Crossmolina

Crossmolina is a town in the historical barony of Tyrawley in County Mayo, Ireland, as well as the name of the civil parish and Catholic parish in which the town is situated. The town sits on the River Deel near the northern shore of Lough Conn. Crossmolina is about west of Ballina on the N59 road and north of Lahardane village. Surrounding the town, there are a number of agriculturally important townlands, including Enaghbeg, Rathmore, and Tooreen.

Etymology

The name Crossmolina is from the, meaning "Cross of Mullany", or "Maoilíona's cross". In the 18th century, the name was sometimes spelt as either Crossmalina, Crossmaliney, Crosmolyna or Crossmaling.

History

The origins of present-day Crossmolina are tied to the founding of a religious settlement in the area: Errew Abbey was founded by St. Tiernan in the 6th century. In the 12th century this Abbey came into possession of the invading Hiberno-Norman de Barry family.

Anglo Protestant Ascendency

During the 15th century, Crossmolina passed into the hands of the Bourke Family. In 1526 O'Donnell of Tir Conaill invaded Tirawley and destroyed Crossmolina Castle. In response, the Bourkes constructed a replacement in Deel Castle. Their possession of this new fortress did not last however as during the Williamite War in Ireland of the 1690s Thomas Burke fought for the defeated Catholic Jacobites.
Subsequently, Deel Castle was granted by the English crown to the Anglo-Irish Protestant Gore family. In the 17th century, Francis Jackson, who had fought with Cromwell in Ireland, also received land in North Mayo. The Jackson family later built Enniscoe House. Again, the land taken over by the Jacksons was previously owned by the Burke family. The arrival of these landlords ushered in the era of Protestant Ascendancy into the area.
In 1798 Crossmolina was swept up with the events of the United Irishmen Rebellion when French Forces under General Humbert came from Ballina, passed by Crossmolina, towards Lahardane and on towards Castlebar as they went west of Lough Conn to fight the Battle of Castlebar.
In the late 18th century, the town emerged as a commercial and administrative hub. During this period, local landlords formed the Crossmolina Volunteers militia. By the early 1800s, a granary and bonded warehouses had been established. Petty Court sessions began weekly in 1823, and by the 1830s, the Revenue Police and Constabulary were stationed there. Regular fairs occurred in May, September, and December. The 1831 census showed a town population of 1,481 across 296 households, while the rural parish totaled 10,198. Approximately half the town's households were engaged in trade, manufacturing, and handicrafts.
The town is referenced in the Leigh's pocket road book of Ireland, published in 1827, as a "village in Mayo", whose "most remarkable object is the ruin of an Abbey dedicated to the Virgin Mary". Crossmolina was also mentioned in Samuel Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of Ireland. The town contained "one good street and two converging ones".

19th Century

Poitin production

Poitín, a traditional Irish spirit made from fermented grain or potatoes, boasts a high alcohol content. Produced in Ireland for centuries, it significantly impacted Crossmolina's local economy. In the early 19th century, Ireland's government worried about prevalent illegal private distillation, leading to frequent conflicts with locals. By February 1816, North Mayo's poitín production alarmed the government enough to station troops in the town to curb the trade.
In July 1833, a party of Revenue Police, based in Crossmolina, made a routine patrol and made an unexpected discovery—individuals engaged in the illicit distillation of poitín. The police apprehended two members of the group. However, as they returned with the prisoners, a daring attempt to rescue them was made, with a prominent role played by one of the prisoners' father-in-law. Tragically, the situation escalated, leading the police to discharge their weapons, resulting in the death of one man.

Rural unrest in the 19th century

Land issues in North Mayo were a constant source of tension during the 19th century. Large landowners, often residing in England, rented land to tenant farmers with precarious tenure, risking eviction at any time. This situation led to significant resistance, occasionally violent, when rents were adjusted. Surrounding Crossmolina, endemic poverty prevailed. The 1838 "Royal Commission into the Condition of the Poorer Classes in Ireland" visited the town, and its report highlighted the dire living conditions of the rural poor. Their diet consisted almost entirely of potatoes, with meat consumed rarely, once or twice a year. Laborers earned 6 to 8 pennies daily, partially paid in food.
During the first decade of the 19th century, local peasants formed a secret society called "The Threshers". The group was responsible for a number of "outrages" including destroying crops and breaking into houses. In 1806 a local man – Thady Lavin – had informed the local magistrate of the activities of the group. He was later found murdered near Crossmolina. Six local men - Coll Flynn, Laurence Flynn, Charles Flynn, Thomas Horan, Daniel Regan, and Daniel Callaghan - were convicted of his murder, and hanged in Castlebar in December 1806.
In December 1813, violence again broke out when a crowd of local residents, armed with pikes and guns, tried to take back cattle that had been sequestered to pay for outstanding rent arrears.
Between 1820 and 1840, the "Ribbonmen" agrarian movement was active in Crossmolina. In December 1821, John Carr, Peter Gillaspy, Eneas Early, and Mathew Chambers were imprisoned for their Ribbonmen membership and for administering illegal oaths. Local magistrate George Ormsby, Esq. of Gortner Abbey, facilitated their imprisonment. Due to significant rural unrest, a yeomanry detachment of three officers and 85 men was stationed permanently in the town starting in 1820.
In February 1839, the Crossmolina Parish Priest - Fr John Barrett - was murdered at Enniscoe Gate, about a mile and a half from Crossmolina. He was attacked late at night while returning from the town to his residence. It was widely speculated at the time that he was murdered because he denounced at the pulpit the activities of a secret society called the "Steel Boys". In 1842, a local Crossmolina Man - John Walsh - was convicted of being a member of the Ribbonmen and transported for seven years. He was found to be in possession of secret passwords and documents relating to the secret society.
Rural violence and political unrest continued through to the second half of the 19th century and even into the early 20th century. In March 1881, the Crossmolina home of the high constable of Tryrawley was attacked by a group of armed men. In November 1882, the local Parish Priest was arrested for permitting a Land League meeting in the Crossmolina Chapel. In June 1882, a Crossmolina farmer called Michael Brown was shot and severely wounded. He had taken over a farm that had been boycotted by local residents. Violence broke out in 1911 when a local man, Patrick Broderick who along with his neighbours, resisted the efforts of over fifty R.I.C. Officers to evict Broderick from his Crossmolina home. Resistance to the eviction was organized by the Crossmolina tenants league.

The Big Wind

The town was badly damaged during the "Night of the Big Wind" that swept across Ireland on 6 January 1839. Almost every house in the town was damaged with four houses destroyed completely. Eight residents were killed.

Mystery of the Drowned Woman

In June 1843, the body of a young woman was discovered drowned in the river near Crossmolina. An apron was found tied around her feet, and her knees were bound together with a shirt. A piece of ribbon was tied on one of her arms in a manner that suggested both arms had been bound, and she had managed to free one before she died. The deceased appeared to have been a young woman of considerable beauty. The woman was never identified.

Potato crop failures

In the early 19th century, frequent potato crop failures led to localised famines. In June 1822, North Mayo experienced a widespread failure. The Archbishop of Tuam visited and reported to the London Times seeing “half-starved men, women, and children” in Crossmolina and surrounding areas. Local landlords and clergy formed an inter-denominational relief committee. Richard Sharpe, agent for the Palmer estate with extensive land in Crossmolina, spearheaded relief efforts by organizing oat shipments to combat starvation.
In early 1831, a potato crop failure led to starvation. Sharpe organized a fundraiser among landlords to buy oats for the starving tenants. In June 1831, Crossmolina experienced a Typhus outbreak, a disease recurring in North Mayo until the 1920s. Dr. James McNair reported over 100 Typhus cases to the Connaught Telegraph, with 38 in Crossmolina. The following June, Rev. Edwin Stock surveyed the area, finding over 3,000 families, totaling 17,000 individuals, suffering from food shortages. George Vaughn Jackson, a local landlord and relief committee secretary, described the dire situation in the London Times, mentioning starving mothers, men seeking work, and rampant fever, indicating widespread starvation and disease.
The crop failures of 1822 and 1832 were precursors to the disastrous famine of the 1840s. By the 1840s, the countryside around Crossmolina was already plagued by destitution, leaving many in dire circumstances. The impoverished population heavily relied on the potato as their main food source. However, in August 1845, disaster struck when a devastating fungus, later identified as Phytophthora infestans, began decimating the potato crops. The once-green stalks of potato ridges quickly succumbed to blight, resulting in a putrid stench emanating from the rotting crops. The Famine devastated the rural areas surrounding Crossmolina, slicing the population from 12,221 in 1841 to 7,236 by 1851. It also had drastic effects on the use of language in the area: It is estimated that over 80% of the Crossmolina area spoke the Irish Language prior to the famine.
By early 1847, the Great Famine's devastating impact in Crossmolina was widely reported in England. Reverend St. George Knox, a local Protestant clergyman, detailed the town's distress in a letter to the London Evening Standard. He noted rising provisions prices, the poor congregating for relief, and sixteen deaths in one month, with about 900 parishioners unable to buy food. Despite these conditions, Knox highlighted the population's remarkable patience and peacefulness, emphasizing "no depredations were committed", despite daily starvation deaths. An article in the London Evening Standard from January 1847 described a dire situation in the town, with inquests held for those who died suddenly, likely from diseases caused by lack of food. It reported that scores were dying daily in North Mayo from malnutrition-related illnesses, with some eating raw vegetables in desperate attempts to combat hunger.
Due to the work of the local coroner and doctor, the names of some of the famine victims were recorded in the local press. The victims often moved from their homes in the countryside to beg in the town.

At an inquest held in the town in December 1846, local residents Michael Walsh. John Moonelly, Michael McGevir and Anthony Mally were found to have died from starvation.
James Fleming and Edward Fleming died of hunger in March 1847 in Corrrabeg, near Crossmolina.
Bernard Rogan died in the town in December 1846. He was part of a family from Limerick, who were denied entrance to the poor house in the city. The family became itinerant, began begging and ended up in Crossmolina where the boy died.
Michael Moran also died in December 1846. During the last six weeks of his life, he and his family had been forced to beg for food.
Matthew Temple starved to death in the town in January 1847.
At an inquest held in February 1847, the deaths of Mary Minn and Patrick Gorman - both residents of Crossmolina - were recorded as deaths due to starvation. The inquest recorded a further 16 deaths of residents in the surrounding villages as due to starvation.
In March 1847, the body of Bridget McDermott was found dead in the town. The coroner recorded a verdict of death by starvation.