The letter below is from O'Donovan's colleague O'Conor and concerns the town of Banagher. The barracks is now gone while the castle is still standing. Cloghan was a great fair village.

ORDNANCE SURVEY LETTERS KING'S COUNTY.

[Letter no. 28 from Thomas O'Conor ]

Banagher,
January 21st 1838.

Sir,

Rinagh, which is written in the Down Survey Reinagh, is known only as the name of a Parish and not as the name of a denomination of land by the people. The Down Survey in describing this Parish, states that:-

"The improvement thereon is on Bunagher als. Fortffalkland a Church, upon Garrycastle, Streamstown, Cloghane and Stonestowne on each a castle."

There is a Church in ruins to the west side of the Town of Banagher and not far from the Market Square, which appears to have been in use at no long period back. In Garrycastle Townland are the ruins of an old castle, from which the Barony has taken its name. Garrycastle is called Gardha an Chaisleain in the Annals. Let an extract of what is relative to it in this document be made.

A castle stands in ruins in Streamstown Townland, which is said to have been occupied by the Great Mac Coghlan, contracted in common conversation into "the great Maw."

There are no townlands given under the names of Cloghan and Stonestown in the Name Books of the Parish of Rinagh. But both are laid down in the list of names in the Parish of Gillen. Stonestown is called Baile na Cloiche in the Annals of the Four Masters at the year 1548, where it is recorded that:-

"The Lieutenant ( *** Cosby) and the English at the instance of Edmond a Fali, made an incursion in Delvin in revenge of his expulsion and burned and plundered from Bealach an Fhothair to the Causeway of Ceann Mona and also Baile Mheg Ullachain in Lus Mhagh. They remained encamped for one night at Baile na Cloiche and on the morrow returned with booty and spoil, without engaging in battle or meeting opposition."

Banagher is written Beandchor at the following years in the Annals, which record at the latter year the re-erection of its castle by Teige Caech O'Carroll:-

"A.D. 1539. Mac Coghlan (Felim, the son of Meyler) was slain at Beandchor by the sons of O'Madden, Melaghlin God, etc., after Mass on Sunday, the second of the nones of July."

"1544. The Castle of Beandchor was re-erected by O'Carroll (Teige Caech) in despite of the Clan Colman and the O'Maddens, who were at emnity with each other."

Sir Charles Coote's Statistical Survey of the King's County notices that:-

"The old Castle of Garrycastle, from whence the Barony is named, has very rich feeding ground in its neighbourhood, and at Cuba, a seat of Dennis Bowes Daly, Esq., the parks are rich and luxuriant. But this engaging scene is soon lost; when you pass Banagher, all is a wild, barren and uncultivated waste; under this description Kor Hill is very conspicuous. Banagher is a good town and well inhabited; it is situated on the banks of the Shannon and is the western extremity of this County and also of the Province of Leinster, as here beyond the river is that of Connaught. At this side of the bridge are the barracks for two companies of foot and at the other side is a castle which commands the town, with the adjacent country towards Connaught and was well situated to defend this important pass; it is distant 60 miles from Dublin and formerly sent two members to Parliament; the Holmes family had a patronage of the borough *** ***

"Cloghan is a village of middling appearance, four miles to the east of Banagher and sixty two from Dublin; it is on the estate of Denis Bowes Daly, Esq., and is remarkable for an excellent inn. At some distance are the ruins of a Church and near Moystown the seat of Colonel Lestrange, are those of Streamstown Castle."

The ruins alluded to in this description must be those of Killowny old Church, which lie in Killownybeg Townland to the right of the road leading from Cloghan to Banagher and about one mile distant from the former. It is strange that Streamstown Castle is described as lying near Moystown, since the castle stands in Streamstown Townland to the right of the road leading from Banagher to Cloghan and about one mile distant from the former; and Moystown (Demesne) lies in the Parish of Tisaran, more than four miles north by west from Banagher. This town ought, one should think from the contiguity of Streamstown Castle to it, to be used as the object defining the situation of the old ruins, rather than a place which is comparatively so far distant from them.

In Cloghan, Stonestown and Banagher are found no castles existing at present, nor could I as yet procure any information as to where the castle stood at the Town of Banagher, whether it was on the Leinster or Connaught side of the Shannon. It appears from the words of Sir Charles Coote above cited, that there was in his time a Castle on the Connaught side of its river, where he says:-

"At this side of the bridge are the the barracks for two companies of foot and at the other side is a castle, which commands the town with the adjacent country towards Connaught. "

"At this side of the bridge is meant here the Leinster side and by the other side, the Connaught side. It is likely the castle mentioned by this writer stood on the neck of land on which the fort, now a police barrack, stands on the Connaught side of the bridge, but whether that was the castle noticed in the Annals above referred to, is not as yet ascertained.

The walls of a comparatively modern Church stand in ruins in the south part of Garrycastle Townland and at the northeast side of it there are portions of ruined walls, apparently of more ancient date.

On the same side is at a short distance from the Church yard "All Saints Well", Tobar na Naomh, lying at the foot of a large tree which inclines southwards; a few yards to the north of this well is Lady's Well and a few yards to the east of Lady Well are small wells called Eye Wells; they are three in number. (There were four, but one ran dry). These small wells are called eye wells and head wells, from the circumstance of their waters being applied to sore eyes and used as a remedy for head-aches.

A patron was held here on SS. Peter and Paul's day and on the Sunday previous to the 1st of August, but it has been discontinued those three years back.

Bealach an Fhothair mentioned in the Annals at the year 1548 referred to above, is now Anglicised Ballahonoher, which is the name of a townland in this Parish.

It appears from Note 25 to Chapter 21 of the Life of St. Finnian or Fennen, Abbot of Cluaineraird (Clonard) given at the 23rd of February in AA. SS. p. 395, that Rinagh Parish retains this name from Killrignaighe, which was formerly a monastery denominated from S. Regnach, sister of St. Finnian and which became afterwards a Parochial Church in the Diocese of Clanmacnoise in Meath, as Colgan expressly states in these words of the note just referred to:-

25. "Soror sua, Regnach nomine, C.20 Of St. Regnacia or (which is the same) Regina, Marian and AEngussius Auct. treat at 18th December. But the margin (i.e., a notice in the margin) of Marian, calls her the daughter of Feredach, but corruptly, instead of Finlach or Fintan (I think) since two Latin manuscripts and a third, an old Irish manuscript consenting, say that she was the sister of S. Finnian, and by consequence, the daughter of Fintan, particularly when from this Chapter and the Irish manuscript, it can be collected that Talacia, their mother, became a nun. The Irish manuscript mentions also another sister of St. Finnian, a nun who was named Richenna and lived, together with her mother and sister Regnacia, in the Monastery of Killrignaighe, which is a Parish Church in the Diocese of Cluainmacnoise in Meath."

This is corroborated by these words in Chapter III of the Appendix to the Life of S. Finnian, AA. SS. p. 405:-

*** "S. Regnacia, sister of S. Finnian, Abbess of Kill Rignaige." - V. Finniani, C.20, vide 18 Dec.

S. Richenna or Richilla, sister of Saint Finnian in the Church of Kill Rignaige. V. Hibernica S. Finniani et Nata supra, n. 25.

S. Talacia, mother of S. Finnian and Abbess of Killrignaige, V. Finn, C.?. Vide 11 Aug.

Rinagh is easily formed from Kill Rignaighe by rejecting Kill, signifying Church and restoring Rignaighe (Riognaighe) the name of the Saint, to its nominative state, viz., Rignach, the g being in the meantime aspirated into gh, which has the sound of y, was expunged finally in every shape of sound, as the long sound of i suffices in the English pronunciation of the name.

There is a Parish called Killriny in the County of Kildare, which would agree in orthography with the Killrignaighe here mentioned by Colgan. But Killriny in Kildare could not be Kill Rignaighe, as the former was in the Diocese of Kildare and the latter was in the Diocese of Clonmacnoise, according to Colgan in Note 25 above cited. Let an extract be made of the account of the extent of the Diocese of Clonmacnoise as taken by Keating from the Annals of Clonenagh. It will appear from this account if Kill Rignaighe (now Reynagh) be a Parish within the limits of that Diocese.

The Monastery of Kill Rignaighe must be supposed to have its situation where the old Church at Banagher lies in ruins, as there is no certain traditional information to be had respecting its exact locality, and Colgan states it became a Parochial Church.