Irish still used in Rathconrath in early 1800s, survey confirmed

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Westmeath Examiner, June 11, 1955

People of Rathconrath still used Irish in early 1800s, survey confirmed

A rare account of life in Rathconrath more than two centuries ago was described in the June 11, 1955 edition of the Westmeath Examiner. The information was drawn from the responses of the Rev Fred Potter, Rector of Rathconrath, to a questionnaire drawn up by William Shaw Mason for Mason’s Parochial Survey of Ireland, one of the earliest efforts at a statistical and social survey of the country.

The item in the Westmeath Examiner noted that although his response came to just 10 pages, he provided “clear and concise answers”. These offered insights into land ownership, farming practices, language use, and social conditions.

Rathconrath, he noted, lay west of Mullingar on the road to Ballymahon, crossed by routes to Athlone and Tullamore. He mentioned local landmarks such as two boulders known as the Cat and Mouse, and a stream that vanished underground only to reappear miles away – “quite a cat-and-mouse act in fact”, as a later writer quipped.

The parish comprised 22 townlands and 4,300 acres, mostly rented by native Irish smallholders at rates of 50 shillings to three guineas per acre. Under the conacre system for three years at a time, the cost could be as much as nine guineas per acre per year. Labourers earned between tenpence and one shilling a day, though only in the warmer months.

Reverend Potter described the native Irish as possessing “a good share of cunning and cleverness under the appearance of simplicity”, and noted that while English was in general use, Irish was used among themselves.

Tithes – religious taxes paid to the Protestant Church – were levied on all landholders regardless of religion. At the time, Rathconrath had two Catholic priests (unnamed in the report), serving 4,500 Catholics, compared to just 18 Protestants. The Catholic pastor, Rev Christopher Bannon, received no portion of the tithe revenue.

A new glebe house was under construction for the rector, with 30 acres of attached land, funded by the Board of First Fruits. Yet even with such support, Potter lamented the absenteeism of landlords, commenting that the only estated gentleman who lived in the parish was Mr Meares: “The residence in the parish of those gentlemen would contribute more to the general good than any other circumstance,” he wrote, opining that where landlords resided among their tenants, that seemed to act as a means of “exciting industry”.

“By the draining and improvement of their lands the resident landlords circulate not only that which will be beneficial to the labourer but secure for themselves, in the end, considerable advantages.”

Westmeath Examiner, June 13, 1885

‘Mullingar Blameless’

Mullingar was indignant after it was wrongly named in The Freeman’s Journal as the location of a crime that had in fact taken place some 20 miles away.

Stated a report in the Westmeath Examiner of June 13, 1885: “An account of a horrible stabbing affair alleged to have taken place at Littleton, in this county, but fully twenty miles from Mullingar, appeared in Wednesday’s Freeman under the heading, ‘The Knife in Mullingar’,” the item opened.

Going on to argue how inaccurate this was, the item stated that considering the distance between Mullingar and the place where the affair was said to have occurred, it was “surely a matter in reference to which the people of Mullingar had fair cause of complaint”.

It turns out the hurt was felt in religious as well as civic circles, for upon reading the account in The Freeman’s Journal, the Rev James Nulty, Adm, “promptly” took steps to have the matter corrected and thus preserved untarnished “the fair name and fame of the town”.

“By doing this,” the writer stated, “the rev gentleman has placed the people of Mullingar under a deep obligation to him, for this is a matter of which they should be justly jealous”.

Westmeath Examiner, June 8, 1895

The Killucan Market

“A farmer” – with no name given – had a letter published in the Westmeath Examiner stating that the best thanks of the community around Killucan were due to the energetic committee of the Killucan Market for their indefatigable exertions in making the market such a great success and conferring such a benefit upon the farmers of Killucan and surrounding districts.

“The wool season now in full being was very largely patronised on Tuesday last – market day – and very satisfactory prices were obtained due in a great measure to the assistance the committee received from the Messrs Weymes, Wool Merchants, Kinnegad, and McDermott Riverstown by the promptitude and alacrity they displayed and the business-like manner in which they got through the work,” the farmer wrote.

He continued: “These gentlemen have attended the last two markets since the wool season commenced and have kindly promised their patronage during the season. It would be to the interest of farmers if they looked seriously into the great advantage and come on Tuesdays with their wool early.

“They would find it much to their pecuniary advantage as I have experienced because the prices here on Tuesday last defy competition with any market in the kingdom in any commodity offered for sale.”

Westmeath Examiner, June 10, 1905

Meeting at Milltown Rathconrath

A large public meeting to re-organise the local branch of the United Irish League (UIL) had been held at Milltown (Rathconrath), the previous Sunday night, a report in the Westmeath Examiner of June 10, 1895 reported.

Amongst those present were Rev T Drum, PP, Milltown; Messrs Martin Lestrange, Patk Timmons, Joe Ballesty, DC; Patrick Heduan, DC; John Byrne, Patrick Byrne, P Williams, Peter J Byrne, Frank Murray, James Scott, DC; Patrick Roarke, John Harford, Patk Harford, Patk Keenan, James Rickard, Edwd Kilmurray, Patrick Mullally, Laurence Egan, Thos Geoghegan, Thos Colgan, Thos Glynne, Patrick Rafter, Christopher Sullivan, Michael Dalton, John Bannon, Frank Mullally, etc, etc

Rev T Drum, who took the chair amidst cheers, thanked them for the honour they had done him in asking him to preside over such a representative meeting of the farmers and labourers of his parish. He said he did not need to tell them he was in full sympathy with their organisation, and it was of momentous importance at the present time that the organisation should be made as representative and active as possible (hear, hear).

Continuing, he said the history of their country should teach them that if they wanted anything they should fight for it, and as O’Connell could not win Catholic Emancipation without such a display of public determination at the time, in like manner without a practical organisation they could not expect to win any material benefits for their country at the present crisis of their history. The exertions of the members of the Irish Party in the House of Commons would be futile unless backed up by a united and determined people at home (hear, hear). Hence it was essential that the United Irish League should be made vigorous throughout the country.

Westmeath Examiner, June 12, 1915

The vanishing songbirds of Westmeath

At the Mullingar Quarter Sessions more than a century ago, concern for Ireland’s dwindling birdlife took centre stage. On behalf of the Irish Society for the Protection of Wild Birds, Mr EE Mason appealed for stronger protections under the 1880 Wild Birds Protection Act. He read from an affidavit by John Molleson of Middleton Park, who argued that the close season should be extended throughout County Westmeath, especially for species like the goldfinch, which had been “greatly decreased in numbers”.

These birds, he explained, were being caught in “large numbers by professional bird-catchers” and shipped in cramped cages to England – many dying en route. Other at-risk species included siskins, redpolls, linnets, and skylarks.

Judge Drummond, presiding, agreed. “I had noticed myself a great decrease in the number of the smaller singing birds in the country,” he remarked, echoing a widespread sense of loss.

“I notice that skylarks are now not half so numerous as they were formerly in the country. I read in one of the daily papers where skylarks were heard singing in large numbers during the progress of a battle on the Franco-Belgium frontier with the shells exploding about them. I heard this confirmed by the men who heard those birds on the occasion.

Masson concluded with quiet sorrow: “You cannot get a siskin in this country now at all.”

Westmeath Examiner, June 13, 1925

Lucky escape for two teachers

Two schoolteachers had a lucky escape when the house in which they were living caught fire while they were asleep, an item in the Westmeath Examiner of June 13, 1925 reported.

The fire broke out in a thatched house owned by a Mrs Kelly, at Forgney, near Ballymahon. Living in the house were two teachers from Moyvore National School.

“The fire was discovered around 2 o’clock in the morning,” stated the item, explaining that the chimney stack burst and the masonry came with great force on the upper floor.

“The young ladies who were asleep, hearing the great noise, at once got up and found that the chimney was ablaze, gave the alarm and all the neighbours about were quickly on the scene and operations at once commenced to check the flames, to remove the furniture.

“How difficult the task of extinguishing the flames appeared at once to them can be well imagined when the only water supply was that carried by buckets a considerable distance. All the same, they worked strenuously to combat the flames which had now well caught the roof and were spreading rapidly and when the thatch had caught the flames all attempts to save it were futile and it burned out in a short time. The occupants were happily uninjured.”

Westmeath Examiner, June 8, 1935

Rathowen man wins at RDS

“Mr Thomas Kelly, Rathowen, County Westmeath, won a prize in a competition at the RDS, conducted by the Irish Independent,” reported the Westmeath Examiner on June 8, 1935. Mr Kelly was, apparently, adjudged “the old man of the Kellys”.

Westmeath Examiner, June 9, 1945

Ball shortage worries GAA

“The shortage of balls is worrying the GAA,” revealed an item in the Westmeath Examiner of June 9, 1945.

The disclosure had been made by Mr P O’Keeffe, general secretary of the GAA, who had attended a meeting of the Westmeath County Board the previous week.

Mr O’Keeffe told the meeting that balls were becoming “scarcer and scarcer”, and that the source through which he formerly sourced them was now exhausted.

“The Central Council will have to look into the matter and if we can procure any we will let the secretary have one or two,” he stated.

The item concluded by stating that two delegates at the meeting said they had found it impossible to obtain balls, especially tubes.

Westmeath Examiner, June 11, 1955

Public lighting

The members of the county council had approved a recommendation of the county engineer that additional public lighting lamps be provided in County Westmeath.

That was set to take the number of lights to 34 in Castlepollard, 37 in Kilbeggan, 47 in Moate and 11 in Cloghanboy, all of 200watts.

They also agreed that public lighting in the above locations “as well as in all villages in the county” be discontinued during the summer period from May 10 to August 12 and that the ESB be asked for a quotation for public lighting in Castlepollard, Moate, Kilbeggan and Cloghanboy to include all-night lighting in Castlepollard, Moate and Kilbeggan on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and the eves of fairs during the winter months.

Westmeath Independent, June 12, 1965

Haughey visit to local farms

The Minister for Agriculture, Charlie Haughey, visited Westmeath the previous Friday and spoke with farmers about their concerns, the Westmeath Independent reported. The farms he visited ranged in size from 33 acres to 220 acres.

Mr Haughey also visited Snowcream in Moate and inspected the site of a proposed NFA pig-fattening cooperative nearby. Among the farms he toured were those of John Conlon, Kilbeggan; James Keegan, Annagh, Athlone; James Loddock, Cappagh, Mount Temple; PJ Mahon, Collinstown, Ballymahon; and Michael Judge, Kilcumney, Collinstown.

The minister was accompanied on his day-long tour by Mr Rickard Deasy, President of the National Farmers Association. Speaking later at a meeting in Mullingar, Mr Deasy said that the greatest anomaly in Irish agriculture lay in the area of marketing.

Here, he said, while there had been increased production of cattle and sheep, it was running alongside what could only be described as a medieval marketing system. The NFA also used the occasion to tell the Minister that they wanted to see a wool marketing board established.

Westmeath Examiner, June 14, 1975

Fire ‘swept through’ Lake County Hotel

Just two weeks previously, fire had “swept through” a portion of the Lake County Hotel, Mullingar, and the latest was that business at the Lake County would be discontinued as soon as a new £250,000 project, ‘The Windmill Motor Inn’, to be built on the Dublin Road, Mullingar, was ready for business, which was expected to be in six months’ time.

“The new hotel which is to be sited on a hillside close to Westmeath Motors will have forty bedrooms and will incorporate the same facilities, including a dancehall, which were available at the Lake County,” stated the report.

“The new project will be built on a two and a half acre site and with floor area of 20,000 sq ft, making it the biggest and most modern hotel in the midlands. Ideally situated overlooking the main Dublin road, it will prove a major asset to Mullingar as regards tourism.”

The item stated that planning permission for the Windmill Motor Inn had already been sought and granted and a full seven-day licence would be transferred.

It went on to state that temporary repair work had been carried out at The Lake County Hotel which would tide it over until the new hotel was ready for business. With the increase in size, The Windmill Motor Inn will mean greater employment with about 50 of a staff being employed.