Goward Dolmen

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Who better to show one the architectural and archaeological treasures of the Hilltown area than local Green Party councillor Ciaran Mussen?  I had the quick tour but am promised the whole thing in the near future.  Ciaran hopes to set up a local walking group and I’m optimistic he will accept a Nyuck interloper too!

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Magennis Grave, Clonduff

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The gravestone pictured below has the Magennis coat-of-arms and other inscriptions carved (though now badly-weathered) upon it.  The seventeenth century repression following the 1641 insurrection saw the suppression of the branch of the locally ruling Magennis sept and the confiscation of lands.  Some Magennisses made their peace with the English in order to retain some possessions and a position of influence. 

It was never anything but a short-term policy on the part of the occupiers and by the end of the century less than 10% of all Irish land was in Irish hands.


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Use of the pan!

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 The pan was used extensively at our house when we were young.

There were ten children, two parents and one granny to be catered for and my mother was the chief cook. The only time the pan was not used was when we had a roast or stew for dinner but even so the pan came out on Monday and the remains of the Sunday roast was cut into slices and fried on the pan along with the remains of the vegetables.

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Man from God-knows-where

Ballyholland History

Thomas Russell – the man from God-knows-where – was a United Irishman leader, a friend of Tone and Emmett, who organised Co Down (the location of Florence Wilson’s poem), was arrested and gaoled before the ’98 Rebellion but, after his release in 1802 he organised the North in Robert Emmett’s ill-fated 1803 uprising.

 The first part of the poem is set in Winter 1795, the latter in Autumn 1803.

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