Pre 1800

We have written before of the great Ulster Presbyterian migrations from here to America during the eighteenth century. Few Catholics crossed the Atlantic then. Even if they possessed the inclination and the ingenuity to get to America, few Catholic Irish had the means.  Indeed, before the American Revolution (until about 1780) Catholic immigration was officially forbidden in the Americas.

Read moreEmigration to American Isles

Many of you attended John McCavitt’s ‘Flight of the Earls’ CD launch in the Arts Centre’s auditorium last evening for there was a packed house and indeed, extra temporary seating had to be installed.  You were well entertained and informed and many availed of the opportunity to purchase the historical/musical CD.  It will shortly be available in the shops but meanwhile it can be purchased from John through his great website (http://www.theflightoftheearls.net/) where too the following article (reproduced here by permission) can be browsed.  

Read moreGap of the North 1599-1601

In the aftermath of Kinsale (1601) – in which battle over 1200 Irish were slaughtered and decapitated even in flight – Sir Arthur Chichester advocated a ruthless policy across the country of spoilation, terror and destruction that before long became the policy of Mountjoy’s forces. In places where Chichester himself played a part, the scenes of horror unleashed were particularly gruesome. The Newry area suffered grievously.

Read moreCannibalism in Newry

The Cistercian Monastery at Newry was established before the arrival of conquering Norman knights here toward the end of the twelfth century. However the separation of Church and State is a modern phenomenon and it was politic for those who wished to wield influence to endow the Church with lands and property.

Read moreAbbey of Viride Lignum

The Ulster emigration of the eighteenth century was, as we noted earlier, almost continuous from 1717 onwards. Much of that first wave (1717-18) was organised by Presbyterian ministers. Their people suffered from increasing rents, which saw the iniquitous tithes

Read moreEmigration Patterns 2

One can only speculate what might have been the outcome of the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland had not so many Ulster Presbyterians, the backbone of that radical movement the United Irishmen, left our shores in the eighteenth century to find a new life in America. Our previous article demonstrates what a huge effect these pioneering people had on the future history of that emerging nation on the other side of the Atlantic. 

Read morePresbyterians to America

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. 

Read moreMagennis Grave, Clonduff

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.

Read moreMan from God-knows-where

When the most powerful chief in Gaelic Ireland, Hugh O’Neill, who had taken the English title of Earl of Tyrone, submitted to Lord Mountjoy, the Queen’s Lord Lieutenant at Mellifont Abbey in Louth in the early 17 th century, the English Conquest was all but complete.

Read more17 th Century Happenings