The first settlers in
what is today the parish of Carrigallen came there during the
Stone Age, sometime
between the year 4 and 15 BC. We know this from the scant remains
they left behind in the form of
megalithic tombs which they built as burial places for their dead.
Professors Ruairi De Valera and Seán
Ó Nuallain, in their Survey of the Megalithic Tombs of
Ireland, published in 1972, mention two megalithic
ruins in the parish of Carrigallen, both in such a poor state
of preservation as to make it impossible to
say with certitude that they were megalithic tombs. The first
of these is at Newtowngore, described on the
Ordnance Survey map as a 'Druid's Altar'. The second in Longfield,
which is referred to on the Ordnance
Survey map as a 'Giant's Grave' is described by De Valera and
O Nuallain as a densely overgrown mound
measuring approximately 11m long (N-S), 7m wide (E-W)
and reaching a height of at least a metre. The
northern end of the mound runs into a thick field fence. A line
of three erectstones running north-south
is visible 2metres inside the western edge of the mound. There
are also a number of standing stones on a
hill overlooking Calloughs Lake but again there is no evidence
to authenticate these stones as the remains
of a megalithic tomb and De Valera and O Nuallain don't even mention
them in their survey.
The ring forts, of which
there are eighteen in the parish, belong to a later period. They
are the ruined
homesteads of late Bronze Age farmers. They continued in use down
to the Middle Ages and in some cases
until as recently as the late 16th century. The Ordnance Survey
map marks forts in Kilnamarve,
Cloughlough, Aghawillan, Killahurk, Drumeela, Kilbracken,
Corglass, Longfield,
Gulladoo (2), Mullyaster (2), Drumshangore, Beaghmore,
Beaghbeg, Drumergoole,
Cornafest, Errew. The fort in Killahurk is a fine example of a
two-ring fort. The circular ditch or
fortification, which is all that survives of these forts, provided
protection for the farmer, his animals
and possessions from wild boars, wolves, eagles and marauders.
Inside the ditch was a house, circular
in shape and built of clay and wicker.
The fact that these ring
forts survived the centuries was due to folk belief that they
were the dwelling places
of the fairies or 'good people' and therefore were in some way
sacred and were not to be interfered with.
Folklore everywhere abounds with stories of people coming into
contact with these magical fort-dwellers.
It was dangerous for a young girl to stray unattended near a fort
after sunset lest she be enticed into the
world of the fairies and a changeling left in her place who died
shortly afterwards. The girl who was
taken was seen afterwards
riding on horseback with
her companion near the fort. Other stories tell how she was snatched
from the
horse by a member of her family and brought back to the real world.
There are numerous stories of
people who played music at dances becoming involved in a music
session with the fairies at a local fort.
It was considered unlucky until recently to interfere with a ring
fort, to cut bushes growing on it, and people
who were said to have died shortly afterwards or to have had bad
luck. It is easy for us to discountenance
these stories but our ancestors believed them and this helped
to preserve the ruins of the homes of our early
ancestors.
There are 2 crannóga
in the parish, both in Kilnemar Lough. Like the ring forts these
small artificial islands
were also the homes of early farmers built out in lakes for purposes
of protection. Access to them was by a
causeway or by a boat or canoe cut out of a tree-trunk. They remained
in use much longer than was originally
thought. Some of them were still in use in nearby Cavan in Elizabethan
times at the end of the 16th century.
As no scientific survey has ever been made of Leitrim's crannóga
it is sometimes difficult to say whether some
of the small islands in our lakes are crannóga or just
natural islands.
It is well to remember
that the country in which these early settlers built their crannoga
and ring forts was
densely covered with primeval forest, undergrowth, lakes and swamp
and would remain so for many
centuries to come, Much of Leitrim's primeval forest was still
intact in the 17th century and the last of it
wasn't cut down until the middle of the 18th century.
In the first quarter
of the 6th century a people known as the Conmaicne moved north
from around the
present Dunmore in County Galway and settled in Magh Rein (Fenagh).
St Caillin of Fenagh was the patron
saint of the Conmaicne. From here they peopled what is now South
Leitrim, which became known as
Magh Rein, and its inhabitants as the Conmaicne Magh Rein. They
consisted of different family groupings-
Muintir Eoluis, Muintir Cearbhallain, and Cinel Luachain. The
most powerful of these was the Muintir Eoluis
whose chiefs were drawn in later centuries from one or other branch
of the Mac Rannall (Reynolds) family.
In Irish sources Muintir Eoluis, Conmaicne and Magh Rein are interchangeable
names for the area we know
as South Leitrim. At the end of the 8th century a second tribe
know as the Ui Briúin moved north from
mid-Roscommon and peopled Breifne or what is now North Leitrim,
South Fermanagh and Cavan. Their
chiefs from the 9th century onwards were the O'Rourkes.They exercised
an overlordship over MacRanall
and the Conmaicne and were sometimes refereed to in the Annals
as King of Breifne and the Conmaicne.
At some stage the Ui
Briúin were able to annex permanently Cine Luachain (Oughteragh/Ballinamore),
Droim-air-Bhealaigh (Drumreilly) and Magh Angaidh (Carrigallen)
from the Conmaicne and incorporated
them into Breifne. This explains why the three parishes, Ballinamore,
Drumreilly Upper and Lower, and
Carrigallen, were included in Kilmore, which was the diocese of
the Ui Briúin and not, as would be
expected, into the diocese of Conmaicne or Ardagh, seeing that
they were originally part of the Conmaicne
people, and that the boundaries of the new dioceses followed the
boundaries of the Gaelic Kingdoms
as far as possible.
Magh Angaidh is probably
the oldest designation we have for all or part of the modern parish
of Carrigallen
although we do not know the precise extent of it. It lay to the
south of Lough Finnmhaighe
(the lake of the fair plain) or Garadice. John O'Donovan
in his notes to his edition of the Annals of the
Four Masters, says that by the early 1830's the area around Newtowngore
was still known as the 'Moy'.
Lough Finvoy or Finnmhaighe, occurs a number of times in the Annals.
The Annals of the Four Masters
has the following entry under the year:'am 2506; Age of the World
3506. Fifth year of Ermon an eruption
of the following lakes: Loch Réin (Fenagh) Loch
Finnmhaighe'.
Needless to say these
early entries in the Annals are purely fictitious. Professor John
P Duignan, in a
lengthy article in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy
in 1922, entitled Crom Cruaich of Magh
Slecht, in which he sought to establish the location of Magh Slecht
quotes from the Tripartite Life of
St Patrick as follows:
Thereafter Patrick went
over the water to Magh Slecht, a place in which the chief idol
of Ireland, namely
Cenn Cruiach, stood covered with gold and silver, and twelve other
idols covered with bronze about him.
When Patrick saw the idol from the water called Guth Ard etc.
Duignan claims that the Guth Ard of the
Tripartite Life survives in the name Garadice or Guth Ard Deas
(Southern Guth Ard). To facilitate this
theory he postulates the existence of a second stretch of water
called Guth Ard Thuaidh or northern Guth
Ard, consisting of the modern Ballmagauran, Derrycassan and Coologe
lakes in Templeport parish. The
name Garadice didn't come into common use until the 17th century.
By far the most important
O'Rourke castle was not at Clooncorick near the present town of
Carrigallen,
but at Cloch Inse na dTorc (the stone fortress of Boar island)
in Garadice, the remains of which are
still to be seen on the present Cherry Island. Both the Annals
of the Four Masters and the Annals of
Connacht record under 1257 that Conn, son of Tiarnain O'Rourke,
submitted to O'Connor and his
son and ratified a treaty of peace with them and offered them
their choice of the territory of Breifne.
Cloch Inse na dTorc on Loch Finnmhaighe was also give to O'Connor
who placed a garrison in it. Later
in the year, O'Rourke attacked the fortress and captured it back
and allowed the garrison to depart. I
n 1418, Eoghan, son of Tighearnan Mór O'Rourke, eligible
prince of Breifne, was drowned in Loch
Finnmhaighe on his way from Cloch Inse na dTorc to visit his father
who was on his death bed. Under
1386, the Annals of Connacht record the death of Áine,
daughter of Tadhg Mac Donnchada, wife of
Tigherarnan O'Rourke, King of Breifne, at Tuaim Senchaidh or Toomonaghan
(now Woodford demesne).
From the 12th century down to the 15th century these two fortresses,
one on the mainland and the
other on the island, guarded the eastern frontier of west Breifne
against attacks from the O'Reillys
of east Breifne.
The Tripartite Life of
St Patrick says that when Patrick was on his way to Magh Slecht
to destroy Crom
Cruaich, he founded a church and ordained a priest to look after
it name Bruscus. The site of this
Patrician church is thought to have been near Newtowngore. The
ruin in the grounds of the present
Church of Ireland in Newtowngore is more likely the medieval church
of Moy, which was dedicated to
St Patrick. Apart from this we know nothing of the early ecclesiastical
history of Carrigallen. There are
two holy wells dedicated to the saint, one in Aughawillan and
the second in Beaghmore. Nearby the latter
is a wart stone where people used to make the cure of the warts
by washing them in the water which lay
in a hollow in the stone.
The first reference we
have in the Papal Annals to Carrigallen is in 1422 when Pope Martin
V appointed
Maurice O Flynn to the rectory of Cuylofflaynd of Inis Moyrmaghangody
(Inis mor Magh Angaidh)
in the diocese of Kilmore, which was vacant for so long a time
'that there was no certainty as to the true
cause of its voidance'. Carrigallen doesn't seem to have been
in use as the official title of the parish at
the time. The name Cowlovlvoin also appears in an indenture made
in 1585 between the Lord Deputy,
Sir John Perrott and the principal native gentlemen of Breifne
amongst them Felim Glas O'Rourke of
Clooncorrick and Owen Mac Shane O'Rourke of Garadice. Elsewhere
in the indenture the same Felim
Glas is referred to as being from Cowlovlin. An inquisition taken
at Dromahaire, July 22nd 1607, before
Sir Anthony Sentleger to define the boundaries of the new county
of Leitrim, says that Leitrim 'extendeth
from Douffcoulofflyn mearynge upon Tayllagh Donoghy (Tullyhunco)
to Bundoyne (Bundrowse near
Bundoran). The indenture traces the boundary of the county
westward, starting at 'the river
Douffecowlofflyn', i.e. the river Duff of Cowlofflyn. The grants
given under the plantation of Leitrim in
1621 are described as being in both the parish and the barony
of Carrigallen.
This article by Fr. Daniel
Gallogly (RIP) is from "Carrigallen Parish-A History."
"Carrigallen Parish-A
History."1996, Design inc.
© Ronan Ward Design
2003. All Rights Reserved.