moybane

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.

In the period of 110 years, the number of households more than halved (55%) while the population dropped by 60%. The largest drop (46%) was in the 50 years from 1841 to 1891, reflecting the effects of the Great Famine. After a brief rally between 1891 and 1911, the decline continued for the next 40 years.

Observation

One remarkable feature of the townland is the name 'McCave'. In 1828 eighteen of the twenty family names was 'McCave'. By 1864 this name had entirely disappeared. However, there were instead 14 families called 'McCoy'. It seems reasonable to assume that these are the same families as the McCaves, the name being changed for some unknown reason. There is no reference in either of Edward MacLysaght's two main reference works to such a name anywhere in Ireland, although it does appear frequently in the 1766 Creggan Census.

Family Connections

• In 1875 my Grandfather, Owen Devlin, bought a field (1 acre 2 roods and 35 perches) from Michael O'Brien and built a house there in 1890 or 1891. He bought out the ground title in 1914. At the time he was married to Mary Rox whose father, Francis, had a farm in the townland. They had no children and after she died he married my grandmother, Annie McKenna from Drumboy, in 1897. They both died before I was a year old. I was a frequent visitor, until the late 1950s to my uncles and an aunt, and later cousins, who lived there. The property was inherited by Peter Devlin until bought, in 1961, by his brother Gerald. The house, now totally rebuilt, is occupied by a Gerald's granddaughter and her own family.

• James Richardson was born in the townland of Monaguillagh about 1785. His son, James (born 1821), married a widow, Catherine McCoy (nee Kane) and went to live in Moybane, probably in the 1850s, where he is listed in Griffiths Valuation of 1864. His son, also James, (born 1860) married Kate McKenna from Drumboy in 1890 and in 1883 bought more land, on which the present house was built, at the Moybane Crossroads, from a cousin of Michael McCoy. Michael McCoy was married a sister of Kate Richardson, Mary McKenna. On James' death, in 1941 his son Eddie Richardson MP inherited the property. Eddie died in 1985 and his son James still owns the property.

• Mary McKenna, a sister of Annie Devlin and Kate Richardson, married Michael McCoy, enumerated in 1901 and 1911 Census of Ireland. Michael died in 1914 and Mary in 1922. Their only daughter, Kathleen, accompanied by her cousins Eddie and Christina Devlin, emigrated to America two months after her mother died. Their house has long been demolished. In 1935 it was being rented by Patrick Donnelly. Ten acres of the land was purched by Peter Devlin in 1947 and is still in possession of his family.

• The O'Reilly Family's grandfather (Joseph A.) who (according to the 1901 census was born in Co. Fermanagh, but by family tradition was born in Galway) lived in a house beside Mobane Crossroads (beside the site of the old chapel) at the beginning of the 20th century and are enumerated there in the 1901 Census before moving to Urker about a mile away soon afterwards.

Names of House and land Holders

All the Valuations since Griffiths identified those with houses in the townland and those who while living elsewhere leased or owned land there. The Census of Ireland enumerated only households in the townland. The following table uses this approach.