Creevekeeran

Creevekeeran is a townland of 532 statute acres 1 rood and 16 perches (including 19 acres of water) about a mile west of Crossmaglen straddling the road to Cullaville. Nineteen of its acres are in Lough Ross. It is bounded on the north by Loughross, on the east by Rathkeelan and Lisseraw, on the south by Cappagh and Glassdrummonaghy and on the west by Cullaville, Monaguillagh and Lisamry. In the Tithe Applotment Books of 1828 the area is recorded as 287 acres 2 roods and 12 perches (Plantation Irish measure).

Name of townland

Craobh-Chaothainn, "The seat of the mountain ash" ⁽¹⁾.

The townland was called 'Crukirin' in the Hearth Money Rolls of 1664, and 'Crievekeeran' in the 1766 Census of Creggan.

There are two townlands in Ireland called 'Creevekeeran'. Both are in County Armagh.

Ordnanace Survey Name Books: Creggan Parish ⁽²⁾

CREEVEKEERAN (OSNB ii 11): This is a large td. rented in small farms principally under tillage. The soil is productive tho' of a light quality growing fair crops of oats, potatoes & flax. There is some bog and part of Lough-Ross in this td. The road from Cullaghvill to Crossmaglen runs thro' it & within 1/2 a mile of either village. The dwellings are numerous.
It contains 532..0..4 of which 36..0..39 is uncultivated and Bog, and 19..0..4. water.

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	£222.21	£249.10	£322.25	£332.25	£330.75	£330.25	£316.25	£309.60	£307.60	£307.27	£335.10	£339.80	£395.05	£424.55

The 1837 Townland Valuation recorded only houses worth £5 or more a year. There were no such houses in the townland.

Grifiths Valuation records the owners of the townland as Reps. John Reid with the exception of 80 acres owned by Thomas P. Ball.

Census of Ireland 1901

In Census of Ireland 194 persons were enumerated in 53 households; a ratio of 3.7 people per household. The total number of rooms occupied was 101; a ratio of 1.9 rooms per household and 1.9 persons per room. Five of the households occupied 3 rooms, 38 had 2 rooms and ten had a single room. Of the 53 households 45 (85%) were thatched.

Native Irish Speakers

Of the 53 households enumerated in the Census, 12 contained at least one native Irish speaker - 16 in all. Since theirs was the last generation to have been born into a predominently Irish speaking environment, their names, occupations and ages are recorded here. All were born in Co. Armagh, with the exception of Anne Keegan, born Co. Monaghan.

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	80	86	73	75	63	61	53	42	39	39	33
People	394	392	318	330	296	271	193	169	176	152	115
People per house	4.9	4.6	4.4	4.4	4.7	4.4	3.6	4.0	4.5	3.9	3.5

In the period of 110 years, the number of households more than halved (59%) while the population dropped by 71%. Unlike most of the other townlands the population did not fall by 1851, the first census after the Famine, but began later in that decade, rallying briefly in the 1870s and the 1920s before resuming its continued decline.

Names of House and Land Holders ⁽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.