Clonmany

Clonmany Irish: Cluain Maine
County Donegal
Location
Grid reference:	C374463
Location:	55°15’45"N, 7°24’45"W
Data
Population:	428  (2016)
Dialling code:	074
Local Government
Council:	Inishowen
Dáil constituency:	Donegal

Clonmany is a village in north-western Inishowen, in the north of County Donegal. The area has a number of local beauty spots, while the nearby village of Ballyliffin is known for its golf course.

The Urris valley to the west of Clonmany village was the last outpost of the Irish language in Inishowen. In the 19th century, the area was a notorious location for poteen distillation.

Straid Church, Clonmany

Roxtown Beach

Name

The name of the town in Irish, Cluain Maine, has been translated as both "The Meadow of St Maine" and "The Meadow of the Monks", with the former being the more widely recognized translation. The village is known locally as "The Cross", as the village was initially built around a crossroads.

History

The parish was home to a monastery that was founded by St Columba. The monastery possessed the Míosach, an 11th century copper and silver shrine, now located in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

In the 1861 census, 112 inhabitants are recorded as living in Clonmany in 21 houses. A further 3 houses are recorded as uninhabited.

In the early 19th century, Urris, a valley three miles west of Clonmany, became a centre for the illegal distillation of poteen: the Urris Hills were an ideal place, surrounded by mountains and accessible only through the Mamore Gap and Crossconnell, but just 16 miles from the drinkers of Londonderry. The distillers barricaded the road at Crossconnell to keep out revenue police, thus creating the "Poitin Republic of Urris". This period of relative independence lasted three years until in 1815, the authorities re-established control of the Urris Hills.

In 1840, the village experienced an earthquake, a comparatively rare event in Ireland. The shock was also felt in the nearby town of Carndonagh. The Belfast Newsletter on Tuesday, 28 January 1840 reported that "In some places those who had retired to rest felt themselves shaken in their beds, and others were thrown from their chairs, and greatly alarmed."

Like much of Ireland, Clonmany and its countryside were devastated by the potato blight leading to an appalling loss of life among the rural poor. Local clergy - both Roman Catholic and Protestant - made valiant efforts to raise funds and provide relief but the magnitude of the crop failure and the spread of diseases like dysentery meant that these efforts were overwhelmed. By January 1847, a local relief committee was activity raising funds to provide emergency food supplies.

The Land Wars of the 19th century brough significant conflict to Clonmany. In February 1832, crowds of up to three thousand local tenants attacked the properties of two prominent landlords, Michael Doherty of Glen House and Neal Loughrey of Binnion, demanding a reduction in rents and the elimination of tithe payments to the Church of Ireland. In 1833. A local man, surnamed O'Donnell, had his house destroyed by rioters because he had taken over the property from an evicted tenant, and rioters destroyed the forge of the local blacksmith (by the name of Conaghan) after he had provided services to the tithe agent. Rioters also smashed the property of local people who were employed directly by landlords. Further unrest occurred out in April 1834 when large crowds rioted and destroyed property. In June 1838, a crowd of local people attacked the house where an absentee landlord, Mrs Merrick, was temporarily staying while visiting to view her properties, and her bailiff, Hugh Bradley, was attacked in September of that year, leaving him badly beaten and his house ransacked. In January 1861, the Protestant chapel in Clonmany was attacked; its windows smashed and the door destroyed. Such events continued throughout the century.

In 1914, the British Army opened a training camp named Glenfield Camp, which was located near Glen House, Straid. Up to 5,000 soldiers were garrisoned at Glenfield, including battalions from the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, the Devonshire Regiment and the Royal Irish Fusiliers. There were also military establishments in Leenan and Dunree, the latter first established during the Napoleonic wars. Both Leenan and Dunree were used to guard the entrance of Loch Swilley, which was used to station part of the Atlantic Fleet. After the creation of the Free State, these latter two camps formed part of the Treaty Ports, retained by the Royal Navy, but were transferred to the Irish Armed Forces in October 1938.

During the Irish Civil War, Clonmany was captured peacefully by the Free State's National Army forces on 1 July 1922. When the troops arrived in Carndonagh, a gun battle broke out with Anti-Treaty Irregulars, who had taken up positions in the workhouse, though the Irregulars agreed to surrender after the Free State Army had opened fire with a machine gun.

During the mid-20th century, a cottage based textiles industry had developed around Clonmany. During the war, many local women were contracted to make shirts for the British Army. These contracts were allocated to cottage producers by firms in Buncrana and Londonderry that were unable to manage the large orders from the British War Office.

Floods, storms and dangerous sea currents

The village has periodically suffered from storms coming off the Atlantic Ocean. These storms have caused flooding, typically after heavy rainfall during the summer months, On 28 May 1892, Clonmany experienced three hours of torrential rain, that caused the banks of the Clonmany river to break. Several hundred acres of land was flooded, with a large loss of crops and livestock. The townlands of Crossconnell. Tanderagee, Cleagh, Cloontagh, and Gortfad were all heavily flooded. Two years later, in December 1894, the area was hit by another violent storm. The church roofs in Clonmany and Urris were damaged. Many thatched cottages had their roofs blown away entirely. A large amount of agricultural production was destroyed.

After a period of heavy rain during September 1952, the banks of the Clonmany river broke, flooding a number of corn fields. In August 1952, the banks of the Clonmany river again broke after a period of very heavy rain coinciding with a high tide and wreached the houses within the village itself. In late August 2017, the village was severely affected by flooding brought on by an extended period of heavy rains: some residents were cut off due to rising river levels and had to be rescued from their homes, and a bridge of the R238 road collapsed.

Churches

• Roman Catholic: St Mary's: an example of a pre-emancipation Catholic Church. The building was started around 1814, with an extension to north to form T- plan built in 1833. A three-stage tower on square-plan was built in 1843.
• Church of Ireland: Clonmany Parish Church, in Straid just outside the village. Built in 1772 and altered in 1830. The building is now a ruin, but is accessible to visitors.

About the village

There are several beaches around Clonmany. Popualr as they are, the waters off the beaches have treacherous sea currents which can pose a risk to swimmers, and which have drowned unwary bathers before.

Clonmany Bridge is a triple-arch slightly humpbacked bridge carrying the road to Urris over the Clonmany river, built around 1800. It was in existence in 1814, when it was mentioned in the 'Statistical Account of the Parish of Clonmany'.

Sports

• Football: Clonmany Shamrocks who play at Shamrocks Park
• Gaelic sports: Urris GAA, whose home ground is in Straid
• Tug of War: The Clonmany Tug of War team was formed in 1946, has achieved six world gold medals and twenty All-Ireland titles.

Pictures

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  Rural Clonmany
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  Snowflake shop
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  Main Street Clonmany
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  McCauley's Public House in Clonmany

References

• Cluain Maine / Clonmany: Placenames Database of Ireland
• Kavanagh, Patrick: 'The Last of the Name': local history and traditions in the stories of Charles McGlinchey of Clonmany