The townland near Ashford where ‘the Divil ate the Tinker’

WICKLOW WOMAN Margaret Connolly is today (Wednesday, January 17) launching a book on the history of the townland where she grew up and the story of the farming community who lived there.

‘Aghowle: Where the Divil Ate the Tinker – The History of a Wicklow Townland and its Farming Community’ tells the story of the families who worked the land in Aghowle – a townland lying about 4 miles west of Ashford, on the slopes of Carrick Mountain.

The book will be launched tonight at 8 p.m. in Chester Beatty’s, Ashford, and all are welcome. Margaret will also be carrying out some readings of the book.

The author uses historical documents and recorded memories to tell the history of the townland and surrounding areas over four centuries, beginning in the 17 th century and covering right up to the early 1970s.

‘When I was born there in 1959, there were still seven working farms in the locality. Within 15 years they had all disappeared,’ said Margaret.

‘I was talking to one local man and we were reminiscing about the locality. He mentioned that is was a pity people weren’t aware of all the great people who used to live there so I decided to set out and record Aghowle’s history. It just ended up growing and growing. I researched for over five years and ended up with over 400 pages. Some of the people I interviewed were asking “is this going to be finished before I die?” Thankfully, it is complete now.

‘A lot of the people I interviewed had very vivid memories of the townland. Outsiders who used to spend the summer on a relative’s farm actually had some wonderful little details.’

‘It was a very close-knit farming community, probably borne out of necessity. In the 1880s they would all have been tenant farmers and they had to help one another to survive. There was a mix of Catholic and Church of Ireland farmers but they all remained tightknit. It was fascinating to research because there is so much information online and elsewhere. Old copies of the Wicklow People were a great help. There were 10 homes in the townland in 1901 so I went back as far as I could with those families.

‘There was a very harsh eviction in 1887 which was covered by the national papers. In 1905, a cottage caught fire and two children died. A lot of local people didn’t know that this had happened all those years