Drumbally

Drumbally is a townland (most of it on a large drumlin) of 265 statute acres roods and 12 perches in County Armagh about a mile and a half south east of Crossmaglen on the Creggan to Ballsmills road. It is bounded on the north by Cregganbane, on the east by Cornonagh, on the south by Coolderry and on the west by Liscalgat. From the hill top there are fine views far into Counties Louth and Monaghan. In the Tithe Applotment Books 1828 the area of the townland is given as 137 acres 7 roods and 3 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Druim-bhaile, "The townland on the ridge" ⁽¹⁾.

There is no other townland of that name in Ireland.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

DRUMBALLY (OSNB ii 28): This is situated about 1/2 a mile S.E. of Creggan Village, a bye road runs E. and W. thro' it. It is chiefly under tillage in small farms. The soil, light and inferior, produces small crops. Several scattered houses having an approach or lane to them.
It contains 256..0..27 of which 20..1..30 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	1837	1851	1864	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1935	1952	1957	1974
Valuation	£119.20	£123.50	£166.25	£106.25	£165.00	£163.50	£163.25	£147.25	£147.50	£166.25	£168.75	£177.75	£194.00

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There were no such houses in the townland.

Griffiths Valuation records Richard Allen as the owner of the townland.

Census of Ireland 1901

In the Census, 78 people were enumerated in 17 households, a ratio of 4.6 persons per household. The total number of occupied rooms was 35, a ratio of 2 per household and a density of 2.2 persons per room. Eleven of the houses were thatched.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 17 households enumerated in the Census, 11 contained at least one native Irish speaker - 13 in all. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a substantialy Irish speaking environment, their names, occupations and ages are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh

• Patrick Murphy, farm labourer, 54
• Anne Harrison, sewer, 60
• Terence Quinn, farmer, 70
• Ellen Hearty, farmer, widow, 60
• Michael Hearty, farmer, 60
• Peter McKeever, farmer, 63
• Francis Hearty, farmer, 60
• Robert Lambe, farmer, 80
  and his wife Mary, 60
• Mary McShane, farmer, 40
• Edward McGeeney, farmer, 45
  and his aunt Catherine Begley, retired farmer, widow, 80
• John McKeever, farmer, 57

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	25	23	24	29	23	19	17	16	14	15	14
People	144	111	103	107	111	84	78	69	41	51	37
People per house	5.8	4.8	4.3	3.7	4.8	4.4	4.6	4.3	2.9	3.4	2.6

In the period of 110 years, the number of households reduced by 44%, while the population dropped by 74% - almost threequarters. The population halved in the 60 years between 1841 and 1901 and halved again in the following 50 years..

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.