Ballynaclosha

Ballynaclosha, formerly Raver or Tullydonnell Tichburn, is a small townland of 140 statute acres on the County Louth Border on the main Newtownhamilton/Dundalk road (A29).It is bounded on the North by Tullydonnell Gage, on the east and south by County Louth and on the west by Glassdrumman. Ehe Tithe Applotment Books record the area of the townland as 86 acres 1 rood and 29 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of Townland

Baile na Cluaise, "The townland of the ear". But more likely Baile na Cláise, "The townland of the ditch" ⁽¹⁾.

John Donaldson, in his 'Account of the Barony of Upper Fews" (1838), says that "There are three townlands of the name of Tullydonnell which take their name from their former proprietors - to wit, Tullydonnell Nixon, Tullydonnell Gage and Tullydonnell Tichburn or Ballinaclosh." (Note 16 p.103) The reference to Raver is to be found in Father LP Murray's "The History of the Parish of Creggan in the 17th and 18th Centuries" published in The Journal of the County Louth Archeological Society (Vol VIII 1934 No 2 p128)

It is the only townland of that name in Ireland.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

BALLYNACLOSHA (OSNB ii 5) This townland is separated from Creggan in S. by the river on its eastern side. The village called Ballsmill is partly in this td. about 5 miles from Dundalk. There is a very good corn mill here and a handsome dwelling on the opposite side of the road in the td. of Glassdrummond. It is nearly all under tillage.

It contains 140..0..37 of which 2..1..8 is uncultivated and Bog.

Valuation

Although the decimalisation of the currency was introduced only in 1971, all of the valuations in the following table have been converted from £sd for convenience.

Year	1828	1837	1851	1864	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1935	1952	1957	1974
Valuation	£82.50	£107.24	£78.50	£113.60	£123.00	£121.75	£120.75	£112.00	£96.00	£95.75	£113.65	£112.00	£175.60	£200.35

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There was only one such house in the townland, that of Thomas Crilly, who owned a house, Corn Mill and Kiln.

Griffiths Valuation records that with the exception of 28 acres belonging to Rev. Norman Johnston, the townland was owned by James Eastwood. It had a National School House, a Free School House, a corn-mill (John Johnston) and a forge (Thomas McNally).

Census of Ireland 1901

The Census enumerated 40 people in 13 households; a ratio of 3.1 people per household. The households occupied a total of 37 rooms; a ratio of 2.8 rooms per household and 0.9 persons per room. Two of the households occupied 5 rooms, two has 4 rooms, eight had 2 rooms and one had a single room. Five (38.5%) of the houses were thatched. Anne Howells ran the Post Office in her 5-room private dwelling.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 13 households enumerated in the Census five contained at least one native Irish speaker. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a predominently Irish speaking environment, their names are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh -

• Thomas Treanor, farmer, aged 56
• Ann Lavelle, farmer, aged 60
• Patrick Sloan, farmer, aged 75
• Anne Hollywood, farmer, widow, aged 63
• James Lavelle, farmer and stonemason, aged 45 and his daughter Mary, aged 6

Population Decline

The following table sets out the number of houses and population enumerated in the townland in each of the 11 Censuses held between 1841 and 1951.

	1841	1851	1861	1871	1881	1891	1901	1911	1926	1937	1951
Houses	20	23	20	20	18	16	13	11	11	13	10
People	113	118	87	85	79	55	40	48	43	34	27
People per house	5.7	5.1	4.4	4.3	4.4	3.4	3.1	4.4	3.9	2.6	2.7

In the period of 110 years, the number of households halved but the population dropped by 76% - more than threequarters. The largest drop (66%) was in the second half of the nineteenth century.

House and Landholders ⁽³⁾

The following table sets of the names of those who owned or rented houses and land on the townland at the time the valuation records or population censuses were compiled.