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Feaghquin is known to us all as the location of our playground, Hassetts pub & stables and the exit from the village to SMB.

This name translates as Fíoch Chuinche (Fee-ock Cuin-ke) from middle-Irish ‘fíodhach’ meaning ‘abounding in woods’.* The ‘ach’ element denoting “abounding in” or “full of” in middle Irish is now found as ‘agh’ in modern Irish.**

While no longer abounding in woods, it certainly has been abounding in underground features such as eel-holes, caves, and potholes, providing suitable protection for the local bats.

It lies south-east of the village and is adjacent to Kildrum to the south and Dangan to the north. It has an area of 76.09 hectares / 0.7609 km²; 0.29 square miles.

 

In 1641 the townlands entire 200 plantation acres were in the ownership of Daniel McNamara. In 1659 & 1661 the major owner was Murrough O’Brien. By 1670 this had been forfeited and was in the ownership of John McNamara and Brian McGrath (a transplanted papist), who presumably had sworn allegiance to the post Cromwellian regime. The townland at that stage was almost entirely unadulterated by man-made features except where it touched onto the village itself. It was therefore sparsely populated until road access developed.

By 1855, Griffiths Valuation recorded it as home to Rev Daniel Corbett, Pat Halloran, Pat & Catherine Burke and John D Fitzgerald. Margeret Ryan from Feaghquin, who emigrated to the States is mentioned elsewhere as one of its residents. Unusually, it has never been home to any manor or demesne. By this time the road to SMB had penetrated its territory (late 1700’s), the village school had been built (1896) and the Newline Road from the village to Cutteen cut through its north eastern edge (famine era).

In 1881 the townland had a population of 23 and had increased to 28 by 1891.

By 1901 the census records a population of 33, with the major families as the Ryans, Moylans, Fahys, Bourkes, Crowes and Frawleys. This did not change much in the following 10 years except for the addition of Meaneys and Cullinanes.

Indeed, much of the same names were probably still to be found until the 1990’s when development began to spill out along the Six Mile Bridge and New Market on Fergus roads. It will likely remain a predominantly rural and agricultural area of Quin into the near future.

Hassetts Pub is probably the best known feature of this townland

See https://ebw.pms.mybluehost.me/malachy-hassett-quin/

Poulnagordon Cave, in Feaghquin, was locally known as “The Bridges of Quin” and is found to the north of the SMB road.  It is home to a colony of Lesser Horseshoe bats. The entrance is now blocked and access difficult.

 

Feaghquin, Quin – a possible Commemorative Stone Cairn

In the Schools Manuscripts Collection from the Clare area, Agnes Clune collected information from Martin Moylan of Feaghquin in1938, which detailed a leacht and a local custom in the village of Quin that pointed to something very close to the coffin stone tradition. The ‘leacht’ seems to have been a combination of coffin-rest and a commemorative cairn. These cairns were formed by placement of stones to mark the death of someone.

‘There is a place in Feighquin called “leacht na marbh”. There is a round heap of stones raised to a point there. It is said that there is a chieftain buried there.
The reason it is called “leacht na marbh” is long ago the main road passed by the side of this leacht of stones. When a funeral was passing by, they used to rest the coffin on the top of the leacht, and everyone at the funeral would leave a stone on the “leacht.”  (Schools Manuscripts Collection, 1938).

A similar story is told by Martin Fahey in this folklore collection. The aerial photo above shows a ground feature alongside the SMB road in Feaghquin orientated toward Feaghquin Hill. Might this be the remnants of this road on which the ‘Leacht na marbh’ was built?

Quin School The first recorded ‘National school’ in Quin is in the year 1856. The school known locally as a “Reading House” was situated where Malachy Hassett has his stables in Feaghquin. The home of the late Mrs. Muriel O’Neill was at that time the residence of the teacher. The last teacher to live there was Mrs. Lena Weldon – Helena Degidon of Rylane and her husband John Weldon, aka the writer Brinsley MacNamara. The first recorded enrolment in the “Male School” in the year 1863 was Michael Clune – Carhugar – farmer, aged 15. In 1871 there is a record of the first infant – aged 6 – William Considine, whose father is registered as a teacher. Situated in Feighquin, the ‘Old School’ was built in 1896. The boys and girls schools were amalgamated on April 1st 1928. Up to that year they were separate schools.The last significant upgrade was in 1960 at Newline. It was occupied in 1964. The old school was used by the local Macra na Feirme as a garage and training workshop for skills such as welding and mechanics for many years afterwards.

Brinsley MacNamara, was the pen-name of John Weldon a writer, playwright and registrar of the National Gallery of Ireland. He was the author of several novels, the best known was his first, The Valley of the Squinting Windows (1918). The book caused a furore in his native Westmeath on its publication to the extent that Brinsley had to retreat from his home place of Delvin. He continued to write for many years after his controversial first work. Among his plays are The Glorious Uncertainty (1923) and Look at the Heffernans! (1926). On the 23rd of June 1920 MacNamara married a local Quin girl, Helena Degidon of Rylan in Clooney Church. Helena was a school teacher. The couple lived in Feaghquin next door to the school.

National Monuments

Field system, Feaghquin, CL042-190

Situated in a large field of pasture on the southern outskirts of Quin village and some 500m S of Quin Friary (CL042-027002-). An ancient field system visible on a Google Earth aerial photograph (taken 5 February 2009, accessed 4 March 2015). The field system includes a large D-shaped enclosure (c. 85m NE-SW; c. 80m NW-SE) with its straight side at NW. A sub-rectangular enclosure (c. 28m NE-SW; c. 22m NW-SE) is attached at the NE corner and a roadway skirts the E portion of the D-shaped enclosure. The monuments are also visible on Bing maps at http://binged.it/1BcFuju. Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload to SMR website: 4 March 2015

Historical references

From Logainm.ie

1633     Fyegh Qynhie      Inqiquin Papers (Cl) Leathanach: 2.303

  1. 1655 Fiaquinhy  DS

C.1660    Fyaquinhy         BSD (Cl) Leathanach: 147

1677     Feaguiny           ASE Leathanach: 236.53

1686   Feaquinny           CG Leathanach: 43

1726   Feighe Quin          CGn. Leathanach: 51.210.33439

1734   ffia Quin     CGn. Leathanach: 75.310.53195

1839    Feeaghquin   BS:AL

1839    Fiadh Chuínche    OD:AL & pl:AL

1839   Feaghquinny      QRL:AL

*Justin Ó Gliasáin, An Brainse Logainmneacha / The Placenames Branch

**PW Joyce – Origins of Irish PlacenamesAch, lack, nack, rack, tach, track, soacli.  All these postfixes have a collective signification when placed

after nouns and  generally  convey  the  sense  of  full of, ” abounding  in,”  much  the  same  as  the  English

postfixes fid,?/,  and  om.  In Irish writings, especially if they be ancient, these terminations are often written

ech^  lech,  &c. ;  and  sometimes,  in  compliance  with  a grammatical  custom,  they  are  changed  to  each,  leach,

&c. ;  but  these  changes  do  not  influence  the  anglicised forms.

Ach,  This  is  the  most  common  of  all  Irish  terminations, and  its  most  usual  form  in  anglicised  names

is  agh,  which  is  sounded  with  a  strong  guttural  by the  people,  but  pronounced ‘ah’  by  those  who  cannot

 

  1. Notice to tenants and occupiers from the High Court of Justice, Chancery – Land Judges, in the matter of the sale of Feaghquin, barony of Bunratty, part of the estate of Mary Anne Molony and others, owners, and the Provincial Bank of Ireland, Ltd., petitioners. With attached schedule and map. 4 Nov. 1890. 3 items.

TCD Downs Survey website

Griffiths Valuation,  Census of Ireland 1911 (Munster), 1901 & 1911 Census websites

1930’s Schools Folklore Collection

 

 

 

Seán na Gealaí

Halloween is the direct descendent of Samhain. It was the night when the gap between this world and the spirit world narrowed.  Known as Oiche Shamhna or ‘spirit night’, the souls of the dead were expected to return to the family home. The Church introduced the Feast of All Saints (Nov1) and the Feast of All Souls (Nov 2nd) to counter Samhain. Evil spirits were also thought to be abroad and people avoided travelling alone on this night.

   “Deireann na daoine go mbíonn sidheogaí amuigh oidhche Shamhna”, Schools’ Collection (NFCS 249).

Origins of Samhain

Contender 1- Tulsk, County Roscommon

Oweynagat Cave, Uaimh na gCat, meaning the ‘Cave of the Cats’ in Rath Croaghan. The Book of Leinster names it as dorus iffrin na Hérend – Ireland’s Gateway to Hell. Demons and all kinds of creatures emerge from here on Oiche Shamhna.

 Echtra Nerai (the Adventures of Nera) is first mentioned in the 10th century Cath Maige Mucrama story,  happening at Samhain.

Oweynagat Cave is also said to be the home of the Morrigan. She is portrayed as a goddess of battle and war, with the power to transform into crows or ravens. Her dreaded cry was frequently heard over battlefields.

Echtra Nerai, the Adventures of Nera

An Irish text taken from the Ulster Cycle, dating to the tenth century entitled ‘Nera and the Dead Man’, tells of the warrior Nera who accepts a dare during a dark and stormy Samhain night to tie a withy around the ankle of a hanging dead man. As he does so, the corpse suddenly comes to life and asks Nera to carry him on his back. Nera complies. After some adventures Nera gets the dead man back to his tree. All of this takes place at Samhain at Rath Croaghan/Cruachan, hence its association with Halloween.

Contender 2 – Tlachtga, Meath

The original Tlachtga was a druidess of considerable power and importance, the daughter of Mug Ruith who lived on Valentia Island in Kerry. He is said to have lived through the reign of nineteen kings, with his lifespan stretching back to the time of Christ on earth. Tlachtga and her father could travel the world on the Rath, a fabulous spinning wheel of fire that easily transported them. Mug Ruith sought out knowledge and learning like few before him and it was in this manner that he and Tlachtga travelled to study under Simon Magus (Simon the Sorcerer), who is mentioned in the Bible.

Simon Magus and Mug Ruith sent Tlachtga out into the world to gather as much knowledge as she could find. Upon her return they realized that her knowledge far surpassed their own!
They were outraged and such was their jealousy that they set the three sons of Simon Magus upon Tlachtga, who defiled her. She returned to Ireland where she gave birth to three sons, Dorb (Doirb), Cuma (Cumma) and Muach.

It was on the hill of Ward in county Meath that Tlachtga brought her three sons into the world, and it was there that she died, unable to sustain her life in the face of the utter grief and despair she felt at the indignity she had endured.

In recent years a renewal of the annual gathering on the hill of Ward now attracts hundreds of people at Halloween. A walk from Athboy up towards the Hill itself culminates with a celebration, with elaborate ceremonies and an acknowledgement of the cultural gift to Ireland and the world that Tlachtga represents.

In the ancient kingdom of Mide, Tlachtga was considered an important assembly place alongside Tara, Teiltun and Uisneach. These four ‘corners’ are recorded as having been the location of fortresses constructed by high king Tuathal Techmar at the foundation of Mide in the early decades of the first millennium AD.

‘Much of the (archaeological) evidence points towards a long history of ritual activity. Large quantities of animal bones – a sign of large scale feasting have been found throughout all phases of the site. The lack of evidence of any residential or day to day activity strengthens the idea that it most likely it was set aside purely for ritual or celebratory activity.

There have been finds in all three phases of the site, including scattered Bronze Age human remains and the skeleton of an infant between seven and ten months old… The child burial, next to a ritual deposit of cow bones, dates to AD 450 – around the time of the arrival of Christianity.

“The child was clearly buried with care and having not found any evidence of burials on the site, we’d have to guess that This child belonged to someone significant”.

Harvest knots and Guises

 

 

Homemade masks made by village boys calling to local houses on Oiche Shamhna

Outdoors

Unlike May when the fairies are active, November Eve brings malevolent spirits. It is the night for community bonfires, especially in housing estates in the cities and towns. Collecting the last handful of fruit and nuts.

Indoors

Families would attempt to have a celebratory supper on Oiche Shamhna. Family supper might be colcannon or pandy. They would first secure the house by sprinkling Holy Water and possibly placing a religious object in the thatch near the front door.

Typical Samhain Food included pancakes, stampy (a potato and apple cake, crusted with barley, enhanced with sea spinach and rock samphire & cooked with oil) apple cakes, nuts, blackberry pies.

An bairín breac/the barmbrack or the ‘speckled loaf’, containing oodles of dried autumn fruits is still a favourite treat, with lashings of butter.

Tokens inside the traditional loaf included the ring as a symbol of love and marriage,  a thimble (spinsterhood); a button (bachelorhood); a stick (to be beaten by the spouse); a rag (poverty); a coin (wealth) and a crucifix (the taking of religious orders).

Future Reading