Fynes Moryson, secretary to Lord Mountjoy who savagely laid waste to the country of Ireland at the turn of the seventeenth century to defeat the ‘rebels’, was described as a ‘bookish man’ and was a learned fellow of Oxford – as was his master.
History
Reaction to Ballyholland Massacre
Even fellow military men recoiled in horror at the unprovoked massacre at Ballyholland in 1797. Some felt it contributed to the popularity of the United men in an area that had till then been peaceable and uninvolved.
History of Ireland in Episodes
I received as a Christmas gift, the paperback of this work – released last Christmas in hardback – after running on BBC Radio Ulster for months of short programmes. It is excellent.
Mass Rock Found
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Catholics in Ireland were forbidden to openly practice their religion and had to resort to open-air ceremonies where guards could be posted to look out for approaching Redcoats. There was a bounty on priests and especially on Bishops. But the ordinary Catholic practitioner was also at risk.
Newry seized in 1641
The iniquitous Plantation consequent upon the defeat of Gaelic Ireland and the seizure of the lands of the Gaelic Chiefs (of many of those who remained as well as of those who fled with Hugh O’Neill) affected Newry and Mourne in a unique way.
Wollworths Staff of the 1950s
In the week that the former site of much-loved store Woolworths reopens as two clothes stores, I think it is appropriate to recall some of the Newry people who worked there forty or more years ago!
Glassdrummond Households
For some time we have concentrated on the Crossmaglen area. Before we leave, we would like to list family names common historically in this area using the below listed sources – all, of course in their time, designed to extract maximum amounts from the locals for the planter and the English in exile. For us, of course, they are an invaluable source of local and family history research!
O’Fiach and Blanket Men
I recently read one of Brian Moore’s last books, Lies of Silence, the title referring to Westminster’s silence on the injustices perpetrated on the Catholic minority in the Northern statelet where Moore was reared (before he emigrated to North America).