Kilgobinet in 1640
To give readers an idea of how the parish was viewed during this unhappy period, the following extraction reproduced here as was originally written. (From Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland 1837)
The sd parish is bounded and meareed on the east with the parish of Clonea, on the west, with the River of Colligan and the Parrish of Seskinan Mountaines of Comeragh and Mountaines of Slivegoe in the parish of Seskinan in the North; on the south with Dungarvan parish and the smale River of Colligan aforesaid from thence to the lands of Clonea. The sd Parrish containes in the whole 9 Plowlands 3 qters of a plowland and half a plowland. In reference to Garranbaun, the report goes on to say.‘The premisses doe meare on the East with the landes of Clonea: on the west with the landes of Clone Coskoran and Dwylis; on the north with the landes of Killonyn parte of the landes of Clonea aforesaid and on the north with the landes of Garrinegragh in the parish of Dungarvan thence to the landes of Clonea where we begin our boundry.
Garranbane at that time measured one plowland*, and the measurement of ‘accers’ is recorded as 300 .The ‘proprietor’ was Gerrott fztGerrald of Dromanney Esq. Irish Protestant. The break down and quality of the land was surveyed as follows;
Landes profitable and quantity
Meadowe 010.
Arrable 200.
Pasture 060.
Landes parte profitable; Shrubby wood and bogg for pasture 30. The valuation placed on it at the time was 28.00.00
*Before the introduction of Christianity to Ireland, plowlandswere the recognised form of townlands. While they varied in size, there were always four townlandsin a Ballybetaghand thirty Ballybetaghsin a barony.
Faction fightsin Kilgobinet
Faction fights were also woven into the fabric of this particular period. It‘s almost certain that families of that time have connections with families of today.Two groups of faction fighters emerged to prominence in the 1830s. The Church and the Establishment were having some respite after a prolonged war between the Caravats and Shanavests who had caused some serious disturbances between 1806 & 1811.The new arrivals were named, ‘The Poleens’, na Poiland ‘the Gows’ na Gaibhne. Their main focus of attention was the various fairs in the parish of Kilgobinet.They started to disturb the peace particularly at fairs; it was here that the blood was spilled, the bones broken and sometimes worse.
Over 300, armed pollens travelled from the parish to Ballykerogue in Kilrossantyin 1832. They proceeded to flex their muscles by target practice prior to marching They became a serious threat to the establishment, and more seriously, the loss of revenue by the fair owners, namely the Musgrave’s who actually owned Kilgobinet.Both groups would arrive at the fairs of local villages armed with all sorts of weapons, from ash plants loaded with lead, to guns, and commence to indulge in the art of faction fighting. Animals scattered and make shift trading stalls smashed. Sometimes people were killed. Not a good day for anybody really.
They marched into the fair in military precision. It was obvious that they meant business. There can be no doubt but that it was viewed as some show of strength and for those reading this now, it’s worth considering if perhaps a relative of yours was one of those? The Pollens were to be disappointed on this day, it seemed that there was no Gows present or if they were they certainly kept a low profile. No serious damage was caused on this occasion but they went about to disrupt the fair and shouted for the Gows to show themselves, they also threatened those present that if they fraternised with the enemy, they would be dealt with. There was also a big security presence there on the day, despite this; a man was killed in a fight after the fair.On February 11th 1833, over 500 of them armed to the teeth marched to the fair of Kilgobnet, again they encountered no opposition. They raided some of the houses belonging to Sir John Nugent Humble looking for firearms. Interestingly, the police were mobilised but failed to catch the men who disappeared into the Comeragh Mountains…I wonder how many police were present? This was also the period of the local heroes, Bohadoon brothers ‘The Connery’s’ who were captured in 1837.All this rural agrarian conflict had an effect on mass attendance. Attendance at Kilgobinet & Colligan was just 34%, this included Garranbaun. It was by no means the lowest.Touraneena had a very strong 97 % attendance. It is possible that Touraneena drew from some of the parishioners from Kilgobinet because of the close proximity of the parishes.
