History of Ballyconneely from earliest settlers to the present day
by Joe Joyce
No visit to Connemara or the West of Ireland would be complete
without a visit to Ballyconneely. This peninsula, jutting into the Atlantic
between Clifden to the north and Roundstone to the south, contains some
of the most tranquil, unspoilt and interesting countryside to be found
anywhere in the country. Its name translates from the Irish as Conneelys
Village, and is based on the old civil parish of Ballindoon which
in turn was named from the old fort or cashel on Doon Hill built by the
McGeogegan family to celebrate the restoration of free trade in the late
eighteenth century.
The peninsula is virtually ringed by beaches - from
the Coral Strand at Derrygimla, west and north to Knock, Mannin, Dunloughan
and Truska, and east and south from Keeraunmore, Aillebrack, and Ballyconneely
Bay to Calla, Dolan and Murvey. As well as being ideal for bathing, some
of those beaches provide excellent bases for shore fishermen, yielding
Flounder, Wrasse, Pollock, Mackerel and occasional Bass. The beach at
False Bay , Dunloughan, provides good surfing, given certain tide and
wind conditions.
Adjoining the beaches are large tracts of flat land or Machair
which contain in some instances Shell Middens
or the remains of shellfish deposited by the shore-dwelling communities
who lived along those beaches going back to 2000 B.C. Dunloughan and Truska
beaches contain separate deposits of Dog Whelk shells which were not used
as food, but to produce a purple dye much sought after by the Romans .
Pottery fragments from those sites indicate their habitation at some stage
by the Beaker Folk , a migrant continental people also skilled in metallurgy
and who are recorded in Ireland and England around 2500 to 2000 B.C.
In relatively recent times, or from the fourteenth century
onwards, Ballyconneely was the preserve of the 'Ferocious' O'Flahertys,
whose castle at the mouth of the Brandy River at Bunowen, built in the
early sixteenth century, was the seat of the western branch of this notorious
family. Donall O'Flaherty or Donall A Choghaid as he was nicknamed, married
the celebrated Grace O'Malley or Granuaile, about whom much has
been written, and they lived at Bunowen from circa 1540, raising two sons
- Eoin and Murrough - and a daughter Margaret, of whom little is recorded.
Granuaile left Bunowen in 1556 after her husband was killed whilst on
a hunting trip in the Maam area, where the O'Flaherties would annually
set up temporary quarters for the Summer months.
After the Cromwellian period, the O'Flahertys were disposessed
and their lands given to Art McGeoghegan from Co. Westmeath. They were
originally a Catholic family but changed to Protestantism in order to
retain the family lands during the Penal Times. A great great grandson,
John McGeoghegan changed the family name to O'Neill in 1808. They moved
fom the old O'Flaherty castle and built a substantial house close to Doon
Hill in 1838. An attempt to convert this building into a Gothic Mansion
was never completed and the effort, coupled with the Great Famine of 1845/47,
bankrupted the family, the last of whom, John Augustus O'Neill, died in
penury in London in the eighteen fifties.
Ballyconneely has been to the foreront in many historic
projects and events. As early as 1854 the first Salmon farming operation
in either Britain or Ireland was carried out on the Dohulla Fishery. William
Young and J.K.Boswell built a dam at the western outlet of Barrowen Lough
reversing the flow of water into Maumeen Lough via a manmade river known
as the New Cut. Spawing beds and rearing ponds for salmon were built along
its banks and with the help of a scientist, a Mr. Ramsbottom from Clitheroe
in Lancashire, the locally reared fish were tagged and released to sea,
and were documented returning to the fishery up to 1863.
On Sunday June 14th 1919, the first transatlantic flight
ended in the Derrygimla Bog, about two miles from Ballyconneely Village.
Capt. John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown had flown their twin-engined
Vickers Vimy plane from Newfoundland, Canada, in just over sixteen hours.
They landed virtually within yards of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph
Station, set up by Guiglielmo Marconi, the Italian pioneer of wireless
telegraphy in 1905, and from where the first transatlantic wireless message
was sent to Cape Breton in Nova Scotia in 1907.
Ballyconneely is also renowned for its breeding of the world
famous Connemara Pony, with numerous home and overseas champions
being produced here. Legend has it that the breed originated as a result
of a number of Arab Horses coming ashore from a Spanish shipwreck, near
Slyne Head, and breeding with the small native pony. An annual show and
sale is held in the village on the 3rd Sunday in July.
Today the area is home to a vibrant, thriving community
and boasts many attractions for our visitors. There is a magnificent eighteen
hole Golf Links at Aillebrack. Three miles to the east, there is
the Roundstone Bog, a vast expanse of moor, lake and stream, teeming with
undisturbed wildlife and rare plants, an area which is almost haunting
in its serene tranquility, especially in the early morning and late Summer
evenings. Our already mentioned beaches, as well as providing excellent
bathing have an abundance of edible shellfish and molluscs accessible
at low tides. These include Clams, Cockles, Mussels, Razorfish, Sea Urchin,
Shrimp and Scallops, and with local knowledge, the occasional Lobster!
Joe Joyce