are found among the records of the reign of Edward I., into which counties the portions of the province that acknowledged the English supremacy were divided.

A CLASH OF CULTURES

Medieval Ireland was marked by the existence of dozens of kingdoms, each ruled by a king who in the early medieval period was technically the highest nobleman in the Tuath.

Most kings were subject to over kings, who were the policy-makers of the time. They based their authority over other lords and kings on ties of blood relationship and alliance. The integrity of such alliances partially depended on the power and personal qualities of the over king.

The ruling kindreds of the Irish kingdoms were often caught between the forces of internal division and outward stability.

The rule of inheritance and succession stimulated competition among relatives and expansion by the kindred’s branches. Yet it also gave the kindred as a whole a measure of stability and flexibility, as the kindred hardly ever died out in the male line. Several royal dynasties remained in control of an area for many centuries.

The English, since the late 1530s, under the Tudors of England, had been expanding their control over Ireland.

To incorporate the native Irish Lordships, they granted English titles to Irish Lords.  Shane O'Neill of Ulster is a good example of the difficulties this caused – Conn Bacach O'Neill, Shane's father, was created the first Earl of Tyrone.

However, whereas in Gaelic custom, the successor to a Chiefship was elected from his kinsmen, the English insisted on succession by the first-born son or primogeniture.

This created a conflict between Shane, who considered it his natural right to be Chieftain of his clan and an "affiliated son" or adoptee of his father Conn Bacach.

Shane's mother Lady Alice Fitzgerald, Tyrone's first wife, was the daughter of Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare. His stepmother was the daughter of Hugh Boy O'Neill of Clanaboy. She died while Shane was young and Shane, following Gaelic custom, was fostered by the Donnelly (Ó Donnaile) family, who raised him until his early teenage years.

During his trip to the English court to receive the title of earl of Tyrone, Shane's father Conn 'Bacach', who had just lost his eldest son and was in open conflict his surviving sons, was accompanied by the fosterling Feardorcha (translated into English as 'Matthew'), a youth who, until he was sixteen had been acknowledged as the son of a Dundalk blacksmith. Feardorcha's mother Alison Kelly was Conn Bacach's current mistress.

When Conn was created Earl of Tyrone, Feardorcha was declared to be Conn's heir in English law, disinheriting all of Conn's surviving sons, including Shane.

Under English law, Feardorcha, titled Baron of Dungannon from Conn's principal house in Tyrone, was intended to succeed him as 2nd Earl of Tyrone. However, Feardorcha was ambushed and killed by Shane's foster brothers, the Ó Donnaile, in 1558, some months before the death of Conn Bacach, and the claim to the earldom passed to Brian, Feardorcha's eldest son, who was later killed in 1562 in a skirmish with Turlough Luineach.

The claim to the earldom now passed to Feardorcha's next son Hugh O’Neill who had been removed to The Pale in Dublin by Sir Henry Sidney. Hugh was later transferred to the English Court in 1559, and was brought up there while Shane established his supremacy in Ulster.








Books of Survey and Distribution were compiled around 1680 as the result of the wars of the mid-seventeenth century after the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland, when the English government needed reliable information on land ownership throughout Ireland to carry out its policy of land confiscation.


They were used to impose the acreable rent called the Quit Rent, which was payable yearly on lands granted under terms of the Acts of Settlement and Explanation.

It is possible to discover to whom, if anyone, the confiscated lands were granted so that we have a record of landowners for 1641 and 1680. As a result, it is possible to determine the amount of lands lost by the 1641 owners after the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and to discover the names of the new proprietors.




CROGHAN VILLAGE 1837

CROGHAN, a village, in the parish of KILLUKEN, barony of BOYLE, county of ROSCOMMON, and province of CONNAUGHT, 4 miles (N. by W.) from Elphin, on the road to Boyle.

It is an improving village, containing about 20 houses and cabins, the property of Guy Lloyd, Esq. Drugget, frieze, and flannel are manufactured here.

Petty sessions are held every Tuesday, and fairs on the Wednesday after Trinity-Sunday and the 28th of October, for fat cattle, for which the October fair is considered to be one of the largest in this district.

There is a constabulary police station, and a dispensary; and a loan fund was established by Mr. Lloyd, in 1833, with a capital of £500.

In the village is the R. C. parochial chapel, a spacious and well-built structure; and in the immediate vicinity is Croghan House, the handsome residence of Guy Lloyd, Esq., who has effected considerable improvements in the neighbourhood.


EASTERSNOW (1837), a parish, in the barony of BOYLE, county of ROSCOMMON, and province of CONNAUGHT, 3 ½ miles (S. S. E.) from Boyle, on the new line of road from Tulsk, through Shankill; containing 1951 inhabitants. 
It comprises 3199 statute acres, of which the greater part is under tillage, and there are several large grazing farms; about one-tenth is bog, and there are some quarries of good limestone.

To the west of the church are the Cavetown loughs, bounded by hills and plantations. At the head of the largest is Croghan House, the seat of the late R. Mahon, Esq., now the property of Guy Lloyd, Esq., and on a hill beyond it is an obelisk, forming a conspicuous landmark.

On the opposite shore is Clogher, the seat of J. Dick, Esq. The other seats are Camlin, that of J. Irwin, Esq., and Granny, of T. Irwin, Esq.; and on the road to Elphin are several neat residences, on the property of Viscount Lorton.

The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Elphin, episcopally united, in 1813, to the vicarage of Kilcola, and in the patronage of the Bishop; the rectory is impropriate in Lord Crofton. The tithes amount to £60. 16., one-half payable to the impropriator, and the other to the vicar; and the tithes of the benefice amount to £62. 14. 2., to which is added £39 per ann. from the Augmentation fund.

The glebe-house was erected by aid of a gift of £337, and a loan of £70. from the late Board of First Fruits, in 1821. The church, a very plain edifice, is situated in a deep hollow near the southern extremity of the "Plains of Boyle," of which this parish is considered to be the limit.

In the R. C. divisions the parish forms part of the union or district of Croghan and Ballinameen. The parochial school, and a school under the patronage of Mrs. Irwin, of Camlin, afford instruction to about 80 children; and there is also a private school, in which are about 30 children.

In Cavetown are some caves partially filled up; they are said to extend to a very great length. There are also some scarcely perceptible vestiges of an old castle, called Moylerg, which is said to have belonged to the Mac Dermotts.