MULLARKEY VILLAGE
by Joe Mullarkey
The Plantation of Ulster, 1690, the history books tells us that the Catholic People of Ulster were driven from their lands and their lands were given to Scottish settlers with different culture and religion.
Cromwells Barracks on Inishbofin Island was used as a Prison for Irish Clergy after the Plantation of Ulster.
They were given instructions not to let them back again or to employ Catholics. The Catholics were told to go 'To Hell or to Connaught'. Some settled on the bogs of Ulster but most crossed into Connaught. This is the story of one group of people that left County Antrim and settled in Sliabh Dart hills in County Galway. This story is written from talks with the elder people in Cloonkeen and Ballinross.
There was supposed to have been eleven families in the group, made up mostly of Mullarkey's, with Connell's, McIntyres and McLoughlins that came first to Sliabh Dart. More families came later. Paddy Connell was told that they stopped off first in Colooney, Co. Sligo some of them settled there. The story goes that a Lord in Colooney owned the Sliabh Dart Hills and he directed them there. Bernie Brian Mullarkey, who is the oldest man in the village, describes what he was told of their coming there. It was a barren mountain when they first came, the people were frightened and they settled in a hollow not seen from any road. They built their huts in a cluster near each other for safety. The huts were built with bog-scraws and roofed with poles, scraws and rushes. There was no chimney or windows in the huts. That area, Park na Preachain or Crow Park, is also referred to as Sean Baile, (old village). The area was all rocks, heather and bushes and they had to start to make land of it with the spade and pick.
Paddy Connell takes up the story. The village moved for the second time in the eighteenth century into another valley. Paddy was told they moved because a track or road between Dunmore and Cloonfad was being used and the village could be seen and they were afraid they would be attacked. This time they built their houses with stone and mortar. The houses were built right beside each other. I was told, by a woman in the village, you could go in the front door to a house visiting and leave by the back door of the next house. That was how she described how near each was to one another. It was considered an isolated village with a bad road into the village. It was an Irish-speaking village that held on to the Gaelic language longer than other villages.
In the good land they had a system of farming called the Rundale system, not used in other villages. When they went into Dunmore, they went in numbers for safety. They were referred too as Ultach Dubh. Mrs. Monahan, whose maiden name is Bridget McIntyre, and her sister Mary, told me that there was a hedge school out in the mountains near where the mast is now.
Bridget said her father showed her where it was, in a hollow on top of the mountain with three sides built up with scraws for shelter. Their grandfather went to school there. Their grandfather's name was James McIntyre. The master taught for a couple of hour's day and it was a very quiet spot. The boreen leading up there was called Bóthair na Scoile (School Road). It is all covered in trees now. The master built a house near the small lake, he made a couple of gardens out of the mountain with the spade to grow potatoes. The stones from the house and the hilly gardens are still there. Trees are growing all around it and the lake.
There were two shops in the village at one time, the ruins of Regan's shop are still there. They sold up and went to America. Mullarkey's shop was in the centre of the village and they stopped trading. There was a Farragher family that were weavers. There was also a shoemaker and a rent collector but unfortunately, we do not have their names. Paddy said he heard the older people say they had a sport in the village. They fought with sticks, he didn't know if it was the ash plant or with long poles like staffs, another sport was wrestling.
I asked about the Famine and Paddy said his grandfather was born a few years before the Famine and he said that they came through not so bad. John McLoughlin said he heard the old people say they ate watercress and boiled a white root dug up from the ground, it was only in one part of the land. Of course it was a close-knit village and they always help each other. The meitheal was used if anyone needed help with the work. According to records, in 1841 there were 41 houses and 221 people in the village. In 1851, 38 houses and 200 people. Twenty one people less after the Famine. not bad as other villages fared out a lot worse.
Cloonkeen was always known as a great village for house dances. Mrs. Mullarkey was telling me that after the war, two girls from the village came home from England and there was a house dance every night for two weeks to welcome them home. The girls were Alice Mullarkey and Bridie Connell. Musicians in the village were John and Peter Mullarkey, Hugh Mullarkey and Bridie Connell. Those that came to play were Garret Ruane, Kiltobar; Martin Clarke, Mountdelvin and a man called Jim Greene. Most of these musicians and dancers have now passed on to their eternal reward. May they rest in peace.
A lot of families moved in 1917 and 1925 to new holdings in Ardeaven near Castleplunket, County Roscommon. Names heard mentioned were Keavneys, Connells and different families of Mullarkey's. Some families also moved to Brackloon and Dunblaney near Dunmore. The farms were very fragmented and in 1950, the Land Commission set about striping the land so that each farmer had his land in one or two sections with access for water. A man called Pat Lack Mullarkey also striped the land at the visiting houses. The striping or dividing was done on the hearthstone in the ashes with the tongs and anyone got mad if the got got a small section and that's when the fun started.
A new house was built for each family and that is when the village moved for the third time. This time the houses were built apart. Fourteen new houses were built. Two farmers had their houses re-roofed and did not need a new house. Now it's a modem village with a car outside each house. The village now has a fitted kitchen making business owned by Michael and Patricia Kilgarriff they were always known as a hard working honest people.
All of Clare, Galway , Roscommon and most of Mayo was reserved as an enclave for the surviving Irish. The English plan was to pen in the Irish west of the Shannon River, which was seen as a defensible border, with the ocean to the west. Where the Shannon was not available in the northwest, the military settlement would seal this area. All of the islands off the coast of the enclave were cleared of the Irish or used for special purposes, such as the internship camp for priests on Inisbofin (Cromwell's Barracks).
Inside this prison without bars the English hoped to make the hardcore Irish leadership impotent, there being no ports, no war industries, no fortresses, and no natural defences. All confiscated land was to be transferred on 26 September 1653 and all unauthorized Irish were to be in Connaught or Hell by 1 May 1654.
And Cromwell himself? He died in 1658 and was buried with kings in Westminster Abbey. But by 1660, the king was back on the throne, and by 1661 Cromwell's body was exhumed from the Abbey, and his head was placed on a pole in front of Westminster Hall and his body buried at sea.
The original research for this article was carried out by Eddie Bermingham sometime in the 1960s.
Many Irish clans organise gatherings wondering would there be any interest in trying to ascertain the level of interest which would have to be staged in venues close to Cloonfad Co. Roscommon. Would there be interest in commemorating this historical event by retracing the walk from Ulster to Cloonfad and collecting money on route to be donated to organisations working on behalf of refugees?
A comparative event is the Adelphi Lodge walk On Friday the 30th of March 1849, hundreds of starving people arrived at Louisburg from far and wide to be counted and assessed for the continuation of their 'outdoor relief'. Failure to attend would result in being struck off the register. The two officials responsible, a Captain Primrose and a Colonel Hogrove had decided not to remain at Louisburgh to carry out the inspection but to go on to Delphi Lodge, resulting in those being assessed having to follow on foot for counting by the following morning at 7 a.m. The inspection took place on that second day, but without any food or practical assistance being proffered. The 'paupers' had then no choice but to make the 16 mile return journey once again on foot in the most appalling of weather conditions.
Many perished along the way.
~~~
Joe Mullarkey is originally from Ballybeg, Tullaughane, Ballyhaunis County Mayo
and is currently living in Carrigaline in County Cork. He can be contacted at: jpmullarkey@eircom.net
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