Mullaghbawn ( or ; ), or Mullaghbane, is a small

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

and

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

near

Slieve Gullion Slieve Gullion ( or ''Sliabh Cuilinn'', "Culann's mountain") is a mountain in the south of County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The mountain is the heart of the Ring of Gullion and is the highest point in the county, with an elevation of . At the ...

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. In the 2011 Census it had a population of 596.

History

A barracks was built near Mullaghbawn in 1689 and was known as Shanroe Barracks. The building was a small outpost build to help to suppress the activities of the

rapparees Rapparees or raparees (from the Irish ''ropairí'', plural of ''ropaire'', whose primary meaning is "thruster, stabber," and by extension a wielder of the half-pike or pike), were Irish guerrilla fighters who operated on the Jacobite side dur ...

and eventually abandoned in 1750. Forkill rectory was built in 1775 in the townland of Shanroe nearer the village of Mullaghbane. This meant that the rector had to travel almost two miles from his home to his church in Forkhill on foot or on horseback. The outbreak of sectarian violence between the

Peep o' Day Boys The Peep o' Day Boys was an agrarian Protestant association in 18th-century Ireland. Originally noted as being an agrarian society around 1779–80, from 1785 it became the Protestant component of the sectarian conflict that emerged in County Arm ...

and the Catholic Defenders in the Mulllaghbane and Forkill areas in the 1780s and early 1790s meant that a new barracks was required to house a company of foot soldiers. Belmont Barracks was later built overlooking the site of the rectory in 1795. The Forkhill Yeomanry was formed when the barracks was opened. By 1821 Belmont Barracks had become obsolete and was sold. The main barracks building remains is currently two private homes. The rectory ceased to be occupied by 1920 and was burned by the local IRA in 1922 before it was to be taken over by British forces. The remains of the Rectory's ruined gatehouse is still standing along a laneway to the right on the road from the village to Belmont. Mullaghbawn, along with the rest of South Armagh, would have been transferred to the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between th ...

had the recommendations of the

Irish Boundary Commission The Irish Boundary Commission () met in 1924–25 to decide on the precise delineation of the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the Irish War of Independence, provided for such a c ...

been enacted in 1925.

Places of interest

* The community centre * Near Mullaghbawn, in Killeavy there is a ruined church with the grave of

Saint Moninne Saint Moninne or Modwenna of Killeavy was one of Ireland's early female saints. After instruction in the religious life, she founded a community, initially consisting of eight virgins and a widow with a baby, at Slieve Gullion, in what became Cou ...

(a local saint) in its churchyard. *

Ballykeel Dolmen Ballykeel Dolmen is a neolithic tripod portal tomb and a State Care Historic Monument at the foot of the western flank of Slieve Gullion, above a tributary of the Forkhill river, in the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area, at grid ref: ...

is near Mullaghbawn at the western foot of Slieve Gullion. It is an outstanding example of a portal tomb. It is made up of two portal stones with a sill between and a lower backstone supporting a huge

capstone CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) is a lunar orbiter that will test and verify the calculated orbital stability planned for the Lunar Gateway space station. The spacecraft is a 12- ...

. *Cashel Lake, a group of lakes on the outskirts of Mullaghbawn. *The South Armagh Memorial Garden in Mullaghbawn, created in 2010, commemorates 24

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

volunteers who died during

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an "i ...

Culture and sport

Mullaghbawn Folk Museum is a traditional two-roomed thatched farmhouse and outbuildings, restored by the Mullaghbawn Historical Group during the 1970s and filled with artefacts depicting the lifestyles of the people of the Ring of Gullion in the last century.

Tí Chulainn Tí Chulainn is a cultural, events and accommodation centre located in Mullaghbawn (Mullaghbann, Mullaghbane, An Mullach Bán) in South Armagh, in Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norl ...

is a cultural heritage centre, with accommodation and function rooms, set at the bottom of Slieve Gullion. The local GAA club is Mullaghbawn Cúchullain's GFC (Cumann Chú Chullain, An Mullach Bán).Armagh GAA website

People

* Len Graham, Irish traditional singer and song collector, lives in the village with his wife

Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin Pádraigín Máire Ní Uallacháin () is an Irish singer-songwriter, academic, and former newsreader

, also a singer. * Paddy O'Hanlon (1944-2009),

Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association ) was an organisation that campaigned for civil rights in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in Belfast on 9 April 1967,

(NICRA) activist and

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

politician, lived most of his life in Mullaghbawn.

Neighbouring townlands

Aughanduff Aughanduff () is a small village and townland in the civil parish of Forkhill, in the former Barony (Ireland), barony of Orior Upper, and County Armagh, County of Armagh, Northern Ireland. The townland is roughly co-existent with Upper and Lower ...

* Carrickaldreen * Carrive * Lathbirget * Lislea * Shanroe * Tullymacrieve

References

Links

Mullaghbawn Folk Museum
{{authority control Villages in County Armagh Townlands of County Armagh