The Ulster Plantation
The O'Reilly clan were the rulers of County Cavan up to the Plantation of Ulster in the early 1600s. Before the Plantation, the county had been in the province of Connaught and was known as “East Breifne”. The O'Reilly lands were confiscated and distributed between two categories of settlers, Undertakers and Servitors. English and Scottish tenants were introduced into the country. A Sir Stephen Butler from Bedfordshire was the Undertaker who was granted 13,552 acres around the Butlersbridge and Belturbet areas in 1610. Our village was named after this Butler family.
According to the late Fr. Dan Gallogly in “Butlersbridge GFC and its People”, ed. Paddy Leddy, there was forty-one English families planted on the Butler estate. The Butlers later became Earls of Lanesborough in 1756.
According to Breifne Journal of. 1973/75, Page 497:
“A townland, at Butlersbridge, with a cornmill was leased by Sir Stephen Butler for £26 per annum, some time before 1626.” (P.R.O.I. Chancery Salvage V, 61.).
In 1744 a Dublin physician, Isaac Butler, journey through the village en route to Donegal and reported:
“From Cavan to Belturbet ... about midway, we passed over Butlers-Bridge of five strong stone arches over a branch of Lough Erne; here a corn, a scutching and a paper mill all set a going under one roof and by one wheel ...”
This mill is in the townland of Dr
ummany on the site where the late Mick Downes lived (formerly McCarron's). A weir wall (referred to as an eel weir in 1835 Ordinance Survey map) was constructed nearby on the River Annalee, its function well described by local man John E. Foynes in a verse from his poem
“By the Banks of the old Annalee”:
The weir wall itself tells a tale of the past
Although in decay it may be
Once it turned the stream to industry's wheel
By the banks of the old Annalee
From the early 1600s our ancestors witnessed an emphatic and dramatic break with what had gone before. New towns and villages were been established and developed. Nearby Belturbet in 1641, according to Raymond Gillespie in “Cavan, Essays in the History of an Irish County” (p.113) “had sufficient trade to support five merchants, two carriers, a baker, a gunsmith, a feltmaker, a shoemaker, a tanner and an innkeeper”. Bishop Bedell of Kilmore, around the same time, said that “the town of Cavan was not so big by one half as Belturbet”. The village of Butlersbridge is centered between these two towns with the big houses of Farnham Castle, Ballyhaise House and Castle Saunderson all situated close by. Our forefathers were right at the centre of the social, economic and political changes in our county occurring at that time and the in the centuries that followed.
This mill is in the townland of Dr
ummany on the site where the late Mick Downes lived (formerly McCarron's). A weir wall (referred to as an eel weir in 1835 Ordinance Survey map) was constructed nearby on the River Annalee, its function well described by local man John E. Foynes in a verse from his poem“By the Banks of the old Annalee”:
The weir wall itself tells a tale of the past
Although in decay it may be
Once it turned the stream to industry's wheel
By the banks of the old Annalee
From the early 1600s our ancestors witnessed an emphatic and dramatic break with what had gone before. New towns and villages were been established and developed. Nearby Belturbet in 1641, according to Raymond Gillespie in “Cavan, Essays in the History of an Irish County” (p.113) “had sufficient trade to support five merchants, two carriers, a baker, a gunsmith, a feltmaker, a shoemaker, a tanner and an innkeeper”. Bishop Bedell of Kilmore, around the same time, said that “the town of Cavan was not so big by one half as Belturbet”. The village of Butlersbridge is centered between these two towns with the big houses of Farnham Castle, Ballyhaise House and Castle Saunderson all situated close by. Our forefathers were right at the centre of the social, economic and political changes in our county occurring at that time and the in the centuries that followed.
The poem below appeared in the Anglo Celt in December 1848. There is local folklore about "The battle of Drumany Ford", that is, that there was a battle fought there but no one has actual specific information or facts about it. Lately, I have spoken to C.J. McCourt, who was born in Drumany and whose family have resided there for many generations, until approximately 20 years ago. He remembers hearing talk of this battle. However I spoke with Brendan Scott PHD. (editor Breffni Journal). He has written extensively on the plantation in County Cavan. He advises that Cromwel did not arrive in Ireland until 1649 nor did he have troops in Ireland until 1649. Neither was there any pitched battles in County Cavan in 1641/1642. However there was a massacre in Belturbet in Janurary 1642 where up to 40 people were drowned in nearby Belturbet. (Pages 37/38) Cavan, 1609-1653, Brendan Scott.
Poet’s Corner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BATTLE OF TULLYBUCK, AT BUTLERSBRIDGE,
1641.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“ Now comes the brunt, the crisis of the day.”- Moore
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I.
The army of Cromwell near’d the Drummany (1) ford,
With musket, artillery, halberd, and sword.
Their banners flaunt high and their armory gleam,
As onward they dash, through the swift-flowing stream,
Re-echo the war-sounds of bugle and drum,
To plunder Triburna ( 2) the fierce Saxons come;
The Gael now rally for God and their right.
Grow strong in their cause, and rush on to the fight.
II.
Here swears the proud foeman, whilst bent on his prey,
The shrine to demolish. Its friars to slay;
One battle resolved, he or dies or he wins-.
Lo! gives he the signal, and th’ onslaught begins.
Dread volley to volley succeed; sabres flash,
Mid cannon’s wild boom, and bay’net’s loud crash,
The leaden showers fall, nitrous clouds rise on high,
‘Til darkness and terror o’erspread earth and sky.
III.
As two stormy clouds, each in opposite course,
Ignite and explode, when they strike with full force,
The fork’d lightning flashes, while tremble the poles.
And thick hail descends, as the thunder rolls:
So shower’d the bullets, and flashed the keen sword,
So quiver’d the ground , as artillery roar’d-.
When met the belligerent armies that day,
Milesian and Saxon, in that bloody fray.
IV.
In numbers the Gael, inferior far,
Were badly supplied with munitions of war:
Their Leader, however deigned not to give way-
‘Till mortally wonnded, expiring he lay.
The downeast Hibernians, in midst of alarm,
His sorrowful obsequies duly perform,
But no stone remains to distinguish the grave,
Where, sleeping in death, lies the warrior brave.
V.
The sad fate of this hapless commander been known,
Into deep consternation the Gael thus thrown,
Give battle, but as their chief General was dead,
Crest-fallen and routed , on all sides, few fled.
The furious aliens on sanctity trod.
Nor spared they in wrath, the anointed of God ;
For mark’d, to this day, is the ominous spot;
To which the old point, where the good monk was shot: (3)
VI.
Afar on the gale, lamentations are heard,
For those who were drown’d (4) or cut down by the sword;
With lifes blood, on that day, the river ran red,
Whilst heap’d was the field with the wounded and dead
The sloe-bush and wild briar bending are seen,
O’er red fleecy moss, and the shamrock, still green,
Which cover the graves there, lone nameless and rude,
Of those whom the cohorts of Cromwell subdued.
VII.
Alas! Opposition and prowess are vain-
Triburna is rifled, her friars are slain!
Now in mouldering ruins, her fune we descry,
Where the precious remains of St Tigernach (5) lie.
Triburna! Thou ancient Episcopal seat.
Of learning and sanctity, once the retreat;
The pride of the East Beffni thee truly we mourn-
Thy Glory’s departed, never to return.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BATTLE OF TULLYBUCK, AT BUTLERSBRIDGE,
1641.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“ Now comes the brunt, the crisis of the day.”- Moore
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I.
The army of Cromwell near’d the Drummany (1) ford,
With musket, artillery, halberd, and sword.
Their banners flaunt high and their armory gleam,
As onward they dash, through the swift-flowing stream,
Re-echo the war-sounds of bugle and drum,
To plunder Triburna ( 2) the fierce Saxons come;
The Gael now rally for God and their right.
Grow strong in their cause, and rush on to the fight.
II.
Here swears the proud foeman, whilst bent on his prey,
The shrine to demolish. Its friars to slay;
One battle resolved, he or dies or he wins-.
Lo! gives he the signal, and th’ onslaught begins.
Dread volley to volley succeed; sabres flash,
Mid cannon’s wild boom, and bay’net’s loud crash,
The leaden showers fall, nitrous clouds rise on high,
‘Til darkness and terror o’erspread earth and sky.
III.
As two stormy clouds, each in opposite course,
Ignite and explode, when they strike with full force,
The fork’d lightning flashes, while tremble the poles.
And thick hail descends, as the thunder rolls:
So shower’d the bullets, and flashed the keen sword,
So quiver’d the ground , as artillery roar’d-.
When met the belligerent armies that day,
Milesian and Saxon, in that bloody fray.
IV.
In numbers the Gael, inferior far,
Were badly supplied with munitions of war:
Their Leader, however deigned not to give way-
‘Till mortally wonnded, expiring he lay.
The downeast Hibernians, in midst of alarm,
His sorrowful obsequies duly perform,
But no stone remains to distinguish the grave,
Where, sleeping in death, lies the warrior brave.
V.
The sad fate of this hapless commander been known,
Into deep consternation the Gael thus thrown,
Give battle, but as their chief General was dead,
Crest-fallen and routed , on all sides, few fled.
The furious aliens on sanctity trod.
Nor spared they in wrath, the anointed of God ;
For mark’d, to this day, is the ominous spot;
To which the old point, where the good monk was shot: (3)
VI.
Afar on the gale, lamentations are heard,
For those who were drown’d (4) or cut down by the sword;
With lifes blood, on that day, the river ran red,
Whilst heap’d was the field with the wounded and dead
The sloe-bush and wild briar bending are seen,
O’er red fleecy moss, and the shamrock, still green,
Which cover the graves there, lone nameless and rude,
Of those whom the cohorts of Cromwell subdued.
VII.
Alas! Opposition and prowess are vain-
Triburna is rifled, her friars are slain!
Now in mouldering ruins, her fune we descry,
Where the precious remains of St Tigernach (5) lie.
Triburna! Thou ancient Episcopal seat.
Of learning and sanctity, once the retreat;
The pride of the East Beffni thee truly we mourn-
Thy Glory’s departed, never to return.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Drummany is contiguous to Butlersbridge. (2) Triburna,
now the vicarage of Kilmore once See of East Breffni.
Florence Conacty was the first and Andrew McBrady its last bishop,
who translated said see to Kilmore in 1456. See Wares Mon.
Hist; also Wenman’s Antiquities of Ireland. ( 3) There is a tra-
dition that the friar who officiated thereon that melancholy occa-
sion, fell a victim; also the place is yet shown, where it, it is said,
he was shot by a cannon ball. (4) See Curry’s Review of the
Civil Wars of Ireland Vol.11.(5) St Tigernach was the son of
an Irish General St Bridget was his Godmother. He was the
bishop who founded the See of Clanmacnoise, now Clones, which
See was afterwards united to that Clogher. See Butlers Lives
of Saints, also Harris's Ware. The Annals of Tigernach are yet
extant. See Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, Vol.
1., Preface.
Cavan Dec:, 1848
(1) Drummany is contiguous to Butlersbridge. (2) Triburna,
now the vicarage of Kilmore once See of East Breffni.
Florence Conacty was the first and Andrew McBrady its last bishop,
who translated said see to Kilmore in 1456. See Wares Mon.
Hist; also Wenman’s Antiquities of Ireland. ( 3) There is a tra-
dition that the friar who officiated thereon that melancholy occa-
sion, fell a victim; also the place is yet shown, where it, it is said,
he was shot by a cannon ball. (4) See Curry’s Review of the
Civil Wars of Ireland Vol.11.(5) St Tigernach was the son of
an Irish General St Bridget was his Godmother. He was the
bishop who founded the See of Clanmacnoise, now Clones, which
See was afterwards united to that Clogher. See Butlers Lives
of Saints, also Harris's Ware. The Annals of Tigernach are yet
extant. See Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, Vol.
1., Preface.
Cavan Dec:, 1848
Ref: http://www.irelandoldnews.com/Cavan/1848/DEC.html
Elsewhere from Vol 2 Appendix VI from Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland by John Curry. An extract from a collection of some of the massacres and murders commited on the Irish in Ireland since the 23rd Oct 1641. This collection was first published in London in the year 1662.
The County of Cavan
1642
Marc de la Pool, an English gentleman, having taken lands in that county some years before the war, invited several of his friends to come out of England, and live with him, who were all murdered in their houses by the army (only the said del la Pool, who was brought into the town of Cavan) and there hanged for no other reason but their being Roman catholics, and living among the Irish.
Sir Alexander Godren, and his lady, both Scotch, but Roman Catholics, each of them above 70 years old, were plundered of their goods and stripped naked; and all their tenants, servants, and all their sons murdered.
In the same year the English forces in this county drowned 600 men, women and children in and about Butlersbridge, no murders having been commited on any Protestants there, although in the pamphlet lately printed, several murders are said to have been commited in that place.
A seperate account of events are included in the following paragraphs quoted from pages 22 and 23 of a transcription of the manuscript compiled by Dr. John Edward O’Reilly of Annagh in the 1840s. This manuscript was translated by Dr. Ciaran Parker a distinguished historian from Cavan town.
Having thus traced down the lasting memory (?) of the noble house of O'Reilly from Con Ced atha to the present date it remains now to make other eminent branches of the same stock. Philip Mc. Geroid(?) Mac Shan Rue Mc. Hugh Connellagh was a celebrated warrior in the wars of 1641. He was the Philip Mor of Ballinacarge who was appointed Lord President of Ulster by the Assembled Catholicks of Kilkenny after the reduction of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell. He was married to Rose O'Neill of Tirone. He lived in the castle of Belinariga. While Philip was away in the wars his wife remained at home with a strong guard for her protection, during which time she was invaded by a strong body of the enemy from the English Burrough of Belturbet, but such was her courage and conduct that she led them to battle personally, killed a great number; and took seventy three prisoners whom she confined in the castle, and receiving intelligence from her husband then in the O'Neills' country of the massacre of Catholicks in Island Magee, she ordered her men to hang all the prisoners on a gallice erected on a hill close by, which bears the name of the Gallice Hill to this day. This piece of cruelty most probably led the way to another of yet more atrocious character. The Protestants of Butlersbridge, on hearing of the execution of their brethern in Ballinacargy, draged whole crowds of men, women and children to the old bridge and flung them over the battlements into the river where they all perished [folio 17] On hearing this Lieutenant Colonel Fitzpatrick ordered out his troops and driving all the Protestants before him for three miles round Belturbfet dorced them in on the old wooden bridge of Kilconny on which part of the abutments are yet visible and when the bridge was completely filled he cut it away leaving them all to perish;"
Any text written about this period in history must be carefully considered before clear conclusions can be drawn, since the verocity of any text is questionable and always dependant on which side the writer supported.
We will revisit this time in our history after further research completed.