Urcher

Urcher is a townland of 497 statute acres 1 rood and 10 perches lying to the east of Crossmaglen, straddling the Newry Road. It is bounded on the north by Cloghoge, on the east by Cregganduff, Cregganbane and Liscalgat, on the south by Drummuck and on the west by Sheiland, Monog and Carran. In the 1828 Tithe Applotment Books the total area is shown as 265 acres and 3 roods (Plantation Irish measure)

Name of townland

Urcar, "A cast or throw". According to Hugh Macauley, writing in the 1992 Journal of the Creggan Local History Society, the likely explanation of the name is that there was a church between Crossmaglen and Creggan at Killyloughran and the "cast" referred to the funeral practice of mourners casting a stone to form a cairn on or near the grave, or alternatively that the mourners built their cairn at a point from which they first caught sight of Creggan graveyard.⁽¹⁾

There are three townlands called 'Urcher' in Ireland; in Counties Armagh, Cavan and Monaghan.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

URCHER (OSNB i 15): It is in the west of the village of Creggan, and principally under grazing. There is a considerable portion uncultivated and bog. In detached pieces a road to Crossmaglen runs thro' the N. of this td. from which it is distant about 1/2 a mile and which is its market town.
It contains 494..1..27 of which 55..2..11 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	£254.62	£268.25	£336.20	£332.45	£331.95	£331.45	£320.20	£317.70	£301.95	£327.60	£394.10	£422.85	£584.35

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

• Elizabeth Johnston, and
• Jonathan Smyth

Griffths Valuation records the owner of the townland as Thomas P. Ball.

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 62 people in 17 households; a ratio of 3.6 people per household. The households ocupied a total of 54 rooms; a ratio of 3.2 rooms per household and 1.1 people per room. One household occupied more than 4 rooms, four occupied 4 rooms, six occupied 3 rooms, five occupied 2 rooms and one household had but a single room. Eight (40%) of the houses were thatched.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 17 households enumerated in the Census, five contained at least one native Irish speaker - 8 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 with the exception of Anne Conlon, born in Co. Monaghan and James Duffy, born in Co. Louth.

• Mary Nugent, sister of Bridget Nugent, 56
• Owen Morris, farmer, 75
  his wife Anne, 80
  their daughter, Katie, farmer's daughter, 48
  and son Patrick, farmer's son, 38
• Anne Conlon, wife of Peter, seamstress, 50
• James Duffy, farm labourer, 62
• Bridget Donnelly, mother-in-law of Thomas Corr, 68

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	33	34	31	27	20	17	20	18	12	14	14
People	201	152	148	126	86	87	68	67	50	46	65
People per house	6.1	4.5	4.8	4.7	4.3	5.1	3.4	3.7	4.2	3.3	4.6

In the period of 110 years, the number of households more than halved (58%) and the population dropped by 68%. The largest drop (57%) was in the 40 years after 1841, reflecting the continuing effects of the Great Famine.

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.