Ballyhaise/Baillieborough
Trip Start
Jul 25, 2008
1
24
56
Trip End
Sep 18, 2008
Baillieborough,
United Kingdom
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Church of Ireland, Baillieborough
. Ballyhaise turned out to be a charming market town situated on the Annalee River which was in flood. We came over a bridge on the outskirts of the town which is almost 300 years old to Ballyhaise House which has been used as an agricultural college since the beginning of the twentieth century and was built in the 1730's. We then drove into the town which contains 142 houses and 761 inhabitants. The linen trade was formerly carried on here to a very considerable extent, but is now finished. Near the town are some extensive flour and oatmeal mills and on the outskirts there were the fields with cattle, horses and some corn. We decided to investigate the farming areas a little more and went up a lane to look at more corn, decided to turn around and got seriously bogged - the back wheels went into a ditch, leaving the car sitting on the ledge. While Graham unpacked the car, I walked back down to the village to find someone to get us out. Thankfully, I was able to find a farmer with a tractor and we were soon on our way. We decided to take a punt and look in the graveyard of the Church of Ireland, and there with the luck of the Irish I found gravestones that relate to my family. We drove on through the big city of Cavan, known for crystal and on to Baillieborough, also in County Cavan, the Province of Ulster. This was a bigger town than Ballyhaise with 10,480 inhabitants of which 1085 are in the town. It consists of only one street containing 165 houses and the Church of Ireland - and once again I was lucky to find gravestones that had the same surname and similar Christian names and dates of birth to believe that they were indeed some branch of the same family. More than I had hoped for after 160 years of my great great grandparents leaving Ireland. My great great grandfather, Adam Johnston was born here in Baillieborough in 1842, arrived in Brisbane 1861, married Maria Jeffers (from Portadown), and died in Mackay. They had 9 children. We were impressed with the size of the houses through out the country side in the northern part of the Republic of Ireland - many as big as, if not bigger than Australian houses with large lawns and outside areas. The economy in Ireland must be good if it is related to the number of Mercedes we saw. On the way into Dublin, we went through Drogada, where in 1690, King William 111 (Prince of Orange) crossed the Boyne with approx 3,500 mounted troops, winning the battle against James11 and leaving the legacy of the "orange" and the "green". The Boyne was in flood from all the rain in Ireland, and we heard that Belfast and Northern Ireland had been flooded since we left - maybe we did alright after all with the weather!!! Everybody has said that this has been their worst summer for years. Well, into Dublin and at last tonight at Foleys we enjoyed the Craic, the infectious rhythms of traditional Irish music and enjoyed mussels for dinner. 
