Townlands of Creggan

• Ballynaclosha
• Cappagh
• Cregganbane
• Cregganduff
• Drumbally
• Drumboy
• Drummuckavall
• Glassdrummonaghy
• Glassdrumman
• Legmoylin
• Monaguillagh
• Moybane
• Rathkeelan
• Tullydonnell Gage
• Tullydonnell O'Callaghan
• Urcher

The land we live in has been occupied for thousands of years. Our knowledge of the people who lived here before us is limited to relatively recent times and to few individuals. No record remains even of the names of the 99.9% of the generations of people who down through the centuries shaped the land we live in. Where we can preserve any trace we should strive to do so. Written records are scarce in Ireland, made more acute by the destruction of almost the complete national archive in the Four Courts in the early 1920s.

These pages draw on the material that is available. They record the occupants of the South Armagh townlands of the Civil Parish of Creggan where my McKenna, Devlin and Boyle ancestors lived, and where many hundreds of their descendents still live, over the maximum period possible, from the information available to me. The area of the civil parish is not co-terminous with the two Roman Catholic Parishes of Upper and Lower Creggan. The townlands listed aside are a sample of the 54 townlands in the parish. Each of them have some association with our family. Similar information on the other 38 townlands, and the town of Crossmaglen, is available but is too bulky to include here. However, the Family Names of Creggan lists the incidence and concentration of the most common family names in the whole parish at the different survey/sample points, and the Native Irish Speakers of Creggan covers the whole parish.

The sources of the information are -

• Hearth Money Roll of the Fews 1664 ⁽¹⁾
• Census of Creggan 1766 ⁽¹⁾
• Tithe Applotment Books - Creggan Parish - 1828 ⁽²⁾
• The Townland Valuation 1837 ⁽²⁾
• Griffiths Valuation 1864 ⁽²⁾
• Census of Ireland ⁽²⁾ 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1981, 1991, 1901, 1911⁽³⁾
• Northern Ireland Census of Population 1926, 1937 and 1951
• First Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935 ⁽²⁾
• Second Revaluation 1957⁽²⁾

The Third Revaluation (1975) did not identify property by townlands. Instead, it used the new Post Office system of road names and postcodes. It can therefore not be used to continue this series of household, land and property censuses. To get as close as possible to the present, the position in the townland at the date of the last recorded revision of the Second Revaluation is presented.

The data are not strictly comparable since the information was gathered for different purposes and used different criteria. The purpose of the information is to allow the reader to compare the names and sometimes their remarkable survival in the townlands through the centuries.

There are other sources available eg nineteenth century Rentals which I will research in due course.

Information Sources:

• ⁽¹⁾ Journal of the County Louth Archeological Society Vol. VIII 1934 No 2
• ⁽²⁾ PRONI, Belfast
• ⁽³⁾ National Archives, Dublin

For historical information about Creggan, visit the Creggan History Society web site.