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  • A Concise History of the Parish of Carrickedmond and Abbeyshrule, Co Longford, Ireland.
    
    
    
    Ruins of Cistercian Abbey ,Abbeyshrule
    Foundation of O`Farrell , Prince of Annally
    1150 .AD.
    
    
    The Parish of Carrickedmond is an amalgam of the three ancient half parishes of Abbeyshrule , Tashinney and Teachshinod.
    
    The area itself is part of the old Gaelic Tuatha of Shrule ( a stream) which merits several mentions in the mythology of Ireland - the drowning of Eithne giving rise to the name of the river Inny - itself a corruption of Eithne. In the middle ages the area was sub-divided into one of the six baronies afterwards comprising the present County Longford being named as the barony of Abbeyshrule.
    
    The district had great strategic properties being well defended by natural boundaries such as the border of the river Inny and a vast expanse of bog on its eastern border.
    
    Here ruled for centuries The O`Farrell Buighe, a powerful Gaelic autonomous sept. This illustrious clan was not subdued until the latter part of the sixteenth century when the area was incorporated into County Longford the latter been shired at that time. Relics of a great defensive line against The Pale are to this day evident. Castles were erected on the Inny and a second line of tower houses were placed further west within the parish at Mornine and Barry stretching further to Bawn in present day Moydow.
    
    The district was to suffer extensive and total confiscations and plantation during the Cromwellian and Williamite wars.
    Tashinney was planted by the Sankey Gore Dynasty while Abbeyshrule and surrounding district succumbed to The King Harman occupation. The O`Farrell finally lost the last of its ancient possessions to The Jessops of Doory Hall in Teachshinod.
    
    The emergence of a more enlightened age in the eighteenth century showed religious tolerance and the formation of what now comprises Carrickedmond Parish. The Established Church of Ireland had for centuries its principal place of worship the Church of Tashinney. Catholics amalgamated the three half-parishes with its main church at Killendowd or Carrickedmond on the site of an old mass house used in penal times. The ruins of a very old church and burial ground in Teachshinod stand as evidence of its religious autonomy in a bye-gone era. In 1817 The Royal Canal Workers erected a chapel at Abbeyshrule on a site in the village donated by the Canal Company. A modern futuristic designed church on a different site replaced the original cruciform chapel in 1981.
    
    In a pure historical economic term the area was and is of immense self-sufficiency. It is easy to see why the district attracted, visitors , welcome and unwelcome , over the centuries. Human habitation antiquities from a very early era are to be found in abundance. Relics of fortified ring (fairy) forts are in nearly each townsland. Nearly half of the latter in their name have a prefix of Lis or Rath. (forts). Stone axes and other implements have been unearthed at Ratharney and other locations. Some are in the Diocesan museum. In 1906 The Clonbrin Shield was discovered in that townsland beside Abbeyshrule , was presented to The National Museum where it is one of its major exhibits.
    
    
    
    Ruins of Abbeyderg Abbey founded in the
    Thirtheenth century by the O`Quin Sept.
    
    The eleventh century saw the golden age of monasticism in the parish. In 1150 the Cistercians built Flumen Dei a major foundation and the major endowment of The O`Farrell. Meanwhile at the extreme western end of the parish the Dominicans founded The Red Abbey of Derg. Extensive ruined remains of both remain to this day.
    
    The suppression of the contemplative religious in the sixteenth century heralded the emergence of a privileged estate elite exhibiting a polarization of landlordism and the bold peasantry of The Deserted Village. ( Goldsmith was born and spent half his life in the neighboring parish of Forgney). The area was endowed with rich natural assets such as pastureland , wooded copses and bogs on its edges. Furthermore the Inny with its tributaries provided fish from eel weirs and many forms of wild life. This combination of bog and river had many benefits such as the process to manufacture coarse linen from flax. Water powered large corn mills on the Inny. ( Bulfin paints their decline in a chapter in Rambles in Eireann.) The largest was of the family of McCann originally from Drogheda . This family had a close business link with County Louth and had in effect a tiny welfare operation for their workers near Tashinny.
    
    The advent of the Royal Canal in 1817 opened up the district to the transportation of goods both inwards and outwards.
    Indeed human transport became a reality and many took the initial passage to a better life in the new world in the early 1800`s.
    
    The decline of the very canal caused mostly by the advent of the railways and an improving road infrastructure beyond the parish boundaries to the north and south started a dramatic decline in the importance and profile of this area of County Longford. The district retreated into what has become fashionably known as "The Hidden Ireland". Emerging improving tourism profiles etc. allied to the restoration of The Royal Canal is now making this district a very attractive target area for the
    future.
    
    
    
    
    
    Nineth century Celtic Cross
    Abbeyshrule Abbey.
  • cathal mcgoey
  • 1998.