O'Donovan in this, a continuation of his thirteenth letter, attacks Sir Charles Coote, the author of the King's County Statistical Survey of 1801.

Of the Parish of Kilbride in the Barony of Ballycowan

This Parish is locally called Moylena, which preserves the name of a plain of ancient celebrity, and of which I have spoken in a former letter as the site of a famous struggle between Con of the Hundred Battles (Bottles) and Mogha Nuadhat.

It hath the name of Kilbride from the old Church of that name, which was originally either erected by or dedicated to St. Brigit of Kildare, but the present ruin is certainly not so old as her period. It lies in the Townland of Kilbride but exhibits nothing of antiquarian interest. Does Colgan in his list of the Churches of St. Brigit mention this and the not far distant Church of Kilbride in the Barony of Kilcoursey or Munter-Thadhgain?

In this Parish stands the Castles of Ballycown and Srah, of which Sir Charles Coote gives the following account:-

"The ruins of Shra Castle are near to Charleville on the eastern side, and on the western is Ballycowan (Ballicowan) Castle, from whence the Barony takes its name. This castle has yet the vestiges of great magnificence; over the entrance is the following inscription:-

"This house was built by Sir Jasper Harbert, Mary Dean Finglas, in the year 1626. " Under this inscription is the family arms, with this motto:-

"By God of Might, ( That's the talk! )
I'll hold my right.

"This country (that is, the Barony of Ballycowan) was originally the property of the O'Dempseys, a famous Irish clan, and no other matter on record relative to its history but what is given in the introduction (and that's very little, and that little wrong - J. O'D.). p.182."

He is right about the modern Castles of Srah and Ballycowan, but his assertion that the Barony of Ballycowan was the Country of the O'Dempseys, shews that he knew nothing at all about the English documents relating to either. The following base blunder of his is worth laughing at:-

"Offaly lay on the western borders of the Pale and in 1557, in the fifth of Philip and Mary, during the administration of Thomas, Earl of Sussex, was confiscated to the Crown, under the title of Western Glenmallery; at the same time was the Queen's County forfeited under the title of Eastern Glenmallery*."

* He cannot have seen the Act of 3 and 4, Philip and Mary.

Poor blockhead! Glenmaliry consisted but of one Barony in the King's County and another in the Queen's County. What writers we have had in this great country of the learned. After all, the old Bards are the true authorities, for they are never wrong, except about miracles and prodigies.

The same most learned writer informs us in page 2 of his introduction, which is a master piece of human research, that the Country of Hy Laoighis comprised the King's County, the Queen's County, the County of Dublin and the County of Kildare, an assertion so outrageous that I sicken at the idea of the state to which Vallancey brought out Irish literature. Laoighis really contained about half the Queen's County. Take away the Baronies of Upper Ossory, Portnahinch and Tinahinch, and the remaining part of the Queen's County will be Laoighis or Leix.

The present Castle of Ballycowan is not the one from which the Barony was named, but a far more ancient one, whose site, there is every reason to suppose, is occupied by the house erected in 1626. This more ancient castle belonged to O'Molloy, Chief of Fercallia and not to the O'Dempseys, as Sir Charles Coote says without authority. It is mentioned by the Four Masters at the year 1557:-

"The Treasurer marched with an army into Feara-Ceall to revenge upon O'Molloy (Art) his protection of the Wood-Kerns and other rebels, and on this occasion the entire country, from the wood eastwards, was ravaged; Ballycowan (Baile Mhic Abhain) and Lynally, both houses and Churches, were burned, and Calvagh, the son of O'Molloy, was killed at the Ford of Glaisi (now Glash Bridge).

"He made a second incursion into the same country, burned it and cut down its wood and refused to come to terms of peace or agree to come to an armistice with O'Molloy, but expelled and banished him from the country and gave his lordship (i.e., the command of his Principality) to Theobald O'Molloy."

Ballycowan is also mentioned in the poem called the Victories of Hugh O'Byrne, from which it appears that it was plundered and burned by that warrior in the reign of Queen Elizabeth:- ...

The Killing of Calbhach O'Molloy,
Left the Feara Ceall without victory (defeated)
I withdraw not my attention from the expedition
Bally-Cowan he plundered, burned.

This is sufficient to shew that Ballycowan was in O'Molloy's Country of Feara Ceall and not in O'Dempsey's of Clann-Maoil-Ughra. The former was in Meath and the latter in Leinster.

Your obedient servant,
John O'Donovan.