For nigh on five hundred years, from about 1185 until the time of the final dispersal of the Connacht Gaelic Irish families following the Cromwellian campaign in Ireland of 1649/50, MacDermot lived on The Rock of Loch Ce, just off the shores of what is now Loch Key Forest park, outside Boyle in Co. Roscommon. Carrick MacDermot or MacDermots Castle was to become the centre of our kingdom of Moylurg, where MacDermot held court, gave judgements and played chess. It was a powerful symbol not only to those who followed MacDermot and who bore his name but also to neighbouring clans and representatives of foreign power. Not once in five centuries of infighting between MacDermot, OConor, ODonnell, OGara, OKelly, MacCostelloe to name but a few or of conflict with emissaries of English authority did the Rock fall in to enemy hands. The only occasions on which it did change hands following loss in conflict was when MacDermot fought and defeated MacDermot! This doesnt count, naturally. MacDermot was King of Moylurg, chief vassal to OConor in whom was vested the greater Kingship of Connacht. Without MacDermots continued promised support however O’Connor’s position would have often been untenable; indeed there were times, especially when Mulrooney MacDermot (King of Moylurg 1294-1331) was in his prime when MacDermot was the most influential and materially powerful of all Connachts Gaelic chieftains. None of this serves to address the subject of Coolavin except to pose a few pertinent questions. How does a King of Moylurg become a Prince of Coolavin? What and where is Coolavin, especially in relation to the old territory of Moylurg? And what does it all mean today four hundred years after Carrick MacDermot was abandoned for ever by its last kingly inhabitant? Moylurg to Old Coolavin By the mid seventeenth century the territory of Moylurg had all but disappeared. Much land, especially that which had previously belonged to the Church, had already been given away by the time the new English order under James 1 established itself in the earlier part of the century following the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 and the flight of the Earls in 1607, although Connacht itself escaped in relative peace until the aftermath of Cromwells campaign. New English planter families such as the Kings, Dillons, Cootes and Croftons, to mention some, were granted the MacDermot ancestral lands (approximately 35,000 English acres at the time) by Charles II. These lands had previously been granted to Brian MacDermot and others of his family by James I in 1617. This James I grant, whilst recognizing the authenticity of MacDermots heritage nevertheless put under foreign regal privilege what previously had been inherited as of birthright by the descendants of Mulrooney Mor. It was therefore temporary and revokable, as it indeed turned out to be. Many of these new families had either already previously settled in the area (King was granted the lands of Boyle Abbey by Elizabeth I) or were Old English transplanted from the Pale (e.g. Dillon). The last MacDermot to be known as King of Moylurg was in fact Turlough who died in 1586. Subsequently and until they lost possession of the Castle and its lands the chieftains were known as ...of the Carrick or ....of Carrick MacDermot. In 1644 there is the first record of the chief being referred to as An MacDiarmada, The MacDermot, which to this day remains one of the two official titles of the head of our Name. With the last of our lands confiscated by the middle of the 1600s the family was without estate until in 1669 when Charles (Cathal Roe) MacDermot re-leased to his second son Hugh lands at Shruffe, County Sligo in the half- barony of Coolavin in picturesque setting on the slopes of the north shore of Loch Gara. From then until late in the Nineteenth Century Old Coolavin, as we now call it, was the home of The MacDermot. The MacDermot, Prince of Coolavin As we have seen the territory of Moylurg no longer existed and MacDermot had now been moved outside of its old confines. No longer therefore Kings of Moylurg the head of the family was still known as The MacDermot, a direct translation from the Irish An MacDiarmada. This reference to the head of a clan by his patronymic only was common usage in all the Irish Annals. The title Prince of Coolavin, which is still applied to the head of the family, arose purely by popular usage. Although the MacDermots were compelled to abandon their title and lands in Moylurg and settle in the barony of Coolavin they were not divested of their royal heritage. They still regarded themselves as princes and more importantly were recognized as such by the people who lived around them. The Houses called Coolavin The old house, of which only a vague outline remains today, was probably a single storey over basement construction of medium size. No pictures remain to my knowledge. A summer house or gazebo nestled in one corner of the property. The house, secluded and surrounded by trees was only a few yards from the lake shore, although one contemporary account states that not a single window overlooked the water as MacDermot could not bear to look out and be reminded of his lost inheritance. This does not seem either practical or likely. The nearest towns were Ballaghaderreen and Boyle. The house was connected to the road which joined the towns by a long winding avenue. It is quite likely that travel between these places and also between neighbours was carried out by water. The family burial grounds were at Templeronan, which too was reachable by boat rather than by road. The family lived at old Coolavin until Hugh Hyacinth MacDermot (see family tree in Researching MacDermots section) bought the nearby lands at Clogher in 1879 and commenced building the new Coolavin which was completed in 1898. The house, designed by the Irish architect James Fuller from Tralee,
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 22:35:34 +0000