A SHORT DIP INTO WICKLOW HISTORY JOURNALS
REPORTER DAVID MEDCALF SPENT SOME HAPPY HOURS IN THE LIBRARY IN WICKLOW TOWN, WHERE ISSUES OF LOCAL HISTORY JOURNALS PROVIDED THESE DELIGHTFUL NUGGETS
2000 bc
The Piper’s Stones ceremonial circle was created at Athgreany south of Blessington. The site contains 16 stones, though most of them have been moved from their original positions. Other ceremonial circles in County Wicklow are at Castleruddery Lower and Booleycarrigeen. They were probably used for community ceremonies and were perhaps associated too with burials.
501 ad
Kilnamanagh, in the Ashford area, can claim to have provided the site for one of the first schools in Ireland. The curriculum promoted by the founder, St Eugenius, laid a heavy emphasis on religious matters. The best known pupil was Saint Kevin, nephew of Eugenius. Kevin was groomed by his uncle to take over as abbot in Kilnamanagh but the younger man found himself tormented by the allure of a local lassie called Kathleen, so he decamped to the more austere surroundings of Glendalough instead.
1605
Hands up anyone who thought that Wicklow is as old as the hills, or at least as old as humankind. Wrong. The county was created a mere 414 years ago by an ‘inquisition’ held at Newcastle which was concerned that some villages – including Arklow, Dunlavin and Baltinglass – belonged to no existing county. So they created a new county from the baronies of Newcastle, Arklow, Ballinacor and Talbotstown, with the half barony of Shillelagh attached. Presumably, this was done in the interest of better tax collection.
1668
We who live in the 21st century think of Bray as being one of the most populous towns in all of Ireland but it was not always so. The imposition of a hearth tax led to an official survey of substantial houses in the county. The officials noted just 41 houses liable to the charge – six in Ballywaltrim, townland, five in Boneshadden, 14 in Great Bray, two in Oldcourt and 14 in Newtown. The tax ignored the common folk who lived in mud-walled huts.
1683
The Corporation in Wicklow Town imposed a levy on residents to raise five pounds for a new ducking stool. Such stools were used for the punishment of wrong-doers who were strapped in and then immersed in some local pond. In more recent times, the CIA has applied a similar technique to interrogation and called it water-boarding.
1799
The execution of rebel Billy Byrne of Ballymanus was a public spectacle at the appro- priately named Gallows Lane in Wicklow where he was hanged and put in a timber coffin. Where he was buried remains a matter for speculation, though he may well have been interred in the ground of Saint Thomas’s at Church Hill, or possibly in a family plot at Rossahane.
1809
That popular newspaper ‘ The Freeman’s Journal’ linked the Dargle river in Bray with one of the world’s best known pieces of music. The paper reported that George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) was so struck by the sound of the Dargle that he attempted to re-create this in his celebrated ‘Hallelujah Chorus’ when he wrote his ‘Messiah’. Hmmm.
1804
With fears of a French invasion running high, a series of Martello towers was constructed along the coast from Bray to Balbriggan. They included one on the seafront at Bray (demolished in the 1880s), one at the southern side of Bray harbour (later to become a private residence), one on the seashore opposite Ravenswell convent (fell victim to coastal erosion in the 1860s), one in the grounds of Shanganagh Castle (demolished early in the 20th century) and one at Loughlinstown (later to become a private residence). The cost of such security measures was around £1,800 (€2,290) per tower.
1819
The parish of Derrylossary in Roundwood had nine schools – one of which, run by Philip McKeon, had just four pupils.
1837
Samuel Lewis’s ‘ Topographical Dictionary’ included a survey of ports. Readers learned that Bray specialised in the importation of coal, timber, slates and limestone, while Wicklow handled exports of copper and lead ore from the local mines, at a rate of 400 tons per week.
1841–1851
Though the west and north of the island of Ireland bore the catastrophic brunt of the famine, life expectancy was not great in Wicklow either. The county had a dozen fever hospitals operating during this decade, some temporary and some permanent. Between them they recorded 656 deaths during the ten years, during which time 2,172 deaths from fever were recorded throughout Wicklow. This suggests that many patients did not present themselves to the service.
1857
The lifeboat station was established in Wicklow harbour where the first lifeboat was ‘Dauntless’, which was 30 feet long and propelled by a 12 strong crew who pulled on a set of oars.