Ballyconnell
Ballyconnell is a town in County Cavan, Ireland. It is situated on the N87 national secondary road at the junction of four townlands: Annagh, Cullyleenan, Doon and Derryginny in the civil parish of Tomregan, in the barony of Tullyhaw.
Ballyconnell won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition in 1971 and was also the winner in 1975. According to the 2022 census, the population of the town was 1,422.
Name
The earliest surviving mention of the name Ballyconnell is an entry in the Annals of the Four Masters for the year 1323 A.D., which states "Rory Mac Mahon, son of the Lord of Oriel, Melaghlin O'Seagannain, and Mac Muldoon, were slain by Cathal O'Rourke at Bel-atha-Chonaill". Before being named Ballyconnell it was named Maigen which means 'The Little Plain' with the local ford called Áth na Mianna which means 'Ford of the Miners'. It was also named Gwyllymsbrook between 1660 and 1702 by its then owner, Thomas Gwyllym.Ballyconnell is an anglicisation of Béal Átha Conaill which means "the entrance to Conall's ford". The ford was a shallow crossing over the River Gráinne and was the ancient border crossing for travellers going between Ulster and Connacht. The ford was caused by silt and gravel washed down from the nearby Slieve Rushen mountain by the Tanyard Stream, which flows into the Grainne about 20 yards upriver from Ballyconnell Bridge on the western outskirts of the town.
Conall was the great Ulster Hero and Red Branch knight Conall Cernach, who was killed at Ballyconnell by the three Ruadhcoin sent by Queen Maeve of Connacht to avenge the slaying of her husband Ailill by Conall.
History
Prehistoric
The area was settled as early as BC as evidenced by a double-court tomb in the town and a ring barrow in the same field.The area, at a fording point of the nearby Woodford River, was thickly wooded and had no roadways. The easiest way to travel would have been by boat via the river and the lakes and streams in the area. The only other known megalith in the parish is a wedge tomb dating from 2000 B.C. on the side of Slieve Rushen mountain in Aughrim townland. However, it was dug up in 1992 by the Quinn Group to enable them to mine sand deposits from the mountain. It was relocated to the grounds of the group's hotel, the Slieve Russell Hotel, to serve as a tourist attraction.
Ballyconnell historically lay on the eastern part of Magh Slécht named Maigin, so called because it was a narrow strip bounded on the north by Slieve Rushen mountain and on the south by the River Graine. Maigin was the birthplace, in the 6th century, of Saint Dallán Forgaill.
Medieval
In medieval times, the town belonged to the McGovern chiefs who had a fort there. Ballyconnell was situated in one of the ballybetoes of Tullyhaw named Calmhagh, which basically means almost the same as Maigin, the narrow plain. As it was on the border between Fermanagh and Breifne, Ballyconnell was a flash-point for the wars between the Maguires, O'Rourkes, O'Reillys, McGoverns, McKiernans and their allies. The Annals of Ireland record incidents at Ballyconnell in the following years. These include, in 1323, a note that Rory MacMahon, Mel O'Seagannain & MacMuldoon were slain at Ballyconnell by Cathal O'Rourke.According to the annals, in 1457, Brian Maguire fought with Lochlann O'Rourke, the McGoverns & McKiernans at Ballyconnell.
In 1470, O'Donnell and O'Rourke fought with O'Reilly, the English and the McKiernans at Ballyconnell. And, in 1475, Hugh Roe O'Donnell went to Ballyconnell to make peace with the O'Reilly. The annals suggest that O'Donnell camped at Ballyconnell after raiding the town of Cavan in 1595.
Post-1600
About 1606, Captain Richard Tyrrell, of Tyrrellspass Castle, County Westmeath, bought the Derryginny and Snugborough parts of the Calva ballybetagh from Cormac Magauran. He then exchanged his lands at the start of the Ulster Plantation for more property in Tullygarvey barony where he lived.Walter Talbot, a recusant servitor and a burgess of Cavan Corporation, whose parents were James Talbot and Margaret Brett of Agherskeethe, County Meath, purchased another part of the Calva ballybetagh before 1609 but the title was defective. However, in the launching of the Plantation of Ulster in 1609, Sir Arthur Chichester, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, allowed Talbot to keep his estate as he had begun bringing in settlers and building houses. In the Plantation of Ulster by grant dated 23 June 1610, King James VI and I granted the lands forming the 'Manor of Calva' to Hugh Culme. In the same year Culme surrendered his interest to Walter Talbot. It was regranted to Talbot as the 'Manor of Calva'. The lands granted were the town of Ballyconnell and a number of surrounding townlands.
When Talbot arrived, the only notable buildings in Ballyconnell were the Catholic church at the top of Church Street and an old McGovern fort. The rest of the buildings were mud huts belonging to the Irish natives. In September 1611, a survey by Lord Carew found that Talbot had built a strong timber house and two other wattled houses. He had also felled 40 trees but did no other work. By 1613, Talbot had progressed with building work. Sir Josias Bodley reported on 6 February 1613 that:
There was no bridge at Ballyconnell in 1613, but it appears on the 1656 Down Survey map so the first bridge must have been built between 1613 & 1656. The present bridge was erected in the 1830s. In 1617 Connor and Terence O'Sheridan were granted a licence to make and sell spirituous liquors in Balliconnell and throughout Tullagha barony.
By 1619, Pynnar's Survey of Land Holders found that Talbot had built a strong defensive wall called a bawn, which was a square measuring along each side and 12 ft high, with two flanking towers. Within the bawn was erected a strong castle of lime and stone three stories high which was described as being "in a very good and convenient place for the strength and service of the country".
In August 1622, another survey stated that:
Some of these ruins are still visible and a section of the bawn wall was uncovered in an archaeological excavation.
Walter Talbot died at Ballyconnell on 26 June 1625, his son James Talbot succeeded to the Ballyconnell estate aged just 10 years. James Talbot married Helen Calvert, the daughter of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, in 1635 and had a son, Colonel George Talbot. He owned an estate in Cecil County, Maryland, which he named Ballyconnell in honour of his native town in County Cavan. George Talbot was appointed Surveyor-General of Maryland in 1683. In the aftermath of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, James Talbot's estate in Ballyconnell was confiscated because he was a Catholic and instead he was granted an estate in 1655 at Castleruby townland, Baslick parish, County Roscommon. He died in 1687.
By 1652, the Irish rebels in the Ballyconnell area had been defeated and the area was put under the control of the Cromwellian captain Thomas Gwyllym. He was a native of Glenavy, County Antrim, where his father, the Rev. Meredith Gwyllym, was vicar of the parishes of Glenavy, Camlin, Tullyrusk, Ballinderry & Magheragall in County Antrim and Baronstown & Kene in County Louth from 1622 until sometime after 1634. Gwyllym's name first appears in the area as the owner of the Ballyconnell Estate in the 1652 Commonwealth Survey and as a commissioner for the 1654 Assessment of Tax. He also appears as a Cavan Commissioner in the 1660 Hearth Money Ordinances. In the Hearth Money Rolls compiled on 29 September 1663 Thomas Gwyllym has five hearths in 'Bellaconell'. The other Hearth Tax payers were "John Squire, Henry Jordan and Denis Alarne", all of whom had one hearth. After the restoration of King Charles II to the throne in 1660, James Talbot tried to have the Ballyconnell Estate restored to him but a final grant was made to Thomas Gwyllym in August 1666 and the town was renamed Gwyllymsbrook in his honour. Thomas Gwyllym died in 1681 and his son, Colonel Meredith Gwyllym, inherited the Ballyconnell Estate. In 1683, he married Margery Sheridan, the sister of Sir Thomas Sheridan, Secretary of State for Ireland, and they had one child who died unmarried in 1728. In 1687, they built an extension to Ballyconnell Castle at a cost of £500 but when King James II came to the throne of England in 1685, the Catholics began to take power and in 1688 they occupied Ballyconnell Castle and burned it to the ground, causing the Gwyllyms to go and live in Cloverhill, County Cavan, until the war was over.
The Gwyllym estate was sold for £8,000 in 1724 to Colonel Alexander Montgomery of Convoy House in Convoy, East Donegal, M.P. for Donegal Borough, 1725 to 1727, and for Donegal County, 1727 to 1729. He died in 1729 and left the Ballyconnell estate to his nephew George Leslie who then assumed the name George Leslie Montgomery. George Leslie Montgomery was M.P. for Strabane, County Tyrone, from 1765 to 1768 and for County Cavan from 1770 to 1787, when he died and left the Ballyconnell estate to his son George Montgomery, whose estate was administered by the Court of Chancery as he was a lunatic. George Montgomery died on 20 March 1841 and his estate went to his Enery cousins of Bawnboy. The Montgomery Estate Papers for Ballyconnell are in the National Library of Ireland. In 1856 the Enerys sold the estate to take advantage of its increased value owing to the opening of the Woodford Canal through the town in the same year. The estate was split up amongst different purchasers including George Roe and The 4th Earl Annesley.
In the Cavan Poll Book of 1761, there were twenty people registered to vote in Ballyconnell in the Irish general election, 1761. Each person was entitled to cast two votes. The four election candidates were Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont and Lord Newtownbutler, both of whom were then elected Member of Parliament for Cavan County. The losing candidates were George Montgomery of Ballyconnell and Barry Maxwell, 1st Earl of Farnham. Absence from the poll book either meant a resident did not vote or, more likely, was not a freeholder entitled to vote, which would mean most of the inhabitants of Ballyconnell.
Another well-known family in the town were the Benisons of Mount Pleasant and Slieve Russell who owned a flax mill in Ballyconnell. Miss Josephine Benison, a daughter of James Benison, married Tom Arnold who was brother of the famous English poet Matthew Arnold; son of Dr. Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby Public School who appears as head master in the book Tom Brown's Schooldays and grandfather of Aldous Huxley. An account of this and Josephine's photo can be seen online. Josephine's headstone in St.Brigid's R.C. graveyard in Ballyconnell reads- In loving memory of Josephine M. Arnold widow of Thomas Arnold M.A. F.R.I., died 16 January 1919, aged 87 years. Correspondence from the Benisons to Lord Belmore about the weather and farming in Ballyconnell and Fermanagh around 1900 is viewable on the PRONI website.
An 1835 statistical report on Ballyconnell and Tomregan by Lieutenant Greatorex on behalf of the Ordnance Survey is in the PRONI.
Griffith's Valuation of 1857 lists about 90 landlords and tenants for Doon and Ballyconnell. Further information and a detailed map showing the location of each holding can be seen online.
After the Partition of Ireland in 1920–22, Ballyconnell found itself cut off from its hinterland with County Fermanagh, which was now behind the new border with Northern Ireland. The town also during the Irish Civil War of 1922-23 when it was raided repeatedly by both sides. After an incident in which two civilians were shot dead in Ballyconnell by the anti-Treaty IRA in February 1923, a large Irish Free State column was sent to the area to suppress the republican guerrillas operating in the nearby Arigna Mountains, leading to further loss of life and disruption until the ceasefire of May 1923.