Population – Famine
In the census of 1841 the population of Mionloch was 1,100. Ten years later in 1851 the population was 764. In 1840 there were 275 houses being lived in. In 1940 there were 37 houses and in 1996 there are 95. The parish records for the townland of Mionloch show that ninety five babies from the village were baptized in the two years 1827/28. In Griffith’s valuation of 1850 he listed sixty six houses in the village. The landlord was Sir Thomas E Blake. Sixty of the tenants had no land and were paying rent, three to five shillings per annum. It is interesting to read that certain family surnames were so numerous in the village that they were identified by adding the name of the father or maybe a nickname. For example there were 11 Connell families then living there named as follows: Thomas Connell (Thomas); John Connell (Patrick); John Connell (Edward); Mary Connell; Thomas Connell (More); Thomas Connell (John); John Connell (Bryan); Michael Connell (Ed); John Connell (Patt); John Connell (Henry); ;Thomas Connell (Senior); Peter Connell.
Etc.
The list includes families of the Smalls, Kellys, Reynolds. There is no mention in Griffiths list of a McGlynn or an Oliver family living then (1850) in Mionloch. Maurice Semple in his inspiring book ‘By the Corribside’ page 156 tells the story of how DJ Oliver and DC McGlynn brothers-in-lqw from Mionloch erected an archway at the joint entrances to their ranches near San Francisco with the inscription Menlo Park, August 1854. They were then aged about thirty years of age and most probably had emigrated to America during the pressure years of the famine.
The above history of Mionloch is from Padraic Ó Laoi, History of Castlegar Parish (~1996), pp. 128-129.