Coolderry

Coolderry is a townland of 232 statute acres 2 roods and 16 perches in County Armagh about three miles southeast of Crossmaglen. It is bounded on the north by Drumbally, on the east by Cornonagh, on the south Ballinabinaby and Tavanamore in County Louth and on the west by Clarnagh and Liscalgat. The Tithe Applotment Books of 1828 recorded the total acerage of the townland as 141 acres 1 rood and 21 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Cúl Doire, "The far oakwood"⁽¹⁾.

There are 18 townlands in Ireland called 'Coolderry'. They are in Counties Armagh, Clare, Meath, Laois, Monaghan (3), Offaly (2), Roscommon (3) and Tipperary (6).

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

COOLDERRY (OSNB i 21): A long narrow irregular shaped Td. laying on the N. and S. of the little village of Creggan, a bye road ... its N. and [runs] diagonally for about 1/8 of a mile. A group of poor cabins in its S. and bears the name of Coolderry. The land is poor quality, badly cultivated giving wretched crops. The few dwellings are indeed miserable.
It contains 232..2..16 of which 23.1.29 is uncultivated and Bog.

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	£111.88	£116.19	£106.80	£111.45	£102.50	£103.00	£106.25	£105.75	£106.00	£106.00	£119.25	£118.75	£130.25	£128.50

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

Griffiths Valuation records that the townland was owned by Rev. Edward J. Hamilton.

Census of Ireland 1901

The enumerated 50 persons in 14 households; a ratio of 3.6 people per household. The households occupied a total of 30 rooms; a ratio of 2.1 rooms per household and 1.7 persons per room. All but two of the households occupied 2 rooms - those two had three rooms. Eleven (78.6%) of the houses were thatched.

Native Irish speakers

Of the 14 households enumerated in the Census nine contained at least one native Irish speaker - 15 in all. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a predominently Irish speaking environment, their names are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh

• Owen Morgan, farmer, 59 and his brother James, farmer, 56
• Patrick Hearty, farmer, 64 and his wife Rose, 64
• John Hearty, stone mason, 50 his wife Ellen, 46 and Bridget McGuinness, servant, 83
• Patrick Keenan, farmer, 80 and his daughter, Margaret,45
• Owen McKeown, farmer, 85
• Richard Morgan, farmer, 54
• Mary Daly, farmer, 63
• Mary Larkin, farmer, 80
• Mary McGeeney, farmer, 45 and her brother Peter McGeeney, farmer, 42

* The average age of the Irish speakers was 61.

Population Change

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	19	22	20	20	24	17	14	14	12	13	10
People	96	102	93	88	81	72	50	38	36	21	33
People per house	5.1	4.6	4.7	4.4	3.4	4.2	3.6	2.7	3.0	1.6	3.3

In the period of 110 years, the number of households reduced by 50% and the population by 65%. Unlike most of rest of the townlands, however, the Famine does not seem to have had an impact on numbers. Indeed the population increased between 1841 and 1851, although the numbers thereafter did slowly decrease at each census until 1951 when it increased for the first time.

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.