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Glenmalure the Seat of Gabhal Raghnall

Picture
The Valley of Glenmalure by Val Byrne
Glenmalure (Gleann-Malowra) Malowra's Glen
One of the most prominent features  of Glenmalure is its mountain range with Lugnaquilla rising to 3039 feet, the highest mountain in Leinster. Glenmalure which normally offers peace and  stillness was the scene of many battles between the native Irish and British
invaders from the sixteenth century. Fiach Mac Hugh O'Byrne, chief of the  O'Byrnes made many raids on the Pale from his stronghold at Ballinacor at the  head of Glenmalure.
On 25th August 4 58 a force of about a thousand horse and  foot soldiers set out from Rathdrum under Lord Grey de Wilton, the Lord Deputy  accompanied by his secretary and poet Edmund Spenser. Grey's mission was to end  the activities of the O'Byme clan and capture Fiach. The O'Byrnes set up an  ambush on each side of the glen and when the redcoats entered they were set upon  by the rebels armed with muskets and pikes. The battle lasted half an hour and  over eight hundred lives were lost. Grey led the survivors in defeat back to  Dublin. The officers were buried at a place known to-day as 'Giants Grave' and  the lower ranks were buried in a mass grave nearby.
Fiach Mac Hugh continued to evade  capture and was pardoned for a second time in 1581. In 1594 his sons attacked
and burned the house of the Sheriff of Kildare as a result of which Fiach was  proclaimed a traitor with a reward of £150 for his capture. The new Lord Deputy,  Sir William Russell continued his pursuit and succeeded in capturing him on May
8th 1597. Immediately he was beheaded by Sergeant Milborne and as a deterrent  his head was impailed on the gates of Dublin Castle.
A granite boulder, known  as Cullen's Rock, has the inscription: 'An gleann mar bhris fiaca O'Brien cath ar ghallaibh A.D. 1580. This is the glen in which Fiach O'Byrne defeated the  English in 1580'. The rock was used by British forces in 1798 rising to hang local  rebels.
Two of Michael Dwyer's loyal supporters, Hugh Vesty Byrne and John Mernagh were from the area. Byrne was born at Kirakee in the heart of the  Glenmalure valley and Mernagh was born at Ballinaskea at the head of the valley.
Other well known rebels from the area were James and Edward Kelly, Dan Doyle,  Bill Burke, Jim Cullen, Christy Byrne, John, Patrick and Bartle Byrne and John  Browne.
There was another battle in Glenmalure on 15th October 1798 when a  General Eustace and eighty redcoats were on patrol in Glenmalure. The rebels  appeared on the mountain above them and opened fire. Eustace claimed he was  outnumbered and was forced to retreat. The rebels pursued them and kept up  constant fire for three miles. Eustace returned the following day with 500 men  but Dwyer had retreated into the mountains where he established his  headquarters. Dwyer and his 400 rebels continued their struggle against the  forces of the Crown for the next five years. During this period the barracks at  Drumgoff was erected by the British. In December 1805 Dwyer surrendered to  William Hoare Hume, the local garrison commander and was transported to  Australia where he died in August 1825.
The lead mine at Ballinafunshoge,  near Drumgoff, was once operated by the Royal Irish Mining Company. The mine
produced 300 tons of galena annually in the early part of the nineteenth  century. The old Drumgoff Barracks was used to accommodate workers at the mines. 
Ballinacor Estate , house and land of 4000 acres, was sold by Lord Meath  in 2000, it is now privatly owned by the Goff family.
> Ballinacor House        < back to Septs     > link to " The rise of Gabhall Raghnall by Emmett O'Byrne

Design and Graphics by Val Byrne.        Copyright © 2013 Val Byrne.    All rights reserved.