Lissaraw

Lissaraw is a townland of 260 statute acres and 25 perches co-terminous with the town and townland of Crossmaglen between the roads to Cullaville and Dundalk. It is bounded on the north by Rathkeelan, on the east by Crossmaglen, on the south by Moybane and Cappagh and on the west by Creevekeeran. In the Tithe Applotment Books of 1828 the total acerage is shown as 125 acres 2 roods (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Lios a' Reatha, "The fort of the racing" ⁽¹⁾.

There are three townlands called 'Lissaraw' in Ireland; in Counties Armagh (2) and Monaghan.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

LISSARAW (OSNB ii 39): A large portion of this td. is bog and uncultivated ground. A manorial bye road runs E. & W.thro' it. There are a few very poor dwellings in it. The soil is rather inferior producing light indifferent crops.
It contains 260..0..25 of which 54..2..31 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	£120.93	£147.50	£169.75	£168.75	£166.50	£161.75	£161.75	£160.50	£161.25	£183.00	£184.25	£204.00	£217.75

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

Griffiths Valuation records the owner of the land as Dominick Daly.

The 1901 Census enumerated 96 people in 22 families; a ratio of 4.4 persons per family. A family of six occupied a single room, 14 occupied two rooms, and seven occupied three rooms.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 22 households enumerated in the Census, five contained at least one native Irish speaker - 6 in all. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a substantially Irish speaking environment, their names, occupations and ages are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh.

• Catherine Larkin, wife of Michael, 44
• Owen McShane, farmer, 82
• Bridget McEnteggart, farmer, 75
• Thomas McKeown, farmer, 45
  and his wife Mary, 37
• Terence Loy, farmer, 82

* The average age of the group was 61.
* Of the group, three could read and write, three could read.

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	40	32	30	32	26	21	22	17	18	18	16
People	210	141	128	150	115	85	96	87	79	55	54
People per house	5.3	4.4	4.3	4.7	4.4	4.0	4.4	5.1	4.4	3.1	3.4

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped by 60% and the population by 74%. The initial fall of 33% between 1841 and 1851 (the famine years), was followed by a fluctuating but steady decline for the next century.

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.