Location

The Parish of Lusmagh lies beside the Shannon river, to the south of Banagher, in the County of Offaly. Across the river is the County of Galway. Bounded on three sides by rivers (Shannon, Lusmagh River and Little Brosna), Lusmagh is almost an island.

Meaning

Alternative Names

In Christian times, the parish was named Cill Mochonna (the Church of Mochonna), after Saint Mochonna. Little is known about this saint, but a lot of local lore exists about another saint, viz., Saint Crónán, who founded a monastery in the parish that survived for many centuries (and several other monasteries elsewhere). The name Lusmagh was restored to the Parish around 1810. The present R.C. parish church is named after St. Crónán.

Relation with Galway

Lusmagh Parish is in the Diocese of Clonfert, a Galway Diocese.

When King John of England divided Ireland into counties, Lusmagh was included, accordingly, in County Galway.

The claim of the O'Maddens to Lusmagh was contested by the MacCoughlans of Offaly, and was eventually detached from County Galway and joined to County Offaly.

The O'Maddens of Lusmagh were reduced from being chieftains to mere tenants in the time of Cromwell.  Like other tenants they became freeholders of small holdings under the Land Purchase Acts at the beginning of this century.  The last surviving male O'Madden of Lusmagh died in July 1999.

The O'Moores were good landlords and tried their best to alleviate the suffering of their tenants in the Great Famine of 1845 to 1847. As a result of the Famine, the Moores became bankrupt and had to sell the lands. They were bought by Dr Robert Graves, (discoverer of Grave's Disease, Exopthalmic Goitre), whose widow evicted about 100 tenants.

The land of Lusmagh was eventually taken over by the Land Commission, and divided among the local tenant farmers around 1910.

Built by the O'Maddens in 1120, it fell into the hands of the McCoughlans, who added a fortress and withstood the Normans. Later, it was retaken by the O'Maddens. The McCoughlans, O'Maddens and Moores, (when not warring with each other), intermarried, as was custom between adjoining celtic chieftains.

In 1595, English troops, under Sir William Russell, the Lord Deputy, took the castle from O'Madden and put all the occupants to death. 46 defenders were thrown to their death from the battlements.

More about Cloghan Castle: http://www.excel.net/~dcoughla/rip.html

In the 19th Century, the ash plant had another use: faction fighting was popular (see the "Battle of Banagher" below).

With its rivers, bogs and marshes, fishing, boating, hunting and wild-fowl shooting were always popular. Shooting has now largely been replaced by bird-watching.

"In London Town I do lie down upon my bed to sleep,
When I think of home and how I must roam across the waters deep.
I can't sleep a wink whene'ere I think of my home and my cailín:
Ah, will I ever more see you astore, or the Lusmagh fields so green."

The Battle of Banagher

On 4th of January, 1814, the Lusmagh men served notice of their intention of beating Banagher, i.e., a notice to the following effect (according to Patrick O'Donnell in the parish magazine, The Lusmagh Herb: The Annals of a Country Parish, 1982) was posted prominently in the town:

"We, the parishioners of Lusmagh give notice to the town of Banagher that we will go in on Thursday next and give them battle. Every man jack from 12 to 60 will turn out. We defy the best yeomen of Captain Armstrong. We will disarm them and take the town. Let ye rue the hour that we go in."

On the day, (6th January), at least 500 Lusmagh men, armed with sticks and stones, marched on the town in columns. At 9 o'clock in the morning they came face to face with the Banagher men, drawn up in lines on the main street, and the battle was quickly joined. Yeomen, out of uniform, participated on the Banagher side.

Eventually, British soldiers, in their bright red uniforms, intervened and placed themselves between the two factions. However, the Lusmagh men broke through the military line and resumed the fight.

Captain Armstrong marched a detachment of the 12th regiment to the scene and ordered them to fire on the Lusmagh men. Three Lusmagh men were shot dead and 5 were wounded. The fighting stopped immediately, and the Banagher people joined the Lusmaghs in doing what they could for the casualties.

Thus, a good day's sport of stick fighting and stone throwing ended in tragedy.

The actions of Armstrong and the soldiers was illegal, since troops were not permitted by law to fire on civilians without the Riot Act first being read, which was not done. However, in the enquiries that followed the incident, the culprits were white-washed, as was customary in relation to acts of the occupying forces in Ireland.

Lusmagh Placenames

(Coming Soon)

Sources

The Power of the Lusmagh Herbs

Each day after the fighting, during the battles of Moytura, the wounded warriors of the Tuatha Dé Danaan bathed in herbal baths prepared with herbs collected in Lusmagh. The healing powers of these herbs restored the health and strength of the warriors, and contributed to the eventual victory.

In the first battle of Moytura the Tuatha Dé Danaan defeated the Fir Bolg. In the second battle of Moytura, they defeated the giant Fomorians, led by Balor of the Evil Eye, in the same battle field.

Moytura lies in County Galway, near its border with Mayo and at a considerable distance from the Shannon and Lusmagh. This story evidences both the antiquity of the reputation of the herbs of Lusmagh and the antiquity of the connection between Lusmagh and County Galway.

The Battles of Moytura

The Fir Bolg marched to the battle field in columns, holding their shields over their heads. This formation was called tura, hence the name of the battle field: "the Plain of the Tura columns."

Nuada of the Silver Arm

Of course, we, at the dawning of the 21st century, are quite certain that the physicians of prehistory did not have the skills to accomplish such wonderful acts of surgery. Was there, therefore, no truth in the story?

The celtic tradition that a king must be sound of mind and body, (which forced the retirement of kings who lost a limb in battle), appears to have applied to the older peoples, such as the Fir Bolg and the Tuatha Dé Danaan as well as to the later Milesians.  When Nuada lost the arm, he had to renounce kingship, and could only be restored when the people were persuaded that his arm had been restored.   The fashioning of a bronze and silver arm was no doubt within the capabilities of the craftsmen of the time. (Rich hoards of gold and silver objects dating to the Bronze Age, actually called the First Golden Age of Ireland, have been found).  It was not necessary (I would say) for the arm actually to have the functionality of a normal arm:  it was sufficient that it appeared to do so. It appears that the druids and people were united in their desire to restore Nuada as king. The silver arm was sufficient, for this reason, to technically satisfy the rule. The historical record, composed by the official poets and committed to memory in verse form, would recount only the official version, i.e., that the silver arm had all the functionality of a real arm, even though the actuality was that the silver arm was but a trick to satisfy the rule of soundness of body.

Herbs of Deerpark Hill

The Herbs of Lusmagh

Plucked between Lady Days, 15th August and 8th September, it will stop bleeding, even in deep wounds caused by carpenters' tools. (Like alum, it stops the bleeding by constricting the blood vessels).

Was used in Lusmagh up to the beginning of the 20th century.

Offaly Links