A TOPOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF
IRELAND 1837
BY SAMUEL LEWIS
BALLON, a parish, in the
barony of FORTH, county of CARLOW, and province of LEINSTER, 3 1/2 miles
(S. E.) from Tullow; containing 1439 inhabitants, of which number, 161
are in the village. This parish is situated on the road from
Newtown-Barry to Carlow, and comprises 3520 statute acres, as applotted
under the tithe act: it is principally grazing land; the state of
agriculture is much improved; and in Ballon hill is a quarry of fine
granite. The gentlemen's seats are Larogh, the residence of J. O'Brien,
Esq.; and Altamount, of Nelson St. George, Esq. Fairs are held here on
March 28th, and Aug. 12th. It is a vicarage, in the diocese of Leighlin,
and is part of the union of Aghade: the rectory is impropriate in Lord
Cloncurry. The tithes amount to £220 of which £140 is payable to the
impropriator, and £80 to the incumbent. In the R. C. divisions, this
parish forms part of the union or district of Gilbertstown, called also
Ballon and Ratoe: the chapel, situated in the village of Ballon, is in
good repair.
In the village is also a
school for boys and girls, for which the school-bouse was built by R.
Marshall, Esq.; and there is another at Conaberry. These schools afford
instruction to about 160 boys and 160 girls; and there are two hedge
schools, in which are about 190 boys and 130 girls.
P. L. O’Madden writes:
Source: Ballon and Rathoe Vol.
1 By Peadar Mac Suibhne 1980.
A RETROSPECT: BALLON PARISH A CENTURY AGO
P. L. O’Madden continues:
The Ordnance Survey books for the years 1830-1840 afford a fairly
comprehensive view of the Ireland of pre-famine years. A brief survey of
the conditions under which the Irish people of that day lived, as
illustrated in our own parish of Ballon, should be of great interest to
the people of today. The “clearances” began soon after 1829. By the
Emancipation Act, won for Ireland by the genius of the Liberator,
Ireland secured her Catholic rights after a struggle of nigh eighty
years (1750-1829). At the same time the small holders in the Irish
landlord’s view, lost their commercial value, having lost the franchise.
The result was a pitiless campaign of eviction from 1830 onwards to the
famine years: and then the campaign of eviction and extermination was
carried ‘on with renewed ferocity and accelerated momentum down almost
to our own time. Thanks to the strenuous campaign of the Nationalists of
1875 to 1890, the great Irish Land Act of 1881 gave to the Irish farmer
his charter of comparative liberty, that of free sale, fair rents and
the most valuable concession of all, that of fixity of tenure. Since
1880 a new Ireland has arisen and is still in the making. A
retrospective glance at the pre-famine Irish life is instructive and
helps us to realise how much we owe to the patriotism, endurance and
self sacrificing labours of the Irish clergy and their people in the
long struggle for Irish rights. The village of Ballon in 1839 contained
three or four good houses: the remainder consisted of wretched cabins.
This was the common lot of the Irish poor under the Ascendancy regime
1700-1870. The first ray of hope for the poor Irish cottier and labourer
came in 1885, when the neat cottage and plot of the Irish labourer of
today began to displace the wretched mud-walled cabins wherein the
Cromwellian Ascendancy had driven them for shelter. The cultivation of
the soil, that is agriculture in the proper sense of the word, was
pretty general up to the Great Famine of Victorian days. The ruthless
eviction and clearances (1850-1870) and the turning of the ancient
patrimony of the Gael into cattle ranches and sheep walks, left the
people no resource but to fly; hence as the result of starvation,
extermination and emigration, the dream of Lord Carlisle was realised:
an Ireland, “the fruitful mother of flocks and herds.” Excellent crops
of wheat, barley and oats were raised in all the old parochial
districts, now included in Ballon parish. The poor having only their
potato patch to depend on, were decimated in the famine years. Statesmen
discussed the laws of political economy while the people perished. The
ancient monastic estate of the Grange of Forth since 1669, the Ponsonby
estate, was the most highly cultivated district in pre-famine years. The
very names of the townlands here: Fearann an Phlúir and Banog an Phlúir
are redolent of plenty and bespeak a land rich in corn. Since 1870 and
especially since 1881 the conditions of the Irish farmer in regard to
the holding of land have been revolutionised. A century ago he was a
mere serf, a tenant at will or at most the holder of a lease for 21
years, and in rare circumstances 31 years. Rents varied from 20/- up to
50/- per acre and in addition county cess came to 2/- per acre. Where
the townland was held by middlemen, at an average rental of 20/- per
acre, the latter by the simple process of doubling that sum charged 40/-
per acre, the standard rent over a great part of Ballon parish. Thanks
to the patriotism and self-sacrifice of the Irish people the land of
Ireland after centuries of confiscation, once again is in the possession
of the Irish race. The Irish farmer of our day is rooted in the soil,
and there is little reason for murmuring at a little passing depression.
The numerous townlands containing the Irish word “rath” as part of the
name, show that these ancient lands of Carlow were in historic times,
thickly populated: “The rath remains after each in his turn And the
Kings asleep in the ground.”
Popular imagination has peopled them with a new race the “daoine
maithe” or fairies of Irish legend. One good result has followed at all
events, from this: the ancient rath was thus saved in most instances
from the destruction that has overtaken so many monuments of not alone
pre-historic, but historic times, in Ireland. We are now making
something of a fetish of the fairies. Fairy lore is to be studiously
inculcated in school and college. Houses for the homeless poor of
Ireland, one should think, would be more in keeping with the spirit and
traditions of Catholic Ireland.
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