The Cafferty Family of Aughnasheelin

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The Cafferty Family of Aughnasheelin

The Cafferty Homestead 2004

Rural Life in the 19th Century Ireland

The Coming of the Ultachs (Irish Speakers)

The 1821 census gives the population of the civil parish of Oughteragh, Co Leitrim as 6,833. Ten years later, in 1831, the figure was 8,449, a remarkable increase of 19% which contrasts sharply with a 14% increase for the rest of the county and 13.4% for the whole country. In 1841, the population had peaked at 9,252. Although rapid growth in population was a national trend in the years leading up to the great Famine, it was accelerated further by an influx of refugees from Ulster, especially into the upper part of Aughnasheelin. This migration began following the Battle of the Diamond near Portadown, Co Armagh in September of 1795. The battle between rival gangs of Protestants and Catholics which led to the setting up of the Orange Order sparked off a sharp persecution of Catholics by Protestant gangs calling themselves Peep-o'-Day Boys.

An estimated ten thousand Catholics, mostly weavers, are said to have fled to the province of Connaught after that in what became a second “to hell or to Connaught.”

The Earl of Gosford, the Protestant governor of Armagh at the time, described the persecution as having “all the circumstances of a ferocious cruelty”.

Jimmy Hope, a fugitive from the persecution, who settled in Keshcarrigan, Co Leitrim, recalled hearing

Peep-o'-Day Boys “boasting of the indulgence they got from the magistrate for wrecking and beating the papists, as they called their neighbors and the snug bits of land that their friends got when the papists fled to Connaught and the fun they had in committing the depredations.”

Leitrim became the gateway to the west for the fleeing “Ultachs” as they were called.

Some of them settled on it's mountain slopes, while others pushed into Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon and even Galway. Lord Altamont of Westport estimated that some four thousand of them settled in Mayo, as far west as Belmullet. He described them as mostly weavers, decent, well-behaved, peaceful, industrious but utterly destitute. An examination of the Tithe Applotment Books of 1833 for Oughteragh shows and unusually high concentration of easily recognizable Ulster surnames in the parish, especially Aughnasheelin, where there were thiry four , McTeague and Cafferty among them.

Refugees from the North

Armagh had been disturbed to varying degrees since 1784. The Peep-o'-Day Boys and the Defenders were still active and involved in faction fighting, riots and disturbances at the fairs and markets. The name “Defenders” was no longer and accurate description of the Catholic secret society. They too had learned to act offensively. By the summer of 1795 things were coming to a head in Armagh. There had been a fight between two men at the Diamond, a crossroads near Loughgall, in June, and when two rival crowds gathered, the violence threatened to escalate. Large-scale fighting was averted then, but three months later, on Thursday, September 17, crowds of Defenders and Peep-o'-Day Boys gathered once more at the Diamond. A stand-off, punctuated by minor skirmishes and attempts to broker a settlement, lasted four days. Then on Monday, September 21, the Defenders, who had superior numbers, attacked the Peep-o'-Day Boys, who were well positioned and better organized. The Defenders were routed. Estimates of the number of Defenders killed ranged from fifteen to forty. The Peep-o'-Day Boys had no casualties. This “Battle of the Diamond” was a decisive event giving the Protestants ascendancy in the area, and it was to have huge repercussions for Leitrim and for much of north Connaught for years to come.

Within hours of the Battle of the Diamond the victors founded The Loyal Orange Order and almost immediately set about attacking their Catholic neighbors and driving them from their homes. The majority of those attacked were weavers, part of the then thriving cottage linen industry in Ulster. The usual procedure was to place a placard or threatening notice on the weaver's house, giving the occupants two or three days to “go to hell or to Connaught”. They generally opted to go to Connaught. If they hadn't quit their house by the specified time they were attacked, their webs and looms broken and their house destroyed. These attacks continued during the autumn and winter of 1795 and during most of 1796. John Short wrote about the situation in Armagh in January 1796:

“Any of us that are Catholic here are not sure of going to bed that we shall get up with our lives, either by day or night. It is not safe to go outside the doors here. The Orangemen go out uninterrupted and the gentlemen of the country do not interfere with them but I have reason to think encourage them in their wickedness...The Orangemen go out in large bodies by day and night and plunder the poor Catholics of everything they have, even the webs of linen out of their looms...

Any of the Catholics they do not wish to destroy, they give two or three days notice to clear out of the place by pasting papers on their doors, on which is written “Go to hell or to Connaught”. If you do not, we are all haters of the papists, and we will destroy you.”

The Orangemen come then and after they have taken away everything worth carrying out of the cabins, they then dig round the bottom of them, as the cabins are mostly mud walls and easily dug around, and so let them tumble onto the unfortunate creatures. The houses that are not built with mud walls, these savages go up to the top of them with saws, and saw beams on which the roof is supported and let the entire roof fall down on top of the poor creatures, by which they are bruised to pieces. I think you will hardly credit this account nor would I myself were I not on the spot.”

Lord Gosford wrote to Pelham about the increasingly disturbed state of the country. He reported houses being burned every night, dreadful murders being committed every week and that it appeared that it was `the fixed intentions” of the Protestants to “exterminate their opponents”.

Soon, these attacks spread beyond Armagh into neighboring towns. As a result, thousands of Catholics salvaged whatever belongings they could carry, and headed for Connaught.

The peasantry of Leitrim, so recently and so effectively suppressed by the military...

(Battle of Ballinamuck, Longford, when the French arrived to help the Irish, they marched through Leitrim and into Longford. After the battle, there were many reprisals against the local people who supported the Irish cause)

........ were aroused once more when they heard the northerners relate their stories of intimidation and terror.

Camden accurately stated how the weaver refugees “related their sufferings and I fear excited a spirit of revenge among their Catholic Brethren.” Seeing such large numbers fleeing the terror of the north and hearing of their dreadful experiences, made a deep impression on the people of Leitrim.

George Nugent Reynolds stated that in Leitrim the Orangemen “are more dreaded...than any other description of men.”

The northern refugees brought with them a detailed knowledge of the workings of such secret societies as the Defenders and the United Irishmen, and a determination to combine once more in these secret societies in their new location.

View from the Cafferty Kitchen Window 2004

How the Caffertys Came to Co Leitrim

The name is of ancient Irish origin. It stems from the Gaelic MacEachmharcaigh or MacEacmarcais, each, meaning a steed or horse, and marcach, meaning a rider. MacCafferty means son of the horse rider. It is a surname of Co. Donegal and Co. Derry. The name is also found in Co. Mayo, but often under the anglicized form of MacCaffry. The local pronunciation is sometimes O Ceararcais. The family is probably a branch of the O'Dohertys, among whom Eacmarcac was a personal name.

Donegal, beautiful and rugged with mighty cliffs hugging the sea and lofty mountain ranges was a place where weavers worked their looms creating intricate patterns in wool. The Gaelic speakers, the Ultachs, lived in Donegal. It was 1795, and the Battle of the Diamond near Portadown in Co Armagh was over. Protestant gangs roamed the countryside persecuting Catholics. The Peep o' Day-Boys were a wild breed. In later years they were to form themselves into the Orange Order. They boasted of the indulgence they got from their magistrate for wrecking or beating papists, as they called their Catholic neighbors.

As more people left, snug little bits of land were their' s for the taking. The rightful owners fled to save their lives. It was the second time the Irish were sent "to Hell or Connaught".

Down to this century some of these families relate the coming of their ancestors. The Caffertys first settled in Ballinaglera which they found to be bleak and cold and moved on to the southern slopes of Sliabh an Iarainn in Stralongford at a place called "Curley's Rock." Ballinaglera, is located north of Drumshanbo, south of nearby Dowra at the upper right-hand corner of Lough Allen.

These new settlers found good land scarce, and had to reclaim land which was on the mountainsides, unused for centuries. They cleared it, then dug a mixture of lime and sand or gravel into the ground and allowed it to interact with the moory soil to form a compost which was good to grow potatoes and oats. They burned the lime from limestone taken from the river beds. The stones taken from the land were used by them to build their houses.

John Cafferty, the patriarch of our clan, led his family and flocks of sheep out of Donegal, his homeland, and into Co Leitrim sometime before 1800. He and his large family raised a stone barn in the townland of Stralongford. Soon his sons married, and moved on to farm in nearby areas. Among them was his son Andrew and his wife Jane Moore Cafferty. They settled in Miskaun Glebe, on land leased from the Church of Ireland. It was here their children were born. My great, great grandfather, Charles Cafferty was born there between 1820-1830. He also became a farmer in the Townland of Miskaun Glebe, and married a girl from Ballinamore, Mary Creamer. Their daughter Mary Theresa was my great grandmother.


	Footsteps Through Time \| Home Patrick O'Brien's Siblings in America \| Ireland \| Patrick Farrell O'Brien \| Mary Theresa Cafferty \| Scenes of Miskaun Glebe in Aughnasheelin, Co Leitrim \| Julia Ann Sullivan \| Flurry and Mary-Margaret Sullivan \| The Falvey Family \| The Ahern Family \| The Cafferty Family of Aughnasheelin \| The O'Brien Family of Aughavas \| The Descendents of James O'Brien and Katherine Kane The Cafferty Family of Aughnasheelin The Cafferty Homestead 2004 Rural Life in the 19th Century Ireland The Coming of the Ultachs (Irish Speakers) The 1821 census gives the population of the civil parish of Oughteragh, Co Leitrim as 6,833. Ten years later, in 1831, the figure was 8,449, a remarkable increase of 19% which contrasts sharply with a 14% increase for the rest of the county and 13.4% for the whole country. In 1841, the population had peaked at 9,252. Although rapid growth in population was a national trend in the years leading up to the great Famine, it was accelerated further by an influx of refugees from Ulster, especially into the upper part of Aughnasheelin. This migration began following the Battle of the Diamond near Portadown, Co Armagh in September of 1795. The battle between rival gangs of Protestants and Catholics which led to the setting up of the Orange Order sparked off a sharp persecution of Catholics by Protestant gangs calling themselves Peep-o'-Day Boys. An estimated ten thousand Catholics, mostly weavers, are said to have fled to the province of Connaught after that in what became a second “to hell or to Connaught.” The Earl of Gosford, the Protestant governor of Armagh at the time, described the persecution as having “all the circumstances of a ferocious cruelty”. Jimmy Hope, a fugitive from the persecution, who settled in Keshcarrigan, Co Leitrim, recalled hearing Peep-o'-Day Boys “boasting of the indulgence they got from the magistrate for wrecking and beating the papists, as they called their neighbors and the snug bits of land that their friends got when the papists fled to Connaught and the fun they had in committing the depredations.” Leitrim became the gateway to the west for the fleeing “Ultachs” as they were called. Some of them settled on it's mountain slopes, while others pushed into Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon and even Galway. Lord Altamont of Westport estimated that some four thousand of them settled in Mayo, as far west as Belmullet. He described them as mostly weavers, decent, well-behaved, peaceful, industrious but utterly destitute. An examination of the Tithe Applotment Books of 1833 for Oughteragh shows and unusually high concentration of easily recognizable Ulster surnames in the parish, especially Aughnasheelin, where there were thiry four , McTeague and Cafferty among them. Refugees from the North Armagh had been disturbed to varying degrees since 1784. The Peep-o'-Day Boys and the Defenders were still active and involved in faction fighting, riots and disturbances at the fairs and markets. The name “Defenders” was no longer and accurate description of the Catholic secret society. They too had learned to act offensively. By the summer of 1795 things were coming to a head in Armagh. There had been a fight between two men at the Diamond, a crossroads near Loughgall, in June, and when two rival crowds gathered, the violence threatened to escalate. Large-scale fighting was averted then, but three months later, on Thursday, September 17, crowds of Defenders and Peep-o'-Day Boys gathered once more at the Diamond. A stand-off, punctuated by minor skirmishes and attempts to broker a settlement, lasted four days. Then on Monday, September 21, the Defenders, who had superior numbers, attacked the Peep-o'-Day Boys, who were well positioned and better organized. The Defenders were routed. Estimates of the number of Defenders killed ranged from fifteen to forty. The Peep-o'-Day Boys had no casualties. This “Battle of the Diamond” was a decisive event giving the Protestants ascendancy in the area, and it was to have huge repercussions for Leitrim and for much of north Connaught for years to come. Within hours of the Battle of the Diamond the victors founded The Loyal Orange Order and almost immediately set about attacking their Catholic neighbors and driving them from their homes. The majority of those attacked were weavers, part of the then thriving cottage linen industry in Ulster. The usual procedure was to place a placard or threatening notice on the weaver's house, giving the occupants two or three days to “go to hell or to Connaught”. They generally opted to go to Connaught. If they hadn't quit their house by the specified time they were attacked, their webs and looms broken and their house destroyed. These attacks continued during the autumn and winter of 1795 and during most of 1796. John Short wrote about the situation in Armagh in January 1796: “Any of us that are Catholic here are not sure of going to bed that we shall get up with our lives, either by day or night. It is not safe to go outside the doors here. The Orangemen go out uninterrupted and the gentlemen of the country do not interfere with them but I have reason to think encourage them in their wickedness...The Orangemen go out in large bodies by day and night and plunder the poor Catholics of everything they have, even the webs of linen out of their looms... Any of the Catholics they do not wish to destroy, they give two or three days notice to clear out of the place by pasting papers on their doors, on which is written “Go to hell or to Connaught”. If you do not, we are all haters of the papists, and we will destroy you.” The Orangemen come then and after they have taken away everything worth carrying out of the cabins, they then dig round the bottom of them, as the cabins are mostly mud walls and easily dug around, and so let them tumble onto the unfortunate creatures. The houses that are not built with mud walls, these savages go up to the top of them with saws, and saw beams on which the roof is supported and let the entire roof fall down on top of the poor creatures, by which they are bruised to pieces. I think you will hardly credit this account nor would I myself were I not on the spot.” Lord Gosford wrote to Pelham about the increasingly disturbed state of the country. He reported houses being burned every night, dreadful murders being committed every week and that it appeared that it was `the fixed intentions” of the Protestants to “exterminate their opponents”. Soon, these attacks spread beyond Armagh into neighboring towns. As a result, thousands of Catholics salvaged whatever belongings they could carry, and headed for Connaught. The peasantry of Leitrim, so recently and so effectively suppressed by the military... (Battle of Ballinamuck, Longford, when the French arrived to help the Irish, they marched through Leitrim and into Longford. After the battle, there were many reprisals against the local people who supported the Irish cause) ........ were aroused once more when they heard the northerners relate their stories of intimidation and terror. Camden accurately stated how the weaver refugees “related their sufferings and I fear excited a spirit of revenge among their Catholic Brethren.” Seeing such large numbers fleeing the terror of the north and hearing of their dreadful experiences, made a deep impression on the people of Leitrim. George Nugent Reynolds stated that in Leitrim the Orangemen “are more dreaded...than any other description of men.” The northern refugees brought with them a detailed knowledge of the workings of such secret societies as the Defenders and the United Irishmen, and a determination to combine once more in these secret societies in their new location. View from the Cafferty Kitchen Window 2004 How the Caffertys Came to Co Leitrim The name is of ancient Irish origin. It stems from the Gaelic MacEachmharcaigh or MacEacmarcais, each, meaning a steed or horse, and marcach, meaning a rider. MacCafferty means son of the horse rider. It is a surname of Co. Donegal and Co. Derry. The name is also found in Co. Mayo, but often under the anglicized form of MacCaffry. The local pronunciation is sometimes O Ceararcais. The family is probably a branch of the O'Dohertys, among whom Eacmarcac was a personal name. Donegal, beautiful and rugged with mighty cliffs hugging the sea and lofty mountain ranges was a place where weavers worked their looms creating intricate patterns in wool. The Gaelic speakers, the Ultachs, lived in Donegal. It was 1795, and the Battle of the Diamond near Portadown in Co Armagh was over. Protestant gangs roamed the countryside persecuting Catholics. The Peep o' Day-Boys were a wild breed. In later years they were to form themselves into the Orange Order. They boasted of the indulgence they got from their magistrate for wrecking or beating papists, as they called their Catholic neighbors. As more people left, snug little bits of land were their' s for the taking. The rightful owners fled to save their lives. It was the second time the Irish were sent "to Hell or Connaught". Down to this century some of these families relate the coming of their ancestors. The Caffertys first settled in Ballinaglera which they found to be bleak and cold and moved on to the southern slopes of Sliabh an Iarainn in Stralongford at a place called "Curley's Rock." Ballinaglera, is located north of Drumshanbo, south of nearby Dowra at the upper right-hand corner of Lough Allen. These new settlers found good land scarce, and had to reclaim land which was on the mountainsides, unused for centuries. They cleared it, then dug a mixture of lime and sand or gravel into the ground and allowed it to interact with the moory soil to form a compost which was good to grow potatoes and oats. They burned the lime from limestone taken from the river beds. The stones taken from the land were used by them to build their houses. John Cafferty, the patriarch of our clan, led his family and flocks of sheep out of Donegal, his homeland, and into Co Leitrim sometime before 1800. He and his large family raised a stone barn in the townland of Stralongford. Soon his sons married, and moved on to farm in nearby areas. Among them was his son Andrew and his wife Jane Moore Cafferty. They settled in Miskaun Glebe, on land leased from the Church of Ireland. It was here their children were born. My great, great grandfather, Charles Cafferty was born there between 1820-1830. He also became a farmer in the Townland of Miskaun Glebe, and married a girl from Ballinamore, Mary Creamer. Their daughter Mary Theresa was my great grandmother.