Stamullen

BALTRAY HOUSE

A parishioner asked me recently if I had ever heard of and/ or knew where there was once a residential property in Gormanston called `Baltray House`. Baltray was originally a townland in its wn right, defined by boundaries with Knocknagin to the south, Gormanston to the west and to the nrth and defined by the Irish Sea to the east. It is recorded in medieval documents regarding the parish of Stamullen and also during the reign of Elizabeth 1st (1558-1603). Baltray is also depicted on the Down Survey maps that were surveyed in 1659 by the Cromwellian Government. Baltray House was a long, mud-walled, thatched cottage, which stood on the southern or Balbriggan side as you enter the Train Station Road in Gormanston. This house was only demolished in the later 1980`s to make way for a new residential property on the same site. The name `Baltray`, which is a corruption of `Baltra`, meaning `Strand-town`, as in Baltray on the northern shores of the Boyne River Estuary. Today, the parish of Stamullen contains 17 townlands compared to that of 19 appearing in older documents and maps. The two townlands that no longer exist with any boundary format is the said Baltray, while the second townland, no longer in existence, was called Kerranstown, which was situated just to the northwest of Stamullen village.

THE FIRST FRUITS

As we are now in the Harvest Festival month of August, anciently called Lughnasa and `Christianised` as Lamas, or the First Fruits, it is the time for those fruits, berries, nuts, etc. to begin to yield their crops across the hedgerows, gardens, orchards and woodlands. The light is starting to diminish in the evenings and the harvest festivals are indeed in full swing across rural Ireland. Some rain over the past two weeks has also brought back much of the weeds and heavy vegetation, while the familiar sound of the garden lawnmower can be heard once again across the parish having been kept off the grass for many weeks as a result of the great weather.

FLEADH CHEOIL NA HÉIREANN

Community Historian, Brendan Matthews will deliver a Presentation Talk on the Taylor Brothers, Uilleann Pipers `Extraordinaire`, natives of Drogheda, who emigrated to Philadelphia in the mid 19th century where they made changes, modifications and adoptions to the Uilleann Pipes so that they could then be played in the larger Concert Halls of America.

This talk will take place on Saturday August 18th at the Arts Centre in Barlow House Drogheda beginning at 2pm. Brendan will also be the host guide at the opening of the Medieval Laurence Gate on Wednesday August 15th, while on Thursday August 16th he will take visitors from Drogheda to view the medieval Cadaver Stone in St. Christopher`s Chapel ruins in Stamullen village before going on to visit the Fourknocks Passage Tomb and the Seamus Ennis Centre at Naul village.