From Ballyboyle to Corglass... a Boyle family's story
Part 2 - Corglass
The Family of John & Bridget Boyle (cont.)
Throughout the last quarter of the 19th century the Land Question was a dominant issue. As a result of the wars and dispossessions of the 16th and 17th centuries, practically all the agricultural land of Ireland was owned by a small aristocratic class, many of whom lived in England, who rented out tracts of land to their Irish tenants. Following considerable unrest, a series of Acts were passed which provided tenants with the finance to purchase their holdings and become owners of the land they worked, culminating in the Wyndham Land Act of 1903. Bridget purchased the Cloonelly part of the farm from the Maconchy estate* in 1905, but it was not until 1913 that the Corglass farm was in her name.
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However, the prospect of owning the land seems to have given her some confidence in the future, for in the early years of the new century she had constructed a new house to replace the thatched cottage. The new house was noted in the land records in 1906, and is described in the 1911 census. It was a two-story building of eight rooms, slated, with six windows to the front, and in the classification scheme used, it was designated as a First Class house, the only one so classified in Corglass. It still stands today, unchanged in its outward appearance, though the large chestnut trees that once surrounded it are gone.​
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The political upheaval that followed the 1916 uprising does not seem to have had much impact on the Boyles. Despite the fact that there was strong support for Sinn Fein in the area, none of the four sons who would have been in their twenties at the time got involved. There is a record of Peter4 attending a meeting of the United Irish League in October 1918. (Incidentally, the meeting was convened to find a successor to the late County Councillor Patrick Higgins, whose daughter Katie later married Patrick4). The UIL was the constitutionalist nationalist party, opposed to violent action, which was effectively wiped out in the elections a few weeks later. Most of his generation by this time would have supported Sinn Fein, which suggest that they were conservative in their politics, and more inclined to protect their interests as strong farmers than in furthering more idealistic national aspirations.
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One activity which did interest them was music. There were a number of marching bands in the area in their youth, and at the founding meeting of the Dromard War Pipers’ Band in 1912 one of the members is listed as “P. Boyle” – it could be either Peter or Patrick. (War pipes are the mouth blown type, as distinct from the Uillean pipes which have to be played sitting down, so not much use for a marching band). By 1915, P. Boyle was Vice-President of the band, and proposed a vote of sympathy on the death of the bandmaster, ‘Professor’ Willie MacSweeney of Armagh. In 1920, Terry Boyle is listed as a member of the band. (McNerney, p.182-3).
The house has now been uninhabited for many years, and has likely deteriorated further.
In the typical course of events at the time, Terence as the eldest son, would be expected to take over the farm. As their father had died many years before, when the boys were little more than babies, it is likely that some different arrangements were in place. Perhaps their uncle Patrick Brady, as yet unmarried, helped Bridget manage the farm until they were old enough to take over.
In the 1911 census, when they were in their teens, Bridget's occupation is described as 'Farmer' and the boys as 'Farmers sons'. While this was a catch-all term used to describe most young men in rural Ireland who were not otherwise in any recognised trade or profession, in this case it probably shows that they were actively involved in the work of the farm.
One of the outbuildings at Corglass. The quality of the stonework is better than one would normally expect for an out-building, so it's possible that this was part of the original pre-1906 cottage.
* The Maconchy Estate
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Although Corglass was part of the small O'Brien estate of about a thousand acres, the Maconchy's estate was one of the largest in Co Longford, at over 10,000 acres, and included Cloonelly among the many townlands they owned. Of Scottish origin, the Maconchies came to Ireland in the late 1600s and by the mid-1700s had acquired their extensive holdings in Longford. Some members of the family may have resided in the county, as there are references to a home in Rathmore, near Aughnacliffe, and George Maconchy served as Justice of the Peace and HIgh Sherriff in the 1840s. However, there is now no trace of a house, and their known residences are in Dublin and England. They did, however, name their houses after townlands on their Longford estate - Edenmore in Dublin and Corrinagh in Torquay, Devon
Well-known members of this family include Dame Elizabeth Maconchy (1907-1994) "considered to be one of the finest composers Great Britain and Ireland have produced". See also here .
Her uncle was Brigadier-General Ernest Maconchy who was dispatched to Dublin to suppress the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. He led his troops into what became the bloodiest engagement of the Rising, the Battle of Mount St Bridge, in which 28 men under his command died in the action and over 200 were wounded. He later challenged his orders to conduct summary executions and courts-martial of captured insurgents, on the grounds that as an Irishman, he should not be required to do so.
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