Shrule :: Townland and placename index
Shrule the name given in 1570 by the four masters as Sruthair, the word is a variation of Sruth or Sruthan: a stream or river. The tradition of Shrule deriving it’s name from sruth-fuil, meaning river of blood, because of a massacre at Shrule bridge in 1642 is a fabrication and incorrect, as the name was already in use before that time.The name took various forms through the centuries, i.e.: Strothyr, Shrure, Shrower, Sruhir, and Shruel…
The Annals of Shrule were originally compiled by Gerard Metadger and in the past decade they have been added to and reformatted several times to include new material and to separate information into different categories better suited to presentation on the internet . The Annals do not include the twentieth century but anybody can add information to this history of the area !
The following is an index to the present format .
History of the area from the 1500 to 1900
- 1850 to 1900
- Local history for the latter half of the 19th century.
- 1800 to 1850
- Local history of the earlier half of the 19th century including the famine.
- 1700 to 1800
- Eighteenth century history
- 1600 to 1700
- Seventeenth century history
- 1500 to 1600
- Sixteenth century history
- Battle of Shrule
- Battle or massacre of Shrule – 1570
- 1400 to 1500 AD
- Local history for the15th century.
- 1300 to 1400 AD
- Local history for the14th century.
- 1200 to 1300 AD
- Local history for the13th century.
- 1000 to 1200 AD
- Local history for the11th and 12th centuries.
History of the area from the earliest times to 1000 to 1500
- 400 to 1000 AD
- Christian Ireland before 1000 AD
- 1 to 400 AD
- After Christ to the coming of St.Patrick
- BC
- Before Christ
History of the area in the first millenium
- Ordnance Survey
- .
- 6″ : 1 Mile
- Shrule parish spans 6 inch map numbers 121 , 122 and 123 for Mayo .
- 1 : 50000
- Discovery maps for the area are numbers 38 , 39 , 45 and 46 .
- Townland
- Index map of the parish and surrounding area showing townlands and placenames.
- Down Survey
- Map of the area from Hibernia Delineato published in 1685 by Sir William Petty for the Down survey of Ireland .
Maps of the region through history
- Church men and women
- Shrule priests , curates and friars through the century of Penal laws and persecution.
Clergy who have served in Shrule parish
- Dalgan Park
- Kirwan – The Kirwan family occupied Dalgan Park from 1760’s to 1853.
- ,,
- De Clifford – Dalgan park was purchased by the Duke of Bedford, from the Russell family.Edward Russell inherited the title of Lord DeClifford.
- Ballycurran
- Maurice Lynch got a lease of Ballicurran Castle and 4 quarters of land on March 1679.
- Moyne
- Moyne – Occupied by Burkes , Blakes , ffrenchs etc. . .
- Shrule House
- John and James Golden are said to have built Shrule house in 1769 .
- Shrule Grove
- Lynch – Pierce Lynch moved to Shrulegrove about 1610 .
- ,,
- Ormsby – Sir Edward Ormsby moved to Shrulegrove after the departure of Pierce Lynch in 1655.
- Glencorrib
- Dillon-Brown – The family originally came from further north in county Mayo, they owned what was left of the Mochorrha castle and lands .
- ,,
- Higgins – Captain Fitzgerald-Higgins purchased Glencorrib lodge and the land of Bunafolistrane, now Glencorrib, from the Dillon-Brownes in 1850.
Landlords seats in the locality.
- Statistics
- Lies , damn lies and statistics !
- Origins
- Surname origins for the area .
- Land
- Griffiths Valuation , Tithe Applotments and names occurring in each .
Statistics and general analysis .
Shrule parish
Shrule parish situated on the Mayo side of the Galway-Mayo border on the Eastern Shore of lough Corrib is a small parish of 9000 acres. It is approximately five miles long and one mile wide. The town of Shrule is sited on the eastern side of the parish beside the Blackriver. Shrule was an important natural crossing point on that river, a ford on the North-South route on the Eastern Shore of the Corrib.
On the Shrule half of the parish we can find about 30 ring forts and a crannog. This shows the importance of the area for the Celts.
The western side of the parish was a parish in its own right, Moyne, later to be replaced by Kinlough 0.8 miles farther east, But in penal times the parishes of Shrule and Kinlough were united because of a lack of priests. Another event that influenced Shrule greatly was the coming of the Normans. The ruins of six Norman castles can be found in the parish. The Normans made Shrule a market town, which stayed as such until the twentieth century, the last fairs and marts being held in the 1960s.
Lastly the whole parish was always known to be a Catholic area. No Protestant planters settled in Shrule parish. There was no Protestant landlord in the parish until 1850, and there never was a Protestant church in Shrule parish. In spite of this, the reform and its persecutions left the parish fairly untouched,as we shall see in these pages.