MAYO HISTORY
Mayo has quite a long history. A quick overview follows. Archaeologists have found evidence of a large Mayo settlement in the New Stone Age (3500-2000BC). The earliest known land enclosure in the world, called "Ceide Fields" is located in Mayo. Ten percent of Ireland's megalithic tombs (burial chambers) are found in Mayo.
There is evidence that Mayo continued to have settlements through the Bronze Age (2000-4000BC) and the Early Iron Age (400 BC - 400 AD). One of the earliest peoples to settle Ireland, the Fir-Bolg landed in and operated from County Mayo.
St. Patrick spent extensive time in Mayo and is associated with Croagh Patrick, Aghgower and Foghill. Beginning in the seventh century there were many monastic sites established in Mayo. Most notable is the abbey founded at Cong by St. Feichin and Mayo Abbey founded in 627 by the English St. Colman. The abbey was founded on a plain of yews, Maigh Eo in ancient Gaelic, and thus the basis for the name of the diocese and then the county later.
Round-towers built in the eighth century give evidence of Viking raids. Examples are in Killala and Turlough. In 1120, Cong Abbey was founded and three years later the Cross of Cong was made. The diocese of Mayo was established in 1152 at the Synod of Kells.
Although the English invaded Ireland with the Normans in 1169, it wasn't until 1235 that they arrived in Mayo. The Normans brought to Mayo the surnames: Burke, Bourke, Jennings, Davitt, Gibbons, Costello, Gordon, Culkin and many more.
During the period 1240 - 1470, a great many friaries were established in Mayo.
In 1427 a monastery for the Eremites of the Order of St. Augustine was founded in Ardnaree.
The fifteenth century saw a great many turf battles between families. The O'Donnells of Donegal attempted to push their way into Connacht as did the O'Connors of Roscommon and Sligo, and the O'Kellys of Galway and east Roscommon. They were always met by the Burkes (De Burgo) families of Mayo and Galway. When they weren't fighting as allies these two Burke families were fighting each other.
Mayo was officially established as a county in 1570. It took its name from Mayo Diocese which had gotten its name from Mayo Abbey founded just southeast of Castlebar.
In one of the Burke internecine quarrels arose Grace O'Malley, a renowned pirate queen who operated from Clare Island in Clew Bay. In 1576, Grace offered two of her ships and two hundred fighting men to the Mayo Burkes.
In 1585, in another dispute, 2,000 Scotch mercenaries arrived in Connacht on behalf of the Burkes who were in revolt against the British. They were routed and a great slaughter ensued at Ardnaree.
In the Summer of 1588, the Great Spanish Armarda was shipwrecked off the western coast of Ireland in Broad Haven and Blacksod Bays. Many a Spanish galleon found itself on the rocks of Mayo. Survivors made their way into Mayo only to be robbed, imprisoned or slaughtered by English forces.
The pattern of land ownership in Mayo was never static in the sixteenth century as various clans obtained political influence or control and as English administration tightened its control over Ireland.
In 1631 the Diocese of Mayo was absorbed into Tuam.
The Cromwellian Settlement began in 1641 and ended in 1651 with a stern English regime in absolute control of Mayo and the rest of Ireland. Soldiers and adventurers who served Cromwell were rewarded with grants of lands in Mayo as well as elsewhere. Families that were displaced, if they were found to have been innocent of supporting anti-Cromwellian forces, were then found lands of equal size in Connacht which of course meant many came to Mayo.
Cromwell's soldiers plundered Mayo in 1653. The Morans of Ardnaree and Ballina had to move somewhere as Ballina was awarded to Cromwell's military.
There were some minor famines in Mayo in the 1600's. The most miserable daily problem for the Irish of Mayo and elsewhere during this time were the "Penal Laws" established in 1695 This gave social privilege to English or English allies only. Irish were not allowed to vote or own property, enter the service, speak Gaelic or even own a horse. This led to a wave of emigration as Mayo Irish sought opportunity to have religious, social and economic freedom. One of the early emigrants from County Mayo was William Brown of Foxford who left Mayo in 1786. Thirty years later, he was the"Father of the Argentine Navy" and is still revered as an Argentine hero today.
Emigrants from Mayo in the early 1700s settled on the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Montserrat. Toward the end of the decade they were going to Australia, America and Canada.
Ballina, a seaport with the River Moy running through it, was founded in 1729 by O'Hara, Lord Tyrawley who built the first street.
There were agrarian disturbances in Tirawley in the 1790's and an influx of displaced Ulster Catholics in 1795 made for some pressure but it was nothing compared to the events of 1798. County Leinster and east Ulster broke into armed rebellion in June of that year. France decided to make a move and take advantage of the rebellions to assist the Catholics of Ireland who had sought for so long any help against the tyrannical Protestant British overlords.
Their timing was off, because by the time they got around to doing something the British had crushed the Ulster rebels in a battle in County Down and others, two months earlier, near Enniscorthy in County Wexford at a place called Vinegar Hill.
The "Year of the French" as it became known began on August 22, 1798. French forces numbering about 1,000 men under General Joseph Amable Humbert of Lorraine landed at Killala Bay. Humbert captured Killala and Ballina. The Catholic Irish flocked to his banner. On August 26, Humbert with about 700 French and an equal number of Irish pushed by forced march to Castlebar where they surprised the British garrison under the command of General Lake. The garrison was made up of about 1,700 men, mostly Irish militia. After a short engagement the militia withdrew and then ran from the scene going all the way to Tuam, County Galway. They were quickly joined by the remainder of the garrison. This incident became known as the "races of Castlebar."
Humbert waited in Castlebar for eight days for his expeditionary force to be reinforced with a French Army. He established a Republic of Connacht and appointed John Moore, a young Catholic gentleman from an estate near Lough Carra to be President. John Moore's son, George Moore became the famous writer.
Receiving no orders, instructions or help from his superiors, Humbert marched to Sligo and won a skirmish at Collooney. There he heard of a rebellion in Leitrim and Longford. He rushed to support it.
At Ballinmuck in County Longford on September 8, 1798, Humbert faced a force fives times his led by the English Generals Cornwallis and Lake. Humbert came to terms for his 850 troops and officers. They were allowed to gracefully retire from Ireland aboard French ships. The more than a thousand Irish allies who welcomed General Humbert and joined forces with him suddenly found themselves on their own. They were quickly slaughtered. Cornwallis pursued the Irish back to Killala which briefly held out until it to was put to the sword. Anyone suspected of assisting the rebels were massacred as the British went through the Mayo countryside with no mercy.
The year 1800 saw passage of the Act of Union under which Ireland ceased to be a separate kingdom and became just a part of the British Isles. The American victory over the British in the War of 1812 encouraged many a discouraged Irishman to leave for America. Catholic agitation led by the famed Daniel O'Connell resulted in Catholic Emancipation. Catholics were allowed to vote, run for office and even attend schools. O'Connell then worked to repeal the Act of Union. He was arrested and the movement is stalled.
The Great Hunger and famine of 1845-1849 greatly affected Mayo. Over 100,000 people died. About that number emigrated. Though people from Mayo had emigrated earlier, they never stopped leaving after the famine.
Mayo famine emigrants went mostly to America- to New York, Boston, Philadelphia. There were groups of emigrants from Ballina who settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania and others from Louisburgh that settled in Clinton, Massachusetts. A large group of Mayo emigrants went to cities in northern England. Those Mayo families tended to come from eastern Mayo. They settled in Bury and Rochdale, England. These groups attracted others from the same areas to follow during later years so that each of the cities named outside of Mayo had a sizeable Mayo immigrant population before long.
The report of an appearance of the Blessed Mother at Knock occurred in 1879 on August 21. There is a beautiful church, The Basilica of Our Lady, Queen of Ireland, at Knock to commemorate the event. The church attracts over one and a half million pilgrims every year. Pope John Paul visited in 1979 and Mother Theresa of Calcutta in 1993.
Eighteen seventy nine (1879) was also the year the Mayo Land League was founded and local Michael Davitt emerged as a leader in the land movement which had as its basis to place land in the hands of the tenant farmers.
Mayo figured prominently in the land war. The term "boycott" evolved because of a determination by people in Mayo to ostracize the efforts of the land agent, Captain Boycott.
The famous Foxford Woolen Mills opened in 1892.
Major John McBride of Westport, County Mayo was among the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916. McBride who had led a small Irish Brigade against the English in the Boer War in South Africa was married to the beautiful Maud Gonne. Their son was Sean McBride an international lawyer of renown who has won the Nobel and Lenin Peace Prizes. He is the author of the McBride Principles.
Major John McBride was captured by the British and executed.
Though the Irish, through the landslide election of Sinn Fein candidates in 1918 had clearly indorsed independence, the British ignored the results, but did allow a separate Irish parliament.
The emergence of a war for independence in Ireland had several incidents in Mayo. These were in Foxford, Islandeady, Toormakeady, Kimeena and Carrowkennedy. A truce declared in July, 1921 led to the Anglo-Irish treaty of December. It also led to a split among the Irish that brought about a civil war that began in 1922. There were a few incidents in Mayo, but none like the tragic atrocities that took place elsewhere. In 1923 the war was over but the nation was unable to heal itself for many, many years.
A Mayo team won the national All-Ireland Gaelic Football Championship for the first time in 1936 and then again in 1950 and 1951. That last year also saw the filming of The Quiet Man directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Barry Fitzgerald in Cong.
In the 1970's industry came to Mayo in the form of plants for Asahi and Allergan Pharmaceuticals.
Most recently (1995) the election of Mary Robinson to President of Ireland filled the residents of Mayo with pride. Mrs. Robinson has been mentioned as a candidate for the Secretary-General of the United Nations. She serves today as the U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights. Other politicians have came from Mayo including Charles J. Haughey of Castlebar, Joseph Blowick of Balla and Thomas O'Connell of Bekan to name a few.
The Ambassador to the United states from Ireland, in 1997, was a Mayo man, Sean O hUiginn. O hUginn was formerly the Irish ambassador to Saudia Arabia and Denmark. He also has been the Consul General in New York City.
Americans with ties to Mayo whose names you might recall include: Bill Dwyer, Paul O'Dywer, Tom Foley, Mrs. Pat Nixon, Cardinal James Gibbons, Father Andrew Greeley, Grace Kelly, Mel Gibson, Gene Tunney and "Gentleman" Jim Corbett to name a few.
That concludes the brief history of County Mayo.