An Teach Dóite
In the 1820’s the village of Ballymakeera as we know it today did not exist. To locate where it existed then you must turn left at Quilt Centre and travel on the Clondrohid Road for about a mile until you come to a four cross roads near ‘Béal A’ Ghéarrtha’. The Church, a shop, a pub and the only two -storey house, a barracks, were to the left-hand side and another pub Tadhg Bán Twomey’s was to the right hand side.
It was at Tadhg Bán Twomey’s pub that four local men planned the burning of the local barrack namely the proprietor Tadhg Bán, Lynch and O’ Connell from Ullanes and Murphy (whose descendants later lived in Liscarrigane). The reason they wanted to burn the barracks was to try and remove the soldiers who were stationed there and were basically living off the land. This is how it is described in ‘Scéal Mo Bheatha’.
The barracks was a two storey dwelling with a thatch roof. The four men decided that the best (or easiest) way to attack the soldiers was to set the roof on fire in the middle of the night when all the soldiers were asleep. The common match as we know it today had not yet been invented so they had to carry the flame to the building. They decided that they would use a skillet pot to carry lighting sods of turf to the barracks and use these to ignite some hay which they would have wrapped around the top of a pole. They then drew lots to decide which one of the four would burn the barracks and the lot fell on Lynch.
On the night picked to burn the barracks the two Lynch brothers met in ‘Páirc an Leasa’ near their house. It was in the dead of night with a lot of the locals gone to a wake in Lios Caragáin. As was the custom of the time nobody would leave the wake house after 12 o’ clock but would stay until morning so the possibility of meeting people on the pathways was very slim/ the two brothers walked together towards the barracks. When they got near the barracks they had to go through a fence of white thorn bushes FÁL DAINGEAN LAIDIR SCEICHÉ GILE.
The younger man continued on to the barracks. When he got there he found that the stick with the hay on it wasn’t long enough to reach the thatch on the roof. He looked around and he saw an apron on the clothes line. He took the apron and tore off the strings. He used the strings to tie a piece of a lat on to the pole he had so that it could reach the thatch. He then proceeded to set the roof on fire and got out of there as fast as he could carrying the cover of the pot and the apron with him.
When daylight came the soldiers found the pot and the strings of the apron. They searched everywhere to find the matching cover of the pot and the apron to match the strings. They were unsuccessful as the evidence was buried at the top of Ulalanes Mountain at a spot which to this day is known as ‘Carraigín a’ bhullaigh’.
Informers told the soldiers who was responsible for the burning of the barracks. Tadhg Bán was sent to jail but secured an early release. Lynch continued on with his whiteboy activities but himself and tow others Goggin and Duggan were captured and hung at Carriganima.
|