Portumna

Traces of a “refugee camp” dating back some 220 years have been identified by an archaeologist on the slopes of south-east Galway’s Slieve Aughty mountains, close to Woodford.
Community archaeologist Dr Christy Cunniffe believes he found the location of temporary camps set up by “Ultachs” or Catholics who fled from the north in the 1790s to avoid persecution by bands of Protestant agitators known as the “Peep-O-Boys” or “Peep O’Day Boys”.
Dr Cunniffe believes the site is a “physical manifestation of what has existed in local folk memory for years” and evidence of one the largest internal migrations in Irish history.
The first clues – a series of circular ditches dug around hut foundations on land owned by Woodford farmer Patrick McGann – were initially thought to date to the Bronze Age, or to settlements for summer pasture.

<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/b4b21034-323b-4613-ba02-300f0ab9a770.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>

Further consultation with archaeologists about the cluster of features then pointed to the existence of an extensive refugee camp.
Up to 7,000 Catholics are believed to have been displaced from the Armagh county area, after competition within the linen industry culminated in the Battle of the Diamond on September 21st, 1795 near Loughgall.&nbsp;
An estimated 30 “Catholic Defenders” were killed, and many of their neighbours were burned out of their homes and fled to areas such as the Slieve Aughty mountains. The Peep-O-Boys, who claimed victory, were precursors of the Orange Order.
<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/e1587235-2ab0-4c82-a63d-2f2a42c9964e.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>

Unfortunately, the south Galway-bound migrants may have been taken advantage of before they left Ulster!
The then landlord Thomas Burke of Marble Hill had pre-sold “farm land” to them which turned out to be “raw mountain” in the Slieve Aughty ranges.
Burke’s sale caused tensions between the Ultach settlers and the existing tenants who resented the resulting lack of access to their grazing lands on commonage.
Undeterred, the migrants cleared the slopes, then dug a mixture of lime and sand or gravel into the ground and allowed it to interact with the soil to form a compost which sustained cultivation of potatoes and oats.

<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/4fd9c3ae-d901-48c0-8f40-874990c21f3b.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>

They also burned the lime from limestone taken from the river beds below, while stones taken from the land were used for houses.
They built roads, and grew flax, built limekilns and corn-drying kilns, and we have also found two sweat-houses which were used for curing illnesses.
<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/62459932-134b-4e56-927a-e28a364d6226.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>

Four major clusters in and around the Woodford parish area, which were the original footholds for “ladder farming” – a type of land management system which was a step up from “rundale” or sub-divided separate plots around “clachan” (small hamlet) settlements.
<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/66e37312-7333-4744-8c25-f7cfeaec839e.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>

In the area, many Ulster surnames, such as McGann, Reilly, McCabe, Murray and McGuire, still survive today.
Dr Cuniffe added that the site of a former pre-Emancipation Catholic chapel in the town-land of Loughatorick appears to have been erected by the settlers.&nbsp;
An examination of the modern graveyard in Woodford village also shows that they began burying their dead there in the 1850s, shortly after the graveyard opened. Their burial places stand out as “high-status monuments” according to Dr Cunniffe.
These people, whose ancestors could have witnessed the plantation of Ulster, and who were regarded as outsiders or blow-ins in the West of Ireland until their descendants got involved in the land wars of the 1880s.
The discovery presents a myriad cultural opportunities in the Slieve Aughtys, where there are “layers of archaeology” dating back to the Bronze Age, including fulachta fiadh or cooking pits.&nbsp;

<img src="https://d2hz75cbudexsj.cloudfront.net/insideAppNews/images/27bdd53b-650e-4830-9d07-c339ef514b8c.jpg" alt="undefined" style="float:none;height: auto;width: auto"/>

It is estimated that up to 7,000 people migrated from Ulster to Mayo and Galway as a result and there are a number of families today descended from the original settlers in Woodford, Ballinakill and Killeenadeema.
To learn more about this fascinating story, why not visit the wonderful <a href="http://www.woodfordgalway.com/index.php/heritage-centre" target="_self">Woodford Heritage Centre</a> online and in person when safe to do so:
<a href="http://www.woodfordgalway.com/index.php/heritage-centre" target="_self">Visit Woodford Heritage Centre:</a>&nbsp;

Ultach refugee camp discovered in Woodford

DOWNLOAD AND XPLORE