Life in Corglass

Until recent times, Ireland was a mainly agricultural society. There were few cities or large towns, and most of the population lived on rural smallholdings, many of which were barely able to provide basic subsistence. The rural landscape was divided into 'townlands', whose boundaries reflected ancient tribal territories and farmsteads (but did not contain a 'town' in the modern sense of the word).

One such townland is Corglass. It is an average-sized townland of 750 acres located close to the point where the three provinces of Leinster, Connacht and Ulster meet. Until the mid-17th century, it was part of the homelands of the O’Farrell clan, but English settlers were steadily encroaching on their territory.

Down Survey map of the 1650s, detail of north Longford, showing townlands to be confiscated, including Corglass

https://downsurvey.tchpc.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php#bm=Longford&c=Longford&p=Killoe

The O’Farrells were active in the 1641 rebellion, and in the depositions taken subsequently from those who claimed injury and loss, they were accused of many atrocities. This was sufficient to justify forfeiture of their estates, and in the maps produced for the Down Survey the townland of Corglass, the property of Daniel Farrell, and neighbouring Cornecallie (Cornacullew or Cornakelly) owned by Rory Farrell is clearly marked for forfeiture. By 1670, Corglass, along with 19 other townlands in Longford, are the property of Nathan Philpot, an English Protestant.

Despite having lived on and farmed their landholding in Corglass for at least a hundred years, the Boyles did not legally obtain ownership of it until 1913, by which time the rents were being paid to a Mr. O'Brien of Gortnalamph, just over the county boundary in Co. Leitrim. O'Brien may have been an agent or middleman for a larger landlord, as his own residence was on land rented from the Earl of Leitrim. In the 1901 census, the then head of the family, Robert O’Brien is described as a solicitor (attorney), and solicitors often acted as agents for large landowners. According to local historian James McNerney, “the rent on the Leitrim side of Corglass was paid to O’Briens of Cornamucklagh" (an adjacent townland to Corglass). who "were benign landlords”(McNerney, p.118) . However, as these O’Briens were Catholics and there were few Catholic landlords, they may have been rent collectors rather than landlords, The O’Briens of Gortnalamph were Protestant (though with Catholic relations).

Population

The wars, dispossessions and deportations of the 17th century meant that this part of County Longford was sparsely populated, if at all, in the early 1700s. But the population grew, first steadily and then rapidly towards the end of the century.

The lifespan of Terence1, our earliest known ancestor, from about 1775 to 1850 (at the latest) spanned this population explosion. At the time of his birth, about 1775, the population of Ireland was under 4 million and increasing rapidly. Within sixty years it was to exceed eight million.

The rise in population (at a rate like that seen in Third World countries today) would have been obvious to Terence This rapid population growth was enabled by the widespread adoption of the potato as the staple food of the poorest class from the late 18th century onwards. About half the population were landless labourers and cottiers who had no right of tenure to the land they occupied, depending for their livelihood on a small potato patch, eating about 14 pounds of potatoes per person per day, and hardly ever eating anything else. It was this group which bore the brunt of the Great Famine of 1845-49.

It is difficult for us to imagine today how heavily populated the Irish countryside was in the era before the famine. Today the population of County Longford is about 47,000 and nearly half of these live in urban areas. In 1841 the population was 115,491 nearly all of whom lived in the countryside. Probably about four or five hundred of these lived in Corglass. Ten years later, about a quarter of these had died of starvation or disease or emigrated. Emigration was considerable from the 1850’s on, but the population decline was held in check somewhat by the high birth rate.

From the details in Griffiths' Valuation of about 1860, it seems that Corglass contained about 35 smallholdings of 10 acres and above that would be sufficient to sustain a family in the basics of life. Only 10 of these (including John2 Boyle's) were above 20 acres which would be necessary to generate a small surplus to provide some comfort and obtain a little more than the bare necessities.

By the time of the 1901 census Corglass contained 37 inhabited dwellings and a population of 106 males and 91 females.

But from the 1960’s onwards farm mechanization, better opportunities in towns, and smaller family size have dramatically changed the rural environment. By 2022, fewer than 50 people were living in Corglass, and the vibrant social community that sustained generations of our forebears is no more.

Language

The world of Terence1 Boyle and Nelly McNamee, into which John2 Boyle was born in 1805 was very different to the one we live in, or even the one he grew old in. John2 was probably bi-lingual in Irish and English. At the time he was born, Irish was still the language of the vast majority of the rural population throughout Ireland, but English was beginning to make inroads, especially in the east and the midlands. Richard Lovell Edgeworth (father of Maria, the novelist) lived only a few miles away. In 1811 he wrote approvingly that the Irish peasantry "have within these few years made a greater progress in learning English, than the Welsh have made since the time of Edward the First".

So old Terence1 and Nelly1 would certainly have spoken Irish, but if they followed the custom of the time, they may have insisted that their children speak English. John2 and his brother and sisters would have grown up understanding both languages but speaking only English to their own children. Certainly by the time of John2's death in 1881, Irish was no longer spoken in North Longford.

The Famine

It's not known whether Terence1 or his wife Nelly lived long enough to witness the famine, but his son John2 and daughter Ellen2 certainly did. ( His other son Terence2 had already emigrated to New York, and possibly Bridget2 as well).

It is interesting to speculate how the famine would have affected John2 Boyle. The likelihood is that he had little risk of starvation. Those on larger farms would not have been solely dependent on potatoes and would have had a much more varied diet. Oats was widely grown, as were other root vegetables, and cattle, pigs and poultry would have provided a cash income as well as milk, eggs and occasional meat. We know from Griffiths Valuation that he occupied 24 acres on his own account in the 1850’s, together with a 7 acre field bordering on Doogary Lough shared with neighbours John McNamee and Anne Ryan. If he held this land during the Famine period, this would have been sufficient to put him well above subsistence level.

Even by 1880, after there had been considerable consolidation of smallholdings, only about 25% of farms in County Longford were larger than John2 Boyle's. So by the standards of the time and place, he would have been a substantial farmer: not rich, but well above the poverty line.

A typical 19th century cottage in North Longford. John2 Boyle's would have looked something like this one.

We know something about the house he lived in. The house described in the 1901 census would have been unchanged for many decades. (It was replaced before 1906 by the two-story house that still stands.) It was a long single story thatched cottage with four rooms, with three windows to the front of the house. Most North Longford houses of the period had three rooms - a large kitchen with a bedroom opening off each end. The fourth room was possibly the result of dividing a large room by means of a light wooden partition, or a 'parlour' used for special occasions. A fourth room was exceptional and generally a mark of a somewhat better-off farmer. There were six farm buildings in 1901 - stable, cow house, calf house, dairy, piggery, and barn (these were the 'official' terms used on the census form and may not correspond to their actual uses). A number of these are still standing and are well built of cut and dressed stone. Poorer farmers would have used rough stone or 'daub' (clay mixed with straw or rushes).

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When did the Boyles come to Corglass?

A now disused farm building at Corglass. The quality of the stonework suggests that it may have formed part of the family's cottage before the 1906 farmhouse was built.