Castlewellan - the last place in county Down where Irish was spoken as the everyday language.
From the 12th to the mid 18th centuary Castlewellan had been an important stronghold of the Magennis Clan and Irish as a spoken language persevered in the area in spite of English invasion and forfeiture of Magennis’s lands. Co Down was surveyed by John O’Donovan in the 1840’s and he records that “the inhabitants of the northern slopes of the Mournes from the Shimna (Newcastle) to the Clanrye (Newry) were Gaelic speaking” Fifty years later the census of 1891 shows that Irish speakers were still to be found in the area. It is reputed that Castlewellan was the last place in county Down where Irish was spoken as the everyday language. Some Irish language scholars believe that the original Gaelic place name of Castlewellan is ’CAISLEAN AN MHUILINN’ to mean ‘Castle of the Mill’. Others believe it was named after the Irish family who preceded the Magennis clan. They were called Mc Quillan and would have predated the mills by a considerable way. Since the establishment of the Northern Ireland Place names Project (An academic study based at QUB) back in 1987 the confusion over original Irish names for most modern place-names has been claimed to have been cleared up. Two renowned experts working with the Project have written that the original Irish name for Castlewellan is CAISLEÁN UIDHILÍN :- ‘Irish Place Names’ Deirdre and Laurence Flanagan, Gill and MacMillian, 1994; (p.190) Castlewellan = Caisleán Uidhilín = Castle of Hugolin; ‘A Dictionary of Ulster Placenames’, Dr Patrick McKay, QUB, 1999. (p.38) “…Irish form is ‘Caisleán Uidhilín’ meaning ‘Uidhilin’s Castle’. Uidhilín is a gaelicised form of the Anglo-Norman forename ‘Hugelin’, which is the basis of the modern surname ‘MacQuillan’ (in Irish ‘Mac Uidhilín). In the 1970’s St Malachy’s GAC adopted CLG Naomh Maolmhoig Caisleán a’ Mhuilinn (St. Malachy’s GAC Castlewellan), as official Club name although it was called St Malachy’s GAC from the 1930’s. Also in the 1970’s the Club crest was designed featuring a Castle and the Magennis Lion motif above.
As Irish declined as a spoken language in the County efforts to revive it were made, and these resulted in the first Newcastle Feis (gathering) being held on 7th September 1902. One of the architects of the language revival in County Down in the early 1900s was John Henry King born in Castlewellan in 1876. He was a well known lawyer (founded the Solicitor’s firm of ‘King and Boyd’ ) political activist, ex-internee and one of the foremost Gaels and Nationalists to emerge in Down in the course of the twentieth centuary He was a founder of the first Feis An Duin and remained a lifelong member of its Committee. Gaelic League branches were soon established in the County and a teacher employed. A newspaper of the period (February 1903) gives a full report of a Coiste Ceanntair meeting held in Castlewellan with Hilltown, Drumaroad, Castlewellan, Newcastle, Glasdrummond, Dechoment, Gargory, Leitrim and Clanvaraghan branches being represented. The Newcastle Feis became Feis an Duin (County Down Feis) in 1906 and has been held annually in Newcastle ever since apart from a short break during the 20’s. Feis an Duin became the great annual gathering of those who had an interest in preserving Gaelic culture. It was visited by Willie Pearse in 1913 had Padraig Pearse at a Feis function in 1909 and was addressed by many distinguished men including Eamon de Valera in 1950 and by former Taoiseach Jack Lynch, former GAA Presidents Padraig Mac Con Midhe, who rarely missed a Feis, M.V. O’Donoghue (Waterford), Michael Kehoe (Wexford) and Seamus Mac Ferrain who later lived in Newcastle. President of the Feis until he died, Cannon Charlie O’Neill, PP Newcastle was the composer of the words of the famous song about the 1916 Easter Rising “The Foggy Dew”. Throughout the years The GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) and the Feis worked in the closest co-operation and many of those associated with early Feiseanna were also active in establishing Gaelic games throughout County Down.
BACK 