Cornonagh

Cornonagh a townland of 547 statute acres 2 roods and 20 perches. It is about three miles from Crossmaglen on the Creggan-Ballsmill road. It is bounded on the north by Drumbally, Cregganbane and Lurgancullenboy, on the east by Mounthill, on the south by County Louth and on the west by Coolderry. The Tithe Applotment Books records the total area as 315 acres 1 rood and 20 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Corr Abhna, "The high hill of whins" ⁽¹⁾

There is no other townland in Ireland with that name.

There are two articles about Cornonagh in "Creggan", the Journal of the Creggan Local History Society, both by Len Gourd-

• "The Cornonagh Evictions" No 9 - 1999/2000 page 94
• "Cornonagh in 1901" No 10 - 2001/2002 page 86

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

CORNOONAGH (OSNB ii 8): This is very high land of a very light inferior quality and rough in its general appearance. A good part of it is bog, uncultivated and water. It is under tillage rented in small portions. The dwellings are numerous but very poor. A bye road runs thro' it with connecting lanes but no main road of any significance.
It contains 547..2..20 of which 59..3..35 is uncultivated and Bog, & 0..2..16 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	£206.08	£246.55	£201.55	£210.10	£210.50	£207.50	£207.25	£207.25	£213.40	£221.15	£275.25	£271.50	£113.25	£127.00

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

Griffiths Valuation records the owner of the townland as mostly Rev. Edward J. Hamilton with the exception of 23^1/2 acres belonging to Samuel Gilmore and George Griffin. In addition to the land they owned, Samuel Gilmore and George Griffin also leased an additional 21 acres.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 193 people in 48 households, a ratio of 4 people per household.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 48 households enumerated in the Census, 26 contained at least one native Irish speaker - 38 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, with the exception of Mary Donaghy, Edward Hearty and Rose Conlon - born in Co. Louth and Mary Quinn, Co 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	97	99	85	82	76	66	48	46	40	45	31
People	505	455	374	329	297	267	193	185	131	129	109
People per house	5.2	4.6	4.4	4.0	3.9	4.0	4.0	4.0	3.3	2.9	3.5

In the period of 110 years, the number of households reduced by 68% and the population by 78% - more than three quarters. The reduction continued steadily until the 1920s, after which the rate of decline slowed.

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.