cappagh

Location

Cappagh (Cappy) lies about a mile south of the village of Cullaville to the east of the Concession Road which links Castleblaney with Dundalk, passing briefly through this part of Northern Ireland. It is mostly on a hill and has a small lake of five acres. It is bounded on the north by Lisseraw, on the east by Moybane, on the south by Clonalig and on the west by Glassdrumonaghy and Creevekeeran. In the Tithe Applotment Books 1828 the total area is recorded as 84 acres 2 roods and 13 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of Townland

Ceapach, "A tillage plot"⁽¹⁾. With the exception of the Tithe Applotment Books (where it is spelled "Cappy") the name is recorded as "Cappagh" in all the official documents used here.

There are 55 townlands in Ireland called 'Cappagh', many in the same County. They are in Counties Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare (2), Cork, (3) Donegal, Down, Dublin, Galway (9), Kerry (7), Kildare, Kilkenny (5), Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Mayo (2), Monaghan, Offaly (2), Roscommon (3), Sligo (2), Tipperary (4), Tyrone, Waterford (2), Westmeath and Wicklow.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

CAPPAGH (OSNB ii 20) There is only one small marshy bye road or lane in this td. It is nearly all surrounded by stripes of bog. Chiefly under tillage in small farms producing very indifferent crops. The houses are poor and the few people living here are very uneducated and ignorant. Cappy Lough on the S.W. Side has some trout & eels in it.

It contains 172..1..8 of which 33..O..5 is uncultivated and Bog, and 5..0..20 water.

Valuation

Although the decimalisation of the currency was introduced only in 1971, all of the valuations in the following table have been converted from £sd for convenience.

Year	1828	1837	1851	1864	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1935	1952	1957	1974
Valuation	£64.50	£68.00	£75.00	£103.75	£104.00	£104.00	£99.25	£99.00	£92.00	£89.25	£97.25	£98.00	£119.25	£121.25

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There were none in the townland.

Griffiths Valuation records that in 1864 the townland was owned by Dominic Daly.

Census of Ireland 1901

The 1901 census enumerated 57 people in 17 households; a ratio of 3.4 persons per household. The households occupied a total of 35 rooms; a ratio of 2 rooms per household and 1.6 people per room. Of the 17 houses, 11 were thatched. One house had 4 rooms, three had 3 rooms, nine had 2 rooms and four had one room.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 17 households enumerated, 14 contained at least one native Irish speaker - a total of 22. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a predominently Irish speaking environment, their names, occupations and ages are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh with the exception of Bridget Carraher, Elizabeth Daily, Margaret Kennan, Catherine Carragher and Mary Gerarty, all born in Monaghan.

Population Decline

The following table sets out the number of houses and population enumerated in the townland in each of the 11 Censuses held between 1841 and 1951.

	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1937	1951
Houses	26	28	24	24	25	19	17	15	12	9	9
People	131	130	105	93	90	75	66	50	46	40	31
People per house	5.0	4.6	4.4	3.9	3.6	3.9	3.9	2.7	3.8	4.4	3.4

In the period of 110 years, the number of households decreased by almost two thirds, but the population dropped by 76% - more than threequarters. The population halved between 1841 and 1901 and halved again by 1951.

Names of House and Land Holders ⁽³⁾

The following table sets of the names of those who owned or rented houses and land on the townland at the time the valuation records or population censuses were compiled.