History

500 YEARS (and more) of

BALLINAMALLARD

The First known reference to the name of Ballinamallard appears in the Annals of Ulster for the year 1500, but there are some references to the area before then.

5th CENTURY

Descendants of Niall of the Nine Hostages, originally from North Connacht, expand into Ulster, establishing bases at Ailech, near Derry, and later at Tullyhogue near Dungannon.  Ballinamallard lay in the area known as Airgialla, with its capital at Clogher, peopled by tribes nominally still independent, but gradually coming more under O’Neill influence.

c.450         Magheracross said to have been founded by St Patrick.

c.550         Devenish founded by St Molaise.  Later legend has it that St Columba made his confession to him there before going to exile in Scotland in 563.  If that is the case, he would probably have passed through Ballinamallard on his way to Derry.

749           Monastic site founded at Kilskerry.  Around this time too the Culdees were founded, a monastic order from whom Killadeas takes its name.

837           All the churches of Lough Erne ‘destroyed by the Gentiles’ (Norsemen)

924           Norse fleet on Lough Erne.  By that time their base in Dublin was one of the wealthiest ports in Europe.

1007         Army of Brian Boru passes through on their way to Armagh, and again in 1011 en route to North Donegal.  From his base in Munster, he finally achieved control over the whole of Ireland, breaking the monopoly of the Ui Neill in the North and defeating the Vikings of Dublin at the battle of Clontarf in 1014.

1185          Death of Gillacrist Mac Cathmaoil (Campbell) King of Tirkennedy.  The family ruled this area until ousted by Maguires.

1212         Normans reach as far north as Belleek and Clones.

1302         Death of Donn, first Maguire King of Fermanagh.

1379         Northward expansion of Maguires checked by O’Neills at Battle of Dreigh (1 mile north of The Fingerpost)

1492         Terence Macgillacossgli (Cosgrove) vicar of Magheracross and Derrybrusk.  Magheracross at that time was part of the parish of Derryvullen.

1500         Two Maguire princes ambushed by the O’Neills at Ballinamallard ( ‘Ford of the Horsemen’ ).  Ballinamallard was probably one of the last areas in Fermanagh to come under Maguire control, but in the sixteenth century it became ‘mensal land’ devoted directly to the support of the Maguire court, such as the Cassidys of Ballycassidy, hereditary doctors.

1539         Original Magheracross church destroyed by fire.

1585         Elizabeth makes Fermanagh a shire county under Cuchonnacht Maguire.

1593         Start of Hugh O’Neill’s Rebellion.  O’Neills mother, Joan Maguire, was sister to Cuchonnacht. Maguire.

1600         Death of Joan Maguire at Magheracross.

THE PLANTATION

1611          After Flight of the Earls, Henry Folliot of Pyrton, Wiltshire, obtains Manor of Drumchine (later Newporton) 1,500 Irish acres (most of Magheracross parish).  His agent Captain Browne built Castle Murray.  Many of his tenants came from the West March of the Scottish Borders – the area between Dumfries and Carlisle – then being subdued by James the First following the union of England and Scotland.

1619         11 houses in Ballinamallard (Pynnar survey).  Folliot created Baron of Ballyshannon.

1622         20 houses in Ballinamallard (Annesley survey).  Magheracross Church “standing but not repaired within”.  What Anglican services there were in the area took place in the former Catholic church, in what is now the old graveyard in Kilskerry.  Magheracross was officially united with Kilskerry parish in 1629.

1641         Rory Maguires Rising.  Rev Andrew Hamilton rector of Kilskerry, flees the country.  Ballinamallard was also abandoned – there is a tradition that guns from Castle Murray were thrown into the ‘Gun Hole’ to avoid their capture.

1645         Owen Mac Art with 2000 foot and 200 horses camped near Ballinamallard.  Routed at Lowtherstown by William Cole.

1649         Oliver Cromwell comes to Ireland.

1650         Bishop Heber McMahon captured near Kilskerry and hanged on the Sconce in Enniskillen.

1659         Census total of 188 houses in the Parish.

                  Ballinamallard not mentioned but 8 households in ‘Newporton’.  Only landlord in the parish John Symerell (Somerville?) gentleman of Lettermoney.

1660 THE RESTORATION

Andrew Hamilton returns to Kilskerry.  First record of a Catholic chapel in Coa.

1688         Enniskillen denied to garrison of King James.  One of the leaders in this was William Browning ‘a gentleman of Ballinamallard’ and another the Rev Andrew Hamilton of Kilskerry, nephew of the previous rector of that name.

1689         Rowland Betty (ancestor of the Bettys of Killymitten?) captured and killed near Omagh.  Duke of Berwick’s troops pass through on way from Trillick to the Battle of Kilmacormick.

1690         King Billy’s Blacksmith buried at Magheracross.

18th CENTURY

                  Franciscan mission in Killee and Coa.

1704         Rev N Browne, Rector of Kilskerry, translates Prayer Book into Irish.

1715         Folliot title becomes extinct.

1723         Manor of Newporton passes to William Connolly, later MP for Ballyshannon, who let the land on long and cheap leases.

1740         Lendrums build Magheracross House (Jamestown)

c1740        First Catholic church built in Whitehill

1744         Hearth Money returns record 151 Protestant households and 41 papist in the parish.  Still no church in the village.  In the middle of the 18th century (according to the O.S. memoirs) woods stretched along the faces of the various hills from Breagho to Tullyrain.

c1760        Manor of Newporton passes to the Crawford family.

1766         Magheracross Parish splits from Kilskerry.

1769         First visit by John Wesley and the beginning of Methodism in the area.

1770         Coa Chapel built.

1775         Earliest recorded burial in the village (Anderson crypt).

                  Outbreak of American War of Independence.

1778         Castle Archdale built

1779         Lowtherstown and Ballinamallard Volunteers founded by Archdall and Irvine who in 1782 chair Dungannon Convention of the Volunteers.

1783         Repeal of Poyning’s Law.  Birth of Orange Peggy “Queen of Trasna”

1785         Ballinamallard Church of Ireland Built.

1798         United Irishmen attack Grahams of Knocknamoul (a Methodist meeting house) in search of arms.  French land at Killala.  Local Volunteers march to oppose them.

19th CENTURY

1800         Building of Methodist Meeting House (now Methodist Hall).  Establishment of Ballinamallard Parish School.

1812         Proposed canal up Ballinamallard River to Strabane.

Early 1800s (as recorded in the Ordinance Survey Memoirs of 1834)

Illegal distillery on Drumsloe Island “some curious encounters have taken place

between the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and the revenue department ….

attended with loss of life to some parties”

On the 12th of February was the “best horse fair in the country”.  Road laid out to

Tempo abandoned half built “Very considerable improvements … for the most part

confined to the mountain country ….  Several of the hill were in the memory of man

completely covered in heath and are now cultivated”

“The peace of this country has for a considerable length of time been disturbed by the

animosity of 2 contending factions.  Orange and Ribbonmen, but the government have

lately taken measures to prevent both” (1825 Unlawful Societies Act)

1817-1833 Establishment of ten schools in the area.

1817         Outbreak of Typhus.  Crocknacrieve built and demesne laid out.

1826         Castle Murray still standing but in ruins.

1827         Soldiers of the Cross Hall built as a Primitive Methodist Meeting House.

1831         Knocknamoul Chapel built.  Census records 323 inhabitants of Ballinamallard.  Outbreak of Cholera.  Gibson Ousley preaches in Ballinamallard.  “The chapel at Ballinamallard was too small.  60 found mercy at one service”

At around this time the use of Irish in the area died out.

1834         bakery established.

1837         Jamestown Stables built.

1844         Present Church of Ireland was built.

1845         rally at Killyhevlin celebrating the end of the Party processions Act Nine lodges and c450 members from Ballinamallard area.

1846         The first Henry Burke appointed rector of Ballinamallard.

1847         Height of the Famine.  William Betty runs soup kitchen at the Grove.  Spade Mill at Killymitten ceases to work - wheel transferred to mill at Killee.

C1850       Makenny Road “new line to Irvinestown” opened.

1853         Navvies building the railway threaten to demolish the Church over display on twelfth.

1854         Railway opened.  Apprentice Boys train from Derry derailed.

1860-        Continued emigration  “Everyone is Australia mad”

1864         WHITEHILL Church rebuilt

1870         Home Rule Association formed.

1882         Archdale Hall built.

1888         Death of William Betty, builder of Grove School.

1891         Death of Orange Peggy

20th CENTURY

1900         CREAMERY STARTED

1904 Present Methodist Church opened.  First

‘Cooneyite’ convention held at Crocknacrieve, with baptisms in the

Ballinamallard River.

1912   Ballinamallard Light and Power Company starts, providing electricity from Craig’s Mill. 

UVF founded.  Parades held at Tullyclea.  Mr Campbell, the baker, trains UVF cavalry.

1914 – 1918 WAR

1920         Captain Lendrum of Kilskery murdered in Co Clare by the I.R.A.

1921         Newtownbutler Specials raid Clones. Archdall of Ballinamallard wounded in gun battle with R.I.C.

1922         Clones Massacre.   IRA seize Belleek and Pettigo.

1924         Tom Gilmore establishes bicycle shop on main Street

1926         Cemetery at Craghan opens

1929         The Enniskillen 100 motorcycle race was held for the first time (initially run over 75 miles). The route was from the village to Mossfield, Sydaire and Baragh Road.

1935         Building of the Gospel Hall on Baragh Road.

1939-1945  WAR

                  Cheshire Regiment based in Ballinamallard and used Archdale hall as cookhouse.

                  German POWs in Killadeas worship at Ballinamallard

1947         Year of the Big Snow

1949         Creamery closes

1950         Tommy Fisher opens garage and light engineering

works.

1952         Last Enniskillen 100 race.

1956         Ballinamallard Silver band formed.

1957     Last Enniskillen to Bundoran train passes through village.

1959         Railway closed

1960         Duke of Westminster High School opened

1962         Swimming Pool closed

1964         Primary School opened.

1968         Extension to High School at a cost of £80,000

1972         Fish farm established by Major Gibbons

                  Ballinamallard Development Association formed

1975             Ballinamallard United Football Club re-formed.

1977         Fisher Engineering moved to present site.

1979         Geroge Beatty started trading as Beatty Fuels

1981         The Archdale Hall reopened after major refurbishment.

1982         New pitch and Clubhouse for Ballinamallard United opened by Pat Jennings

1983         Harold Graham relocated construction company from the village to Makenny

1985         IRA bomb at the Police station causes widespread damage.

1987         Archdale Hall reopened after being destroyed in IRA bomb attack.

                  New Methodist Hall opened on site of old school.

1989         Archdale Hall and Methodist Hall rebuilt.

1990         Beatty Fuels moves to new site on Makenny Road.

1996 Ballinamallard Historical Society founded. Responsible for a number of publications including, ‘Ballinamallard, a place of importance’ (2004) and ‘Ballinamallard and the Great war’ (2019)

1998         Enterprise Company Formed. Four Industrial Units built

1999              Railway Station Project on site of former station.

2001         Tragic death of Bertie, Mark and Emma Fisher in a helicopter accident. Passing of Tommy Fisher MBE

2002         Visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 and Prince Philip as part of Golden Jubilee celebrations. Her Majesty planted a memorial tree at Rascals’ Garden and Prince Philip opened the Fisher Memorial Bridge in memory of late Tommy Fisher.

2007         Five additional Industrial Units built.

2012         Mill Race path constructed.

2019         Ballinamallard FC in final of NI Cup Final at Windsor Park.

2023         Old Fisherman’s Club acquired by Methodist Church of Ireland to develop into a village Community Hub.