Creggan () is a small

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

near

Crossmaglen Crossmaglen (, ) is a village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 1,610 in the 2011 Census and is the largest village in South Armagh. The village centre is the site of a large Police Service of Northern Ir ...

County Armagh County Armagh ( ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It is located in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and adjoins the southern shore of Lough Neagh. It borders t ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 246 people. It lies within the

Newry and Mourne District Council Newry and Mourne District Council () was a local council in Northern Ireland. It merged with Down District Council in May 2015 under local government reorganisation in Northern Ireland to become Newry, Mourne and Down District Council. It inclu ...

area.

Places of interest

Creggan Church Yard, near Crossmaglen is home to some of Ireland's best known Gaelic poets. The current

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 ...

church dates back to 1731 but there is evidence to suggest an earlier

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 preceded it. This is the burial place of three 18th century Irish poets:

Art Mac Cumhaigh Art Mac Cumhaigh (or Mac Cobhthaigh) (c. 1738–1773), or Art McCooey, was among the most celebrated of the south Ulster and north Leinster poets in the eighteenth century. He was part of the Kingdom of Oriel, Airgíalla tradition of poetry and ...

, Pádraig Mac Aliondain and Séamus Mór MacMurphy. It is also the burial place of the clan O’Neill. The O’Neills of Tyrone attempted to retake South Armagh from the invading English during the middle of the 15th century. The burial place was re-discovered in 1971 during a cleanup of the cemetery for the proposed bi-centennial celebrations of Art MacCooey. It is reputed the O’Neills arrived in Creggan in 1447 and the burial place currently contains approximately 70 skulls. On the banks of the River Creggan overlooking the rolling green hills of South Armagh stands Church of Ireland Creggan Church and graveyard. This is now a listed historical building and the grounds are surrounded by an ancient stone wall: her old gravestones stand in stark contrast to the small cluster of modern houses just beyond those walls. According to local folklore Creggan dates back to the 14th century. A congregation of mourners nearby were lowering their deceased loved one into the ground at Killyloughrain when they heard a distant tolling bell. This was read as a sign from God and they followed to the source of the ringing. It was here they buried their dead and that place, Creggan, became hallowed and the site of their Church. The present Church is believed to have been built in 1758 with the tower being added in 1799. The building itself might incorporate part of an earlier pre-schism Church. The O’Neill Vault is believed to have been situated under the altar of the latter. Now the vault lies outside the present Church building. The most famed of recent rectors was the Rev Mervyn Kingston.

History

On 10 April 1921, during the

Irish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence (), also known as the Anglo-Irish War, was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and Unite ...

, the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...

(IRA) ambushed a five-man

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the island was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom. A sep ...

(RIC) patrol in Creggan. The RIC men were called to investigate unusual activity at a public house, but were attacked by a fifteen-strong IRA unit. One RIC man was killed and two wounded. Creggan, along with the rest of South Armagh, would have been transferred to the

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 ...

had the recommendations of the

Irish Boundary Commission The Irish Boundary Commission () met in 1924–25 to decide on the precise delineation of Republic of Ireland – United Kingdom border, the border between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, which ended the I ...

been enacted in 1925.

The Troubles

Brendan Burns (30) and Brendan Moley (30), both

members of the

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

, were killed in a premature explosion while loading a bomb into a van on 29 February 1988.

References

Links

NI Neighbourhood Information SystemEnjoy IrelandCulture Northern Ireland

External links