County Wicklow
County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...
, in the southern foothills of the
Wicklow Mountains
The Wicklow Mountains (, archaic: '' Cualu'') form the largest continuous upland area in Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into the counties of Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. Where the mountai ...
, 4 km north of Aughrim on the back road to Greenan. The historical
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
...
is in the
townland
A townland (; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a traditional small land division used in Ireland and in the Western Isles of Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of medieval Gaelic origin, predating the Norman invasion, and mo ...
of Macreddin West in the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of Ballykine,
barony Barony may refer to:
* Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron
* Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron
* Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...
of
Ballinacor South
Ballinacor South () is a barony in County Wicklow, Ireland. This geographical unit of land is one of eight baronies in County Wicklow. It is located in the southern Wicklow Mountains. Its chief town is Aughrim. The barony lies between Ballinaco ...
. It also gives its name to the adjacent townland of Macreddin East.
Wicklow County Council
Wicklow County Council () is the local authority of County Wicklow, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and community, roads and transportation, urban planning an ...
's 2010
development plan
A development plan sets out a local authority's policies and proposals for land use in their area. The term is usually used in the United Kingdom. A local plan is one type of development plan. The development plan guides and shapes day-to-day de ...
The name Macreddin is believed to come from the Irish ''Magh Chrídáin'' "plain of Cridan". In 1875, John O'Hanlon identified him as a
Celtic Christian
Celtic Christianity is a form of Christianity that was common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. The term Celtic Church is deprecated by many historians as it implies a unified and identifiab ...
saint "Criotan, Credan, Credanus, or Cridanus", son of Iladon, who was also venerated at nearby Aghavannagh, and in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
. Price says he was more likely a local chieftain at the time Saint Kevin proselytized the area. Macreddin was granted to the monastery of St Saviour, Glendalough in the 12th century. When the
Diocese of Glendalough
The Bishop of Glendalough () is an Episcopal polity, episcopal title in the Church of Ireland, which takes its name after the monastery at Glendalough in County Wicklow, Ireland. An Irish version of the place name, ''Glenndálocha'', is now used ...
was merged with the
Archdiocese of Dublin
The Archbishop of Dublin () is an archiepiscopal title which takes its name from Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Ire ...
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...
, it was transferred to
Dublin Corporation
Dublin Corporation (), known by generations of Dubliners simply as ''The Corpo'', is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660–1661, even more si ...
.
County Wicklow
County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...
was established in 1606 and the
Dublin Castle administration
Dublin Castle was the centre of the government of Ireland under English and later British rule. "Dublin Castle" is used metonymically to describe British rule in Ireland. The Castle held only the executive branch of government and the Privy Cou ...
sought to contain the threat to English planters from the Gaelic O'Toole and O'Byrne clans in the mountains. A fort was built at Macreddin while
Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland
Henry Cary, 1st Viscount Falkland, KB, PC (c. 1575 – September 1633) was an English landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1601 to 1622. He was created Viscount Falkland in the Scottish peerage in 1620. He was Lord D ...
was
Lord Deputy of Ireland
The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive (government), executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland ...
in 1625-28, and named "Cary's fort" in his honour.Samuel Lewis records that the garrison was withdrawn to Dublin in the
1641 Rebellion
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 was an uprising in Ireland, initiated on 23 October 1641 by Catholic gentry and military officers. Their demands included an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and return of confiscat ...
and the site was captured from the English by the O'Byrnes. No visible trace of the fort remains; the site is reputed to be in "Castle Field".
In 1628, Carysfort was incorporated as a
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
...
under a
royal charter
A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...
from
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
. The
corporation
A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...
was to have the same powers as at
Jamestown, County Leitrim
Jamestown () is a village on the banks of the River Shannon in the south of County Leitrim, Ireland. It lies some 5 km east-south-east of the county town, Carrick-on-Shannon. It was named for James I.
Jamestown was built as a walled to ...
. The 1835 report of the Commissioners into Municipal Corporations in Ireland stated the charter did not appear "ever to have been acted on for any corporate purpose, except that of returning Members to Parliament before the Union". The charter granted the 13 members of the corporation "600 acres of arable land and pasture, and 276 acres of bog, mountain, wood, and underwood" in free burgage, and three smaller parcels of land in
socage
Socage () was one of the feudal duties and land tenure forms in the English feudal system. It eventually evolved into the freehold tenure called "free and common socage", which did not involve feudal duties. Farmers held land in exchange for ...
to each fund a specific purpose: first the garrison, second a Protestant curate and
glebe
A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...
, and third a free school. A 1688 charter of James II restated these grants; but by 1835 all lands except the school's had been alienated.
The elevation of Carysfort was too high and settlers soon moved south down the valley to Aughrim. In the eighteenth century there was still a fairground at the crossroads, with "riotous" two-day
fair
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...
s held at
Whitsun
Whitsun (also Whitsunday or Whit Sunday) is the name used in Britain, and other countries among Anglicans and Methodists, for the Christian holy day of Pentecost. It falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter and commemorates the descent of the H ...
and
All Saints All Saints' Day is a Christian holiday.
All Saints, All Saints Day or Feast of All Saints may also refer to:
Art and entertainment
* ''All Saints'' (film), a 2017 Christian drama film
* ''All Saints'' (TV series), an Australian hospital drama
* ...
.
Michael Dwyer
Michael Dwyer (1 January 1772– 23 August 1825) was an insurgent captain in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, leading the United Irish forces in battles in Wexford and Wicklow. Following the defeat and dispersal of the rebel hosts, in July 1798 ...
stayed in Macreddin when repairing to the
Wicklow Mountains
The Wicklow Mountains (, archaic: '' Cualu'') form the largest continuous upland area in Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into the counties of Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. Where the mountai ...
after the
1798 Rising
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 (; Ulster-Scots: ''The Turn out'', ''The Hurries'', 1798 Rebellion) was a popular insurrection against the British Crown in what was then the separate, but subordinate, Kingdom of Ireland. The main organising force ...
. The 1835 commissioners' report described Carysfort as "a small village, containing a few houses of the humblest class", and concluded, "There is but a thinly-scattered population in the neighbourhood, and neither trade or commerce of any kind in the village, and there seems to be no occasion whatever for reviving the corporation."
Religion
In the
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland (, ; , ) is a Christian church in Ireland, and an autonomy, autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the Christianity in Ireland, second-largest Christian church on the ...
, Carysfort was a royal
chapelry
A chapelry was a subdivision of an ecclesiastical parish in England and parts of Lowland Scotland up to the mid 19th century.
Status
A chapelry had a similar status to a Township (England), township, but was so named as it had a chapel of ease ...
, originally with a thatched chapel by the school in Sheeana. It was within the
perpetual curacy
Perpetual curate was a class of resident Parish (Church of England)#Parish priest, parish priest or Incumbent (ecclesiastical), incumbent curate within the United Church of England and Ireland (name of the combined Anglican churches of England an ...
chapel of ease
A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently, generally due to trav ...
at Gallows Lane in Macreddin opened in 1869 to replace that at Sheeana; it was
deconsecrated
Deconsecration, also referred to as decommissioning or ''secularization'' (a term also used for the external confiscation of church property), is the removal of a religious sanction and blessing from something that had been previously consec ...
in 1991. The
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
church was dedicated to
Saint Brigid
Saint Brigid of Kildare or Saint Brigid of Ireland (; Classical Irish: ''Brighid''; ; ) is the patroness saint (or 'mother saint') of Ireland, and one of its three national saints along with Patrick and Columba. According to medieval Irish ...
and Lewis in 1837 reported it as the parish church of Rathdrum. In 1864 it was rededicated to Laurence O'Toole; it is now in ruins. Upper Macreddin Cemetery is in the churchyard, while the larger Lower Macreddin Cemetery is further down the valley.
Royal School
Under the 1628 charter, Carysfort Royal School was established with a schoolhouse in the neighbouring townland of Sheeana More, to be funded from revenue of lands there. The revenue was not well used and the school was of poor quality; an 1810 work said "about 50 Boys attend in summer, but not above a dozen in winter". To resolve such abuses there and at other endowed schools, an 1813 Act of Parliament transferred management of the lands to Commissioners for Educational Endowments in Ireland. £500 was spent on a new building and in 1833 the school had 110 students funded from 361 acres. Whereas the other Royal Schools established by the Stuart kings were
grammar schools
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...
, the Carysfort school was "a small, neglected, and inefficient primary school" and in 1887 the Commissioners recommended using its endowment to fund schools in more convenient locations in Aughrim and Rathdrum. In 1925 the management was transferred to the
Department of Education
An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...
of the new
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...
, where it is still vested.
Parliamentary borough
Carysfort was a
borough constituency
In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons.
Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constituen ...
sending two MPs to the
Irish House of Commons
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...
. It was a
pocket borough
A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act of 1832, which had a very small electo ...
of the Proby family, who took the title Baron Carysfort. It was disfranchised under the
Act of Union 1800
The Acts of Union 1800 were parallel acts of the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of Ireland which united the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland (previously in personal union) to create the United Kingdom of G ...