Cumann Oidhreachta Eanach Dhúin | Historical society in County Galway
Our Summer 2021 newsletter was printed in July 2021 and distributed at local shops and Corrandulla Post Office. Much of the newsletter focuses on the complex of mills on the Cregg River at Drumgriffin and Aucloggeen. We welcome articles, items of interest, other material and suggestions for future editions.
Townland. It is the property of James O’Hara, Esq., Galway. The greater portion under tillage and a very large portion subject to winter floods forming part of the Turlough. The townland abounds in small forts and near its North side is Corbally house the residence of Browne, Esq., of this townland forms a demesne. There is a Trigl. Station in its Western centre 131 feet above the sea, and the general surface of the townland and varies from 94 to 130 feet above the sea.
Shanbally / An Seanbhaile Compiled by Paul Greaney Overview Irish name: An Seanbhaile Irish pronunciation: English name: Shanbally Meaning: the old town/village Area: 165 acres and 29 perches. Field Names: None yet recorded. Information from O’Donovan’s Field Name Books Other names: Shanbally, Sean bhaile, Shanmhallagh (Bostoon!), Shanbally (B.
Gortroe / An Gort Rua Compiled by Br Conal Thomas Overview Irish name: An Gort Rua English name: Gortroe Meaning: gort (also: gart), field, rua (also: ruadh), red; red place Area: 312 acres, 3 roods and 4 perches Field Names:
The foundation stone for St Brendan’s was laid in 1831, under the direction of parish priest Rev. Raymond Hargadon. The building was part of a wave of new churches built throughout the country following the relaxation of the Penal Laws under the Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829. The church is actually located in the townland of Carrowbeg South, and replaced a thatched chapel in Corrandulla townland, the ruins of which can be seen in the present cemetery. The site appears to have been supplied by the Blake family of Cregg Castle, who later provided the adjoining site for the Franciscan Monastery and Boys’ School. The church is built to a standard cruciform plan, along an inverted liturgically-correct axis (east to west rather than west to east). It consists of a two-bay double-height nave opening into single-bay transepts centred on the chancel, with a pitched slate roof, and with a single-bay three-stage tower on a square plan attached to the main entrance.
I came to Gort Roe in 1971, with my wife Margaretta D’Arcy and our four young sons. We had been living on an island in Loch Corrib, but because of the difficulty of getting the boys to school, we decided to move to the mainland during term-time. Margaretta went into Collerans, the estate agent, saying how much she was prepared to pay for a small house outside Galway that would be near a bus stop and near a shop. “Why, we have just the thing!” We could walk right into it that very day. Danny Griffin, shopkeeper in Wood Quay, had bought the house from the Cahills whose farmhouse it had been until they built a new bungalow next door. Mrs Griffin unfortunately had become ill so their dream of retirement into a cottage in the country was dashed.
Was Annaghdown parish populated during the time of Brian Boru and if so did the inhabitants ever hear of the great king? Well we know that St Brendan and St Briga with their communities lived in Annaghdown long before the times of Brian the brave. Dare we enquire how far back in time we can go regarding human habitation in this parish? We hit the jackpot way back in 1934 though few people knew about the discovery then, and perhaps not many know about it today. Remain in ignorance no longer for this is how it happened. At that time the local farmers were forced to try a variety of means available to them to eke out a living on their small holdings of land – not only by raising stock but by such enterprises as cultivating sugar beet or by selling turf, cabbages or potatoes. During the month of November 1934 potatoes were selling at 4d. per stone, butter at 1 shilling a lb., eggs at 2s. 6d. a score, hay at 25 shillings a cwt. while two year old heifers and bullocks would realise 46 each.
One hundred years ago at the end close of 1920, tensions were high across Ireland. November was a bloody month, with British Crown Forces intensifying their campaign of terror. The murder of Eileen Quinn from Kiltartan near Gort, a pregnant mother of four children, followed by the abduction and murder of Fr. Michael Griffin in Galway shocked the world. This was followed by `Bloody Sunday’ in which twenty individuals identified as British agents by Michael Collins and his comrades were targeted and fifteen killed. In revenge for these deaths, Auxiliaries and Black and Tans killed at least fourteen and injured dozens in and around Croke Park that afternoon. At the same time, two high-ranking IRA officers, Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy, as well as Clareman Conor Clune were being tortured by Auxiliaries in Dublin Castle. They had been picked up the night before having been betrayed by an informer. Their bodies were found the next day battered, bayoneted and shot to death. It was a big blow to the IRA, but morale was boosted a week later when at Kilmichael, Co. Cork, the 3rd West Cork Brigade ambushed an Auxiliary convoy, killing seventeen. On 29 November, possibly the most gruesome act of the conflict occurred with the abductions and brutal murders of the Loughnane brothers of Shanaglish near Gort by the Auxiliary Division of the RIC.
In Griffith’s Valuation for the townland of Tomnahulla (mid 1850s), Cornelius Lundie is shown as the occupier of 617 acres, 2 roods, and 1 perch. He was born in the Manse, Kelso, Scotland on 29 May 1815, the eldest son of Rev. Robert Lundie (Parish Minister) and Mary Grey. He was educated privately and at the age of 14 years was apprenticed to an engineer. He attended classes in physical and mathematical science at both Glasgow and Edinburgh universities during several winter sessions while working during the summers in the shops of a country millwright at Kelso. In 1832 his father died and he secured employment with Charles Atherton at the works of the Broomielaw Bridge over the river Clyde from the designs of Thomas Telford. In 1836 he took charge of the Clarence Railway, part of the North-Eastern railway system in Durham where he remained for three years. He married Elizabeth Mould from Merrington, Durham on 9 April 1839.
The building was originally known as Annaghdown Monastery in the Post Office district of Drumgriffin. The first group of Brothers to come in 1851 comprised of four members. They were led by Br. Elias Silke, a renowned teacher of Irish and History. Among those he taught at Errew Monastery, Castlebar was Canon Ulick Bourke who later became a leading professor of Irish at Maynooth and who left him a signed copy of his famous “The College Irish Grammar” as a token of appreciation for his former teacher of Irish. Br. Francis Kelly was a native of Kilkerrin, Ballinasloe. Another member of the founding group Br. John Concannon travelled to New York later where he joined the Franciscan Brothers in Brooklyn. Br. Clement Halloran was the fourth member of the original group. On their arrival from Errew Monastery they were granted a three acre site by Francis Blake of Cregg Castle, on which they were directed to erect a monastery and school. According to a written account,the site comprised of nearly three acres of bare, rocky land”. Immediately on their arrival, the Brothers began to teach “in a small thatched house across from the Chapel”. Shortly afterwards they purchased a farm from John Butler, Esq. of Tonagarraun, and built a temporary dwelling house there while they were completing their monastery. This was probably a small building where the local supermarket now stands.