Local History

The place name Northampton is only about 150 years old. In a book published in 1830 which lists the correct spelling of every Irish townsland, Northampton is not listed. The place on the map has the name Pollnaveagh – Poll na bhfiadh (Hole of the deer). This is the name of the townsland that now joins Northampton.

It seems that sometime between 1830 – 1841 a new townsland was created by a new landlord and given the name Northampton after a place in the English Midlands. The townsland of Northampton comprises of 112.5 acres.

Northampton House was built in the early 19th century by Giles Mahon. When Mr. Mahon died, the estate was bought by Sir William Murray in June 1862 for £1275 with £80 a year to be paid to Mr. Giles Mahon’s widow.

Mr. Murray died in 1877 and his widow moved to Cloughballymore in Ballinderreen when she married CAPTAIN LLEWELLYN BLAKE of Cloughballymore. Mr. Brady Murray, a relation of Mr. Murray occupied Northampton House until he died in 1898. Captain Llewellyn Blake seems to have lived there then until he died in 1916. By 1920 the house was unoccupied. During the late 1920’s or early 1930’s the house was demolished.

OCCUPANTS OF NORTHAMPTON HOUSE
1) Giles Mahon – early 19th century
2) Sir William Murray – (1862)
3) Mr. Brady Murray – (1877)
4) Captain Llewellyn Blake – (1898)
5) Unoccupied by 1920

Northampton was obviously an estate taken over by a rich gentleman farmer. He made many changes to the character of the area.

The fields in Northampton are much larger (at least five acres) compared to the fields in the neighbouring townslands of Cahercon and Lough Curra. It seems the land owner with the help of his tenants removed the boundary walls to make bigger fields. These bigger fields suggests a change from Tillage to Livestock farming.

The estate is bounded by beautifully constructed walls and stiles. The mounds of left over stones were used to make artistic creations called Follies. The work follies comes from the French which means foolish or mistake. These artistic stone buildings served no useful purpose they were just a way of using large amounts of stone left over when boundary walls were taken away.

In the fields behind the water tower the follies consist of new two ring forts bounded by stone walls 1 metre thick – also a semi circular stone fort. Between the 2 ring forts there is a stepped stone creation and close to Northampton House a Look-Out-Tower with spiral stairs.

St. Colman was a brother or cousin of King Guaire. His father’s name was Duagh and his mother’s name was Rhinach (Rena). Before his birth it was prophesied that he would become so famous that he would surpass all others in the Ui Fiachra Ardhne line. On hearing this the King of Connacht sought to kill the child but Rhinach ran away and Colman was born in Corker midway between Labane and Gort under a hawthorn bush. While Rhinach was praying for someone to baptise the child two sick and lame clerics arrived and a miraculous fountain gushed forth from the earth.

Colman was baptised and the priests were cured of all their illnesses. Many sick people also came and washed in the Holy Well at Corker. On his way home at Labane he became aware of some eyesight and said ‘La ban’ hence the townsland Labane. The feast of St. Colman is on October 29th and a special pilgrimage is held on that day to the Holy Well at Corker.

Over the last 10 years St. Colmans Church has been restored with pride by the Crushoa people and friends from Caheravooneen to Currenrue.

St. Colmans is cruciform in shape (in the shape of a cross) and it can accommodate up to 600 persons. The church cost £2000 to build. The original roof was thatched as the cost of slates in 1819 would have been too much. On the west gable is the Crushoa Cross. The belfry was built in 1845 and in the last twenty years the belfry was raised higher. The work was carried out by Sean Conole’s father from Crushoa.

The tow holy water fonts (which come from the old church in Mountscribe Cemetery), one situated on the north and the other on the south transept are very very old and there are also 3 old paintings in the transepts by James de Basterot. The subject of the paintings is (1) The raising of the Eucharist (2) St. Peter freed from prison by the Angel (3) The Virgin and Child. There is also an old painting of the Crucifixion which has been restored.

There are two statues, one of St. Colman and the other of the Virgin and Child and they are situated near the crossing of the nave and transept. A large crucifix hangs behind the altar. The altar is a large marble one donated by Mary Staunton. The large Holy Water font near the South doorway dates from the 19th century.

The poet William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin in 1965. He grew up in Sligo and was very friendly with the Goore Booth family in Lissadell. (One of the Goore Booth girls married a Polish Count and became Countess Marchiewicz).

Yeats spent his holidays in Coole. He first met Lady Agusta Gregory in 1896. He founded the Abbey Theatre with her in 1904. He wrote many plays. In 1917, he bought Thoor Ballylee for £35 and reconstructed it. W.B. Yeats was married to Miss George Hyde Lees. They had a son Michael and a daughter Anne.

Yeats in life had loved Maud Gonne. However, she did not love him in equal measure and refused to marry him. Some of his finest poetry was inspired by her.

W.B. Yeats was awarded The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

He died in 1939 and is buried in Drumcliff Church yard, Co. Sligo (under bare Benbulben’s head).

The epitaph on Yeats’ tombstone reads ‘ Cast a cold eye on life on death Horseman pass by’.

Lady Gregory’s name was Augusta Persse. She was born at Roxborough near Loughrea in 1852.

In 1880 at the age of 28, she married Sir William Gregory. Who had retired as Governor of Sri Lanka. Sir William was 35 years older than his wife. They had one son Robert (William Robert Gregory).

Lady Gregory loved books and trees. She wrote many books, plays and collected old stories and folklore. She wrote these down in the language of the local people (which is called Kiltartanese). It is said whenever she got a fee or a royalty she planted another tree.

In 1904 with W.B. Yeats and Edward Martyn she co-founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Many famous people came to stay in Coole. W.B. Yeats, his brother Jack, the artist Douglas Hyde, (1st President of Ireland) J.M. Synge, Sean O’Casey (playwrights) G.B. Shaw and Augustus John.

Robert Gregory married Margaret Parry in 1907 and he and his wife and children spent most of their summer holidays in New Quay in Mount Vernon Lodge. The rest of the year they were in Paris as they painted a lot. Robert’s three children were born and grew up in Coole. Anne and Catherine (Nu) never left until they went to school.

In the book Me and Nu, Lady Gregory is shown not only to be a wonderful woman but a super grandmother as well.

Lady Gregory died in 1932.

Lady Gregory invited her distinguished literary visitors to carve their initials on the autograph tree in the picnic garden.
The autograph tree ( a copper beech) with a guide to some of the carved initials:
(1) Theodore Spicer Simson
(2) Bernard Shaw
(3) Augustus John
(4) Doughlas Hyde (An Craoibhin)
(5) Lady Gregory
(6) Robert Gregory
(7) Violet Martin (real name of Martin Ross of Somerville and Ross)
(8) G.W. Russell (AE)
(9) W.B. Yeats
(10) Sean O’Casey
(11) Elinor Monsell
(12) M.J. Synge
(13) John Masefield
(14) Jack B. Yeats
(15) Dame Ethel Smyth

Other signatures on the tree include –
George Moore
Sara Allgood
Lennox Robinson
Lady Margaret Sackville
Frank Fay
William Fay
J.D. Innes
Robert Ross
Ian Hamilton
John Quinn – the New York lawyer
Countess of Cromartie

The Old School

At one time the parish of Kinvara boasted 5 primary schools. Due to a declining population there are now just 3 – Northampton N.S. Kinvara N.S. and Doorus N.S. The first school in Kinvara parish was established in 1841.

In 1851, an application was made to the Department of Education to build a school house at Northampton 1.5 miles from Kinvara. This application was made by Giles Mahon, proprietor of Northampton House who kindly donated the site for the school. The site of the old school has now been reconstructed into a family dwelling by Eddie and Francis Forde and their family. The proposed school in Northampton was to serve the educational needs of the children of the surrounding districts of Cahermore, Caheravoneen, Loughcurra, Killina and Caherglissane. The old school was opened on May 10th 1853 admitting 30 boys and 20 girls.

Many of the teachers who taught there were unrecorded. One of its most famous teachers was Francis Fahy. He was appointed to Northampton in his teens and stayed until 1869. After Giles Mahon died the new owner of Northampton House Mr. William Murray and later his widow continued to show concern towards the school and they were kind and considerate to the parents, many of whom were tenants on the Northampton Estate.

The old school house in Northampton was a one-roomed stone structure to which was added a cloakroom or hallway in the early 19th century. This extension was constructed by Bartley Forde a grand uncle of the present owner – Eddie Forde. As for the subjects taught these included Agriculture, Algebra and Geometry as well as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (Maths).

Many teachers names are not recorded but those who are include –
Thomas Haran (1905)
Margaret Burke
Miss O’Donnell (1910)
Mr. Cafferty early 1930s

Finally, Mr. Thomas Donlon came to the school in 1935 and he saw the closure of the old schoolhouse and the official blessing of the new school (the present school) on March 4th 1953. Mr. Donlon continued to distinguish himself as a teacher and a worker for the community until he retired in 1974 18 years in the old school and 21 in the present school).

King Guaire donated the site for the monastery. The story is told that when Colman asked his Kinsman Guaire for the site – the location was decided by fate. St. Colman was passing through the great wood of the Burrin and his girdle fell on the ground and enlarged until it encompassed the area that was to be the site of the Monastery.

The Monastery was founded in 1620 and was in use up to the 16th century. The Monastery of Kilmacduagh consists of –

(1) The Cathedral
(2) Tempall Mor Mac Duagh
(3) St. Colman’s bed
(4) The site of a small church
(5) St. John’s Church
(6) St. Mary’s Church
(7) The Abbot’s House
(8) The O’Heynes Abbey

St. Colman often went away to a lonely place to pray and fast. The small cave where he went to in the Burrin can be found at Cinn Aille at the foot of Sl Carron about 4.5 miles from Kinvara. In that place we can explore St. Mac Duagh’s Bed, the cave, St. Mac Duagh's Alter and Tobar Mac Duagh. A quarter of a mile to the south east is the grave of Colman’s servant and the Road of the Dishes.

On a certain Easter Sunday morning after spending 40 days of Lent in the wilderness praying and fasting, St, Colman and his disciples sat down to a meal of barley bread, wild herbs and cress. They were dressed simply in deer skin clothes. They were close to starvation as they had a little to eat throughout lent. The servant said ‘It’s no use I’m going to Dunguaire to ask for food’. St. Colman knelt down to pray.

Just at this time back in Dunguaire, when everything was ready for a banquet, the guests were seated, King Guaire stood to say grace and prayed that if it pleased God the banquet might be set before those who had greater need than he and his friends at Dunguaire. Just then the guests watched in amazement and terror as the dishes laden with all kinds of food floated up from the table and passed through the doors and windows on their way to the Burrin.

King Guaire and his men mounted their horses in great haste and followed the dishes. Colaman’s servant was just about to eat when he saw the hillside covered with angry men. ‘Eat in peace’ said Colman, I will take care the men do not interrupt you’. At once the horses hooves and footmen’s’ hooves and dogs’ legs were held fast to the ground so not one of them could move.

The marks left behind can be seen on Bothar na Mias or the Road of the Dishes. The King was overcome with joy that the feast had come to his brother / cousin Guaire. Guaire begged Colman to become bishop of Ui Fiachra Ardhne. Colman and his monks set to work to build a monastery on the site called Kil Mac Duagh (Church of the son of Duagh). The King sent teams of oxen and hundreds of workers to help the monastery.