Donacarney

Donacarney Domhnach Cairnigh Mór
Town
Castle ruin at Donacarney
Donacarney Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 53°42′34″N6°16′42″W / 53.70944°N 6.27833°W / 53.70944; -6.27833
Country	Ireland
Province	Leinster
County	County Meath
Area
• Total	2.19 km2 (0.85 sq mi)

Donacarney (Irish : Domhnach Cearnaigh or Domhnach Cairnigh) is a village in County Meath, ^[1] Ireland, close to Drogheda and the border with County Louth. It contains one church, two estates, two schools, and one pub.^{[ citation needed ]} Although it includes the townlands of Donacarney Great and Donacarney Little, most locals would never use those terms in describing Donacarney. The remains of a late-medieval tower house (see picture to right) are sited close to Donacarney Cross. It is described in the Down Survey (1654–56)as "an ould Castle". It appears in this state on a map of 1771. Blackhills Crescent, Donacarney, takes its name from the area known as the Black Hills or Black Hill Lands ^[2] north of the crossroads and the castle, the old name of which was Croc a' Searra in Irish.

For census purposes, Donacarney is combined with a number of other local towns to form the census town of Laytown–Bettystown–Mornington–Donacarney, with a total population of 11,872 at the 2016 census. ^[3]

Schools

Donacarney has two schools: a boys' school and a girls' school. Roughly 600 pupils attend both schools. The schools share the same campus. The names of the schools are Réalt ná Mara BNS and Réalt ná Mara GNS respectively. ^[4] The old school hall, which was replaced by the current schools in 1965, was originally opened in 1873. The red-bricked building, beside the forge and old village water pump at Donacarney Cross, now serves as a community centre. It is also used as the local polling centre in elections. The school was given planning permission for a new school in 2012.^{[ needs update ]}

Religion

There is one Roman Catholic church close to Donacarney in the adjoining townland of Mornington. It is called Star of the Sea Church. It is also called Mornington Church, and serves the half-parish of Mornington, part of the Laytown-Mornington parish created in 1986, which includes Donacarney.

History

Donacarney, or Duuenacharny, was recorded as part of Mornington in a 'Charter of Walter de Lacy reciting and confirming a grant made by Hugh his father of various churches & lands in Ireland’ in 1230–1234. ^{[5] [6]} Thereafter ^[7] it became part of the manor of Colpe throughout the medieval period. It was in the possession of the Augustinian Abbey at Colp, (a cell of Llanthony Priory in Monmouthshire) but held and run separate from the manor by a tenant. ^[8] At the Suppression of the Monasteries in 1536 in became part of the estates of Henry Draycott. The ruins of the late-medieval tower house were known as ‘Draycott’s Castle’ and is thought to have been burnt in 1641. ^[9]

Little Donacarney was connected to the eighteenth-century case of Annesley v Earl of Anglesea [sic.] (1743). This case was taken to trial to test the claim of James Annesley to the title and estates of Earl of Anglesey as the legitimate son and heir of Arthur, lord Altham against the claims of his uncle Richard Annesley, 6th Earl of Anglesey. The trial was commenced in November 1743 by a plea of trespass and ejectment taken against the Richard, Earl of Angelsey for 1,500 acres of the lands of Great and Little Stameen, Little Donacarney, Shallon &c. in the County of Meath, by Campbell Craig for those lands leased to him in May 1742 to him by James Annesley, Esq. and which Craig occupied and was subsequently ejected from in May 1742. This allowed the question of ownership of the estates of the Earl of Anglesey to be raised in the Irish courts. James laid claim to his birthright with the help of the Scottish adventurer and barrister Daniel Mackercher. It has been claimed that the novel Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson was inspired by the true story of James Annesley's sale into servitude in America and return to claim his inheritance.

In 1799 a local respectable farmer named Laurence Murray was robbed by banditti who surrounded the house and broke open the door. They declared "We are not robbers, but patriots; and it is but just that the opulent should contribute to support us, who thus venture ours lives for the good of the country". They left with cash, a sugar tongs and a Great Coat, before their captain returned what teaspoons they had taken. ^[10]

References

1. "Domhnach Cairnigh Mór". logainm.ie. Archived from the original on 3 June 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
2. "Advert". Drogheda Conservative. 31 January 1885. p. 4.
3. "Sapmap Area – Settlements: Laytown-Bettystown-Mornington-Donacarney". Census 2016. Central Statistics Office. April 2016.
4. "Reált Na Mara Girls National School".
5. LXVIII Carta eiusdem Walteri de omnibus beneficiis et terries in Midia. Irish Cartularies of Llanthony Prima & Secunda:83
6. Arlene Hogan, The priory of Llanthony Prima and Secunda in Ireland, 1172–1541: Lands, patronage and politics, (Dublin, 2008), p. 158
7. Swift, Catherine (2004). "St. Patrick, Skerries and the earliest evidence for local church organization in Ireland". In MacShamhráin, Ailbhe (ed.). The Island of St. Patrick. Dublin. p. 69. ISBN   1-85182-867-2.
8. Kevin Whelan, 'Towns and villages', p.182, "Fig. 5, Colp manor in the fifteenth century" in F.H.A. Aalen (ed.), Atlas of the Irish rural landscape, (Cork, 1997)
9. Irish Tourist Association survey, relating to ‘Natural features, antiquities, historic associations etc.', 1942. Extract copied into the Topographical files of the Office of Public Works then incorporated into the Sites and Monuments Record files (National Monuments Service) referenced http://www.archaeology.ie
10. Page 3, Freeman's Journal, 15 January 1799.