The mountains of Cooley are uniquely accessible – it is quite a challenge to get more than a mile or so from a public road. The main road from Jenkinstown over the Long Woman’s Grave to Omeath (blue line) was built by the county Grand Jury in the 1770s at the urging of the Fortescues, […]
In the Ring of Gullion and Cooley Mountains there may be more than 40 km of stone walls built as relief works during An Gorta Mór, the Great Hunger. We can’t be sure because they are not listed nor even counted. They are not protected monuments, but they should be. People died building them. […]
Did you ever cap a cow, langle a goat, brer a ditch, build an adag or coup a yoke in a shuck? Did you ever get a sceilp, a dunch, a dúdóg or a gonc? Were you ever called an amadán, gulpin, bawkie, shibby, jaurie, gam, caldera or a wee skitter? This project began as […]
For thousands of years there was only one all-weather north-south route in eastern Ireland. Every major war fought in this country revolved at some point around Bearnas Bó Uladh, the Gap of the North. There is an old adage that geography determines history, which is the record of human interaction with a given environment. 20,000 […]
HISTORY OF OMEATH The human record in Ireland is short. In France, cave paintings have been found which are 35,000 years old, while Spain has even older evidence of human activity. At that time the ice cap over Ireland was up to a kilometer deep, covering Slieve Foye. The Ice Age ended about 12,000 years […]
During the Great Hunger, families evicted from lowland farms took refuge on Slieve Gullion, occupying old booley huts or building simple cabins, clearing heather and bracken to grow food on the thin acid soil. When the forestry was felled on the south-western slopes we found the ruins of their homes. THE LAST MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY The […]
The shooting of Meredith Chambre, 20th January 1852 Towards the end of the Great Hunger there were attacks on numerous landlords’ agents in Monaghan, Louth and South Armagh. Only one landlord was shot – Meredith Chambre of Hawthorn Hill. He survived, but one man was hanged and over 80 families evicted. The best that […]
There are three vital tools for local historical research which are freely available free online. But first, the townland (an baile fearainn) has been the basic unit of local administration for nearly a thousand years and you need to learn the townland names in your area of interest. Be aware that townland names have changed […]
What exactly is the Gap of the North and why does it matter? There has always been some confusion about its exact location. Older people use the term to refer to the deep glen on the Ballynamadda Road from Dromintee, just south of the junction with the Tievecrom Road, but its proper name is Gleann […]
Words are funny things, they can change meaning in strange ways over the centuries. ‘Tory’ is originally an Irish word and one that is closely associated with South Armagh. It comes from ‘tóraigh’, to pursue – a person who is ‘tóraighthe’ was, we might say, on the run. It was first used to describe the groups who kept […]