Monog

is a townland of 224 statute acres 2 roods and 13 perches lying immediately east of Crossmaglen. St Patricks Church, Crossmaglen, erected in 1835, lies in the townland. It is bounded on the north and east by Urcher and on the south by Sheiland. In the Tithe Applotment Books 1828 the total area is recorded as 136 acres and 33 perches (Plaantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Móin Bhog, "The soft bog" ⁽¹⁾.

There is no other townland of that name in Ireland.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

MONOG (OSNB ii 40): It lies E. of the town of Crossmaglen. The new R.C.Chapel belonging to Crossmaglen is built in this Td. It is chiefly under cultivation held in small tenures. There is a small portion of bog in the north and.... [text breaks off].
It contains 228..0..36 of which 5.. I ..24 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	£131.87	£150.50	£242.65	£195.65	£188.15	£232.40	£226.40	£236.80	£245.30	£316.15	£345.65	£470.40	£644.40

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There were three such house in the townland -

• George Harvey
• Rev. M. Lennon
• James McKenna

Griffiths Valuation records the owner of the land, with the exception of a few acres and houses, as Thomas P. Ball.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 49 persons in 14 households; a ratio of 3.5 people per household. The households ocupied a total of 50 rooms; a ratio of 3.8 rooms per household and 1 person per room. Three of the households (with 9 people) occupied 6 or more rooms, one (with 6 people) occupied 4 rooms, three (with 16 people) occupied 3 rooms and seven (with 18 people), occupied 2 rooms.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 49 households enumerated in the Census, four contained at least one native Irish speaker - nine in all. 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.

• Mary McCoy, seamstress, 48
• Catherine Mcgeeney, seamstress, 54
• Thomas McNulty, farmer, 57
  his wife Catherine, housekeeper, 59
  sons Michael, farm worker, 23
  Joseph, farem worker, 17
  and daughter, scholar, 13
• John Loy, farmer, 67
  and his sister-in-law, Margaret Byrne, farmer, 62

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	41	32	22	21	15	13	14	12	17	21	17
People	200	134	81	76	65	57	49	44	47	65	66
People per house	4.9	4.2	3.7	3.6	4.3	4.4	3.5	3.7	2.8	3.1	3.9

In the period of 110 years, the number of households dropped by 59% and the population by 67%. The initial fall of 33% between 1841 and 1851 - the famine years, was followed by a rapid decline in the following ten years, leaving but 40% of the original population. There followed a continuing decline until the 1911 Census after which when the position improved slightly for the next 40 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.